3 ‘Over 500 B.C. government employees last Saturday braved slush and ‘heavy rain to stage a march in downtown Vancouver as the opening ‘gun in their fight for better wages and the right ‘to bargain. The B.C. ‘Government Employees Association have opened talks with the Civil Service Commission in Victoria for increased wages. Hospital bed crisis branded ‘nightmare’ The shortage of hospital beds at Vancouver General Hospital was described as ‘‘a constant neightmare’’ for. doctors and patients by Dr. Harry Winrob, COPE candidate for alderman. He was addressing a meeting of the West End Ratepayers at the YMCA this week. Winrob claimed that it is not at all unusual for up to forty people ito be “‘lying around the VGH Emergency: Ward :waiting for a hospital bed to be found for them. Some wait for a few hours, others for days,’’ said the Van- couver physician and surgeon. _ Winrob claimed that the area in the Emergency Department is “always filled to at least twice its capacity and often to three times.’’ He charged that in some ‘BILL 33 Cont'd. from pg. 1 struggles stemming from the inroads of the Vietnam war, ‘the rising export of our raw materials in unmanufactured forms, the adverse impact of automation, rising taxation and- the growing squeeze on purchasing power and job security cannot but create an upsurge in rank-and-file militancy and struggle. “Labor must close ranks and carry through its pledge to come to the aid of the first union victimized under Bill 33,’’ Morgan urged. ‘‘Labor must intensify its efforts for repeal of this infamous anti-labor law, and show the Bennett government that the labor movement cannot be bought off through leaders who may elect to betray it.” ASHTAN areas, patients lie in beds for several days as little as two feet apart with no curtain to draw between them. “The only concession to human dignity that is possible is that two people in such an area are generally of the same sex,”’ Winrob said. He warned that “month by month the situation is getting worse.”’ ’ Dr. Winrob promised that if elected, he would put so much pressure on the government ‘*that it would be too embarrassed not to correct this scandalous situation.” STRIP MINING Cont’d from pg. 1 habitat and the pollution of streams that make their way intoourriver valleys. > “For 16 years, Social Crediters have proved themselves delinquent guardians of B.C.’s natural heritage. Any foreign con- cession is all right for the sharp- eyed promoters who swarm into Victoria, provided it means quick cash and votes to the government. If we don’t stop them now, we are guilty of a gross betrayal of generations to come.” os Macdonald said that in addition to the Crowsnest, ‘‘an entire copper-bearing moun- tain” is being sheered off. by Granby Co.; at Phoenix; the. Highland Valley is ‘‘blackened’’ by open pit copper and molyb- denum mining; and similar results are being achieved at Babine Lake, Texada Island, Endako, and Port hardy. “‘On the drawing boards of the spoilers is the Kettle Valley.”’ SPEAKS | VANCOUVER LABOR SCENE: VLC scores ‘mediators’ - session ended by death The drama of organized labor fighting the forces of Socred- monopoly reaction lined up against it from without and casti- gation of treasonable defectors within its own ranks, who sell their labor principles for a remunerative position in the enemy camp; a final impas- sioned plea for greater unity; then death, climaxed this week’s session of the Vancouver and District Labor Council (VLC). With the defection of ex-VLC president Ed Sims and Charles Stewart, as recently appointed “mediators’’ under the notorious Bill 33, designed to impose compulsory arbitration and - legalized strike-breaking upon organized labor, as the first item of the VLC agenda, delegate after delegate took the mike to condemn the actions of Sims and Stewart as ‘“‘treason to the working class’’. Following many delegates who had already spoken, and among whom very few were able to defend the actions of Sims and Stewart no matter how hard they tried to be ‘‘charitable’’, Corry Campbell’ (Steel delegate) took ~ the mike to demand that the B.C. Federation of Labor be urged to call a real fighting convention to mobilize all the forces of labor in a genuine fight against Bill 33; a convention entirely different from the BCFL ‘“‘sham shadow- boxing held early this year in New Westminster. That convention,’’ stated Campbell, ‘‘was directed by Pen Baskin (Steel) who had his $40,000 per annum appointment as