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”a Threat of compulsion |

COMMUNIST BOOTH. Photos show the Communist Party booth at the
PNE. (See story page 7). The booth is attracting wide attention and _
highlights the party’s campaign for 100,000 new jobs. Top photo
shows the booth’s layout. Photo below is of the large detail map of B.C.
showing the main industrial centres and indicating the kind of
processing industries B.C. needs.

Forestry pollution
under fire by unions

Cont. from Pg. 1

They recommended also that
far more serious attention be
paid to the environmental impli-
cations of a pulp mill location
before the location decision is
made, and that the principle of
plant environmental control
committees comprised of
representatives of both manage-
ment and labor be encouraged
by government and pollution
control branch.

The brief was submitted to the
Inquiry by Pat O’Neal, and O.
Robertson on behalf of the two
unions.

The United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union brief
recommended to the probe the
need for a comprehensive study
of the Lower Fraser River by a
research team.

They said the federal and
provincial governments must
undertake a program of finan-
cial aid in the form of grants and
long term, low interest loans to
municipalities for sewage
treatment.

Water quality standards must
be established immediately,
they argued, to determine the
kind of treatment plant required
in each given area, with at least
secondary treatment to be
required in the Lower Fraser
River areas where tidal back-up
created a particularly serious

threat of pollution. _

The fighermen pointed out that
conditions in the waters of the
Fraser River are deteriorating
rapidly. The self-cleansing of

waste, as predicted by some —

authorities, is not taking place
on the Fraser. They maintain
that heavy growths of algae is
evident along the river banks in
areas west of New West-
minster, a condition which did
not exist to any degree until the
summer of 1969 and is getting
noticeably worse with each
passing month.

“Modern communities can no
longer be satisfied with using

“waterways as a means of

disposing of domestic and indus-
trial wastes,’’ the brief declares.

Log dumping must be
prohibited in the waters of the
Fraser River and a suitable site
near the mouth of the river in
salt water should be constructed
to dump and boom logs prior to
towing into the river for storage.

Certain species of logs such as
hemlock and yellow cedar should
be inspected for ‘‘conkey’’ butts
after falling and that portion of
the log should be removed before
storing inholding points at
upcoast points, the brief
concludes.

The Inquiry was marked,
according to some observers, by
the reluctance of forest industry
spokesmen to commit them-
selves, in any way, to specific
action in cleaning up the pollu-
tion problems connected with
their plants. But they now know
where a very large section of
B.C. people stand where concern
over their environment is
concerned. It is now up to the
government to see to it that the
industry takes action to meet the
problem.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1970—PAGE 8

hangs over settlements

By CONSTRUCTION WORKER

Evidence is mounting that
satisfactory settlements in the
construction industry will be
difficult to attain as long as com-
pulsory arbitration hangs over
the bargaining table.

Since the appointment of
Deputy Labor Minister William
Sands over a month ago as
mediator in the lengthy construc-
tion industry tie-up, only the Car-
penters Union has signed an
agreement which calls for,a
total package of $1.38 over two
years.

Reports from the other unions
involved vary from no progress
whatsoever over the original
proposals from the Construction
Labor Relations Association to
slight monetary improvements.
However, the Plumbers Union
Local 170 has signed approxi-
mately 95 agreements with
independent firms.

These agreements provide
$1.32 total package over two
years with the seven hour day in
the last six months plus other

fringe benefits not yet estab-
lished in the construction
industry. Regrettably, therefore,
last week at the behést of Deputy
Labor Minister W. Sands, the
General President of the
Plumber’s International Union;
Peter T. Schoemann, instructed
their western Canadian
organizer, Russ St. Eloi, to inter-
vene in the plumbers dispute
with the CLRA.

St. Eloi’s prompt and
arbitrary decision to meet alone
with representatives of CLRA,
without the democratically
elected negotiating committee
of Local 170 understandably
caused a great deal of
resentment in the local union.

Sharp criticism from Local 170
members has been sent to the
International office in Wash-
ington, D.C. This deplorable
action by St. Eloi could have far-
reaching ramifications and
could adversely damage the
unity required to defeat CLRA
attempts to smash unions in the
building trades.

