_ UIC changes far short
_ of demands by unions

By MARK FRANK .

TORONTO

With the worst unemployment in Canada since the start of the Unemployment In-

surance Act in July 1951, the re

in the legislation at the next

the pressure of mounting numbers of job-hunters.
come up with the proverbial mouse. |

The government has dubbed its

proposed changes “emergency fed-,

eral legislation to meet winter un-
employment.”

The changes will empower UIC
officials to hand out “increases”
ranging from 83 cents a week
to single unemployed to about

- $4.20 a week for those with de-
pendents! :

These increases will be the only
ones made effective this winter
and are restricted to those on sup-
plementary benefits—persons who
have exhausted their regular bene-
fits, if they ever had any. Those
not covered for benefits are still
left out in the cold.

The present scale of supple-
mentary [benefits is from $3.30 to
$12.90 a week for single persons
and from $3.90 to $16.80 for those
with dependents..

The UIC fund has cleared an
average of over $65 million net
a year after paying: out all bene-
fits since its inception. The fund
now totals $880 million —' being
stored in UIC strong boxes while
People go hungry this winter.
Big inereases could be paid all

those unemployed today ‘without
any danger of exhausting the fund,
according to many authorities.
Others say the government should
dip into this consolidated revenue
account if necessary, and up taxes
to the corporations that collected
record dividends this year, to pay
’ for higher benefits. : -

Adding insult to the injury of
this “too little-too late” formula,
the government is bypassing the
hundreds of resolutions Passed
over the years by labor conven-
tions calling for far-reaching
changes in the act,

_ When the cabinet submits the

major part of its projected legis-
lation, covering an overhaul of the
entire act, it will go to a House
committee for study.
sion has yet been made for the:
hearing of delegations of organiz-
ed workers or other public bodies

PATRONIZE
CARNEL‘’S
COFFEE SHOP
410 Main St.

Now Operated By
GEORGE & WINNIFRED
GIBBONS

CONSTANTINE
FINE CUSTOM TAILORING
Ladies’ and Gentlemen
Rm., 118, 603 W. Hastings St.
PA, 5810 Vancouver 2, B.C,

OVALTINE
CAFE
251 EAST HASTINGS
Vancouver, B.C.

QUALITY SERVICE

Litt bs

Castle Jawalec

Watchmaker and
Jewelers
Special Discount to
all Tribune Read-
ers. Bring this ad

with you

session.

Port comes that the federal government is planning changes
The bulky 119-section act creaks and groans under
But after prodigious efforts Ottawa has

before the changes are consider-
ed.

The 400,000-member Canadian
Congress.of Labor in its recent
submission to the government
“strongly urges that organized lab-
or be given an adequate oppor-
tunity to examine any proposed
changes in the act before they are
enacted.”

It continues: “This act affects
almost all organized workers, and
it is only proper that their organiz-
ations should be afforded an ap-
portunity to review and make rep-
resentations on proposed legisla-
tion in which they have so large
a stake.”

Among longer term changes in
the government bill are reported
plans for upping regular benefits
to those workers earning $60 and
over. The lower income groups
will not get any increases from the
present maximum level of $17.10
for single persons and $24 a week
for married persons.

While it is rumored that pay-
ment of the supplementary bene-
fits may be extended from the pre-
sent January to mid-April date,
there is no definite government
commitment on this. Trade union,
church, welfare and civic officials
bitterly protested when Ottawa
slashed this group off the rolls in
April last year.

Another big gap in the propos-
ed legislation is the absence of
Provisions that would include
categories like civil servants,
hospital workers, farm help,
some classes of loggers and com-
mercial fishermen, from cover-
age under the act. There will
be no extension of the categories
eligible for benefits,

All the big labor centres, the
CCL, Trades and Labor Congress,
Catholic Syndicates and railway

No provi-! brotherhoods have advanced much

more sweeping changes than those
recently proposed. There are sug-
gestions that all organized labor
unite in a joint campaign during
the coming months to demand
their implementation in the cur-
rent legislation. Labor’s demands
include:

~ Higher regular benefits. Some
unions: have called for a straight
$40 a week benefit. Others want
higher benefits generally and the
division of the present highest in-
surance class into two new classes:
one for those earning $48-$60 a
week, and another for those earn-

upwards in benefits according to
income.

Non-Compensable days. Most
unionists are agreed that the wait-
ing, non-compensable days should
be eliminated.

