~ork starts on fish wharf

Work has finally begun on the long-awaited False Creek

> Fisherme
"Vacuate

n’s Wharf, and squatters on the flats (above) will have to

the Sin as the bulldozers are getting closer every day to

Squatte
rr

ations of their floathouse homes.
" Population had moved by the middle of this week; others

Two-thirds of the

Minute ePering to go; and a few were hanging on to the last
* }ecause they had’ no idea where to move to.

LPp motorcade tours
Valley on gas issue

: ® doz
Sear pst

(Sass
With poession of cars decorat-

Bats attracted the at-
_ thousands of motorists
US the Ways, while in the
L of “MPaign against BCE
4 Natural gas evoked a
hs interes oS: @espite fhe pub-

» how, aroused by the caval-
often dain” not a single Van-
News re Paper gave it an inch
in ting erage),

Regeto™ the CNR station
; teat ., the mo-
ey, ew Westminster,

Langley, Cloverdale, Al-

Ve,
‘ Abbotsford and Mission.

eq

SPECIAL
SUIT SALE

]
> PRICE
at WOOL YARN DYED

SIN '
SLE AND DOUBLE
BREASTED

Odg
Reus TAKEN’ FROM OUR
R STock To CLEAR

Prevent the B.C. Electric from securing control of Fraser

&as,” boomed the loudspeaker.
Neaper rates.” These and other slogans were repeated
€n Fraser Valley towns last Saturday as a colorful
Cavalcade toured the area.

“Publicly-owned gas

In each town: leaflets and _post-
cards were distributed, and. slog-
ans were repeated over the loud-
speaker as the motorcade drove up
and down the main streets.

The postcards, addressed to
Premier W. A. C. Bennett} said:

“| respectfully urge your gov-
ernment not to allow the “B.C.
Electric to gain control of the
distribution of. natural gas in the
Lower Mainland and Greater
Vancouver area through its own-
ership of the
Huntingdon to Vancouver.

“| urge your government
through the B.C. Power Commis-
sion to build the Huntingdon-
Vancouver pipeline. The Power,
Commission should supply the
municipalities or private com-
panies as decided by local option
with natural gas for local dis-
tribution.”

After stopping for a picnic lunch
at the fair grounds in Mission, the
motorcade crossed the Fraser
River and returned home on the
north side, visiting en route Al-
bion, Whonnock, Haney, Hom-
mand, Coquitlam and New West-
minster.

Leaflets distributed in all the
towns visited pointed out that
Fraser Valley and Vancouver Is-

land municipalities are overwhelm-
ingly opposed to B.C. Electric. con-
trol of natural gas.

pipeline from —

Canadian auto workers
seek GAW contracts

* - TORONTO

Over 500,000 Ford and General Motors workers and their families in the United States
have won a partial “work or wages” formula that is setting the pattern for similar guaranteed
wage pacts in many other industries and is expected to spread

Some 18,000 GM workers in a
number of Ontario cities are now
seeking the GAW contracts won in
the U.S. The victories in the U.S."
were paced by “unauthorized”
walkouts totalling 100,000 workers.
At the time of the GM settlement
40 of the 119 GM plants were out
on strike.

The GM wageguarantee fund
which covers 357,000 workers,
would amount to $150 million
over a three-year period. GM work-
ers for the first time as well won
the full union shop, making it
mandatory for all who work in the
company’s chdin of plants to join
the union. 4

The GAW-type contract, said
Trades and Labor Congress re-
search director Leslie Wismer, will
be the goal of all Canadian trade
unions within five years. Even
this cautiously-worded statement
by the relatively conservative TLC
body was regarded as a significant
sign that GAW will soon become a
dominant feature of the negotia-
tion- picture here.

Receiving its first test-run in
Canada in the GM chain, GAW
negotiations are running into
heavy going in Oshawa where
separate discussions with the
10,000-member Local 222 of
UAW are under way. Concilia-
tion procedure, not used in the
U.S. discussions, as well as the
company’s negative attitude, are
blocking an agreement.

A recent issue of the union’s
paper The Oshaworker, comment-
ing on the company’s 1955 con-
tract proposals said: “It proposes
another long term agreemént, the
weakening of seniority, the elim-
ination of promotion clauses and
probably most significant, lacks
any proposals for wage increases.”

Labor observers in the U.S. see
the new GAW pacts as a ma-
jor breakthrough, notwithstanding
heavy criticism of some of its
terms and rank and file resent-
ment against the idea of winning
such gains at the expense of other
basic demands. The walkout ex-
pressed this dissatsifaction both
with company delays of a contract
and the need for winning other de-
mands besides GAW.

The contract will unquestionably
influence the struggle for the 1955
wage round, although the impor-
tant steel negotiations now going
on are limited to a wage reopener.

Meet called to seek
Rock Bay road work

CAMPBELLTON, B.C.

A public meeting to get action
on the Rock Bay road, which ex-
tends from Campbell River to Rock
Bay and is considered unsafe for
travel, will be held at the Scout
Hall here Saturday, June 18, at 11
a.m.

Called by the Rock Bay Road
Petition Committee, the meeting
will deal with correspondence re-
ceived «from the department of*
public works, the petition now in
circulation, and further steps to
compel governmental action.

