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by Paul Burgwln ‘ r ‘ > - . Filled your’tank lately? Ever think that a five dollar bill is just enoughfito pay for a case of beer? Worried about where you're going to get the money to pay the next power bill —_ if the Power Corporation hasn’t already cut the electricity off? Wait till you have to pay 25% more for your 1977 license plates. ‘ ‘ Now, hold it. Before you start complaining that prices are going up all the time, just remember that the Chairman of the Anti-Inflation Board, J ean-_Luc Pepin, has declared “a victory in the war against inflation.” But 'on the other hand, it could be his own battle against inflation he’s talking about; after all, his salary is a cool $60,000 a year. Or it could be that he’s speaking on behalf of

- Westinghouse Corporation, where he sits on the Board of

Directors. They won their battle long ago — their profits

3 from 1971 ‘to 1975 rose 513%.

What about our battle against inflation? Says Pepin,_

working people “are actually better off with controls.” That’s hard to swallow for the working men and women whose yearly wage increases have dropped from 17% to 10% due to A.l.B. rollbacks. Or for the 890,000 unemployed workers across Canada. ‘

At the same time as wages are falling, prices keep rising. Look at housing. Prior to controls housing costs increased at a rate of 9.2%. Now they are going up at a rate of 11.2%. And food prices are also increasing. If you

live in Halifax it costs 18%,more to put food on the table '

thanit did before controls. So if the A.l.B. is a fraud, if it’s keeping down wages

while letting prices rise, then why is it in existence at all? To answer this _question we have to go back to the period A

before the controls were introduced. The single statistic which best explains why Pierre Trudeau became a convert

to ‘-‘wage and price” controls is the 9.3% drop In corporate

profits in the second half of 1975. - . The inflationary trend in Canada really caught fire about

’ three years before wage and price controls were ‘ announced. During these three years, food prices rose by

, Now

.I

, During the same period wages rose only about 25%, ‘ making a lie out of the old business theory that it’s wages

which cause inflation..Then, towards the end of 1975, the -

trend reversed itself. Feeling the pressureof rising prices organized workers began to fight for, and won, half-way,

p} decent wage increases. This caused the 9.3% drop in

' corporate profits, costing the corporate establishment some 4 billion dollars.

And big business had more of the same to look forward

to. Frommid-October, 1975 to the end of the year some

r 500,000 workers were due to sign new contracts. In 1976

another million more would be represented at. the

bargaining table, many of whom had been locked into t'wo

or three year, contracts and were looking for hefty

increases to make up for lost ground. 7 , Pierre Trudeau knew what controls were for e holding down wages at the expense of workers. In 1974, he used

the truth about controls as a convenient stick to beat'

Robert Stanfield. He said, “Robert Stanfield has already said he would not freeze the price of U.S. imports or Arab oil, and he admitted he would exempt housing prices (so has Trudeau). So what’s he going to freeze?” Trudeau shouted at the election rally. “Your wages! He’s going to freeze your wages!" Trudeau has since stuck to the letter of his 1974 assessment of controls. Under his legislation, the items which cause 75% of price increases were left uncontrolled. " ' And while the A.l.B. paints a glowing picture of

business and labour working shoulder to shoulder in ,

bea‘ g inflation, it has helped to create a far different reali

rollbacks for only six 60mpanies. Apparently it has been

. Since mid-August it has: recommended price ‘

too busy rolling back 1,949 collective agreements affecting 5

. 556,901 workers. In the process they took $175 million out ‘

of workers’ pockets and placed it in corporate pockets. In the past year and a hal , the anti-inflation legislation

has weathered the test of time. It has had its desired effect

— profits are again on the rise; they’re up by 117%. The A.l.B. isn’t .the only weapon governments and

e Cadre, Friday, April 1, 1977 page 25

starve V

winch-k, Edmonton (Canada) Journal

Their general attack includes reduced UIC benefits, tax laws favouring the corporations, forced unemployment, and cuts in health care and education.

But the main focus for the attack is the workers’

' traditional protective organization, the trade union. The

first step was to take away the union’s right to freely negotiate wage settlements, by imposing rigid controls designed to limit workers to a prearranged increase.

