10,000 press demand to Victoria

By MIKE GIDORA

Over 10,000 people filled the PNE
Agrodome to more than capacity
and spilled out into an adjacent
parking lot last Sunday in the
largest protest to date of ICBC rate
increases.

The meeting, jointly sponsored
by the Concerned Citizen’s
Association of B.C. and the B.C.
Federation of Labor along with
both the Vancouver and New
Westminster Labor Councils’ voted
unanimously to call upon the
government to hold any increases
in Autoplan rates to a maximum of
20 per cent above 1975 premiums
and to gather any necessary extra
revenue for ICBC from _ the
8asoline tax.

The Agrodome crowd was
bolstered by a number of car
Cavalcades of up to 200 cars which
arrived from various Lower
Mainland points. The cavalcade
Organizers said that a number of
Cars joined them enroute, and
many were more than double their
original size by the time they
reached the PNE grounds.

The crowd inside the Agrodome,
-and those outside the building
listening over a sound system,
heard a number of platform
Speakers blast Bill Bennett’s
Socred government, and education
minister Pat McGeer in particular,
for their callousness and
arrogance in introducing such
Massive increases without any
Concern. for the citizens of B.C.

The platform speakers included
Members of all three opposition
Parties in the legislature, and
though the Socreds had also been
invited, their only representative
on the platform was an effigy of
McGeer which had earlier been
hanged from the Agrodome raf-
ters.

Vancouver and District Labor
Council president Syd Thompson
who, along with Jim Black of the
Concerned Citizens’ Association,
Co-chaired the rally, pledged that
“organized labor will do whatever
We can to bring down these rates.
We will work with young people,
With old age pensioners and poor
people who are always getting it
whenever governments decide to
put the squeeze on the ordinary
Working person.”

Thompson said that it was
Particularly infuriating for
Organized labor to find itself in a
Position where ‘“‘we are being told
to keep the lid on wages to the tune
of eight or 10 per cent increases

| : ICBC lobby

whfte Victoria turns around and
proposes“tnsurance rate increases
of over 100 per cent.”

He warned the government that
it was inviting ‘‘serious reper-
cussions” and was being ‘“‘grossly
unfair to young people”’ with its
action. ‘‘It’s an absolute outrage to
ask young people to pay $1,100 or
$1,200 for automobile insurance.”

He urged continued pressure on
the government and said that if
“this type of pressure is continued,
we will bring the rates down.”

New Westminster NDP MLA
Dennis Cocke, a former director of
ICBC, said that there “‘was no
justification, socially, morally or
economically for these rates. It
was viciousness, pure and simple.”

Cocke said that because ICBC
was created by the NDP, in the
eyes of the Socred government “it
must be discredited.”” He accused
the Socred government of turning
ICBC into a ‘‘political circus.”

“It?s now Barnum and Bennett,
starring highflying McGeer on the
trapeze.

“They’re playing politics, but
they’re playing politics with your
wallet,” he said.

He added that Bennett was just
carrying a message when he an-
nounced the rate increases. “The
message was from the big in-
surance corporations in New York
and it said, ‘come back to B.C. and
take your ripoff.’

“Autoplan doesn’t belong to the
NDP, the Liberals, the Con-
servatives, or even the Socreds; it
belongs to you — keep it,”’ Cocke
emphasized.

Vancouver alderman Harry
rankin backed Cocke’s contention
that Bennett was nothing more
than a messenger, saying that.the

ICBC increases were just the first -

step in the process of cutting the
living standards of the ordinary
working man “‘so this government
in Victoria can pay back its
masters the international
corporations who spent millions
getting rid of the old NDP
government.

“Those guys in Victoria are just
monkeys on the end of a string, the
organ grinders who play the tune
are the large American com-
panies,’’ he said.

Rankin said that when he first
heard of the increases he wondered
what “demented mind did’ this?”’

“But when I heard that it was
Marie-Antoinette McGeer I un-
derstood, because he does research

to Victoria

slated for February 13

 Amajor demonstration and lobby to p
_ Premiums has been set for Friday,
Provincial Legislature in Victoria.

rotest increases in Autoplan

February 13, 12 noon at the

.
The joint labor and Concerned Citizens Committee, organizers of

the rally in the Agrodome,

announced the meeting Wednesday night

following unsuccessful efforts to secure a meeting with premier

_ Bennett and the provincial cabinet.

: e
The committee had sought ere ed, insisting instead that the

Committee meet with ICBC directors to discuss the insurance in-

_ Sunday’s rally but the premier d

_ Creases,

Special travel arrangements for the Fe

meeting with Bennett following

pruary 13 lobby were being

_ Scheduled by the committee but details were not available at Trfane

_ Press time.

"Other protest actions have been sched
_ cluding a car cavalcade and a rally at Sim

_ Burnaby.

_ Will leave Hope at 9 a.m.

_ Mission, Haney Coquitlam an
_ South side passing through

_ Bm. where they will take part

__ Organized by the Fraser Valley Concerne¢
‘offshoot of the Concerned Citizens Association of B.
Sunday, February 8, and

_ Secti h side of the Fraser River
_ Sections, one along the nort ee aaravilie snd the other along the

Rosedale, Chilliwack, Abbotsford,
_ Langley, Whalley and New Meatanee
/, t will meet a :
One ate na rally sponsored by the Simon

Fraser University Students Society.

uled for this weekend in-
on Fraser University in

red Citizen’s Committee, an
C., the cavalcade
proceed in two
via Agassiz,

Simon Fraser University at 2

Iso being planned for ‘the Van-—

ICBC and the Socred blues
joined UFAWU business agent George Hewison and Bargain at Half the Price in protesting Social Credit
policies in song. Bargain, a feature at all three rallies, has also contributed substantially to the organization of

the meetings.

in neurology at UBC and when they
were starting they were a bit short
of funds so he had to take out his
own brain and use it for-research.

