| Pickets tie up
_| Douglas Fir in
_| Nanaimo port
_ | NANAIMO — The lumber barge
_ | Douglas Fir is not going anywhere
as unionists continue to picket the
| first of six vessels operating in
B.C.’s coastal waters under flags
Of convenience.
_ Although Canadian owned, and
| ‘| chartered through a Canadian
- | COmpany, Maple Leaf Shipping
| | Company Ltd. of Vancouver, and
_ | OPerating in Canadian waters, the
| Douglas Fir is registered in
| | Panama and carries a non-union
}| 12-man Japanese crew. .

By hauling lumber from mills in
Port Alice normally taken out by
flat bottom barges contracted by
Seaspan Ltd., the Douglas Fir has
been responsible for the loss of up
| to 21 jobs for Canadian workers.

Unionists from Port Alice to

Nanaimo have picketed the vessel
Since early August and have suc-
_Cessfully had it tied up for the past
10 days.
e Unions supporting the protest
Include the Canadian
Brotherhood of, Railway and
Transport Workers, the Interna-
tional Longshoremen and
Warehousemen’s Union and the
Canadian Paperworkers Union.

When the Fir docked in Port
Alice August 25, members of the
CPU refused to cross a CBRT in-
formation picket liné to unload
45,000 tons of bunker oil carried
by the barge. A court injunction
ater removed the line and the
barge was unloaded.

The Canadian Labor Congress’
Pacific Coast Maritime Council
Served notice on Maple Leaf Ship-
Ping Company September 7 that
the Douglas Fir would not be do-
Ang business in B.C. unless it sign-
€d a Canadian union agreement
and carried a union crew.

“By registering the barge in
Panama, the Canadian charterers
have managed to escape taxation
and are freeloaders on the Cana-

Jan economy,’’ Dave Mon-
'gomery of the Maritime Council
Said this week.\

‘“‘They are robbing the
legitimate Canadian tow. boat
SPerators of their business and
this, in turn, has resulted in a loss
: of Work for Canadians,’’ he said.

€ Congress fully supports the
efforts of B.C. unions to convince
these charters that their business
Uture in Canada is pretty grim if
they persist in their present course

PROVINCIAL NOTES

in that area,’? B.C. Teachers’

_ money

- this government and these trustees

of action ” : ‘ .
ce is that any government spending is
\ A dispute between the CBRT ae ‘iets

and the Seafarers International
Union for certification of the
vessel was the subject of a top
level meeting of waterfront unions
and the CLC as the Tribune went
to press Wednesday.

Kelowna school
board increases

classroom size
KELOWNA — School board
officials in premier Bennett’s
home riding are determined to
distinguish themselves as trendset-
ters for provincial government
policy. by sharply raising average
classroom sizes to a .student-
teacher ratio of 18.07, well above
the provincial average of 17.81.

The move by the Central
Okanagan School District is ‘‘a
contributing factor to the de-
cline of the quality of education

Federation vice president Larry
Kuehn said this week.

At least 20 more teachers are
needed in the District to bring it
back to the provincial average
Kuehn estimated in an interview
with the Tribune.

Larger classrooms mean less at-
tention to the special needs of
children, he said, and. that is
reflected in a drop in the number
of applications from the Central
Okanagan District for ‘‘special
approval’’ from the province to
fund programs to meet special
needs.

The larger classroom sizes are
being instituted in spite of a $1.2
million budge surplus in the
district last year, after district
superintendent Murli Pendharker
convinced the board that it is in
the district’s interests not to spend
the entire budget. As the reason-
ing went, half of the surplus must
be returned to the provincial
government treasury, but the re-
maining half can be applied to the
next budget year, thereby lower-
ing local property taxes.

Cutting back on the school
budget is a false economy, Kuehn
argues, because ‘‘it is to the ad-
vantage of the people of Kelowna
to make sure that all of that
stays in the local
economy.” : :

“Services to children must
outweigh other considerations,”’
he added, but ‘‘the philosophy of

‘pusuic WEARING
ROYAL COMMISSION
OF INQUIRY INTO
URANIUM MINING ©

rs

The Royal-Commission into Uranium Mining in B.C. opened technical hearings in Vancouver Tuesday
amidst protest from opposition groups they are at a disadvantage since they are only able to present
their case through cross examination of expert witnesses selected by the commission to. present
testimony. Various phases of the inquiry will continue throughout this year and into 1980 under the
chairmanship of Dr. David Bates (right, seated). Several organizations, including the B.C. Federation of
Labor have already voiced opposition to uranium mining. :

National, continentalist

orces divide on Petrocan

Continued from page 1
distributed to every federal riding
and the party has ‘‘called on all of
its members to- collect 5,000
signatures for riding.’’ If suc-
cessful, the effort would gather 1.4
million names.