Payment during illness should
be paid whether or not the unem-

752 Granville st.

NEW ZENITH
CAFE
105 E. Hastings St.
For The Finest In Good Eating

HO HO
CHOP SUEY

: We serve only i
UNEXCELLED AUTHENTIC
CHINESE CUISINE
Pleasant atmosphere
Courteous Service
Reservation for Parties or
Banquets
Phone PA. 1030, PA. 0713
102 PENDER STREET EAST
Vancouver, B.C.

TEER =

Te TD

EEE EEO EEE

io UU LULL TTI ttt Tit Tits

ing $60 and over with adjustments |

ployment is due to the illness and
regardless of whether the non-
compensable or waiting days have
been served. ;

Supplementary benefits should
be paid at the same rate as ordin-
ary benefits with costs to be borne
by government revenues and not
the fund. ‘

Elimination or drastic revision
of the married women’s regula-
tions. Married women can be de-
nied benefits for two years from
date of marriage. A married wo-
man who is unemployed can be
deprived of benefits six weeks be-

{fore the birth of a child. The TLC

demands that benefits continue
during pregnancy and for six
weeks after. It also calls for wid-
ows to receive the weekly benefits
of ther late husband if he were
seeking employment at the time
of death.

Duration of benefit. Present
maximum period is 306 days and
minimum is 36 days. The Cana-
dian Welfare Council urges a 20-
week minimum. There is a gen-
eral demand for benefits for as
long as unemployment continues
with the rider that other govern-
ment resources than the fund be
employed when unemployment
reaches major proportions.

Disqualification period. Insur-
ance officials can disqualify for a
maximum of six weeks. The de-
mand is that it be reduced to
three weeks, each week separated.

Extension of coverage to include
hospital and charity institution
workers, domestic servants, agri-
cultural workers, all fishermen and
others so that coverage is all-in-
clusive. ‘

During strikes. No referrals by
the National Employment Service
to plants where a strike is in pro-
gress. Workers who become un-
employed by refusing to cross a
picketline should be entitled to
benefits. Some unions have de-
manded that benefits be paid work-
ers during a stoppage.

New Czech minister

Bedrich Hruska (above), newly
appointed Czechoslovak minister
to Canada; is the first Czecho-
slovak representative of that
rank at Ottawa since 1948.

New toll-free
bridge asked

NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.
Demand that the provincial gov-
ernment build a toll-free bridge
from Vancouver to the North
Shore and not permit a private
company to control this vital traf-
fic link was made this week in a

joint statement by Maurice Rush

and Charles Caron on behalf of
the Vancouver and North Vancou-
ver committees of the Labor-Pro-
gressive party. :

The statement added that a toll-
free bridge was essential in view
of the exvansion now under way
on the North Shore and the build-
ing of the provincial highway to
link up with Squamish and the
Interior. A privately-owned toll-
bridge would become a serious bot-
tleneck to the economic develop-
ment of the North Shore and the
Interior. In view of this situation,
the statement declared, responsi-
bility for starting construction of
a bridge to be financed from prov-
incial revenues devolved upon
the province.

The LPP statement further add-
ed that legislation now on the
statute books giving the First Nar-
rows Bridge Company the right to
build should be no obstacle with
the legislature due to meet within

three weeks.

Kootenay
residents
oppose dam

NAKUSP, B.C.
A resolution opposing the Social
Credit government’s Kaiser dam
deal was endorsed at a _ recent
meeting of Arrow Lakes and Slo-
can residents here, and forwarded
to Trade Minister C. D. Howe at
Oitawa and Lands Minister Robert
Sommers at Victoria.

H. W. Herridge, MP for Koot-
enay, told the meeting:

“Decisions we make at this time
will set the pattern for generations
to come, whether we provide stor-
age basins and power for Ameri-
can industries or develop our own
resources and industrial potential
to the general advantage of local
residents and of Canada.”

He declared that Columbia pow-
er resources should be. developed
by public authorities rather than
private groups.

Herridge claimed that raising
the Arrow Lakes to 1948 flood
levels would destroy assets that
cannot be matched by the compen-
sation proposed.

