_C-14 means owner-slave © YUUTh relationship says jobless By DOUG COUPAR OTTAWS — Jobless workers from across Canada have con- demned Bill C-14 — the federal government’s proposed cutbacks in Unemployment Insurance —as legislation which will bring us “*farcloser to an owner-slave rela- tionship than that of an employer-employee relation- ship’’. In a brief which was submitted this week to the House of Com- mon’s standing committee on Bill C-14, the Ottawa Coalition For Full Employment (OCFFE) has charged that the Liberal govern- ment‘ ‘willdrastically increase the hardship and frustration caused by unemployment by denying hundreds of thousands of jobless ‘‘Outlook : unstable”’ is the cap- tion of a mischievous editorial in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Dec. 12, 1978. The aim of this editorial article is to foster the erroneous conception that the spark that ig- nited a decade of inflation in ___ Canada was the 30% wage in- crease won by striking St. Lawr- _ ence Seaway workers back in_ 1966." From: there, “accérding ‘to™ the fertile imagination of this editorial scribbler, the unions “‘leapfrogged each other into the huge increases which helped to push Canada into double-digit in-. flation and the wage and price controls of 1975.” The truth, however, is that the capitalist system is unstable and completely unable to come to grips with inflation and un- employment, both of which have become chronic ailments for _ which totally wrong remedies are being advocated and applied. Thus president Carter has cal- led for a 5.5% limit on wage in- creases which, from the point of view of any worker is totally un- acceptable as long as inflation is running at 10 or 11%. Nor is it an accident that Britain's Prime _Minister Callaghan is also trying to push the 5% formula down the throats of British-workers without any Success. Gus Hall, general secretary of - the Communist Party of the Un- ited States, speaking at a recent session of the Central Committee of his party, said: *‘It is a crisis of imperialist frustrations... We must separate that which the class enemy would like to do from what it is able to do’. From this he drew the conclusion that ‘‘the course of events can be reversed _by the people's active opposi- tion.”’. The rising strike movement is a clear expression of the resistance that labor is putting up to ruling class policy of putting the burdens _of the capitalist crisis on the worker’s back. And, ‘as Philip Shabecoff, the New York Times labor reporter wrote: '‘* ... the business-labor struggle is likely to get more-fierce’’ (July 30, 1978). Incidentally it may be noted that the caption of the article in ques- people the Unemployment Insur- ance rightfully due to them’’. OCFFE’s lengthy submission to the parliamentary committee has been endorsed by the New- foundland Association For Full Employment, the Halifax Coali- tion For Full Employment, the Kingston-Committee of the Un- employed, the Saskatchewan Co- alition For Full Employment and the Montreal-based Parallel Insti- tute. The unemployment groups feel that C-14 is being used as another method of ensuring that big busi- ness interests continue to reap the benefits of high unemployment levels. “The federal government has proven by its past performance that it is not interested in serving the needs of lower-income people, especially the un- employed, but prefers to continue to serve the needs and interests: of © employers, in particular, the large multi-national corporations, by creating an environment which al- lows for massive profit accumula- tion on one hand and increased poverty on the other’” states OCFFE. : “Tt is in its (the government’s) . direct interests to ensure that there continues to be a large re- serve army of the unemployed which will under cut the strength of the organized labor movement, and can be used to ‘take up the slack in the economy’. the Coalition cited examples of Meet monopoly’s attack — with labor solidarity — tion was: ‘‘Class Struggle Has Become Washington’s Latest Rage.”’ The Ford Strike in Britain, of which: workers in Canada- have. been told very little by the bourgeois press, involved 23 fac- tories in Britain and Northern Ire- land and was the British workers’ response to the British Labor goyernment’s 5% pay limit for the coming year. Ford made £14.1-million profit. in 1973; £65.4-million in 1975; £121.6-million in 1976; and a whopping - £236-million pre-tax profit in 1977. The union in Ford UK estimated a £300-million pre- tax profit for 1978, this after allow- -ing for depreciation and also as- suming that the main elements in the workers’ pay claim were achieved. The main items of the claim were a minimum, of £20 increase on basic rates, a reduction of five hours in the working week, and improvements in annual holidays together with other fringe bene- ~ fits. The company’s: refusal to meet the union’s demands angered the -workers. This is understandable, considering that last year, follow- ing a profit of £121-million, the company could afford to give a Grade B worker £7.50, yet in 1978 — having achieved a profit of £246-million — their offer to the Grade B man was £3.40. The workers on the shop floor saw the company’s profits rising while it’s offers to labor that made the pro- fits were going in the opposite di- rection. The workers raised the ques- tion: “If wages cause inflation what does £300-million profits do?** Unity and solidarity won the day for UK’s Ford workers. Auto workers throughout West- ern Europe refused to work over- time and demonstrated their solid support of workers in Britain. Presently West German steel ‘workers are on strike for a 35- hour work week and a 5% pay raise. It is their answer to the _ corporation's policy of laying off about 1,000 workers a month and putting the rest on shorter weeks and shorter pay. