Kamloops labor
votes to oppose

uranium mining

KAMLOOPS — The Royal
Commission into uranium mining
in B.C., headed by Dr. David
Bates, rolled into Kamloops Mon-
day where it was met with a bar-
rage of opposition to the contro-
versial uranium mine development
at Birch Island.

Among those opposing the ex-
pansion of uranium mining was
the Kamloops and District Labor
Council which had the week be-
fore gone on record as ‘‘opposing
any further uranium mining until
adequate research can be done to
ensure the safety of the commun-
ity and the whole question of nuc-
lear energy and waste disposal is
resolved by scientific advance.
ment.”’

The Labor Council resolution
went on to call for a redirection by
all levels of government towards
“‘softer alternative energy
sources”’ such as wind and solar
energy.

In other business before the
KLC, the delegates unanimously
endorsed a resolution calling on
the new Tory government to halt
the deportation of Chilean refugee
Galindo Madrid and to grant him
political asylum in Canada. The
council sent $50 to Madrid’s de-
fence fund.

Committee to
fight exports

of B.C. salmon

PRINCE RUPERT — The
United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union, the Amalgamat-
ed Shoreworkers and Clerks Un-
Vion and the Native Brotherhood

(/ PROVINCIAL NOTES

=~

have joined in a ‘“‘salmon export’
committee’’ to stop the large scale
diversion ‘of B.C. salmon to the
frozen export market this sum-
mer, a move which could cost
more than 500 northern shore-
worker jobs.

UFAWU northern organizer
Joy Thorkelson said last week that
the salmon export committee. has
elected representatives from every
fish processing plant in Prince Ru-
pert in addition to representatives
from the ASCU and the Brother-.
hood.

Unionists stop

Rayonier plan

PORT McNEILL — Strong
protests from the North Island
Labor Council and CUPE Local
2045 last week succeeded in hav-
ing the Pesticide Control Appeal
Board on the north end of Van-
couver Island remove the authori-
ty of Rayonier Canada to use her-
bicides around water bodies and
wetland areas.

Rayonier had earlier received a
permit to use extensive amount of
the herbicide 2,4-D to control al-
der growth in its conifer planta-
tions.

North Island Labor Council
secretary Doug Cameron protest-
ed the permit to the appeal board,
claiming that the herbicide was a
danger to workers’ health. The
levels of 2,4-D used are danger-
ous, Cameron contended, and no
medical assistance or means to de-
contiminate personnel are avail-
_able.

If Rayonier had a proper forest
management program, the use of
2,4-D would not be necessary,
Cameron said, but even now there
are alternatives. ‘‘In times of high |
unemployment, the use of labor as'
a method of alder control should
be a top priority,’’ he said. y,

forced into strike action.

C. > GOVERNMENT! EMPLOYEES U

eae from the podium at the BCGEU convention = iings general secretary John Fryer warned
the Socred government not to underestimate the militancy of the 37,000 strong public sector union

—Fred Wilson phot?

BCGEU convention prepares
for possible strike this fall

Continued from page 1
1977 the liquor control board had
been picked as the prime target
group, but the paper noted that the
government was prepared for a

strike there and left the prime target’

groups for this year unmentioned.

Later in an interview Fryer said
that it would likely be early in
September before a strike vote
would be held, although strike ac-
tion could follow very quickly. If
forced into a position of striking,
the target groups could be switched
off in rotating fashion, or they

could be pulled one after another to
escalate the ,overall size of the
strike. If the strike escalated, about
10,000 union members could be on
the picket line, he said.

The BCGEU will be going after a
‘“‘keep up’’ wage increase and a
COLA clause in a two year agree-
ment. To keep up with the cost of
living, wage increases of 10 percent
a year are called for, Fryer agreed,
and those kind of increases would
be exceptional for a public sector
union and substantially ahead of

Eckardt Commision an NPA ‘hatchet job’
Don't need any Shahs in Vancouver

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The so-called Government
Review Commission, established by
mayor Jack Volrich to consider a
ward system and other matters, was
set up by the NPA to do a hatchet
job on the whole concept of a ward
system and to supply the NPA with
the necessary arguments.

No commission is needed to find
out how people feel about a ward
system; that was settled last
November when a majority voted in
favor of it. Nor has this NPA-
dominated city council any man-

date from the voters to consider
changes in the length of term of of-
fice of aldermen, the frequency of
elections, the qualifications one
must have to be a candidate and the
role and powers of the mayor.

If the NPA wanted changes in
any of these matters it should have
raised them in the last election cam-
paign, not try to sneak them in the
back door now.

There’s no doubt in my mind that
our mayor would like more power
to make personal and unilateral
decisions about city business

Wage re-opener pact
basis of ILWU vote

Continued from page 1

cost of living exceeded 20 percent in
the first two years.

It would also give longshoremen
the right to strike, a necessary pro-
vision to give the clause any
significance.

The agreement earlier proposed
had provided for a cost of living
clause which would be triggered
-when the cost of living exceeded 17
percent in the first two years of the
contract.

The COLA Gh and the wage
increases—90 cents an hour in each
of the three years—as well as the
other provisions remain the same in
the proposed agreement which went
before longshoremen this week.
The only addition is the re-opener
clause.