It would flood homes at Syringa
Creek and Renata, flood out in-
dustries at Nakusp, put the Revel-
stoke-Arrowhead road out of com-
mission, force abandonment of the
CPR line between these same
points, flood thousands of acres of
farm land, force removal of indus-
tries at Arrowhead, destroy all
beaches along the Arrow Lakes,
flood timber except on .bluffs

Herridge failed, however, to
take a forthright stand for an all-
Canadian development of Colum-
bia power, and saw no harm in
making a deal “with public auth-
orities in the U.S.” -

OTTAWA

Trade Minister €. D. Howe told
reporters last weekend that the
B.C. government’s agreement with
the Kaiser interests for a storage
dam on the Arrow Lakes was “a
cock-eyed and improvident deal,”
and that the federal government
was drafting legislation to block
it.

The deal would like Kaiser pow-
er for U.S. plants at about one mill
per kilowatt,.far less than the cost
of any development the company
could plan in the U.S.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

NOTICES

POSTAGE STAMPS wanted. Don-
ate your used postage stamps,
any country, including Canada,
particularly values above 5c and
perforated OHMS or overprinted
OHMS or G. Stamps should
not be torn or mutilated and are
best left on paper, with perfor-
ations not cut into in trimming.
Resale proceeds go to Pacific
Tribune sustaining fund.

COMING EVENTS—CITY

OR THE
JAN. 9 Si lain ge is Meet-

ing Sunday, January 9, Pender
Auditorium, 8 p.m. Speakers, Bert
Whyte and Maurice Rush, Second

World War veterans.

JAN 1 TURKEY BANQUET
Se sPgd a in honor of TOM Mce-

EWEN, recently returned from

Soviet Union. Hastings Auditorium,

Lower Hall, 828. E. Hastings St.,

6.30 p.m. Admission $1.25. Tickets
at City Office LPP, Room 7, 9 Ez
Hastings and Pacific Tribune, Suite

6, 426 Main St.
KEEP THIS NIGHT

JAN. 22 OPEN. Watch for

“BURNS NIGHT” Announcement.

JAN 2 KEEP THIS DATE

Pont OPEN — PUBLIC
MEETING — Pender Auditorium,
Speaker, Tom McEwen.

FEB 6 “SALT OF THE EARTH”

¢ VA film you can’t afford to
miss—reserve this date—Sunday,
Feb. 6, 8 p.m. MAIN THEATRE,
49th and Main. Invitations only at
People’s Cooperative Bookstore
and Mine-Mill, 111 Dunsmuir St. ©

FOUND

ON NEW YEAR’S EVE—At Fish-
ermen’s Hall. Found — White
Cardigan Sweater and Lighter.
An overcoat was also taken by
mistake and one coat was left in
its place. Will the person come
and exchange coats at PT office,
Suite 6, 426 Main St. :

BUSINESS PERSONALS

WEDDING AND SOCIAL STAT-
IONERY. Special Attention to
Mai! Orders. UNION PRINTERS
LTD., 550 Powell St., Vancouver

4, B.C. HAstings 8974.

G. GORDON DIAMOND—LEATH-
ERCRAFT SUPPLIES AND BAG

. REPAIRS. TA. 1010. 603 Rob-
son St., Vancouver 6, B.C.

ee ke

DUNSMUIR VARIETIES — LUG-
GAGE, HAND BAGSs AND
‘CHINA. Special Discount To
Tribune Readers. 519 Dunsmuir
St.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE

THE MOST MODERN CLEANERS
Cleaning, Pressing and Dyeing.
Alterations and Repairs. 754
East Hastings. HA. 0951.

HASTINGS BAKERIES LTD. —
716 East Hastings St., Phone
HA. 3244. Scandinavian Prod-
ucts a Specialty.

O.K. RADIO SERVICE. Latest
factory precision equipment
used, MARINE SERVICE, 1420
Pender St. West. TA. 1012,

¥%4 TRANSFER & MOVING. Cour-
teous, fast, efficient, Call Nick
at Yale Hotel. PA. 0632. HAst-
ings 5'794-L.

HALLS FOR RENT

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME —
Available for meetings, wed-
dings, and banquets at reason-
able rates. 600 Campbell Ave.
HA. 6900.

CLINTON HALL, 2605 E. Pender.
Available for Banquets, Wed-
dings, Meetings, Etc. Phone HA.
BPA ae

TMi mm mm
[ PENDER
AUDITORIUM =
5 ' (Marine Workers) =
= 339 West Pender Q
= LARGE & SMALL HALLS 5
= FOR RENTALS

= Phone PA. 9481 :
=

NT ;
— JANUARY 7, 1955 — PAGE 6

—