o

_ Profi

——

See? We all suffer from the cold.”

Cause for concern

EDITORIAL

oer orking people in B.C. who are faced with a drive by the
Wage { government and the Employers Council to impose a
‘8€ Ireeze on them have cause for concern over statements

ei :
aa made by leading members of the New Democratic

am hecently David Lewis, national leader of the NDP, said:

Boseg DP would propose the establishment of a Price Review
and if Persie didn’t work, it would propose price controls,
Controls.” idn’t work either, the establishment of wage
renee article by Surrey-White Rock NDP MP Barry
“Askin = eekend Magazine, Mather said under the heading,
ive u 8 Hor More Is Getting Us Less’’ that workers should
wp their demands for wage increases in 1972.
Galiy ice S increase in pay ends up sooner or later and
increase 1s sooner, as an increase in prices and possibly an
Process - tax, as well. . . the result of this dog-chase-tail-
aken b S that workers don’t get to keep the wage boost. It is
ack by boosted prices and higher taxation. . .”

fee eting the establishment's argument that wage

e bi S must lead to higher prices, and leaving the profits of

Propose monopolies entirely out of the picture, Mather

Teplaci S that ‘business, labor and government consider
ing the wage-price-tax-hike pattern with the rollback.”

a eal effect of Mathers proposal is to undercut the

OW to ae wage increases which working people must have

give up oe e ends meet. Instead he is proposing that workers

Some an demand for wage increases this year in return for

Ment th of agreement with the bosses and their govern-
at prices and taxes would be modified.

Stru

ola is a typical social democratic proposition of class
Mine ae which to all practical purposes would under-
or’s struggles, and only causes confusion and division

amo :
NDP. 8 working people, especially those influenced by the

a ee striking thing about Mather’s article is that one
Contro] nk there was no such a thing as big monopolies who
their ee and interest rates, and maneouver them for
tsi ater profits. Corporation profits or a roll back of such

S not mentioned at all by Mather.
only gtributions such as these made by Lewis and Mather
» lelp the drive of reactionary employers and governments

lMpos
People € a wage freeze in one form or another on working

La oe

— must, in its own interests, reject completely the

50 sea to impose.a wage freeze on them. And they must
Ject advice which only weakens their fight and helps

bos

Workingman’s lament

When
th <7
And : € Cost of living has got you down,

ou

Please ae turns grey emitting a frown;
Use yoy é Consider much raise in your pay,

T you may raise the wrath of the C.L.R.A.

hey s
chy (bye

Cad hiring must also be scrapped,

In the pa : their gift which will be neatly wrapped;

AS they a of your unemployment insurance book,

w y Te and fire in every cranny and nook.
ith yo

You'}} ae to the grind as the speedup renews,

Ut We ho nning so much, you'll be needing new shoes:
ase Hae that your bowels don’t turn on the loose,

Th S company time, you'll be getting the noose.
ey sa
ether or ort man should be free to choose,

They’) fatt ot he pays Union dues:

"While pm. -¢" % profits like well cared hog.

m
- "an is reduced to dog-eat-dog. AR
—By A.h.

PROFITS UP 47%

B.C. Tel must be ordered
to roll back phone rates

The Board of Transport Com-
missioners in Ottawa should im-
mediately order the U.S.-owned
B.C. Telephone Company to roll
back rates to the public and give
phone users a rebate.

This action is one step Ottawa
can take to fight inflation
caused by excessive profiteer-
ing by big corporate monopolies
like B.C. Tel.

Last week the utility company
which has an almost exclusive
monopoly in B.C. announced
that its profits for the first
quarter of 1972 had gone up by 47
per cent over the same period of
1971. Actually profits had gone
up more. Earnings to share-
holders for the first three
months of this year had gone up
51 percent! ~

B.C. Tel is controlled by the
giant New York-based General
Telephone and Electronics
Corporation. It is also one of the
prime movers in the Employers
Council of B.C. For many years
the head of the company in B.C.,
J.E. Richardson has,been a
member of the Board of
Governors of the Employers
Council.