Broadbent will be presenting the
petition in Parliament ‘‘with an ac-
companying motion”’ she said, like-
ly a motion of non-confidence in
the government.

Both, the NDP and the Liberals
have promised non-confidence mo-

tions unless the government backs

off its intentions to sell key sections
of Petrocan to the private sector.
Although the Tories have a good

chance of surviving the vote with -

Socred support, a parliamentary
defeat for the minority government
on the issue. is far from out of the
question.

The Communist Party has laun-
ched a cross country campaign of
its own to save Petrocan which will
consist of printed materials, stickers
and a lobby and demonstration on
Parliament Hill organized by the

- Ontario and Quebec sections of the

party.
The campaign -to keep the oil

company in the public sector, the_

CP contends, has larger implica-
tions for the country. “The forces

] PROMISED YOU WORK ?....
_ ALERIGHT! YOU CAN BUILD
ME SOME SHELVES...

ranging on both sides of Petrocan
objectively reflect two contending
lines,’ the CP’s central executive
analyzed in a recent statement.
“One is the line of ‘Canadianiza-

tion’ of energy resources which.

could open the door to weakening
multinational oil corporation con-
trol over energy resources and could
also lead to public ownership.
Whether they are prepared to go
that far, those forces supporting
Petrocan may be compelled to

move more and more in that direc=~ ~

tion. :

_“*The second line, that of ‘free
enterprise’ and the sale of shares to
private investors opens the door to
further multinational control of this
decisive sector of the economy. This
is the line of the Conservative
government which also opts for fur-
ther measures: of continentalism
with the U.S., proposals for free
trade, a common energy market
and so on.”’ ‘

The Petrocan debate has created
serious divisions within Tory ranks
as the unstable alliance of financial
interests which united around the
Clark campaign is becoming
unglued over the issue. 3

Closely linked to the existence of

-Petrocan is the intention of the

government to abandon a two price
system for oil and rapidly raise

‘domestic oil prices to the world
level, and measures to that effect

are expected in the fall budget.
‘Raising domestic oil prices will
have serious negative effects on
Canadian industry and manufactur-
ing, especially in Ontario and
Quebec, and will set off an infla-
tionary spiral likely to push infla-
tion into double digit figures. It
will, however, greatly benefit
multinational oil companies and the

_ Alberta Tory government, which

will reap overwhelming windfall
profits. : aS. -

The division of financial interests
over energy policy has _ been

‘reflected in the opposition of the

Ontario Tory government of
William Davis, and Tory party na-
tional president Robert Coates to

the dismantling of Petrocan which .

they see as representative of a na-
tional energy policy aimed at pro-
tecting the competitive position of
Canadian industry in world
markets. ave es

Petrocan has current assets of
$3.4 billion, including $342 million
in Atlantic Richfield Petroleum,
$18 million in Polar Gas, $108

million in Pan Arctic Oil, and $1.5
billion in Pacific Petroleum. Pacific
Petroleum owns 100 percent of
‘*Pacific 66°’ gas retailers, and 30
percent of West Coast Transmis-
sion which in turn owns half in-
terest in the Foothills gas and oil
pipeline projects. Petrocan has
operated at a profit every year of its
existence.

The Tories. have established ‘a
task force to recommend how
Petrocan will be dismanuled. Accor-
ding: to energy minister Ray
Hnatyshyn, the government intends
to sell off all of the profitable sec-
tions of the company and retain the
high risk, non-profitable sections
involved in exploration and
research and development.

‘No UI cuts
say teachers

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation
last week added its voice to the op-

. position to further cutbacks in ©
‘unemployment insurance suggested

by the Clark government.
Federation president Al Blakey
told Tory employment minister Ron
Atkey, ‘‘The B.C. Teachers’
Federation, representing 28,000
teachers, categorically opposes any
suggestion that. unemployment in-
surance payments to sick or preg-
nant. workers be reduced or
eliminated.’”’ : ;
“UIC maternity benefits should
be made more readily available and
should be extended to cover adop-
tions, rather than being
eliminated,’’ the telegram stated.

The government has indicated —

that further cuts to unemployment
insurance program are being con-

sidered, including a reduction in

benefits paid to claimants as well as

the reduction or elimination of |

sickness and maternal benefits. If
adopted, they would disentitle
many more thousands in addition
to those cut off under new regula-
tions passed by the Trudeau govern-
ment and put into effect by the
Tories. :

‘We suggest your government
direct its energies to developing a
healthy economy rather than devis-
ing ways to inflict new hardships on
those already at a disadvantage,”
Blakey told Atkey.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 28, 1979— Page 3

nen

|