The next stage could be a series of anti-union crusades like the one carried out by the Mid-Island Public Employers Association (MIPEA) in Nanaimo, B.C. There . the employers’ goal in recent negotiations was to deprive union members of more than 100 already-won benefits, from seniority rights to overtime premiums.

An MIPEA spokesman defended their position by saying that collective bargaining‘ ‘ . . .doesn't mean improv- ing the living and working conditions of workers.” When the union accused the MIPEA of engaging in a reckless

20%. Corporate profits were up from 8.6 billion to 18.3 1 businesses have used to make workers pay for depressed and reactionary Pr°8mmme- the riasl’mlse was: "38'

billion, a rise of about, 111 %’.

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, r profits; it’s just the-biggest one they are using right now.'

CONT'D FROMPAGE 24

Protecting the rights“f of women and childfen is an important area ofxthe Party

sociaf policy. Article” 122 of the Constitution

of the USSR says: "These rights Shall be ensured by women being accorded the same rights as men in work, remuneration, rest and leisure, social insurance

and education, and by stategive PraCti‘Ca1 tiPS on“

protection of the‘interests of mother and child, statex aid to mothers of large . ‘families and to unmarried?» mothers, maternity leave with full pay, andrby «r prgvisionfofsablargef:c=’ .number offmaternitynhomesgm nurseries and kinder~:va gardens."

the Criminal Code>(artiedef;

[139) makeSfiadministrators

employ an expectant motheri or a mother of a small child, criminally liable. 7 The fundamental health- legislation of the‘USSR' and the Union Republics prehibits women from ' working in heavy jobs or in jobs dangerous to health Under this legislation, expectant mothers have to be transferred where nec— essary to lighter jdbs at the same wage as before. A woman who has had a child gets her job reserved for . her ’fprq; a year- ‘

Aw~The day the mother 18% dismissed frOm the maternity hospital ishe can apply to the child— 'ren's polyclinic near her home. During the

initial period doctors andlé

nurses from the poly—' clinic call on the mother at her home for regular examinations and,to

infant care.. This, of course, is free.

. ~There are only a few fants about health care ‘and protection of women

‘*and children in the USSR, but they are sufficient to ./V ..indicate the great advances’ "the Soviet Union has made‘ That is‘Soviet> a flaw,~and‘if-it,isiviolated»

in this area, as well as '9to~reveaITthe_backwardness ’of‘Canada's health care,

_ , V i“women's and Childrens rwho diamiss or refuse tol‘»

7rights,_etc. . - , ‘ 5 The lower child mor— tality rate, the longer life span and the_£acc 'that it is now safe for women suffering from serious diseases to have children are proof of the high quality of .maternity and child ’care in the USSR. , ' Parents in the SOviet Union do not have the worries and anxieties we have. In the Soviet Union people come first; in Canada people come

,second—profits come firsn.,t

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V actionary, yes. Reckless, no.” .

Similar attacks have taken place right across the

country. In New Brunswick the provincial Treasury Board ‘ is requesting the forfeiture of union shop provisions and a

longer waiting period for employees'before they receive four (veeks vacation, In Quebec, construction workers were forced to strike when the companies tried to limit the role

V. 'of on-site stewards, and attemped to do away with

union-controlled hiring halls. In Campbellton, N.B., ’44 municipal workers were fired for participating in the Day of Protest.

'. . 7 Even more of this kind of tactics can be expected in the

, ‘ . next year. Because of continuing slow economic growth,

businessmen will pull out all the stops as they scramble for

: 3, higher profits. “

Ray Thomas, Vice-president of Polymer International (N.S.) Ltd. put it this way: “The most important subject businessmen should be discussing with political leaders is not disparities but how to improve profits.” The President

I‘ . of the Bank of Nova Scotia agrees, saying, .“The number

one priority in Canada must be the further ratcheting down of the rate of wage and salary advances."

Just at the time when unemployment is higher than it has been in 20 years, right in the middle of the A.l.B.

.onslaught, the attitude of the corporations can be summed - up as —— To hell with workers and their families; we want

lower wages, higher profits!

MNFA‘ERSF

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