Se Re RKw ECHR ERED ae PS By GARY SWANN PORT ALBERNI — Mem- bers of the International Wood- workers of America employed in “the forests around Port Alberni walked off the job March 23 pro- testing the suspension of the chairman of a union committee at the Sproat Lake camp. The walkout spread to all of the MacMillan-Bloedel opera- tions in the Alberni Valley includ- ing those operations where 1,200 Hat Creek KAMLOOPS — Local oppe- sition to B.C. Hydro’s plans to build a mammoth coal-fired ther- mal plant at Hat Creek has taken ‘*a great jump forward,”’ accord- ing to John Stewart, chairman of the Hat Creek Alliance that is fighting the project. Formed in February by three environmental groups, the Hat Creek Alliance has now been of- | ficially joined by two union locals and the Kamloops Fish and Game Club following a large public protest meeting, March 9, sponsored by the Alliance. The Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 900, and the Pulp and Paper Workers’ Union, Local 10, were two of the more than 15 environmental, labor and Native groups which turned out to the March meeting to oppose Hydro’s plan to build the gener- ating plant and the adjacent strip- pit mining operation. “Our feeling is that they (Hydro) want to put the plant in as quickly as possible and have it running by 1989,” Stewart said. He added that there is growing concern among people living in the area that Hydro ‘‘won’t have to jump. .through as many public hearings, now that the new Public Utilities Act is in place. of whether there will be a public hearing on the project up to the discretion of the minister of mines and energy. “What’s bothering people the TRAIL — Steelworkers Union bargaining committee represen- tatives charged here last week that Cominco ‘‘is acting in the same manner as other vicious employers in this province”’ and warned its members that they should be prepared for a strike The collective agreement bet- ween Steelworkers Local 480 at Trail and Local 651 at Kimberley and Cominco expires Apr. 30. A bulletin to Local 480 members issued by the committee noted that the Steelworkers had negotiations such as this before.”’ It urged members to ‘“‘carefully | arrange your financial affairs so that they are in order in the event of a strike.” _ Stike registration began Mar. 20 to enable unionists to sign up for strike assistance should it become necessary. = Negotiations in the critical Cominco contract talks have not hoops,’’ such as participating in © Thenew Act leaves the decision “never experienced a set of workers certified with the Cana- dian Paperworkers Union re- spected the [WA pickets. About 5,000 workers took part in the shutdown, which included the Alberni Plywood plant, two sawmills, the pulp mill as well as all work in the woods. Union members saw the three- day suspension of truck driver Bill Vermette as an attack on their committee structure and an at- tempt by the company to under- opposition most about the project is the acid: rain that will be a result of the hundreds of tons of smoke load- ed with sulphur dioxide belching daily from huge smokestacks,” Stewart said. ‘A significant minority are al- so asking larger energy questions, such as why we need a $5 billion plant which will generate 2,000- megawatts; do we need that power; and how much will be ex- ported to the U.S.?” An all-day strategy workshop has been set for April 4 in Kam- loops, followed by a general meeting of the Hat Creek Alli- ance April 13, also in Kamloops. Another common front has been formed by the four village - councils of Ashcroft, Lillooet, Cache Creek and Clinton, Nurses. strike heats up| VICTORIA — The Registered Nurses’ Association of B.C. has laid unfair labor practices against the Weight Loss Clinics as the fight for a first contract by the registered nurses employed bythe California-based company heats up. ; see Since the nurses at the clinic here went on strike March 16, fol- lowed by the nurses at the Surrey and New Westminster clinics three days later, the RNABC has pressed charges against the com- pany on a number of items, the most serious of which being -. Weight Loss’ repeated violation Cominco strike looms wages. but Steelworkers have already encountered a tough company stance on contract . The bulletin noted that the union ‘“‘would also like to see the contract language settled before we bargain money but the posi- tion of the company is that the union must drop all its language proposals to get contract language settled. “We, as your elected commit- tee, cannot bargain in this way,” itadded. - The two Steelworkers locals, which bargain jointly, are seeking a two year agreement, with a $2 increase in the first year and $1.50 in the second, as well as im- provements in health and welfare, pensions and overtime provisions. Cominco, a Canadian Pacific ‘subsidiary, enjoyed profits in 1979 of $203.7 million — up dramatically from 1978 profits of $67.4 million. mine the union’s job steward sys- tem. Sproat Lake Camp’s union committee and job steward system had been effectively en- forcing the terms of the collective agreement at the rank-and-file level. The IWA members felt that ~ Vermette’s suspension was a de- liberate attempt to keep him from performing his watch dog duties for the union. The camp chairman was trying to do his elected job by attempt- ing to diffuse a work stoppage by log-boom sorters about 10 kilo- metres from Sproat Lake and get the crews to return to work. The company responded with disci- plinary action,’’ a union spokes- man said. FWA members, however, re- sponded quickly to protect their chairman with a regional walk- out. ‘““We felt that. the company was trying to make the committee chairman’s job so unpleasant that no one would want to take the job,’ one member declared. Although the strikers were forced to return to work the fol- lowing day when Mac-Blo ob- tained a cease-and desist order from the Labor Relations Board, the action Monday indicated they would continue to resist efforts by the company to undermine a mili- tant committee structure that provided effective union protec- tion for their members. of the B.C. Labor Code’s re- quirements for extra-provincial businesses. ‘We're on our fourth lawyer now,’’ RNABC spokesperson Jerry Miller said, referring to the various negotiators, none of whom has been given authority _by the company to bargain on be- half of the company, thus violat- ing Section 68 of the labor code. “They kept flying down to California to check