The International Labour
Organization must strengthen
its structure and devote at-
tention to industrialized as
well as developing countries,
Joseph Morris, executive
vice-president of the Cana-
dian Labour Congress, told
the 49th session of the ILO
at Geneva.

Morris, Canadian workers’
delegate at the Geneva meet-

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

ing, said the difficulties being
experienced by the United
Nations made it increasingly
important that the future of
the ILO be safeguarded.

“I cannot refrain from ex-
pressing our apprehension at
a tendency of recent years to
neglect the problems of in-
dustrial workers in the so-
called developed countries,”

- wide .

he said. “If the ILO is to re-
tain its universal character
and its sphere of responsibil-
ity, its activities and actual
presence must remain world-
. . Dividing the ILO
into donor and recipient
states may in the end spell

the ultimate destruction of
the universal character of the

organization.

“Speaking for the workers
of my country, I can assure

you that our problems are.

far from having been solved,
that we do not want to be
here merely as a donor, that
we still need the ILO, and
that there are many fields of
endeavour through which the
ILO can be extremely helpful
to our people.”

Morris voiced emphatic dis-

11

"LABOUR MUST STRENGTHEN ITS STRUCTURE"

agreement at any suggestion
that manpower and social
policy in industrialized coun-
tries should be left to regional
agencies such as the Euro-
pean Economic Community
or the Organization for Eco-
nomic Co-operation and De-
velopment. This type of or-
ganization was strictly gov-
ernment and lacked the tri-
partite nature of the ILO.