HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-10-21, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1987.
Opinion
You ain't seen
nothin' yet
Canadians have been troubled in recent months, with the
re-emergence of costly, disruptive strikes after a welcome
respite from such acrimonious strikes over the last few years. If
we’re sad to see the battles of today, however, we haven’t seen
anything to what is likely to arise if the free trade agreement is
approved.
While thestrikcsofthelatc 1970’sandearly ‘80’s, came from
workers fighting to get more to keep ahead of inflation, the
strikes of 1987 have been by workers who don’t want to accept
cuts in their pay or give up guarantees that protect them from
layoffs. The shoe is now on the other foot and many big
businesses seem ready to use it to give the employees the boot,
even while their profit picture often remains strong.
The battle lines will be even more strongly drawn once free
trade is in effect. Many companies are already crying that it will
be impossible for them to compete with American companies
because labour costs are too high in Canada. They can point out
that many northern industrial states in the U.S. are just shells of
their former wealthy selves because companies have moved
enmasse to the “sunbelt" states where there are fewer laws to
guarantee wages or working conditions.
Given those kind of realities, how long will it be after the free
trade agreement is signed before there will be pressure on
governments in Canada to reduce or eliminate minimum wage
laws and laws on working conditions that protect the lives and
health of workers but make it more expensive to run a business
here than in southern U.S. states. And how long will it be before
Canadian employers demand even more concessions on pay
andfringebenefitsfromCanadian unions with the threat that if
they don’t get it, the plant will be closed and moved to Georgia?
Unaffected at first will be the same people who are already
doing well, like the Canadian Auto Workers union members.
But the irony of Free Trade is that the better it works, the more it
may hurt in the long run. The autoworkers, for instance, are
able to get such favourable contract terms because, with a
Canadian dollar at 75 cents U.S., it is still cheaper to make cars
in Canada than south of the border. If Free Trade works the way
its opponents say, however, if the Canadian economy booms,
then the Canadian dollar should strengthen and our
competitive advantage disappears.
There is no doubt that under free trade consumers will
bene fit as competition re duces prices. Competition will,
however, also reduce wages and salaries, particularly in
industries whose competition is in the cheap labour areas of the
U.S. For lower income workers the loss may be more than the
gain.
Where's the
white hat?
It’s very inviting to accept U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s
view of the world: that as in the old movies there are good guys
in white hats and bad guys in black ones. It would be easier to
accept, if Mr. Reagan would live by the rules of the guys in the
white hats and always do right.
Mr. Reagan acts more like the modern heros played by
Charles Bronson who know that they are right and if everyone
else disagrees, or the law says they’re wrong, then it’s time to
break the law and get the job done anyway.
Besides the law and the U.S. Congress being wrong and
dupedbythedastardlycommunists, add the Nobel Peace Prize
Committee to the list of misinformed people. The Nobel Peace
Prize last week went to Costa Rican President Oscar Arias for
heading up a Central American plan to bring peace to
Nicaragua. Mr. Reagan isn’t at all happy with the plan,
although he did congratulate President Arias last week. He still
wants more money to support the Contra guerrillas in trying to
bring down the Sandanista government in Nicaragua, even
though the peace plan calls for an end to outside intervention.
The Sandanistas have carried out some of the reforms they
promised under the peace plan such as allowing opposing
newspapers to publish again. But it has become obvious that
Mr. Reagan will accept no solution except the complete
removal of the Sandanistas from power. After the Iran-Contra
affair, does anyone really believe he wouldn’t undertake acts,
legal or illegal, to undermine the peace settlement?
When Mr. Reagan and his supporters subvert the law they
cast doubt on everything they say. How can anybody believe
them.
Most people in the West want to believe whoever is U.S.
presidentwhen he speaks, butmany don’t believe anything the
U.S. says anymore because of the number of times their faith
has been betrayed. They want to believe in good guys with
white hats but the good guys have got to prove themselves good
guys.
Harvest's nearly done
Mabel’s Grill
There are people who will tell you
that the important decisions in town
are made down at the town hall.
People in the know. however know
that the real debates, the real
wisdom reside down at Mabel's
Grill where the greatest minds in
the town [// not in the country]
gather for morning coffee break,
otherwise known as the Round
Table Debating and Filibustering
Society. Since not just every one can
partake of these deliberations we
will report the activities from time to
lime.
MONDAY: Tim O’Grady was
giving Ward Black the gears again
this morning aboutwhat’sgoingon
in town council. Tim was saying
that he hears they spent so much
time drinking coffee and talking
about who’s doing what with who
that they don’t have the time to run
the town properly.
Ward said as usual people didn’t
know what they were talking
about. If more people would come
tocouncil meetings they’d see how
hard the councillors actually work
ed. If people sitting around at
Mabel’s could run the town (or the
country) as well as they thought
they could we’d all be millionaires
with streets paved with gold, he
said. Hetold Mabelthatshe should
move the tables aside and put up a
quilt. While people sat around and
gossiped they might as well
accomplish something, he said.
TUESDAY: Billie Bean was men
tioning he saw a headline in this
morning’s paper that said “Med
dling monkey back home" about
that Soviet monkey in space that
had been running amuck in a
satellite. Too bad, Billie said, the
Russians wouldn’t bring home
some of their other meddling
subjects from other places in the
world like Afghanistan.
WEDNESDAY: Julia Flint was
feeling sorry for those stowaways
who sneaked on board a boat in
Central America thinking they
were headed for Florida and ended
up in Canada instead.
Tim said he hoped there wasn’t
going to be a big fuss about more
illegal immigrants. Julia said she
figured it might be the best thing
that could happen to these poor
people to deport them and let them
try to stowaway on the right boat.
Or if we really want to punish them
we can let them stay in Canada and
ship them to Winnipeg for the
winter.
THURSDAY: Billie was asking
Hank Stokes this morning if he was
happy with the news that Ford
Motor Company is testing cars that
will run on ethanol fuel made from
corn.
Hank said it might help the price
of corn a bit but he didn’t think
there’d end up being much in it for
the farmers unless somebody in
high places had made a mistake.
What would happen, he said, is
that if every vehicle could run on
ethanol, he’d end up selling his
corn cheap and paying big bucks to
buy it back as fuel for his tractor to
grow more cheap corn. It would be
better, he said, if they could invent
a motor that would run on corn
whiskey. Then if the price of corn
wasn’t good you could at least
drink your troubles away.
FRIDAY: Ward was missing from
this morning’s session. Somebody
said they had it on good authority
he was on the phone all morning
with his stock broker trying to bale
out before the losses get too big.
Tim said what was happening on
the stock market was a little scary
even if you didn’t have money
invested. It was frightening to see
the value of stocks dropping before
your very eyes and millions of
dollars going down the drain.
Hank said that maybe now the
big money men would understand
how a farmer feels when he sees
the price of corn drop by half or
cattle drop $5 a hundred in a week
and all the profit instantly dis
I
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