© rejecti
mmeotiatin Jecting

old line on rents,

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1974

enants urge gov't |

OPE-NDP

candidates —

egates to the Vancouver and District Labor Council Tuesday
threw labor’s support to the candidates of both the Com-
of Progressive Electors and the Vancouver Area Council of
NDP in the upcoming Vancouver civic elections.
ne executive motion to endorse the both half slates was ap-
ide by the delegates as a decisive step towards strengthening
‘Nofficial unity between the two civic groups. _ oe
irit of unity at the council was added to by NDP. alder-
didate Bill Francis, president of his Steelworkers’ Union
hen he announced to the meeting, ‘‘As the sixth candidate, I
D out of the race to secure the strongest possible labor

is’ announcement leaves

ith five alder

oe Te
nts, matching COPE’S half slate. ‘Lets have no bickerin
Nus,” he urged, ‘Our fire has to be aimed at TEAM and the —
The trade union movement has the power, we have the people

Can win this election.”

ff by Dave Werlin, secretary of. CUPE’s big Vancouver a
humerous delegates called on the VLC to get into the election _
| in a meaningful way. “Lets do more than pass —

the resources to do them.”
Tman Harry Rankin received prai

y things to be done an

‘On city council, but the labor council w :
on for granted. The warning came from
George Hewison. ‘‘There is going t

down to accomplish a complete retu

.llowing a 66 percent vote
Heting the latest company offer,
Sure Unting community

be latest round of talks began

waay, after the company

he _ [tS all-out campaign to

there ; {2vorable vote from
ail, Cominco operations in
Ve} 2!mo and Kimberley, who
Rejectin On strike since July 1.

‘ On by the workers of the
ete i. latest offer came as a
n Ow after the company

came, thousands of dollars in
8 ae: Cominco _ placed
Vertisements in local
empie® and sent circulars to
Vota ces in an attempt to get
the union
.'§ committee’s recom-
°n to turn the offer down.

is being made

* 2 settlement: The two
greed not to issue any
tatements until the talks
completed. But Monty
feel workers union

spokesman, said Monday “It’s
hard to say whether we'll be able to
wrap this up quickly, but we’re still
talking. We’re starting to get down
to the crunch. of the thing.”

One of the main issues is dispute
is retirement pensions. The union
has demanded that retirement at
the age of 55 after 30 years of
service but agreed to, but the
company’s latest offer was for
retirment with a full pension at 58
after 34 years of service.

It is also not known whether the
company has withdrawn two new
issues it injected in negotiations
before the last breakdown of talks.
The union rejected Comincos
proposals. These were that the
expiry date of the new agreement
by change from July 1 to the date of
signing a new agreement; and that
the union agree that workers at the
Kimberley concentrator go on

- continuous operation instead of the

present 5-2 schedule.

The company has attempted to
add to the pressure on the union to

settle by circulating reports that it

| See COMINCO, Pg. 12

SW caeet

Representatives from tenant,
labor, pensioners and community
organizations met last Saturday to
shape plans to intensify the
campaign for an extension in the
duration of the 8% Interim Rent
Stabilization Act. The groups there
determined to use every minute of
the day in the repeal of the Act
won by the B.C. Tenants
Organization following the meeting
last Wednesday with _ attorney-
general Alex MacDonald.

The B.C.T.O. sent a letter to
MacDonald requesting a meeting
with the provincial cabinet on
Wednesday, October 23 to present
evidence supporting the contention
that rents are already too high and

that the government should launch.

a massive; non-profit housing
construction program.

The letter urged that no decision
be made on a new allowable rent
increase until after the October 23
meeting.

Plans were also made for a mass
lobby of several hundred tenants to

- accompany those meeting with the

cabinet. :

Massive evidence to support the
tenants’ contention that rents are
already too high is presently being
compiled by a team of professional
economists, researchers and
computer experts and requests
have been’ made to the government
and the rentalsman for assistance
to carry out the research.

