LY WAGES UP 6.8% — PRICES RISE BY 8.3% — From Ottawa Bureau, Toronto Star, Nov. 22. On November 21, Statistics Canada reported that average ‘weekly wages in Canada rose 6.9% from $150.90 to $161.29 in the 12-month period ending last August. During the same period, consumer prices rose 8.3%. This proves wages are not pushing up prices. On the con- trary, the organized workers are conducting a desperate fight try- ing valiantly but unsuccessfully to keep up with rising prices. But the organized workers are falling behind in the struggle, not to speak of what happens to the un- organized. Minimum wages set by law are ridiculously low and tend to become the maximum for unor- ganized workers. Many employ- ers are simply ignoring even these totally inadequate laws, passed under pressure from or- anized labor to protect both - themselves and the unorganized. There are far too few inspectors to enforce minimum wage laws. The working people are being robbed at every turn. The area of poverty amidst plenty is ever- expanding and widening the gap between rich and poor. Little for Farmers But monopolies are making a bonanza of profits. Just look at the financial pages of the daily papers. Speculators in land and commodities are scooping up the millions. Even Gadfly Ontario NDP-MPP from Toronto High Park, Dr. Morton Shulman has boasted of making 1,200% profit on the food-commodity market. BY BRUCE MAGNUSON Wek Workers’ wages fall well below prices He says it stabilizes the prices and is good for the farmers. The trouble is that by the time the stock-market speculators take their cut from the loot taken from consumers, there is very little left for the real farmer. The farmers who farm the farmers seem to be much better off. Be that as it may, the mono- polies are getting bigger and big- ger. With government-monopoly collusion all down. the line, small business and low-wage employ- ers are captives of the monopo- ies in the market place. The monopolies escape taxes by ma- nipulating legal loop-holes. But the workers are fleeced by gov- ernments through discriminatory tax laws directed at them. No honor system in their case, but pay up or else! The money for the original tax bite is deducted by the worker’s employer before the worker sees his paycheque. Blame the Poor , Talk about class society, class discrimination and class bias! Take a good look at the latest (the tenth) report of the Eco- nomic Council of Canada, which by inference and implication blame the indigents, pensioners and the poor as being responsible for inflation. The report calls for drastic controls of transfer payments. The aim is to cut social spend- ing. That means unemployment insurance, retraining programs for workers, pensions, family al- lowances, general social welfare, and many similar expenditures of a social nature. The end product of all this is to drive wages down in the end, to create an abundant over- supply of dirt-cheap labor on Tim Buck Centre for Thunder Bay By G. GENTES THUNDER BAY—The North- western Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Canada, on Nov. 10 opened its new head- quarters on Algoma St. S. in Thunder Bay — the building to be known as Tim Buck Centre. Speaking about the naming of the building, Committee Secre- tary Mike Comishin pointed out that Tim Buck was both one of the founders of the Communist Party, and its leader from 1929 to 1962. “Comrade Buck,” he said, “de- voted his life to organizing and leading the working class,” and became one of the international- ly known leaders of the Com- munist movement. “Future his- tory,” the speaker said, “will not only record him as a great Canadian but a true son of the working class. In naming this building the Tim Buck Centre,” he said, “we pay tribute to this great man.” Two Worlds Greeting the 56th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917, being marked that same week, Mike Comishin remarked how it has “divided mankind in-. to two worlds, those of socialism and capitalism. . The struggle between capital- ism and socialism can be judged by crisis upon crisis the capital- ist world finds itself in,” he said. ed by Cliff Wahl in He cited “skyrocketing food prices,” as one of capitalism’s ills foisted upon the working people. “Housing for our Native peoples and for people below the poverty level is a national disgrace,” he said. “Lack of jobs; the cooked-up ~ energy crisis,” these were a few indicators of capitalism’s dilem- ma, but the “monopolies conti- nue to gouge,” the people. “In Northwestern Ontario,” he charged, “the profiteers dig up our natural resources and ship them out of our area to be pro- cessed, while our young people must look’ for jobs “elsewhere Under socialism there is no un- employment, no rise in prices, no energy crisis, and Soviet people are steadily building a better life where no exploitation of man by man takes place.” Honor Veteran The speaker also honored vet- eran Communist Tom Hill by the presentation of a plaque, accept- A. T. Hill’s absence at the World Peace Congress. The meeting was chaired by Rose Cotter; and Hazel Wohni contributed by reading a poem by Pablo Neruda. Enair Nord- strom gave an outline of early labor history of the Lakehead area, mentioning Harry Bryan and A. Lougheed as early or- ganizers there. the labor market. In the mean- time some economists have pro- posed abolishing the corporate income tax. But nobody has sug- gested abolishing the retrogres- sive sales tax which hits the poor and low income people the hard- est. The Economic Council of Can- ada did not say a word about control on prices and the prose- cution of profiteers. It did not propose to reform the tax sys- tem to close the loop holes, to base it on ability to pay, and to make the mammoth