Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 7, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Winnipeg free october Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Thade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights free bargaining the contract dispute Between Maple Leaf foods and the United food and coffin tier Cial workers Union has begun spilling Over into Maple Leafs plans for a new hog slaughtering if the labour costs Are too Maple Leaf management Canadian slaughterhouses will be unable to compete with plants in the United the company remarks have caught attention because Winnipeg and other cities and towns in Saskatchewan and Alberta Are on Tenter Hooks awaiting Maple Leafs promised announce ment of the location of its next hog packing the company seemed to be saying it might scrap its plan for a new Plant in Canada because of High labour the company believed that meat packers were pay ing higher prices for live Ani Mals from Canadian producers of lower labour but if new hog slaughtering plants Are unprofitable in Fletcher Fine which announced expansion of its red Deer and Yuan i of which plans a Plant in have not yet heard the opening of those plants May provide More Competition than Maple Leaf can Maple Leafs concern about labour costs May reflect its collective bargaining the com which is owned by members of the Mccain food processing family and by the Ontario teachers pension is in dispute with United food and commercial at eight plants scattered across Cana Maple Leaf locked workers out of its Plant in North the Price of hogs reflects retail prices for producers costs and processors Maple Leaf should not decide the location of a Plant on the basis of today local hog prices or labour because these could change in the time it takes to build a labour costs Are up for review each time a collective agreement jaw boning by Maple Leaf management May help induce of Cru members to accept lower wage settlements than they hoped but no province or municipality should go chasing after Maple Leaf with Golden plan location inducements in the Hope of calming the company labour Cost the company should build its Plant where it can operate most economically and should offer the wages that labour Market conditions if it cannot turn a profit in those it should not hog producers will find buyers for their Ani Mals even if Maple Leaf bows Promise keepers the Parade of the Promise keepers in washing on the weekend was an impressive and puzzling event in that per haps one million took part in that hardly anyone else is certain what All those men were stand in the Gap a sacred Assembly of As the March was was for Christian males who wanted to affirm their Faith in repent of their past transgressions and affirm their responsibility As men and the Heads of two years ago this another gathering took place in the million Man March was for Black men dedicating themselves to assuming More responsibility Over their this was also an impressive but More comfortable because it was neither predominantly White nor despite serious doubts about its organizers Louis Farrakhan nation of islam the Validity of the inspiration for the million Man March was Sel Dom other groups deserve that same the Promise keepers is at Best sneered at worst viewed with fear and the Promise keepers Are perceived As being mostly White and Middle they Are by Defini Tion male and Christian qualities which Are suspect in some segments of society two legitimate currents of serious social concern con verge in the Promise one is the feeling of men that they have been marginalized and reduced to scapegoats for most of society the other is the increasing belief that modern materialism leaves a huge void in everyone Promise keepers offers an Avenue of expression for both there is nothing bad in either of nor is there anything identifiably wrong in the Way the group has so far expressed they Are legitimate concerns and sneering at their expression can Only further marginalize those who feel a More useful approach would be to examine Why these needs today can find expression Only in fringe Organiza Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press 9st 1979 Winnipeg tritons 9911990 Rudy Redekop publisher Ca Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie Verne human resources Perry Nixdorf technology Glenn Williams finance and adminis vation 61887wjn invest in family values t t then Michele Poirier was asked not to breast w feed at a work related she did what any self respecting woman would she had returned to work with the government after mater nity leave and was nursing her six Montgold daughter on her lunch but feeling unsupported for her decision to breast feed at she launched a human rights on two weeks before her daughters seventh the human rights commission finally ruled that prohibiting breast feeding at a workplace is a form of sex Dis is Poitiers Victory will undoubtedly give other mothers the courage to breast in it has led to More child Friendly policies in the the ruling recognizes that no Mother should have to choose Between working and breast but there is also a Dan Ger in believing that breast feed ing at work is a great formula for balancing work and family responsibilities in the like other Canadian women in the paid workforce is Poirier went Back to her Job when her maternity leave for is sleepless women recovering from childbirth receive 55 per cent of their paid out of employ ment or Elan Penni Mitchell additional 10 weeks of parental leave can be taken by either Par take has one of the worst maternity provisions among countries in the North Only the with 12 weeks unpaid has a More family unfriendly France and Britain All have More generous policies and paid leave of up to a year is not uncommon in Many european Germany provides for reduced work hours up to three years after giving birth and pays 100 per cent of a woman salary for 14 weeks after giving a government child raising allowance provides monthly pay ments which enable Many parents to take advantage of the reduced work in great maternity leave can extend to up to 40 depend ing on years of while Many women scramble to find ways to breast feed