oe oo

Gritting his teeth against a storm of opposition, federal labor minister
John Munro attempts to justify his government’s wage and price
Control to B.C. Federation of Labor convention delegates. He left after

—Sean Griffin photos

‘an hour’s session had failed to win him any followers. (See story).

CONTROLS ‘TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE’

Labor parley welcomes
trend towards detente

- The continuing trend toward
detente in international relations
was welcomed by delegates to the
B.C. Federation of Labor con-
vention as offering an ‘“‘en-
couragement about the future that
would have: been unpredictable

_ five years ago.”

The report of the International
Affairs Committee hailed the
Helsinki Conference, the Apollo
Soyuz space mission, and the
apparent normalization of

relations between the U.S.A. and”

Cuba as high points in the trend to
detente over the past year.

“But in many cases the events of
the past year and the increasing
clamor for detente have a hollow
ring,’ the report warned. “The
arms race continues unabated. The
world spends over $200 billion a
year on arms while people starve.

“In Canada our government
continues to participate in military
alliances, dominated by the United
States; that are the very antithesis
of detente. For several years your
committee has urged that Canada
withdraw from NATO~ and
NORAD. Once again, we state that
Canada’s foreign policy cannot be
truly independent as long as our
armed forces participate in these
alliances and call for an immediate
end to Canada’s participation in
NATO and NORAD.”

Fishermen’s Union delegate

Convention rebuffs Munro

Federal labor minister John
Unro came to the B.C, Federation

°f Labor convention last week

hoping to sell his government’s
Wage and price control program,
ut after an hour-long session
fore the microphones, he left by

& side door with the unequivocal
9pposition of delegates followin
im out. :

Munro’s appearance before the
Convention — made at his own
Tequest — came only an hour after
Some 250 unionists had staged a
demonstration in downtown
Vancouver, marching to the offices
of the federal labor department,
he main post office and the site of

€ Sandman Inn presently under
- onstruction -by non-union labor.

Federation president George
Johnston and secretary Len Guy
led the
Placards declaring: ‘‘Trudeau
8ov’t unfair to workers.” -

Only boos broke the silence as

unro entered the convention hall
and as he took the podium nearly a
a rd of the more than 700
flegates walked out to protest the

88e control program.

: Those remaining in the hall held
a the placards which had been
’rried on the demonstration.

Tn response to a_ resolution
Passed earlier by the Federation
Boye acterizing the Trudeau
ata program as “anti-

er” and “‘pro big business,”
ae attempted to justify the
: Tols on the basis that they were
Wally “anti-business.””

i met he cited no examples
cas ©W where this would be the
e,
ae did acknowledge that ‘“‘up
“Drie now” wages had been chasing
Situat; but. suggested that the
of a ae had changed and “a hell
fj Ot of people have lost con-

ence in the purchasing f
n power 0
the Canadian dollar.’’

. He added that a wage and price
ae program ‘‘would not have
. ed a. year ago’? — when the

demonstration with’

‘Conservative Party demanded its

implementation — although he
offered no reason as to why it could
be expected to work now.

He urged labor to ‘“‘try it,’’ but
left the veiled suggestion that if
trade unionists did not cooperate,
they would be told to accept the
controls, just as British. labor
minister Michael Foot had told
unionists there to accept the Labor
government’s program.

Questioned repeatedly by
delegates pointing out that free
collective bargaining had been
abrogated by the controls
program, Munro argued ‘‘we
haven’t taken away collective
bargaining — we've simply
restricted it. :

“Tt’s only temporary,” he in-

sisted, ‘‘a hit and run program.” .

Asked whether: ‘“‘hit and run”
wasn’t, in fact, against the law, he
replied that it was but added
significantly, “in this case we’re
making the law.”

He also admitted that the
program would not be able to cope

‘with all inequities in response to a

question from Retail, Wholesale

and Department Store Union:

delegate Al Pederson who had
asked about unions which were
now being told to call of a strike on
the basis of offers which were now
less than what they had been of-
fered before. :

Pederson’s union was one of
those forced back to work by Bill
146 and caught in the provisions of
the Trudeau controls.