“He still hasn’t put it back,’’ he
added.

Rankin said that the Socred
attacks won’t end with ICBC.
“They’re going to increase hydro
and gas rates in order to make the
poor people pay so corporations
can get inexpensive electricity to
bolster their profits.

“Transit is being cut back, and
they’re talking of doubling fares.
Already no drivers are being

Ol @.
... opening last Sunday's rally were Doug Stewart (left) and Tom Hawken who

<9.

replaced so we'll be left with an
expensive, sub-standard transit
system,’’ he declared.

“You won’t be able to afford to
drive, and you won’t have a bus to
ride on, so the only alternative
they’ve left us is to get track suits
and jog to work.”

Rankim said that he was “‘con-
vinced that these increases will be
turned back, because the people
will not put up with them.”

He urged the meeting to “‘con-
tinue the momentum generated
here until we have 25,000 people at
our next rally on the lawns of the

—Sean Griffin photo

legislature backing up the leaders
of our delegation.”

“When the people talk and move
resolutely, nothing will turn us
back.”

Jim Black, chairman of the
Concerned Citizen’s committee,
paid a special tribute to ‘“‘literally
hundreds of individuals and _
organizations that have taken up
this fight, and specially to Bargain
at Half the Price, which not only
added to every rally with their
performances, but played a very
big part in the organization of the
meetings.”

‘Tough times for labor’
UFAWU convention told

The difficulties facing trade
unionists in the wake of the election
of a Social Credit government and
the passage of federal wage control
legislation occupied the focus of
attention as the annual convention
of the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers’ Union opened in Van-
couver this week.

Much of that attention was
‘directed towards pressing the
demand for bargaining rights for
fishermen which, although
promised by the former NDP
government, have not yet been
won, leaving fishermen vulnerable
to injunctions, lawsuits and jail
sentences during contract

“disputes.

The officers report noted that it
was to the ‘‘everlasting discredit’’
of the Barrett government”’ that it
failed to bring fishermen under the
provisions of the labor code even
after a federal court had deter-
mined that jurisdiction for
fishermen’s bargaining rights lay
with the provincial government.

Delegates endorsed a resolution
calling on the union’s executive
board to seek a meeting with the
labor minister prior to the next
sitting of the Legislature to press
for the required amendments to
the labor code.”

B.C. Federation of Labor
secretary Len Guy touched on the
issue when. he addressed the
convention Tuesday, noting the
several representations that the
Federation had made to the
‘provincial government on behalf of
the UFAWU in its bid for
bargaining rights.

Guy also echoed the comments of
delegates in emphasizing “never in

recent history has there been a
time when labor has been attacked
on so many fronts.”

He cited the recent wage control
legislation enacted by the Trudeau
government and the pledge by the
provincial government to back the
controls and even tighten them.

“Tabor will be attacked for ‘lack
of responsibility’ for opposing
these controls,” he warned, “‘but at
the. same time, the provincial
government can arrogantly raise
ICBC rates by 300 percent.”

He acknowledged that it “may
take some time for working people
to realize that unless they stand up
and fight collectively, they will get
less and less of the productivity of
this country,’’ be he emphasized:
“If every union in this country
refused to accept a settlement until
it is acceptable to the membership,
we’d soon see an end to this unjust
legislation.” e

He urged trade unionists to
“work unceasingly” to support
public actions like the recent mass
rally held to protest ICBC in-
creases.

Convention delegates endorsed a
resolution denouncing the federal
controls program as ‘a heavy-
handed and punitive measure to
control wages” and called for with-
drawal of the legislation and
enactment instead of a genuine
program to control prices and
profits.

It also urged the Canadian Labor
Congress to intensify its opposition
to the Trudeau government’s
controls and pledged cooperation
with the Congress in the fightback.

Defeated by an overwhelming
vote, however, was a resolution

submitted by the union’s Powell
River and District local which
accused the B.C. Federation of
Labor, by its vocal opposition to
Bill 146, the! back-to-work
legislation, of ‘‘playing a big part’”’
in the December 11 defeat of the
NDP government.

The resolution spurned by the
delegates had called on the con-
vention to ‘‘oppose this kind of
action by the Federation’? and
suggested that those responsible
should be “reprimanded.”

The resolution was an echo of
some other voices raised in the
trade union movement, par-
ticularly in the IWA, demanding
that the Federation mute its
criticism of the NDP’s labor
policies.

Federation secretary Len Guy
had earlier responded to those
voices in his address to the
UFAWU convention when he told
delegates: “I want to assure you
that the B.C. Federation of Labor
will never be giving apologies for
defending the integrity of the trade
union movement when it is under
attack from any government.”

Guy pointed out that the back-to-
work legislation ‘gave the federal
government time to bring its wage
control program”’, bearing out the
Federation’s contention at the time
that Bill 146 was not ‘neutral’
legislation.

As aresult, he stressed, ‘‘three of
the unions which were ordered
back to work are now looking at
settlements which are ap-
proximately one-third of the
amounts they had on the table

SeeUFAWU PARLEY, pg. 12

- Cavalcade demonstrations are als ee Aiberat andl vict oe

———

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 6, 1976—Page 3

_couver Island communities of Nanaimo,