in cubicles on their lunch the Al fund is expected to be engorged by a billion accumulated surplus by the end of the while the business lobby and Reform party opposition maps demand drastic cuts in Al premiums As the answer to reduce the Cash its time to look at other including expanding Canadas maternity As a More humane Way to share the we can afford we could double the length of maternity to an additional Mil lion per year or increase the rate of benefits and still have a surplus in the fund after five while the Issue of work and family responsibilities is on the How is it that government cant use our Al Reserve to invest million a year to create those new child care spaces promised in the old lib eral red Bookel want created to Start a National Day care but there is an eco nomic logic to spending employ ers and employees Money on the creation of child care lying child care spaces to growth in the Gap a broken red Book Promise was a Lousy idea to begin since the need for Quality Day care and profession ally trained workers to run them Doest fluctuate with the Rise and fall of the of there will always be parents willing and Able to live on a single but for most two earner times Are still since there has been a 37 per cent increase in child poverty the 1995 Federal budget alone reduced spending by billion for programs Essen tial to children social services and Post secondary Edu the Canadian Council on social development calculates that fed eral Transfer cuts to the provinces will amount to Bil lion in essentially the same in the Al surplus by the end of the extended maternity leave would have a number of spinoff not Only would there be More babies but existing work would be reallocated to peo ple without work for longer Peri ods of maternity longer recovery time after giving More time for breastfeeding and a financial recognition that investing in fam Ilies counts for would All contribute to improving the health of children and the Quality of our until we invest More in family women will have no Choice but to limit their family until being Able to breast feed on the Job will be a cheap substitute for the real thing longer maternity leave and stronger Public policies for workers with family Respo Sibil Penni Mitchell is coordinating editor of horizons her column appears on separatism for fun and profit we Days s in i he a number of me it Nteta few Sewell vol 269 the latest flurry in the separatism game appears to have started largely by senator Pat Carney ran into some Salmon fishermen who were getting a raw Deal from she passed their com plaint on to a reporter and commented that it was time British Columbia renegotiated its role in could that include separation All options were that was All it took to get the Western separatist bandwagon rolling hundreds of disgruntled British columbian called their local newspapers and radio hot lines to cheer senator Carney on and crypt separatists started emerging from the Wood work within a week the Globe and mail had dredged up a professor who was ready to argue that Ontario should pull out of joining some in Alberta who had made the same argument is the whole country lusting to break up probably Wattle separatist Brus fires May be springing up Here and there but it is important to recognize that All separatists Are not the same the True 25 per cent of the Quebec Popula Tion that believes firmly and unswervingly in Independence Are driven by deep tribal they believe them in the words of Premier Lucien to be a peo ple and they believe that they have the right to dominate those in the province who Are not of that people there is a roughly equal num Ber of que scars who see separatism in less extreme mow As oae of a Range of Politi Cal options than As a tool of Don iuationan4 t John Dafoe none of those tribal instincts can drive those people in British Columbia who were so ready to proclaim their interest in Sepa people in that province cannot claim common a common culture or even a com Mon Mother there is no people who can claim to require More political Power to protect their language and Cul separatism in British Colum Bia is an attention getting device the political equivalent of a those new disciples of senator Carney Are prepared to lie on the ground and kick their feet in the air or hold their breath until they Are Blue in the face in order to get their and they know threatening separation is the Way to get what they want because it always works for Doest it the new Ontario separatism is a new beast once it might be called Bot Tomline separatism As befits Canadas counting by a hard nosed calculation of financial since Ontario pays More in taxes to the Federal government than it gets in Federal Transfer pay the province should declare its Independence and keep All the Money for that is not an inspired Agenda for but it is at least but Why Stop there if the fundamental aim of nation building is to separate the haves from the then Why let Provin Cial boundaries stand in the Way it has already been established that if Canada is divisible so is a if an Independent que Bec could be partitioned on Polit ical and linguistic Why could not an Independent Ontario be partitioned for economic Rea sons once an Independent Ontario had Cut itself off from its Penu rious Neighbours in Manitoba and the Atlantic it could begin to Jettison its own underdeveloped parts of downtown where homelessness and ill health would pose an unacceptable Burden to the hard nosed rulers of the newly Independent nation of could be dumped Back into the Lap of the Federal or what was left of similar treatment could by handed out to areas of poverty and High unemployment throughout the the newly Independent nations of Alberta and British Columbia could follow the same leaving the Federal government to Rule and the Atlantic plus the bits of their former territory that the new nations didst Manitoba might even get in on that those of us who live in the protected red River flood Plain could Cut Loose those areas that remain in the unprotected flood ensuring that they would Sot he Burden in any future or have we already done that John a shoe is a former editor Pat carneys his column appears on tues i ;