Peciticl

Vol. 41, No. 46

_ The terrifying prospect of $75 to

100 a month rent increases coupled
With the virtual absence of rental
housing in housing in Vancouver
Signals the return to the bad old
days for tenants.

“Tenants will definitely have to
8et together like they did in 1974
and apply pressure to every level of
80vernment for more housing,”’
Red Door spokesperson Linda
Mead told the Tribune Monday.

Former president of the B.C.
Tenants Organization, Bruce
Yorke, noted that ‘‘a revival of the
tenant movement, with a very active
PE housing committee at the

\ : & ee

Pk oS

&

eserves.”

The Powerful response of the
Mont ee of Labor conven-
i the jailing of Jean-Claude
nee €choed all the way to Ottawa
. ek as delegates unanimously
the pos €d the immediate release of
On the Ay workers leader and called
unch anadian Labor Congress to
imum a campaign “ensuring max-
- the | Support is given CUPW by
abor movement.”

Union
€s Copan fired the open-
im that campaign as he
ai the ILWU pledge to shut
“houre oe Port Of Vancouver for 24
tur 1 Parrot’s final appeal is
Ned down.

rete Te;
Tom

And Lon
h ’
delegate L gshoremen’s
| 8 shot
do

affirmation of support
Mand i Federation’ and the de-
Do ms the CLC give full sup-
; 8 the embattled union came
Fran tc! CUPW regional director
Walden told a hushed con-
- tact ith I have just been in con-

Ottawa by phone. The ap-
Unanimous Claude Parrot was
five ‘is eed turned down by the

Jails * has now been escorted to
tected Sau A chorus of boos
announcement.

Tenants urged to organize for own protection

New housing crisis pushing rents up —

heart of it’’ was in the planning
stages. %
The vacancy rate in Vancouver
has hit 0.2 percent, the lowest since
1974-5 — an ‘‘absolutely horrify-
ing’’ situation according to Mead.
“‘The Red Door gets 900 new cases
a month and only a small fraction
of those are placed. It is especially
bad for families,’’ she added.
John Beck, one of several
volunteer workers at the West End
Housing Registry, estimated a
vacancy rate of less than 0.2 percent
a month (two rental units vacant
out of every 1,000) in his area.
“The first three weeks of

ae HIG

(Parrot was later released on $250
bail pending the outcome of his ap-
plication for an appeal to the
Supreme Court of Canada — the
final appeal.)

The support actions for CUPW
also came on the heels of a debate
over a closely related issue — the
role of the courts and police in
labor disputes — during which the
convention had called on the com-
mittee to reconsider the issue and
draft a more militant statement.

November we had no listings even
though we pounded the pavements
looking for them. Today is better
than usual, we have four,’’ he said.

“It’s an obvious tragedy,”’ alder-
man- Harry Rankin. said.
‘Something must be done to pro-
tect tenants.”’

Rentalsman Jim Patterson told
the Tribune Tuesday, that the
number of requests from landlords
to increase rents beyond the seven
per cent ceiling tripled in October
over September, although, he said
“they are still only a minority of
rental units affected.

Rents can go beyond the seven

so

Packing placards reading “Stop UIC cuts” and “Reduce interest rates’, more than 600 delegates from
the B.c. Federation of Labor convention marched from their meeting Thursday to the Hotel Vancouver
_ Where prime minister Joe Clark was later scheduled to address a $150-a-plate Tory dinner. The protest
_ Was called after Carpenters’ president Bill Zander urged the convention to “give Clark the reception he

— Sean Griffin photo

B.C. Fed demands Parrot’s
release, full support of CLC

In its telegram to the solicitor-
general, the Federation stated: “‘It
is totally unacceptable to the
unionized workers of British Col-
umbia to have labor leaders jailed
for representing the best interests of
those who elected them to lead.

“The legislation which allowed
the conviction of Mr. Parrot is a
shameful disgrace in a country that
is supposed to allow workers to ex-

See CURB page 3

percent control level if landlords
can show increased costs. ‘‘Rent
controls are based on cost factors,”’
researcher for the Rent Review
Commission, Peter Lorimer said.
“Section 68 of the Residential
Tenancy Act allows for exceptional
rent increases.’’

