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Published once monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA

Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

Affiliated with AFL-CiO-CLC

2859 Commercial Orive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 674-5261

<err Business Manager—Fred Fieber

Advertising Representatives—Elizabeth Spencer Associates

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GUEST EDITORIAL

SECURITY AND SENIORITY

ORKERS'’ concern about losing their
jobs sometimes puzzles those who
don’t have to worry about that eventu-
ality. But it is a fear that is well founded.
A worker who is laid off and not recalled
loses not only his job but his seniority
rights as well. Even if he finds another
job, it will be at the bottom of the
seniority list at his new work-place. That
means he is subject to the “last hired,
first fired” rule, and may not hold onto
his new job ina period of high unemploy-
ment.
A recent study of what happened to
the thousands of auto workers who lost
their jobs when the old Packard Motor

Co. closed down revealed that 25% of
them never found another job, while
another 15% found work for a few years
or months, only to be laid off again.

These statistics help explain the blue
collar worker’s preoccupation with
security. As an industrial psychologist
remarked recently, “the bottom rungs of
the ladder are extremely slippery. If you
slip off just once, your life may be too
short to gain or regain the security that
comes from seniority. The young worker
has one, possibly two chances to hold a
job. The scrap-heap is inches beneath
his dangling feet.”

—Canadian Transport

EMPLOYERS NEW LABOUR GUID

An 84-page handbook telling employers how to face a strike has been published — at

$10 a copy — by the big-business Canadian Manufacturers Association.

The handbook tells employers how to “‘resist’’ a strike by hiring strikebreakers,
calling police to oversee picket lines, buying the services of lawyer's who specialize in
labour law, and, if necessary, applying for injunctions.

Companies should also refuse to negotiate with a striking union about plant passes or
about which employees may enter the plant, says the CMA.

“There is nothing immoral in an employer taking appropriate lawful action to protect
his business from the economic effects of a strike,’’ commented W. H. Wightman of the

CMA.

The booklet similarly claims that there’s nothing wrong with hiring scabs.

By T. C. DOUGLAS, M.P.

For many years the New Democratic Party has
been trying to warn Canadians of the dangers
inherent in the control of our natural resources by
foreign-controlled corporations. For this we were
accused of being anti-American and failing to face up
to the economic facts of life. Now the chickens are
coming home to roost and we find that we are going
to be required to pay more for oil and gas to heat our
homes and more for gasoline to run our cars.

Imperial Oil has raised the price of oil 25 cents a
barrel effective May 1st. This is the third increase
since last November and brings the total increase to
55 cents a barrel in six months — an increase of
almost 20 per cent. Other oil companies have
followed the lead of Imperial Oil and raised their
prices with the result that the price of gasoline has
gone up 3 cents per gallon.

The effect of these price increases will soon be felt
through our whole economy. Increased fuel costs for
the farmer will mean inevitably increased food
prices. If manufacturers and construction firms
have to pay more for oil and gas this will reflect itself
in the price of manufactured goods and construction
costs. We are therefore justified in asking whether
these higher prices for oil and gas are necessary or
are they the result of a gigantic ripoff by foreign
corporations who now control our resources.

We haven't time to deal with all the oil companies

~ operating in Canada so let us examine the largest of

them, Imperial Oil, which is 70 per cent owned by the

-Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Last year

their profit was $157 million, an increase of 11 per
cent over 1971 when it was $136 million. Their return
on shareholder’s equity last year was 13.9 per cent
which any businessman will tell you is a generous
return. Over the last ten years Imperial Oil has made

IENT AFRAID OF OIL COMPANIES —

more than $1,000 million in profit after paying its
income taxes. In addition it has $170 million in
deferred taxes which constitutes an interest free loan
from the Canadian Government.

When asked about these hikes in the price of oil,
Mr. W. O. Twaits, the President of Imperial Oil, said
they were ‘‘attributable to international supply and
price factors.”’ In other words he was saying that
since his company can get these higher prices in the
United States there is no reason why he shouldn’t
raise prices in Canada. For a company which has
increased its profits 40 per cent in the last two years
to raise its prices merely because there is an oil
shortage in the United States is something which
ought to shock all of us out of our apathy about the
domination of our economy by foreign owned cor-
porations.

Mr. Twaits has endeavoured to justify these price
increases by saying that they will bring greater
royalties to the Government, provide more jobs and

- stimulate oil exploration and development. Let’s

examine these claims. In the past ten years Imperial
Oil has paid $40 million in royalties to the Govern-
ments of Canada at the same time it was making
over $1,000 million in profits. In other words, while
they were making $1,000 million they paid us $40
million or 4 per cent of what they pocketed — isn’t
that generous!

As for creating jobs we find that while their
combined profits went up 40 per cent in the two years
1971 and 1972 their payroll increased by 3.5 per cent
in 1972 and decreased by 3.5 per cent in 1971 when
they closed refineries in Winnipeg, Regina and
Calgary. They certainly can’t blame increased
wages for the additional burden they are imposing on
Canadian consumers.

Sure I kinrun it. . . I picked it up by foolin’ around wit
my kid’s toys. ;

DARE FOOD FIRM —
FINED FOR VIOLATIONS

Dare Foods Ltd. and its exe-
cutive vice-president have
‘been fined a total of $1,500 for as ‘‘the union’s interference |
three violations of the provin-
cial Labour Relations Act.

Charges were laid by the
United Brewery Workers,
whose Local 173 has been
striking Dare for a year.

The charges arose from an
advertisement which the com-

pany directed at the strikers,
which contained such phrases

can no longer be tolerated’.

which forbid employers to in-
terfere with the formation of a
union or to use threats of dis-
missal against employees who
join a union or who continue to
be union members.

: : : ee i

What about stimulating exploration and
development? Surely a company which has made
such fantastic profits doesn’t need any further in-
centive to explore for oil. Stripped of all its pretence
the oil industry is taking advantage of higher prices
in the U.S. to fatten its. profits at the expense of the

very people to whom the oil belongs — the people of
Canada.

On May 10th I introduced a motion in the House of
Commons for a two price system for oil which would
have empowered the National Energy Board to set a
fair and equitable price for oil produced and sold in
Canada. Neither the Liberal nor Conservative
parties want any part of such policy. Both of them

- There are sections of the act >

are unwilling to take on such powerful antagonists aS -

the oil companies.

At the present time Canada is exporting. more
than half its oil production to the United States. The
New Democratic Party advocates three steps we
should take. First, we should curtail our exports of
oil to balance our imports in order to conserve our
supplies of oil against our future needs. Second, we
should place an oil export tax on oil going to the U.S.
so that some of the profits arising from the oil
shortage in the U.S. will revert to the people of
Canada to whom the oil belongs. Third, we should set
the price of oil at a figure that will give the com-
panies a fair return on their investment and give

Canadians the advantages of cheaper oil and
gasoline.

If we fail to take these steps, foreign oil com-
panies will continue to fatten their profits while
Canadians are compelled to pay through the nose for
the privilege of using their own God-given resources.
Surely this is a state of affairs which a free and in-
dependent people can no longer tolerate.