Angry postal workers also

-assailed Munro but received only

the reiteration that the program
was tempovary and merely an
“interference with the collective
bargaining process.”

Although questions and heckling
punctuated — his entire address,
Munro was finally forced to a halt
when one delegate declared:
“Workersare out on the picket line
while this man stands up there

trying to tell us how good this
program will be.”

As Munro left and protesters
filed back into the hall, Federation
president George Johnston noted:
“The minister must be abundantly
clear of the feelings of the labor
movement — I’m sure he got the
message.”

A resolution had earlier been.
‘unanimously endorsed by the

convention calling for unequivocal
rejection of the wage and price
controls and pledging support for
the Canadian Labor Congress
campaign to fight the program and
support for the Congress’ 10-point
anti-inflation plan.

:

Bert Ogden agreed with. the report

-that ‘‘the major obstacle to detente

is the arms race.” But Ogden
added that the report omitted to

mention the adoption by the United

Nations of the . Soviet -Union’s
proposal for an immediate 10 per
cent reduction in armaments: He
linked military spending to the
increased cost. of living, inflation
and poverty, and called on the
Canadian government to reduce its
$2 billion arms budget. ‘‘This
stands in the way of detente and in
the way of better living standards
for Canadian people,” he said.

The spirit of detente was em-
phasized further with the adoption
of a resolution calling for increased
relations between Canadian trade
unions and the trade union
movement of the Soviet Union.

A_ resolution which received
unanimous support welcomed the
recent tour of the Soviet Union by a
CLC delegation headed by Joe
Morris. It recommended to the
CLC that it ‘promote exchange
delegations between CLC affiliates
and their counterpart unions in the
Soviet Union and all countries
where such exchanges have not
taken place in the past.

The most contentious issue to
come on the floor during the report
of the International Affairs
Committee was a resolution’ in
opposition to the ‘‘state of
emergency”’ proclaimed by Mrs.

' Ghandi’s government of India to

defend the government against a
dangerous right wing attack. While
the resolution referred to the
alleged jailing of trade union
leaders it neglected to mention that
the trade union movement of India
supported the actions of Mrs.
Ghandi’s government as did the
world peace movement.

After some debate from the floor .

and after hearing representation

- from a leading member of the

Indian government who. was in
Vancouver with a World Peace
Congress delegation, delegates
voted to send the resolution back to
the committee for further con-
sideration.

Another resolution pledged the
Federation’s ‘full support for the
Spanish and Basque workers and
peasants against the fascist dic-
tatorship” while also pledging

“support to

“full support for any solidarity
actions such as economic and
political boycotts which may be
called by the International Trade
Union movement and endorsed by
the CLC.”

On. Chile the delegates gave
unanimous support to a resolution
which called for the condemnation
of the junta and U.S. involvement,
the stopping of allforms of support
to the junta, the suspension of all
political and diplomatic relations
with Chile, the ending of all trade
and commercial relations, active
the resistance
movement, and a demand that
immediate steps be taken to
facilitate the admission of more
Chilean refugees to Canada.

S.A. invasion

“violates UN’

TORONTO “The military
invasion _of Angola by South
African troops is a serious threat to
the unity and independence of
Angola and to world peace,”’ said a
statement issued last week by the
Canadian Peace Congress.

The Congress denounced the
recent invasion of troops from
occupied Namibia as ‘‘an absolute
violation of the United Nations
Charter,’ and urged the Un to
expel the representatives of South
‘Africa’s present government.

“The $90-million in military aid
in which the United States has
agreed to supply to Mobutu’s
Zaire, and the weapons supplied to
South Africa by Britain, France,
West Germany, Israel and other
countries indicates that these
nations, backed by powerful trans-
national corporations (many with
enormous investments in South
Africa and Angola) are determined
to balkanize Angola.

“The Canadian Peace Congress
calls on the UN to take immediate
action to expel the representatives
of the present South African
government and urges Canada’s
government to demand the with-

drawal of South African forces ©

from Angola and to support the
expulsion from the UN of South
Africa’s government.”’

a

This was the scene at the B.C. Federation of Labor convention last Friday as John Munro took the podium

to address the delegates. Scores of others walked out in protest.
; PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 14, 1975—Page 3