If a landlord shows that costs per
unit have risen by $100 a month,
which they can do when their
$20,000 per unit mortgage is
refinanced upwards from 10 to 15
percent, plus other inflationary fac-
tors, then that $100 a month could
be passed onto the tenant under
Section 68.

Rent controls apply to tenants
paying $300 or less for a one-
bedroom suite, $350 or less for a
two-bedroom and $400 or less for
three-bedrooms. Buildings rented
for the first time after Jan. 1, 1974
are not’controlled and neither are
units which rent for more than $500
a month.

Patterson said he had urged the
provincial government not to
remove rent controls, to look at in-
come subsidies for those in need,
and to start building the 5,000 units
needed to stabilize the rental hous-
ing market in the Lower Mainland.

See HOUSING page 2

Hydro may force

‘major shutdown’

Striking B.C. Hydro office
workers, members of the Office and
Technical Employees Union, have
threatened a major shutdown of
B.C. Hydro’s business operations
and public services if there is no
movement towards a settlement in
the four week dispute.

The union has been met with a
hardline stance from the crown cor-
poration since negotiations broke
off November~ 9 and its call for
third party intervention has been ar-
rogantly brushed aside. eae

“The OTEU has shown con-
siderable responsibility and
restraint,’’ B.C. Federation of
Labor president Jim Kinnaird said
in a statement on the strike Nov. 22.

“Yet the labor minister and..the
employer have refused to answer
the appeals of the union to have a
third party intervene in the dispute.
The people of B.C. should be aware
that the OTEU can legally shut
down all of the Hydro’s operations;
however because the union realizes
the inconvenience to the public this
would cause, they have not done

The OTEU has been attempting
to pressure Hydro into accepting an
industrial’ inquiry commission
through a series of rotating strike
actions against Hydro train opera-
tion, gas hookups and, in recent
days, the Seabus operation.

But to date Hydro has refused
any further negotiations of any
kind and OTEU spokesman Fred
Trotter says that the office workers
are fed up with Hydro’s ‘‘irrespon-
sibility and insensitivity.’

The union membership has also

CP to move

An appeal from Communist Par-
ty provincial leader Maurice Rush
to postpone National Energy Board
hearings on an application by B.C.
Hydro to vastly increase exports of
electric power to the U.S. has been
rejected by the NEB.

The party will move a formal mo-
tion for postponement, however,
when the NEB hearings commence ,
Dec. 11 in Vancouver, Rush told
the Tribune Wednesday.

. The CP had contended that Hy-

dro’s application to increase ex-

for NEB postponement

ports by 100 per cent, with 30 per
cent of exports to be ‘‘firm’’ or
guaranteed exports constituted a
major change in the province’s en-
ergy policy towards continentalism,
and that any decision to adopt a
new energy policy should be made
first by the legislature.

The Socred government is cur-
rently preparing a paper on energy
policy which should be debated
prior to Hydro’s application going
before the NEB, it argued.

Monday, the NDP provincial

caucus announced that it will also
go before the NEB to question Hy-
dro’s application. NDP energy
critic Chris D’Arcy said that the
NDP MLAs are taking the unusual
step because ‘“‘there is no provincial
agency empowered to check or even
review the questionable course on
which the government and Hydro
are proceeding. Moreover, the

premier has repeatedly refused re-
quests that the Legislature be recall-
ed so that elected representatives
can debate and establish a national
energy policy for the province.”’

been angered by the whopping in-
crease in salary for Hydro chairman
Robert Bonner who will have his
annual pay jump from $48,000 to
$70,000.

Bonner’s salary increase was an-
nounced while OTEU members
were still attempting to get Hydro
to discuss compensation for 2,500
workers who will lose their free bus
passes when the Urban Transit
Authority takes over bus opera-
uions.

Other contentious issues include
wage scale adjustments and a job
evaluation program. Hydro had of-
fered two eight percent wage in-
creases Over two years, but has now
withdrawn the offer.

Trotter warned this week that if
Hydro continues to refuse to
negotiate outstanding issues, the
union will be forced to step up its
strike actions. If the bus system or
other public services are affected,
the union will give ample ferewarn-
ing, he added.

as

®@® IRAN: A new stage has
been reached in the Iran-
ian revolution, says the
leader of Iran’s Commun-
ists. Two features of
Iran, reproduced from
the U.S. Daily World,

i pages 8, 9.

ce oy

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