' Invitations have been sent to
William Moore, MLA, and to. local
trade unions to attend the meeting

and voice their views.

OPEN AIR

Fishermen’s Hall,

CELEBRATE CANADA‘S BIRTHDAY
-CANADA-DAY YOUTH FESTIVAL

Brockton Oval — July Ist — 8:30 p.m.
. Tickets, 75c each, available at
Festival Office, 709 Dunsmuir, Room 5
People’s Co-Op Bookstore, ;
Marine Workers & Boilermakers Hall, 339 West Pender

138 East Cordova

CONCERT

~

387 West Pender

to Canada.

So far, it has been interpreted,
that discussion of supplemental un-
employment pay does not fall with-
in the scope of the mid-contract
wage reopener in steel.

The. “20-cent package’ in Ford
and GM, which includes only six
cents in cash, will provide a sort
of “pattern” to achieve or beat—
whether in across-the-board cash,
“fringers” or both.

Here’s how the UAW-CIO cal-
culates the breakdown in the cost
of the 20-cent “package” to Ford:

@ Five cents an hour on the
supplemental Jayofi pay fund.

@ Four and one-half cents for
the improvement in pensions.

@ The “annual improvement”
of six cents an hour or 2.5 percent
(whichever is higher) will amount
to 6.2 cents.

@ Another 1.3 cents an hour
goes for correction of wage in-
equities.

@ The expansion of hospitaliz-
ation and insurance to cover the
entire family of the worker (shar-
ed equally by worker and com-
pany) add another 1.2 cents.

@ Vacation improvement for
long seniority workers to 100
hours (from 80 hours) is estimated
to cost .2 cents.

@ Triple pay for worked holi-
days, .8 cents.

@ Some other minor gains are
estimated to add up to nearly a
penny. |

The gain must also be seen as|
in some measure a “catch-up” be-;
cause for five yéars the UAW was
tied to a five-year pact. The new
terms are to be frozen for three
more ,years except for the annual
six-cent improvement anf changes
in the two-way cost-of-living es-!
culator may bring.

The only really substantial and
new factor in the contract is
the five cents on every hour the
company, will put into a trust
fund limited to $55,000,000 for
the three years from which |
workers will be guaranteed 60- |
65 percent of the “take-home”
pay (after taxes)—the amount,
that is, to supplement U.S. un-
employment insurance.
The plan, roughly, works as fol-

lows:

When laid off, the worker, just)
as on unemployment insurance, |
waits a week without pay. If his)
layoff continues, the company adds
to his unemployment insurance an
amount to reach 65 percent of his
weekly wages after tax deductions,
for a period of four weeks.

Tf the layoff continues the com-}|
pany adds to jobless insurance to|
make up 60 percent of his take-

home to a maximum of 22 more
weeks. After that his jobless in-
surance maximum and his supple-
mental pay run out and he gets
nothing, if still unemployed.

The plan includes a table of
“credits” for the worker based on
his seniority, that will determine
how many weeks of supplemental
pay he is entitled to get.

The 26 weeks is the maximum
which very few may ever reach
because only the top seniority:
workers, hardly likely to be on

layoff long, can qualify. The
lowest seniority workers, of one
or two years, and those most
likely to be laid off, qualify for
nothing or next to nothing.

The plan,. which John Bugas,
Ford vice-president, said took many

pression hits and. the fund is
depleted, the company has no
further responsibility. If #he
fund is depleted below certain
levels; the payments may be cut
er stopped altogether. e

LPP contesting

nine Alta. seats

EDMONTON

Nine LPP candidates are contest-
ing ‘seats in the Alberta election
en June 29 on a “Keep Alberta
Canadian” platform.

Headed by provincial leader Ben
Swankey in Pincher Creek-Crows
Nest Pass, they are: Art Roberts,
Calgary; Tony Lezanski, Drumhel-
ler; William Harasym, £dmonton;
E. P. Taylor, Wainwright; John P.
Hocaluk, Vermilion; Dan Gamache,
St. Paul; Frank Maricle, Redwater;
John Harry, Athabasca.

ELSINKI
DAY

SAT., JUNE 18
© TORONTO vs.

VANCOUVER

Peace workers in the two
cities will compete in col-

lecting signatures to the
-World Appeal Against
Atomic War. Volunteers,
needed any time from

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at our office.
144 West Hastings.

© HELSINKI
CELEBRATION

Concert
Vancouver Folk Singers,
of the UJPO
Conducted by Claire Klein
“The Plight of Willy
Atombomb”

A’ dramatic reading

Dance
Refreshments

SAT., JUNE 18
8:30 P.M.

1173) W. Broadway
B.C.: PEACE COUNCIL

months of research and study to
work out (and which was hardly
changed in negotiations) is loaded
with loopholes, “gimmicks” and
catches, some of which are evi-
dent already but many of which
may show up later. The maximum
weekly sum the company ean add
in any case is $25.

The Ford Company is liable
only for the maximum of $55
million and five cents an hour
and no more. If a serious de-

IROSHIMA
DAY

Mon., August 8

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 17, 1955 — PAGE 7