with the par- ent company whether they could negotiate this or that,’’ Miller said. —— The RNABC has also charged Weight Loss Clinics with the re- fusal to bargain in good faith and with dirty intimidation and di- vide-and-rule tactics. Some nurses were offered in- dividual contracts at higher rates of pay, while other nurses were told that the company would close its B.C. operations if they persisted with their demands. By far the most contentious is- sue is Over wages, according to Miller. The company hasn’t budged from its first offer given in mid-August when the nurses began negotiations — an across- _ the-board, one year eight percent wage increase, or 40 cents, an hour, he said. The nurses, who administer the Clinic’s diet programs, are asking for an $8 an hour minimum wage increase, or about 75 percent of what a general hospital nurse” earns. The present wage at Weight Loss Clinics is $5 an hour. “Tf there is no movement in the. contract dispute, then all the nurses working at all eight of the Weight Loss Clinics, including Burnaby, North Vancouver, Richmond, downtown Vancou- ver and Kerrisdale will be out, Miller said. _ S Provincial Notes . IWA walkout shuts Alberni | not the activities of the Klan violate display before the public or cause | Against Racism, which has to be published or displayed before demanded that Williams give the public a notice, sign, symbol or his assent to prosecution of the other representation indicating KKK under the Criminal Code, discrimination against a person or | the Socreds have taken no ac- class of persons in any manner pro- tion except to appoint lawyer hibited by the Act’’. John McAlpine to investigate The Klan and its activities arein | Klan activities in the province. _ tion of the public distinguished by yet reached the ‘main issue of is criminal — it should be banned What’s behind the appointment What is the government waiting of Vancouver lawyer John for before it acts? Does burning or McAlpine by labor minister Jack murder have to take place first? Any man walking down the street with a kit of burglar tools Heinrich to enquire into the ac- tivities of the Ku Klux Klan in B.C.? : Se eg would be arrested and charged According to news reports his in- because his intent is clear. We - quiries will be limited to whether or : wouldn’t allow Murder Inc. to set up branches in B.C. because we know what their intent would be. Yet the Klan is allowed to carry on, spreading its message of hate Harry Rankin and preparing its members to use guns. Governments of both federal the B.C. Human Rights Code. And if he finds that they do, all that will happen, according to the Heinrich, is that the labor minister will then undertake another inquiry, this time by a board of inquiry. - Many people are naturally suspicious that Heinrich’s actions are designed to evade, diffuse and . | < dampen the growing demand that Se the Klan in B.C. be banned by the provincial government, a demand that the attorney-general has so far ignored. The KKK is a racist organiza- tion. Racism is a’ crime and recognized as such in international law and Canadian law. Canada has signed three United Nations ly harmful is the action of the media — the radio hot lines, TV, and the daily papers — in giving the Klan and its leaders a public plat- form to spread their message of declarations defining raci: hate. crime. eas ‘ ee the Klan would not be The KKKisan organization with 41 infringement of free speech. If a record of murder and violence. Hitler and his racist party had been banned early enough, millions of people would be. alive today who died in his extermination camps Between 1882 and 1950 it was responsible for the murder of over 10,000 blacks in the U.S. Its members have bombed and burned . eect War II may have been churches and murdered civil rights 2VOICe¢- workers, black and white. Banning the Klan and all forms Wherever it has appeared violence °F racism is needed to protect our has resulted. democratic rights and freedom. of speech. from. those who destroy it. hs March to ban KKK It distributes hate literature and would advocates discrimination against . black, East Indians, Native In- dians, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Catholics and many other groups. | Its policies lead logically to the beatings of members of these groups in our schools and the fire- bombing of homes of East Indians ce such as have already taken place in The Vancouver and District Delta and other areas of the Lower Labor Council and the Union of Mainland. B.C. Indian Chiefs are among It is also violently anti-labor and _ | SPonsors of a rally and march we have more than one example ‘| APril 4 to demand provincial from B.C. labor history where the Klan was used by business interests to try and prevent union organiza- Ku Klux Klan. The march will assemble at 1 tion and break strikes. p.m. at Oppenheimer Park in } The head of the Klan in Canada . | Vancouver and march to pro- announced publicly only a few vincial government offices at weeks ago that the Klan was open- | Robson Square to present a ing six schools to give its members _ | petition with more than 10,000 para-military training. Now they ‘ | signatures calling for the bann- well be armed with guns and train- | ing of the KKK. ed to use them against minority March organizers, the B.C. groups and political opponents. Organization to Fight Racism, The Klan and all its activities are expect Socred attorney general clearly in violation of Section 2 of _ f|Allan Williams to be in Van- the B,C. Human Rights Code, couver that day. which reads: Although pressed by both the “No person shall publish or { BCOFR and the Coalition violation of Section 281.2, subsec- tion 1 of the Criminal Code of © Canada, which states: “Anyone who, by com- municating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group, where such — incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace, is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for two years .. . Identifiable group includes any sec- CFU rally A public rally to mark the first annual covention of the Canadian Farmworkers Union has been scheduled for March 29, 2:30 p.m. at Moberly School, 1000 E. 59th Ave., Van- couver. Speakers include CFU president Raj Chouhan and Vancouver labor council colour, race, religion or ethnic | etary Paddy Neale. origin’’. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 27, 1981—Page 3 and provincial, do nothing. Equal- . government action to ban the | eee