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 5, 1979—Page 6 ‘tiers. In Belgium; steelworkers have won a 39-hour week in November that will be cut to 38 hours in July and to 35 by 1980. Some 690,000 steelworkers in the European Common Market countries are determined to fight layoffs, bring about an end to ef- forts to make them pay for capital- ist crisis, and to win improved working conditions and more purchasing power. In this effort they have the support of Com- munist parties, and some Socialist parties, working in class solidar- ity transcending national fron- There is a message here for Canadian labor. The Canadian Labour Congress Executive Council, in particular, may re- think its position on some ques- tions including the need for grea- ter solidarity efforts on behalf of postal workers who are being penalized by a vengeful and anti- labor government acting on be- half of big business. The challenge of the multi- national corporations and their governments must be met head on and defeated. This requires both national and international labor solidarity, and action on both the economic and political fronts of class struggle. = Unemp| Tay, lay-offs and below-capacity pro- duction levels in the corporate sector to prove their point that Canadian workers are being man- ipulated by a government in col- lusion with giant corporations such as Inco, Alcan, and North- ern Telecom —‘‘to name only a PEW : **This is a callous way to deal with the human beings who pro- duce the wealth of this country’’ added the brief, ‘‘but it can be expected to be condoned by a government which views the ac- cumulation of profits te be more important than the needs of work- ing people’. ie Bud Cullen, Minister of Employment and Immigration, has based C-14 on the premise Retraining cutbacks | protested ~-HALIFAX.— The Halifax Co- alition for Full Employment pic- keted local Manpower retraining céntres, Dec. 13, and distributed a pamphlet written by a retraining student, to protest Manpower ret-. raining allowance cutbacks. ' As of October 2, students’ weekly allowance has been re- duced frotn $79 to $60. Married women and:youth have been cut from $45 to $10. ‘“‘The government says it wants - to teach us new skills to get jobs and ‘then cuts back the training allowance just when we need the money the most. They are saving money. at our expense’ says a student from one of the retraining courses in Halifax. A spokesperson for the Coali- tion said Dec. 13, ‘‘due to high. unemployment and lack of jobs in their own field, people are forced to take retraining programs. The government then turns around and drops an already inadequate training allowance further below a: living wage.” ARE _ GRADUATING, ] that Unemployment Insuh, (UD) is too easily available ; wants the government to the bill in order to introdhy, number of “‘disincentives’’ &r UI program. 1) By claiming that UI recip are cheating the program QS hopes ‘to convince the publi@\ his amendments are justifiet As well, Cullen: has as$ that the changes will really; affect those who have a “il nalattachment tothe labor {0° — women, students, and 0}, who “‘are only seeking sho! employment’. _ Jane Stinson, one of tig] thors of the OCFFE briehs, buying Cullen’s argument. ‘‘The federal governmé being totally irresponsible by tinuing to implement p0 which attack unemployed than the problem of une ment.’” : “We are demanding th mediate repeal of Bill C-! cause it will only serve to pé the unemployed since insuff jobs are available’ Stinson’ The six groups who ordinated the submis rounded off their criticis# pointing out that the gove is not acting to create long? permanent employment to’! the crisis facing well over @ ion Canadians. : “The same government introducing this regressive! lation is also doing absolute! thing to address the real cau! unemployment... in effect government is telling thé employed of this country th must individually continue tl for the unemployment crisi “They concluded that ‘‘it is this government faced the f that it is not the victims ¢ Canadian economic crisi are to blame, but those if ness and government whi only allowed the crisis to de’ but who now perpetuate serve their own interests’’. ; ‘ nN f RQ include the following: job requirements. as e Those who are presently employed will be forced to stay at their jobs, no matter how poor the wages and working conditions are, because of the threat of having little or no,income pro- vided by Unemployment Insurance if they choose to leave, and little or no chance of finding another job, once unemployed. This is bound to decrease productivity because of job dissatis- faction, and in a number of cases, because of the disparity between the individual's skills and the e The bargaining power of the employed will be eroded because of the threat of being layed- Bill C-14 will mean these things If Bill C-14 is enacted, the Ottawa Committee - For Full Employment points out that all Cana- dians, working and unemployed, will be af- fected. They say that some of the effects would tioned above. get. off or fired with the same consequences as mi __ © Those who are presently unemployed ¥ be forced to take jobs with very poor wages 4 working conditions since they will have little no income and therefore no alternative. e The problem of underemployment will exacerbated since many highly train graduates will (as a result of the proposed high entrance requirements for new entrants to t labor force) have no income whatsoever a therefore be forced to take the first job they ¢ _ @ Medical costs will increase as a result of & increased number of people who will requi : treatment for stress, mental breakdowns 4 attempted suicides which result from the fi rations associated with being unemployed.