Compulsory agreements

imposed on construction workers
would open the door to compul-
sion in all other — contract
negotiations.

The B.C. Federation of Labor
and the B.C. Yukon Building
Trades Council should rally
every trade unionist in the
province if the government tries
to settle the building trades
disputes by compulsion. The
steady drift towards more and
more anti-labor legislation 10
B.C. must be stopped.

Labor should demand a Labor
Bill of Rights to protect trade
unions and their membership.

| B.C. Fed holds |
union parley

The B.C. Federation of Labor
has called a meeting of staff
representatives from all unions
for Wednesday noon of this week
to deal with the serious overall
situation facing labor. The
meeting will be held in the Steel
Hall. -

Woodworkers reject report

Cont'd from pg. 1

after 10 years and 1 additional
week for each 5 years. Nemetz
proposed half percent pay up to 4
years, 4 weeks after 13 years,
and 5 weeks after 23 years.

- in reply to the unions
demand for one more statutory
holiday, double time for
overtime, two 15-minute rest
periods, a job safety training
program, and abolition of the
protationary period, Nemetz
recommendation was NO.

Faced with many legal actions
initiated by the big employers,
the IWA demanded that these
legal actions against the union be
dropped. Nemetz made.no
recommendation, leaving this
vital issue for the life of the
union where it was. On the key
issue of sub-contracting under
which the big forest companies
are by-passing the union and
union contract, there is very
little movement in the Nemetz
report towards a solution.

WHAT TO DO

“On the Beam”’ says that if the
decision of the Negotiating Com-
mittee for rejection is to be
meaningful ‘‘it must be carried
to the rank and file in every
local, sub local, mill and camp.
The best guarantee of an over-
whelming vote of rejection is the
involvement of the membership
from below.”

‘“‘We must offset the
propoganda from the employers,
the daily press, Premier W.A.C.
Bennett and Minister of Labor
Les Peterson. We can do this if
we give the true facts to every
member of the union. This

means -holding membership, —

camp and plant meetings. It also
means issuing timely and infor-
mative bulletins and union
papers.”’ .

The bulletin proposes a four
point program of action which
calls for camp and mill meetings
to pass resolutions endorsing
the Regional negotiating
Committee’s decision to reject

the report; setting up of mach-

’ inery now to conduct the official

vote on the report; urge the B.C.
Federation of Labor to convene
an emergency conference of
representatives from the IWA,
the three pulp unions and the
steel. union since Peterson has
suggested the Nemetz plan as
the basis for settlement in
Kitimat.

It also calls for the setting up
of strike machinery so that the
lumber bosses will know the
union is not bluffing.

IWA local meetings in
Vancouver and New West-
minster last weekend saw the
Nemetz recommendations
come under sharp fire from
woodworkers. Although no votes
were taken at these meetings,
they left no: doubt of the
militancy of the rank and file and
their determination to win a
satisfactory settlement this
year.

Last Thursday, when the
Regional Negotiating
Committee discussed the report,
IWA president Jack Moore and
two other members of the 10-
man committee. voted against
the recommendation to reject

*

"BC TENANTS ORGANI

the report. Subsequently Moore
resigned as chairman of the com-
mittee after announcing he will
remain a member of the com-
mittee and the union’s president.
His place is taken by first vice
president Jack MacKenzie.

The IWA_ Negotiating
Committee is scheduled to hold
further talks with Labor
Minister Peterson in Vancouver
Thursday on some aspects of the
Nemetz Report. In_ the
meantime the Committee is not
proceeding with the vote in the |
locals on rejection of the report.

Meanwhile, talks in the pulp
industry where 10,000 members
are involved, with nearly half of
them on strike, are continuing
this week. The three unions
involved are the International
Pulp, Sulphite and Paper
Workers and the United Paper-
makers, and the Pulp and Paper
Workers of Canada whose
members are on strike.

Since the pulp workers are
employed by the same forest
monopolies who are in nego-
tiations with the 28,000 member
IWA considerable interest is
centred on this weeks contract
talks.

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canization
local Tenant Org emnt

Ty ie tai

THE GC. TENANIG ORGANIZ
1S A WEAPON IN THE FIGH

B. C. Tenants Organization booth at PNE