a member of this Socred Bill 33 Mediation Commission in his hip pocket, while going through the motions of opposing it. That one- day convention under such leadership was a_ sickening affair.” Turning to Charles Stewart, and recently appointed Funeral service for Corry Camp- bell, above, who died of a heart attack at Tuesday's VLC meeting, will be held at the IWA Hall, 2859 Commercial Dr., Saturday, Dec. 7 at 11 a.m. Harvey Murphy of the Steelworkers Union will officiate. No flowers by request. Donations to the B.C. Heart Fund would be appreciated. Next week’s PT will pay a special tribute to Campbell. ‘mediator’, Corry Campbell declared, ‘‘The labor movement’ in B.C. is not ready to balance old friendships with acts of a traitorous nature, and you will live to regret your decision.” Closing his remarks with an appeal for greater labor unity and guts to fight Bill 33, and emphasizing again that the Scored appointments of Sims and Stewart ‘‘was a calculated move by the Bennett govern- ment to. depress and disrupt labor,’’ Corry Campbell walked back to his chair then slumped to the floor with a fatal heart seizure. His final plea to his fellow trade unionists was on the record. While a number of VLC dele- ~ gates were still at the mike waiting to express their views on the Sims-Stewart defection, a Kashtan tours B.C. William Kashtan, National leader of the Communist Party, WILLIAM KASHTAN IN will arrive in B.C. next weekend to address a series of six public meetings, which will windup a national tour. In addition to attending a Provincial Convention of the Party December 14-15, he will speak at: VICTORIA Sun. Dec. 8, 8 p.m. at The Inn, 1528 Cook Street; NANAIMO Mon. Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m., house meeting at Tickson’s, Wellington; VERNON Wed. Dec. 11, 8 p.m., Elk’s Hall; SURREY Thurs. Dec. 12, 8 p.m., Dell Hotel; VANCOUVER Fri. Dec. 138, 8 p.m., AUUC Hall, 805 East Pender Street. The subject of his address will be, “‘The Just Society. . . Where Do We Go From Here?”’ FRI. DEC. 13, 8 P.M. UKRAINIAN HALL | 805 EAST PENDER ST. motion to adjourn the session was approved. , Prior to its tragical climax, the VLC session heard Stewart’s attempt to rationalize his acceptance of such a position, and his ‘‘pledge’’ to carry on as usual on all issues for the benefit of labor, including his ‘‘hope t0 be able to negotiate so that compulsory arbitration does not become necessary.” - In his condemnation of Bill 33, William Stewart ‘ (Marine Workers), reminded ‘‘mediator”’ Stewart that, ““You are now i the pay of the employing class and you get your orders from _ them.. So you go down in labor history as people who have de- serted the working class. The Socred government didn’t ap- ‘point administrators of Bill 33 from the labor movement to make it work for labor. Quite the contrary.”’ Jack Phillips’ (CUPE), posed the question, ‘“How do we expect workers to trust in us when labor leaders indulge in sophisticated doubletalk. In one breath we say, let’s have nothing to do with Bill 33 and all it stands for, then have numerous well-known labor leaders falling all over each other for high-salaried mediation jobs. In the eyes of honest workers the acceptance of. such jobs by men like Sims and Stewart makes labor part of that compulsory arbitration machinery we are supposed to be trying to defeat. Iam sorry, but! think both of these appointees will live to regret the day they ever accepted such a job.” a Eddie Apps (CUPE), ex pressed the opinion that Stewart had obviously never even read Bill 33. If he had he wouldn't. attempt to kid himself or us that he could continue to serve labor under this Bill.” Veteran trade unionist Mrs. Josephine Hallock’ (Hotel & Restaurant), expressed her ‘‘hope that the two brothers who have accepted such an appointment get wise and resign.” Obviously ailing from a series “of internal convulsions, British Columbia’s Mediation Com- missiori (Bill 33) is having no end of troubles. With scarecely six-months membership on the three-man Mediation Commission, David R. Blair, former president of the Pulp and Paper Industrial Relations Bureau, handed in his resignation from that body, which took effect on the same day (Dec. 2) when Bill 33 became fully operational as a statutory law in B.C. Blair’s resignation is the second to hit the Mediation Com- mission set-up. The first was that of Commission executive secretary John Drew who quit the job a couple of months after his appointment.