The new provision was worked
out in consultation with federal

mediator Bill Kelly who was sent by
Tory labor minister Lincoln Alex-
ander to intervene in the strike.

The ILWU had set_up picket lines
Monday, June 4 after federal con-
ciliator Justice Henry Hutcheon
had failed to recommend anything
other than a further vote on the
same contract proposal which had
earlier been rejected.

Hanging over the last-minute
mediation was an imminent
possibility of a recall of Parliament
and back-to-work legislation, the
course taken by the former Liberal
government in the West Coast
strike in March 1975.

The four Western premiers, in-
cluding Bill Bennett and Saskat-
chewan premier Allan Blakeney
sent telegrams last week to prime
minister Joe Clark calling on him to
take action to end the dispute. (

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 15, 1979—Page 2

aid

without the consent of council or
the public, such as appointing com-
mittees and being given veto power
over council decisions. As far as
I’m concerned the anwer is: No
way. We don’t need any Nixons or
Shahs in Vancouver. Any mayor
who wants such powers must be
suffering from delusions of
grandeur.

I’m quite sure that the mayor and
the NPA also want to place restric-
tions on who may run for public of-
fice, such as substantial financial
deposits. The aim would be to limit
candidates to those with money. We
would have democracy on ability to
pay; the wealthier you are, the more
democracy you get.

I don’t think Vancouver voters
want any of that.

The mayor and the NPA soula
also like to see their terms of office
extended to three or four years. But
I think an increasing number of
voters want the right to retire them
for good next year, and the right to
change city council every two years
if they turn out to be developer-
oriented instead of people oriented.

As for the ward system, the main
opposition to it comes from the
NPA and its corporate backers.
They want to keep the at large elec-
tion system because it gives them
the advantage. When the whole city
with 420,000 people is turned into
one constituency it takes an awful
lot of money to conduct an election
campaign and reach all the voters,
well over $100,000. The NPA with
corporate financial backing has that
kind of money, but citizen groups

- do not.

The NPA keeps trotting out the
old argument that a ward system
will lead to corruption. Assuming
that they would still try to elect a
majority in a ward system, they

can’t have much faith in their
elected people.

They never define corruption but
after listening to them for many
long and boring years, I know what
they are afraid of. They fear, and
rightly so, that aldermen elected
from wards will be under pressure
from the people who elected them
to fight in Council for im-
provements for their wards. And if
aldermen should agree that more
money be spent in the communities,
there will be less available to give to
the developers in the form of sub-
sidies. That’s what worries NPA.

Establishing wards will not result
automatically in the election of a
reform majority to council as the
NPA charges. It won’t make it any
easier for COPE candidates to be
elected.

What it will do is bring civic
government closer to the people.
Voters in the wards will personally
get to know their candidates. They
will know their récords. They can
call their aldermen to account,
make them report back to the wards
and account for their activities. A
ward alderman would have a ward
office where people can go and see
him about their problems.

Most important of all, a ward
system will enable every area of the
city to be directly represented on
Council, not just the west side as
has always been the case under the
NPA, and even under TEAM too.

A partial ward system, such as
advocated by TEAM, would solve
nothing. This proposal is really aim-
ed at undermining the whole idea of
a ward system. It’s a second line of
retreat for those who know the
voters want wards but who want to
subvert their will.

The city can’t be half pregnant
wards. We need a full ward system.

average industrial settlements 4
well. The BCGEU won’t have 10
trailblaze all by itself, Fryer added,
as the IWA can be expected to will
substantial wage increases from thé
forest industry this summer.

Earlier in his speech to the col
vention Fryer cited statements fro™
government ministers and thé
presence of the new Government!
Employees Relations Bureal
(GERB) set up ‘‘to ride herd of
public sector bargaining’ 4
evidence of the inflexible bargall’
ing position of the government.

In spite of a provincial gover
ment surplus of $65 million — a
cient to pay salary increases of !
percent for all employees — thé
government has publicly state
“time after time that they are nd!
concerned about the shrinking p4Y
cheques of their employees,”’ he
said.

In May, the union attempted t@
secure a cost of living increas?
under the terms of the existing CO”
lective agreement, but were refus
any increase at all by government
negotiators.

There are also indications that
the GERB negotiators will >¢
demanding roll backs in existins
terms and conditions, Fryer watt
ed. Expected targets for the gover”
ment are the union’s fully paid den”
tal plan, its.right to refuse overtim®
its right to cross picket lines; thé
two-year no layoff clause, and col”

‘ tracting out provisions.

a

@ ‘
Action plan
Continued from pg. 1

struction of new processing plants,
Strict controls on the export ?
frozen sockeye and pink salmon? a
ensre that frozen exports do not &*
ceed 1978 levels. 4
The board reiterated its ‘demaa
for the nationalization of fis
companies which refuse to prot!
B.C. jobs or uphold the Cana
national interest. P
The union plans to follow uP th
lobby to Victoria with meeting,
with the new Conservative fedet f
government and with officials °
the federal department of fishe®
and the provincial marine resou
branch. the
“We don’t believe that he
Fisheries Association owns
fishing industry, that tender™
and shoreworkers own the inde
or that fishermen own id
UFAWU president Jack Nichol ia
the board. ‘‘It’s a common reso
and we have to look at the 9°
thing for the people of Canada-

pa AIS SIO ES ee