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“NO VACANCY" says the sign in this apartment block in Burnaby. It tells the story of the housing situation in
the Lower Mainland where rental accommodation has fallen to a record low. PT photographer Sean Griffin
set out to find an apartment with a vacancy sign, and after spending most of Iuesday afternoon this was all

he could find.

LABOR SCENE

Labor supports Victoria
lobbies on prices, rents

Delegates to the Vancouver
and District Labor council Tues-
day night voted unanimously to
give full support to two major
representations to Victoria seek-
ing government action on hous-
ing and rents and, at a later lob-
by. on prices.

Council secretary Jack
Lawrence will travel with the
tenants lobby slated for Tuesday,
February 26 and another ex-
ecutive officer, Bob Hamilton,
will go~on the prices lobby
scheduled for March 6. All af-
filiates to the labor council were
urged to send representatives as
well.

The tenants lobby. the fifth in
the last year organized by the
B.C. Tenants Organization, will
be campaigning for the im-
plementation of the NDP elec-
tion program which calls for the
establishment of rent review
boards composed of represen-
tatives of tenant organizations
and local governments as well as
recognition of the right of
tenants’ associations to be cer-
tified as bargaining agents.

Tenant legislation is expected

in this session of the Legislature
but tenants fear that it may
follow the recommendations of
the Law Reform Commission
which constitute a program
favorable to landlords and have,
in fact, been heartily endorsed
by landlords.

Government legislation to
repeal the Sales Tax and
alleviate the crisis in housing
and rents will be the main
demands of the prices lobby,
March 6 organized by the newly-
established Coordinating Com-
mittee to Roll Back Prices.

Labor council delegates also
endorsed the Coordinating Com-
mittee’s plan for a national peti-
tion day aimed at obtaining
thousands of signatures on a call
for federal government action to
roll back prices.

* * *

A meeting of some 190
presidents of locals of the United
Paperworkers International
Union voted overwhelmingly this

week in favor of a resolution call-

ing for the establishment of a
national union completely

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separate from the international.
The vote was taken following a
day-long meeting in Montreal
held to discuss the resolution.

Final ratification now lies in
the hands of the 52,000 members
of the union who. will cast their
ballots in a referendum vote
April 30. If the vote is in favor. a
national founding convention will
likely be held in July.

The decision is particularly
significant as it was taken with
the full consent of the inter-
national which “reluctantly ac-
quiesced . . . to the separation.”

It will undoubtedly have an
effect on the relations between
the UPIU and the Pulp and
Paperworkers of Canada which
was formed in the 1960's after
several locals of the UPIU —
primarily in B.C. — broke away
to form the independent Cana-
dian union.

The PPWC has apparently
been invited to participate in the
founding convention if the
referendum is affirmative but

has not vet committed itself,
* * *

Delegates to Tuesday's Van-
couver labor council meeting
voted to endorse the campaign of
the National Farmer Union to
win collective bargaining rights
for B.C. farmers.

The vote was in response to a
motion from UFAWU delegate
Richard Morgan who noted that

“the farmer is not benefitting
from the rising cost of food — in
fact the opposite is true.” He
added that family farms are
declining rapidly as-a result of
agribusiness and the domination
of agriculture in this province
and elsewhere by the huge food
monopolies.

National Farmers Union
representatives including NFU

president Roy Atkinson were in *

Victoria this week seeking
legislation to guarantee the right
of farmers to collective bargain-

bie win > te

5 aR AR ne ow Ce ast Sal

day, February 26:

How to take part
in tenants lobby

Here’s how to take part in the tenants lobby on Tues

¢ Groups or individuals can take part. Everyone is

invited to jain in. Cost will be $6.50 for return bus fare
plus meals which will bring the costs for the day to aboul

$10.

e Be at the Dunsmuir bus depot in time to leave on

the 8 a.m. bus. You’ll be back in the evening.
¢ For additional information phone Mary Anderson,
vice pes of the Tenants Council at 872-0296.

Tenants lobby to urge —

gov't action on rents

Cont'd. from pg. 1
It appears that large amounts
of money are being used to buy
up property, most frequently

rental housing, and remortgaged —

at a higher amount, making a
quick profit in remortgaging: or
resale, with rents being pushed
up to justify the securing of
higher mortgage loans.

According to one top appraiser
in Vancouver. he told the press
that there was a “tremendous
amount of this sort of thing going
on.” The cold-blooded attitude of
some of the operators involved in
this gouge was expressed by a
statement of one real estate
salesman who, when questioned
about the operation, said: ‘‘I’m
in this business to make money
It's not up to me to provide hous-
ing for those who can't afford my
rents. I sell. space -to live in.
Those who can afford the going
rate are welcome. Those who
cant have to get out.”

The scandal in housing is not
only that unprincipled real es-
tate sharks are exploiting the
housing shortage: it also lies in
the failure of civic. provincial
and federal governments to take
strong action to curb the rip-off
artists and provide decent hous-
ing for the needy.

-spotlighted

The housing crisis and 1
affect on tenants wil De
next Tuesday:
February 26, when a large tenanl
lobby will converge on. the
legislature in Victoria
their demands for  protectia®
against gouging landlords and i
protect tenants rights.

Bruce Yorke, president of the
B.C. Tenants Organization, this
week called for public suppotl
for the tenants lobby and urged
the public to join the lobby to
Victoria next Tuesday, (See bos
above for details of how to take
part in the lobby.)

aa é

COPE meets

The annual meeting of th
Committee of Progressive Klee
tors (COPE) will be held Sat
day, March 2 from 1 to 5 p.m:
the Masonic Hall, 1795 Kast }§
Ave. (1st and Salisbury).

The annual meeting will :
followed by a smorgasbord 4?
dance at the same hall startiNg
at 7 p.m. Admission at the 00h
$3: $2. for unemployed. per
sioners and students. For !
dance only, $2. Phone-for rese™

vations, 254-7081.

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BRD SR Aa ae AES

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