C.U.P.E. Journal
Periodical profile published 1977

Publisher:  Canadian Union of Public Empolyees, Canada
Year Published:  1977
Pages:  12pp   Resource Type:  Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number:  CX335

Review of the effectiveness of the anit-inflation board.

Abstract: 
The Wage Control program receives lengthy coverage through two statements in this journal, one by Ed Broadbent of the Democratic Party, the other, by Grace Hartman, C. U. P. F. president.
Ed Broadbent says the Anti-Inflation Board (A.I.B.) has not been working. Food prices have remained stable. Yet the A.I.B. has no control over it. Apart from this, the Consumers' Price Index has gone up 9.1%. Fuel and utilities are rising at a rate of 19%; forty companies researched have been found to have dramatic increases in profits. Not one had a price roll-back. Tens of thousands of workers, meanwhile, have had their wages cut back. The share of GNP going to the bottom 20% of the population is actually declining so also that of the middle 20%! Trudeau insisted no one would be allowed an increase of more than $2,400 this year. In fact doctors should average a net increase of about $5,000. Executives say the ceiling is a myth.
Bell Canada has been able to use the Wage Control guidelines very successfully to maintain heavy profits and has cut back growth in services to offset refusals for rate increases. In the first six months of 1976 Bell profits were up 30%. At the end of July '76 bank assets were up 16%. The banks have been strong in their support of the A.I.B. program.
Similarly real estate developers are making as much as 30% - 5O% more, while housing costs have gone up 11.2% under the A.I.B. The media have averaged profit increases during the first half of 1976 of 25-30%
Grace Hartman adds that it is a "Big Lie" that wage controls were brought on by big wage settlements by public sector unions. They were catch-up settlements. The real problem today and for the next ten years is not inflation but unemployment. To reduce unemployment the union will press for shorter hours to provide for more workers. And Wage Controls must end!