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“There's nothing restrictive about our trade!”

Labor scene

Facing charges of ‘wilfully
impeding an inquiry under the
Combines Investigation Act’’
United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union president Jack
Nichol and secretary George
Hewison will be appearing in
provincial court September 12
following an adjournment of the
case July 29.

Nichol and Hewison — two of
seven UFAWU ‘members charged
under the Combines Act — were
the only unionists served with
summons at the time of the July
29 trial but it was anticipated that
the other five, many of whom were
out on the fishing grounds, would
also be served in time to appear
September 12.

All have been charged under
Section 41 of the Combines Act and
could face fines of up to $5,000 and
up to two years’ imprisonment.

Thecharges allegedly stem from
a Combines investigation last
December when the UFAWU,
backed by the B.C. Federation of

Labor, demanded that the Com-
bines hold its hearings into the
union in public. The Combines had
sought to hold private hearings,
widely denounced throughout the
trade union movement as “star
chamber proceedings.”

Following adjournment of the
hearings, Combines investigators
carried out a series of raids on
Vancouver newsrooms in an ap-
parent search for evidence. The
raids were later ruled to be
unlawful as Chief Justice Nathan
Nemetz quashed the search
warrants authorizing the raids.

* * *

The B.C. Federation of Labor
has called on all parties in the
dispute between the officers of
Local 602 of the Laborers Union
and the union’s international office
to adopt a ‘‘common sense ap-
proach” in resolving their dispute
and to settle the issues ‘“‘within the
house of labor.”’

200-mile limit sought
on supertanker traffic

Cont'd from pg. 1
opponents have called on the
federal government to step in and
impose a 200 mile supertanker free
zone on Canada’s Pacific coast.
The union charged that the tanker
traffic ‘‘makes a mockery of the
West Coast Oil Port Inquiry that
can only reach its conclusions and
recommendations long after the
fact of oil deliveries.

“Tf the United States is so ob-
viously intent on ignoring the
Thompson Inquiry, to prematurely
deliver Alaska crude through the
Straits of Juan de Fuca and waters
adjacent to Canada,’”’ the union
said, “‘Then Canada in the least
should ban these ships from its 200
mile zone.”’

In spite of the imminent
scenario, clearly the design of the
oil companies themselves, to
render the Thompson Inquiry
irrelevant, Thompson has not yet
spoken out.

The proponent of the Port
Angeles oil port proposal, the
Northern Tier consortium, have
already reneged on their pledge to
co-operate with Thompson and
have refused to participate in the
Inquiry.

This week, UFAWU secretary

George Hewison reported to the
VLC, the Kitimat Pipeline Com-
pany is trying to follow suit, and
intends to quit the Thompson
Inquiry.

In the event of such a develop-
ment, the only_oil port proponent
remaining in the Inquiry would be
a reluctant Trans Mountain-
Atlantic Richfield consortium —
whose proposal could already have
the political backing of the NEB.

‘Although this might render the
Kitimat proposal a dead issue,”
UFAWU president Nichol said, ‘‘It
also would diminish Arco’s
(Atlantic Richfield) incentive to
continue voluntary submission to
the Oil Ports Inquiry of details of
the proposed superport for Cherry
Point.”

With the major oil companies
boycotting the Thompson Inquiry
and supertankers already plying
Canadian. waters, Andrew
Thompson’s recommendations
may be academic.

For the sake of B.C.’s coastline,
fishing industry and native culture,
the onus is now on Thompson and
the federal government to speak
out and restore the integrity of the
investigation.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 19, 1977—Page 8

Local 602 was placed under
trusteeship by the Laborers’ in-
ternational office earlier this
month. Local officers later oc-
cupied the union offices.

Federation secretary Len Guy
stressed in the call for a ‘“‘com-
mon sense’ resolution of the
dispute that ‘‘rank and file
members of the Laborers Union
Local 602 must have the. op-
portunity to decide the issue.

“Tf there are any charges of
wrongdoing to be levelled by the
international against the local
officers, those charges should be
made known to the members and
the local officers should have the
right to respond,” he said. ‘In the
final analysis, the members must
decide whether the local officers
are to be upheld.”

The Federation secretary also
emphasized, ‘‘the local union
should be allowed to proceed with
the election of its officers, in ac-
cordance with the union’s con-
stitution and the international
should take a low profile in this
process.”

Elections in Local 602 were to
have been conducted in June but
were held up because of the in-
ternal dispute in the local and
subsequent intervention by the
international office.

‘‘A common sense approach to
resolving this disagreement out-
side of the courts, and within the
labor movement, is important for
the good of the labor movement,”
Guy said.

“T am confident, given the op-
portunity to hear all the pertinent
information, that the union
members will be able to make the
correct decision and that the local
union will be able to carry on with
its duties to the membership.”

* oe *

B.C. Hydro plans to cut its late
night service in the Vancouver
area in half, according to the
Amalgamated Transit Union
which has pledged to fight the
transit cutback.

ATU delegate Jim Daly told the ~

Vancouver and District Labor
Council Tuesday night that the
union was informed by Hydro that
every second bus would be taken
out of service after 1:10 a.m. That
service reduction is not made now
until 3:10 a.m.