Last summer B.C. Tel was
granted a 2.5 percent general
rate increase by the Board of
Transport Commissioners
following hearings in Vancouver
at which scores of briefs and
hundreds of complaints were
heard opposing the rate
increase.

The utility monopoly had
asked for an across-the -board
rate increase of 15 percent,
claiming that unless it got it the
company would face a crisis.
Many of the briefs presented at
the hearings, notably those from
the B.C. Federation of Labor
and Communist Party, urged
that rather than grant an
increase the Board should order
a rebate to phone users.

Despite the protest the Board
granted the 2.5 percent rate
boost. Since the company rolled
up $53.7 million dollars in profit
or 47 percent — over the previous

ear, we can easily surmise
what the profits of this corpora-
tion would have been had it been
granted the full 15 percent boost

it sought.

The company openly
acknowledges its sharp rise in
profits is due to the rate boost
granted by the Board in 1971.
Business experts in Vancouver
predict that judging by the profit

\

&
: e

tL

ANNOUNCED

In a brief presented to the
City Council of North Van-
couver, the North Shore Club of
the Communist Party urged
North Vancouver Council to
instruct its delegates to the
forthcoming meeting of the
Union of B.C. Municipalities to
make representation to the Pro-
vincial government for an early
amendment to the Municipal
act to extend the vote to tenants
in all B.C. municipalities.

‘Whereas Vancouver City
Council has now extended the
vote to tenants on the basis of a
recent amendment in the Legis-

Ve

147% JUMP (

S37
North Shore CP urge

performance in the first three
months that the total take in
profits for the whole of 1972 will.
probably far exceed the 47
percent rolled up in the first
quarter of this year.

tenant vote

lature to the City Charter; and

whereas’ this democratic
principle is now established and
must inevitably come in all
municipalities if justice is to be
done; and whereas this right can
only be extended to tenants in
B.C. municipalities on the basis
of an amendment to the B.C.
Municipal Act; therefore be it
resolved that the North Shore
Club of the Communist Party
urgently requests that your
council make an immediate sub-
mission to the Provincial
Government for such an amend-
ment at the earliest oppor-
tunity,’’ says the brief.

Criminal charges needed not
new inquest says Indian chief

Chief of Annahim reserve
Doug Hance wants to see
criminal court action against
RCMP officers involved in the
Quilt case rather than a new
inquest.

Hance was commenting on
Attorney-General Peterson's
announcement that a new
inquest into the affair had been
called. He said “there is too
much suspicion surrounding the
RCMP up here because of the
unjust decision handed out at the
last inquest. I think a court case
is the only way — not only for
Indian people but people across
Canada. "~

Peterson's eXCuSe for calling
the new inquest after a long
period of “investigation” 1s that
there was a conflict of interest In

the personnel on the jury. ane :

other gross deficiencies which
marked the inquest held in
Williams Lake in January were
not mentioned as a reason for
calling a new inquest.

The Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs have demanded the
grounds for calling the new
inquest be expanded to include:
‘Insufficient evidence as to how
the injury was actually caused;
gaps in the evidence and insuffi-
cient evidence to explain many
of the actions of the police
surrounding the removal of
Fred Quilt from his truck and
their actions immediately follow-
ing.”

The Union of Chiefs says other
reasons for a widened base for
the inquest are ‘‘insufficient
explanation as to why the
deceased did not receive proper

RP Sa aN

“PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY'12; 1972=PAGE 3

medical attention and treat-
ment at the earliest possible
moment after having suffered
his severe and finally fatal
injury, and particularly as to
whether any responsibility
attaches with respect to this
question.”

A legal firm which includes
former M.P. Dave Fulton
presented the summary to the
chiefs after they had studied
transcrips of the Williams Lake
inquest, and this summary made
the specific recommendations
listed above.

In their letter to Attorney-
General Peterson, the Union of
Chiefs said there was a ‘‘basic
unfairness” running through the
inquest proceedings. An inquest
is not a trial but an investi-
gation.

Ll ee
Ae if

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