corporations and the filthy rich pay their share of the tax-load. Stop UIC Garnishees ~The Unemployment Insurance Commission is again using gar- nishees of wages and savings of workers to recover so-called over-payments of benefits to the unemployed. Eight thousand such garnishee actions are sup- posed to have been started dur- ing the first six months of this year. This kind of dastardly at- titude towards the people who produce the wealth of this coun- try must be stopped. The inflationary attack on wage and salary earners, an at- tack on the unemployed, the at- tack on welfare recipients and people dependent upon social assistance, the assault on our educational standards, these are aimed to force standards down to make the workers pay for high monopoly profits. To this must be added the 33 and one- third percent increase in military spending for the next five years to help. keep. this -thief-system going, even if it has to.use force and put an end to democracy to do it, as in Chile and in Greece. Where Was Labor? The question has been raised, where were the labor represen- tatives on the Economic Council of Canada, when it adopted its 10th report? Did they object, and if so where is their minority re- port? Donald MacDonald from the Canadian Labor Congress; Wm. Ladyman from the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers, Stanley A. Little from the Cana- dian Union of Public Employees; Wm. Mahoney of the United. Steelworkers of America and Canadian National Director; W. Y. C. McGregor of the Brother- hood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, Freight Han- dlers, Express and Station Em- ployees; Marcel Pepin, president Confederatiqn of National Trade Unions in Quebec; Albert Allain of the Quebec Union of Farmers; these are the appointed repre- sentatives of working men and women on the Economic Council of Canada. It is not only justified to ask that these men speak up now and explain their position, but that they repudiate the ECC re- port and undertake a massive campaign against adoption of any of its negative (to working- class people) recommendations by any government in this coun- try. ve behooves all trade union, farm, and other peoples’ organi- zations to make their stand clear in relations to this matter, by demanding that federal and pro- vincial authorities take action to. curb monopoly price fixing, pro- " secute the profiteers, roll back prices, control rents, reform the tax system and bring wages into line with increased output and living costs. i |— sll Peaar AS ie 3 59 {il 3 1) H)h/ nse ull oT exce ssWEE “I guess if | was earning $40,000 a year | would say the same thing.” ‘Labor (Cartoon by Cosgrove) IN BRIEE AUTO NEGOTIATIONS WINDSOR — No settlement for another week was the word out of United Auto Workers — Ford negotiations for 15,000 production workers whose legal strike deadline passed at 10 a.m. Nov. 23. Key issues are 30-and- out (retirement after 30 years service), and overtime on a voluntary basis only.. The strike has closed Ford plants at Wind- sor, Oakville and Talbotville. Inclusion of the 30-and-out de- mand was made possible by a government amendment Nov. 22 making this pension plan accep- table for tax purposes, some- thing which was not available when Chrysler workers signed their contract recently. 4 SCABS IN THE WOODWORK TORONTO ~— The 98-day bit- ter strike at Artistic Woodwork, where new lows in scab-herding and attacking workers on the picket line have been recorded, almost came to an end last weekend. Ontario Labor Minis- ter Fern Guindon announced that it was all over. The conten- tious issue. of management rights had apparently been set- tled, then maagement announc- ed Nov. 14 that it refuses to take back eight men charged with criminal offences on the picket line. On Monday the 26th, manage- ment pulled a fast one, taking its scabs in at 4 a.m. hours be- fore some 200 pickets and large numbers of police showed up. Toronto hospital workers have started John Lang, organizer for the Canadian Textile and Chemical Workers Union said on - the weekend that “there’s no agree- ment on the terms of the return to:-AVOrK: 382" —_———_ KEEP EMPLOYERS OFF BOARDS OTTAWA — At a conference sponsored by the Canadian Lab- or Congress Nov. 20-22, and attended by officers of CLC- chartered labor federations across the country, it was agreed that employers should be barred from sitting on labor relations boards, or interfering with their operation. CLC Sec- retary-Treasurer Wm. Dodge re- ported there was unanimous agreement in condemning boards which permit employers in certification proceedings to appear and argue against his employees joining an organiza- tion of their choice. “The fact that employers are now represented on boards can only be explained by the mis- taken belief that the employer somehow shares in the deter- mination as to whether working people should or should not kave the right to belong to a union of their choice,” he said. “This right has been dearly won by the working people. It is a fundamental right which cannot be shared with any other individual or group because it must, in the final analysis, be vested in the men and women directly affected.” Eyes) negotiations for new con-_ , tracts that call for a “catch-up” with other CUPE emplo i Toronto area. At the kick off of bargaining, the 6.000 we katy Hoos hospitals launched a public information campaign to inform resi- dents of the plight of hospital workers. Here sGeorge Wilson (left), chairman of the Metro Hospital Workers’ Bargaining Committee and Cathie McQuarrie, Local 1144, display the “catch-up” poster which will be seen throughout the city over the next several months. ~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1973—PAGE9 .