“This is just another Social
Credit cutback in people’s ser-
vices,’ Daly . told council
delegates. The ATU is planning a
public campaign against the
reduction.

Cont'd from pg. 1

based on public ownership, one
which looks abhead for the next 100
years and more to Canada’s real
needs and those of her people. The
Communist Party of Canada
supports the demand of ‘No
pipeline now’.”’

Following the federal govern-
ment’s decision to go ahead with
the Alcan pipeline, the B.C.
Legislature held an emergency
debate in which the government
and all opposition parties endorsed
the decision in principle. As the
debate in Victoria began the B.C.
executive of the Communist Party
sent a wire to the premier and
opposition parties urging the
Legislature to oppose the Ottawa
decision.

Charging that the pipeline would
be asellout to U.S. interests and oil
monopolies, the wire said that the
huge project holds no gains for
Canada or B.C. Pointing out that no
study had been made of the 540
mile stretch in northern B.C.
through which the line would run,
both as to the ecology or native
rights claims, the wire said that
the billions spent on the project
would create few permanent jobs
while using up capital required for
housing, education and social
needs of Canadians.

The B.C. Working Group for
Moratorium also issued a
statement August 10 in which it
said the federal government
decision was ‘‘highly regrettable.”’
It said that the Alcan proposal is an
unstudied, patch work proposal
and that in rushing to approve it
the federal government was
“guilty of irresponsible decision
making.”’

The Moratorium Committee also
lashed the B.C. government for
going along with the decision,
charging that there has been no
assessment of the social, economic
and environmental impact.

Signed by Mike Lewis,
spokesman for the Moratorium
Committee, the statement con-
cluded ‘‘that the Canadian
government’s decision to approve
the construction of the Alcan
pipeline inthe name of the national
interest is wrong. In reality what
has been approved is_ that-
Canadians will assume the risks
for a huge project which has as its
central purpose the transporation
of United States gas across Canada
to another part of the United
States.”

TheB.C. Moratorium Committee
includes among its members the
B.C. Federation of Labor, B.C.
Teachers Federation, OXFAM
Canada, United Church, Roman
Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran
churches, Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs, UBC Alma Mater Society
and Canadian Council for In-
ternational Co-operation.

Opposition parties in Ottawa and
B.C., including the NDP voiced
agreement with the Alcan pipeline
and offered only terms which
Canada and B.C. should press for
while accepting the sellout in

principle.
The Stand taken by NDP leader
Dave Barrett during the

emergency debate in the
legislature came as a big disaP |
pointment to those who had OP |
posed the building of any pipeline |
now. His stand that B.C. should
demand first call on gas which
would come through the Dempsté |
spur line to the MacKenzie Valley |
is full of holes. by
First of all, the Dempster spl!
line, which the federal governmet! |
is placing as one of the conditions |
in the negotiations with the U5
which opened this week, has neve |
been throughly studied. Wha!
preliminary studies there hav’
been show it as an almost iM
possible route for a pipeline. In at
case Trudeau told Parliament tha!
if the spur is built a large portion |
the MacKenzie gas which would b |
fed into the Alcan pipeline Al
already committed to meet futult |
gas export quotas to the U.S. |
The Dempster spur line hé@
come under severe criticis®
since it is unstudied and leave
unsolved the problem of nativ®
rights and claims, and would #)
fact, if undertaken, tap MacKenaé,
Valley gas in a way which would
circumvent the Berger Inquify
recommendation for no
development in the area for 1
years. Likewise Barrett’s insist
ence that 90 per cent of the work
force be done by B.C. labor may
itself sound good, but in effect i!)
holds out a false promise of wha!)
the Alcan line will mean for B.C
workers in terms of jobs. The B.¥:|
Moratorium Committee pointed
out in a recent bulletin that while |
the construction phase the pipelit®
will provide a short-term boom:
providing a few thousand jobs for 2 |
couple of years. Once completed! |
will create. only a few hundr |
permanent jobs; some hav)
estimated only about 300. ;
The huge capital outlay "|
building such a pipeline, which h@ |
been estimated at $10 billion, bU'|
which will probably run to mu
more, will use up capital vitally
needed for massive housité
programs, industrial developmet!
and other social needs. Thes?
nation-building projects if uv”
dertaken could provide tens %|
thousands of permanent jobs bt! |
they will become impossibl?)
because of the huge investment #
the Alcan line — the end result %
which will be to take Alaskan aM
Canadian gas to the U.S. in retul?
for afew hundred permanent job5
It’s a poor deal for Canad?
whichever way one looks at it. |
The B.C. Communst Party an
nounced this week that it is ut
dertaking a major campaign
block the sellout deal around tf)
demand, ‘‘No Pipeline now: |
Canadian Communist Part)
leader, William Kashtan, will op®
a national campaign against th? —
Alcan deal with a speech at *
public rally being held in. Val
couver’s Con-Lab Hall on Wet
nesday, Aug. 31 at 8 p.m.
The party also plans ?|
|
|

widespread leaflet distributio™ |
ads in newspapers and other publié
actions to expose the deal and !
unite public opposition against t
building of the pipeline.

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