A4 - Sunday, February 5, 1984 - North Shore News

But, what the heck, I
wasn’t consulted cither.
Neither for that matter was
Peter Speck, the guy who
owns the North Shore News
And HE actually had an in-
put to make.

Recurring rumors suggest
that LaLonde is going to
recommend some sort of tax
incentives to encourage
profit-sharing in the
workplace.
presumably base his sugges-
tions on the Repon of the
Sub-Committee To Promote
Profit-Sharing By Employees
In Business, tabled last sum-
mer in the House of
Commons.

The report — actually, it
was the 15th report, that’s
how Parliament works, bless
its heart — doesn’t really say
all that much. - It - wishy-
washes all over the place,
leaving plenty of room for
the slippery finance minister
to manoeuver. So it is quite
impossible to predict
an .

Yet this much is certain:
**profit-sharing”” has become
a vaguely sexy item in the
repertoire of “Liberal buzz-
words. Now that Monsigneur
Trudeau’s whimsical mutter-
ings about the death of the
marketplace have been
replaced by his whimsical
mutterings about peace on

earth (while testing a Cruise ©

missile in the back yard), we
may confidently await a bold
new dance of the Seven Veils
to cover up the government's
appalling financial
ineptitude.

Profit-sharing looks to be
the idea the Grits are seeking

UNLIKE BRIAN MULRONEY, I’m going to be
out of the country when Marc (Don’t-Turn- Your-
Back) Lalonde brings down his budget, so I won’t -
be available for comment.

He will.

which will at least give them
the appearance of being
capable of coherent thought.

It would be nice to think
they were serious, even if
self-serving. But they’re not.

How do I know this? Well,
the North Shore News is a
case in point. For nearly a
decade, this company has ac-
tually had a profit-sharing
plan. Just before Christmas

every year, when everybody -

can really use the extra
bucks, publisher Speck stages
a ‘‘profit-sharing party’’
where he distributes a percen-
tage of the profits of the out-
fit among the nearly-200 full
and part-time employees.

The publisher has a catchy
phrase he uses to describe the
results of that sort of sharing.
**Cold—cash__makes warm
friends,’® he says with a grin.
And everyone chuckles and

It’s true. .

Okay. Along comes a sub-
committee with a mandate
from Parliament to find out
what’s with this profit-
sharing stuff. It is a new con-
cept so far as Canadian
business and labor experience
goes. Only. recently has it
started to bite in the big
leagues, -among the auto
workers at General Motors
and Ford in Detroit.

In Canada a functioning
example of a_ successful
profit-sharing operation is
extremely hard to come by. It
would follow that the ex-
perience of the North Shore
News would be relevant to
the sub-committee.

But when Speck
volunteered to appear before

Pay dispute
rocks House

CONTINUED

search of funds.

As well, the Neighbour-
hood House faces a ‘“‘major
restructuring and elimination
of some programs and staff”’
in the near future, Coustalin
said.

The fact that the
Neighborhood House board
of directors has rejected a
staff proposal that a UIC
work-sharing program be put
into place — which would
save a day’s salary per
cmployee a weck — indicates
that more than 20 per cent of
the staff could lose their jobs
in the restructuring process.

“It's a very sad situation,”’
says Coustalin. **Both sides
(the workers and the board)
are 50 committed to the pro-
grams and the Neighborhood
House, but they are pulling in
opposite directions.’’

Coustalin lays much of the
blame for the bank overdraft
that ts helping to prevent the
issuing of pay cheques at the
feet of SORWUC

“The deficu originated
about three years ago when
the unton came in,."" says
Coustahin

Retroactive pay, wage in
creases and other costs
associated with the first con
tract left. the Neighborhood
House $40,000 in the hole
and facing bank charges of as
much as $1,000 a month

The problem was com
pounded last October when

the combinanion of a cut in

provincial government fun-
ding and a drastic drop in the
number of day care clients
added another $20,000 to the
deficit. .

Meanwhile, staff members
who talked to the News
Thursday night said they
have been concerned about
the deficit since 1980 and
have been ‘‘brainstorming’’
to come up with ideas for
lowering it.

While they say they are
committed to the programs
and that they won't — for
now — withdraw their ser-
vices, they are bitter about
the lateness of thew pay
cheques.

“1 can’t: pay my rent on
credit’ or buy groccrics on
credit,’’ said one employcc.

**We're living day to day
with the whole stress of hav.
ing bills duc tomorrow and
nothing to pay them with,”’
added another.

(Staff members, fearing
retaliation from board
members, asked not be
tdentified.)

Thursday’s public ainng of
the pay cheque issue) - which
has upset some board
members according to
( oustalin appears likely to
be only the first skirmish tn
what will become a long and
cmottonal battle over the
future of the service

j strictly personal

about how it really works,
otherwise they’d have made
an effort to find out.
Marc, if you-ever get ge-
nuinely curious, give us a
. dingle. We’re inthe phone

_ by Bob Hunter

_ . - a _ fe book. __ a an.
this august body, he was pro- was supposed to have studied all the Canadas is about to ~ ;
mptly advised that ‘‘because in the first place. make a mightypronounce- Does profi work?

of time constraint,’’ no more

And now, on the basis of
witnesses. would be invited.

less than two dozen. inter- .
‘views, < ini

ment on the subject of profit-
sharing. In fact, his commit-
co "tha e cared

Of COURSE: it does! Cold
. Warm: ;friends.

This is a committee that
had been fiddling around ©
since February, .1982. In all, .
they .choose to listen to ll ©
companies and 12 in-
dividuals. Boy, that sure
sounds comprehensive!

Surprise, . surprise! Their.
report came out courageously :
in favor of a Parliamentary
Task Force to study the ques-
tion that the sub-committee. |:

/  PARIK ROYAL
The Centre of Attention