ve " de UD

Aluminum workers in Kitimat
and mineworkers in Sparwood
Were on the picket line this week in
their struggle against decisions of
the Federal Anti-Inflation Board
(AIB) which cut deeply into their
Standards of living.

_ The militant struggles at Kitimat
Mm the northwest corner of B.C.,
and the miners in Sparwood in the

Southeast corner of the province,

Teflect the growing militant spirit
of B.C.’s. workers against the
federal government’s wage freeze

8nd its attack on workers’ rights

and standards.

As the Tribune went to press it
Was reported that workers at the
Aluminum Company of Canada

_ Friday, June 11, 1976

Kitimat, Sparwood

~
Te +

Tuesday night had voted 60 percent
to stay on strike despite a B.C.
Supreme Court writ ordering them
back towork. It was the third court
order issued against the strikers.
_ In a statement to The Tribune
Wednesday ‘morning, Jack
Phillips, chairman of the B.C.
Communist Party’s labor com-
mittee said: ‘‘The bitter struggle of
Alean workers at Kitimat is
another example of the rising
opposition to federal wage con-
trols. These workers have defied
recommendations of their union
executive and orders of the Labor
Relations Board to end their strike
against a sub-standard wage
agreement imposed by the Anti-

Inflation Board last January.
“When the Kitimat workers
accepted the ‘opinion’ of the AIB
that they were entitled.to wage
increases of only 8.9 percent and
6.5 percent in a two year
agreement, they were sold short.
Now, when they see other unions
winning wage increases averaging
14 percent in one year, they are
naturally indignant over the ar-
bitrary nature of AIB rulings and
the injustice they have suffered.
“This feeling of injustice is more
understandable,”’ said Phillips,
“when we recognize that the in-
creases agreed to last January are
expected to be less than the in-
crease in the cost of living over the

-movement.

two year period.

“The flying in of hundreds of
scabs from the supervisory staff of
Alcan’s strikebound plant in Ar-
vida, Quebec, should be sharply
condemned by _ the labor
The use of
strikebreakers on such a large
scale, instead of recognizing the
legitimate demand of the workers
to reopen the collective agreement,
is yet another demonstration that
the multinational corporations will
use any method, including
provocation, to improve their
profit picture at the expense of
workers’ living standards.

“Return to work orders by the
Labor Relations Board and the

threat of contempt proceedings
will not remedy the injustice
suffered by the Alcan workers.
Alcan must be compelled, by
public opinion, to renegotiate the
collective agreement. The labor
movement should pledge full
support to the Alcan workers.
“The Kitimat workers belong the
Canadian Association of Smelter
and Allied Workers’ Union
(CASAW), which replaced the
United Steelworkers of America a
few years ago and is not affiliated
to the Canadian Labor Congress. If
the struggle against wage controls
is to succeed, there must be a
common front of all trade unions,
* See AIB, pg. 12

Bringing their protest before the world body — inclu

ding the representatives of the Chilean junta — more

than 200 demonstrators marched to the Habitat conference from Vancouver's Victory Square Saturday to
demand an end to repression in Chile and freedom for political prisoners. A rally and concert at the cenotaph

Preceded the march.

—Sean Griffin photo

Vancouver Fast vote:

Stunning Socred defeat

| Overwhelming rejection of
Social Credit and their policies of
MNcreased taxes and cutbacks in
Services to people, was the main
feature that emerged from the
ancouver East byelection,” Nigel
Organ, provincial leader of the
Communist Party told the Tribune
ollowing the June 3 vote.
‘The fact that over 70 percent of
€ electorate voted against the
Socred, Liberal and Tory can-
didates, shows the widespread
dissatisfaction with the old line
Parties and their reactionary, big
Dusiness policies,’ Morgan said.
ancouver East’s vote shows
onclusively that the people are
€d-up with present Socred policies
and are demanding a change. Even
the Social Credit candidate, Ralph
Long, felt compelled to admit that
Some of those things coming out of
Ictoria (Social Credit policies)
are responsible for the poor
S ‘ Wing’,
‘The unusually high turnout of 63
Percent of the voters on June 3

expressed the wide concern people
felt. And, the fact that the Social
Credit vote dropped by three
thousand votes compared with the
December election six months ago,
and that the vote was even five
hundred below the 1972 vote when
Social Credit was ousted, shows the
marked shift that has taken
place.”

“The people voted over-
whelmingly to cancel the cutbacks
and tax increases, and to reject
wage control and anti-labor laws,
and no time should be lost to carry
forward the struggle to compel the
Socreds to change their policies,”’
Morgan declared.

“The struggle to reverse the
Socred’s anti-labor, anti-people
policies did not end on June 3. This
is only the beginning. It’s not calls
for ‘reason, logic, love and un-
derstanding’, like Barrett made in
his post-election victory speech,
people want, but action around
issues that are causing severe
hardships for people, and

mobilization of the forces needed
and available to reverse Socred
government policies.

SThe Communist Party
refrained from nominating a
candidate in the particular cir-
cumstances of this byelection,”
Morgan said. ‘While speaking out
on the issues emphasizing the need
for unity of all labor and
democratic forces to reject Social
Credit and their policies, members
of the Party distributed twenty
thousand leaflets, hundreds of
posters and placed quarter page
adverts in the three main com-
munity papers in Vancouver East
to contribute to repudiation of
Socred policies.

““What is needed now is united
action of NDPers, Communists,
trade unionists, pensioners,
ratepayers and tenants, students
and all democratic forces to carry
on the struggle together in the
wake of the election victory to
bring about a change in B.C.,”’ he
concluded.

The Canadian Labor Congress
wasted no time in sending the call
out to its affiliates for mobilization
around ‘‘Labor’s Manifesto for the
Future,’’. and the mandate given
the executive council to call a
general strike if necessary, by the
recent CLC convention in Quebec.

CLC Secretary Treasurer
Donald Montgomery issued a
telegram May 26 to the senior
Canadian officers of all CLC af-
filiated unions, calling on them to
alert and ready their-membership
to ensure their immediate and full
support as well as their par-
ticipation in the Congress action
program adopted at the con-
vention.

Referring to the ‘“Manifesto”
which the telegram says ‘commits
the Congress to an action program
of social equity that calls for
national economic and social
planning and expansion of labor’s
opposition to the control
program’, the Congress reminded
the unions that ‘this program of
action... gives the executive
council of the Congress the man-
date to organize and conduct a
general work stoppage or stop-
pages if and when necessary.

“The Congress calls upon you to
-alert and ready your membership
to ensure their immediate and

AR
LEN GUY...

“we will play full role.”
wholehearted support and_ par-
ticipation in this action program,”
the message said.

Montgomery _stressed_in
releasing the telegram that the
government should be fully aware
that the CLC’s mobilization plans
will not be discontinued just
because the Congress executive
committee has agreed to meet with
members of the cabinet June 17-18
to discuss the Manifesto.

‘‘We are going into this meeting
with an open mind,”’ he said, ‘‘but

See B.C. LABOR, pg. 12

‘INSIDE

CP statement on
general strike.. Pg. 2

Socreds pay debt to
mine companies...

Pg. Il