The B.C.T.O. has also asked that
the A-G and the -rentalsman
release Professor Cragg’s report to
the rentalsman as well as the

Tribune

VOL. 36, No. 39

report compiled by Woods Gordon,
management: consultants, of
landlord selected operating costs,
in order that effective rebuttal can
be made.

The Saturday meeting moved to
establish a committee of tenants
from all over the Lower Mainland

'to seek a meeting with Lower
Mainland NDP MLA’s sometime
before the October 23 lobby.

Of central importance in the
tenants’ drive is the petition
campaign which has already
succeeded in collecting more than
3,000 signatures in the three weeks
since it was launched. The B.C.-
T.O. is aiming at some 25,000 by
October 18. (See petition form,
page 12). A

Representatives at Saturday’s
meeting pointed out that even the
one month effective delay won in
the repeal of the 8% limitation has
saved tenants in the province some
$1,000,000 and urged increasing
pressure to have the government
maintain the Act. é

Tenants hoped to get some action
from Vancouver city council
Tuesday night ona notice of motion
presented by Alderman Harry
Rankin at the previous meeting,
calling on the council to urge
continuation of the 8% limitation
and for the city to set up its own

rent review board. But TEAM ~

council members, most of whom
were. opposed to the motion but
- feared the effect of their opposition
on the impending election, argued
that it had been deferred in-
definitely, and refused to debate it.

- Indian

Morgan protests

CP’‘name misuse —

Reacting to news broadcasts that
demonstrators on
Parliament Hill were “led by a
group of white radicals — mem-
bers of the Communist Party’,

Nigel-Morgan, provincial leader of

the Communist Party declared
that the charges ‘‘are completely
false.” He stated that protests are
being made to the media and legal
steps are being considered to
prevent any further misuse of the
Party’s name.

Morgan pointed out that the
Maoists — who were the members
of the Communist Party referred
to in the news reports — were ‘‘just
another example of the ‘crazies’
misuring our name to confuse the
public and to make a caricature of
our movement’s 50 years of con-
structive contributions to
Canadian political life.

‘“‘No members of the Communist
Party were involved in this sen-
seless confrontation, even though
we support the just demands of the
Indian people and condemn un-
necessary police brutality,’ he
said. :

Does Block Bros. need rent boost?

Company earning reports

Block Bros. profit up 37 pet.

Net earnings of Block Bros.

Although the company’s

Ltd. rose by 31 per cent to

~ and its subsidiary, imbassy

Industries Lid, rose 37 per
cent in the six months ended
July 31, 1974, to $2.109,296. or
33 cents a share, from $1.528.-
142. or 24 cents a share. a
vear earlier.

Gross revenues climbed 47
per cent to $36,015,000 from
$24,510,008 a year earlier.

Arthur J. Block, chairman,
said volume of real estate
sales fell sharply in the May-
July period, reflecting higher
mortgage interest rates, cred-

it tightening and increased un-

ent which “have

onfidence “of in-

brokerage income has_ suf-
fered from these trends, earn-
ings from the investment and
mortgage divisions continue to
improve, Block said. Over-all
earnings for the full year are

. expected to be slightly lower

than last year. when Block
Bros. earned $4.1 million. or
65 cents a Share.

The firm's chairpran said

costs, are continuing to in-

crease, except in a few afeas
such as lumber prices. High
demand for housing continues
and with the drastic drop in
new housing starts. combine

g costs. “it is

$88.8 million in the six months
ended July 31, 1974. the com-
pany announced in a report on
unaudited first-half results.

‘Net earnings were up 15 per
cent to $1.690.564. or 21 cents
a share, from $1.470,206, or 18
cents, a year earlier,

In the company’s. retail

drug division in Western Can:

ada, sales climbed 34.8 per
cent to $27.7 million, while
these operations produced a
net profit of $24,900 against a
loss of $59,499 in the six
months to July 31, 1973.

Dr Sr

Cleaners. :

There are now 216 retail
outlets in the cumpany's Shop,
pers Drug Mart chain.

~ Bad Boy
TORONTO 1CP: — Bud Bos
Appliances and Furniture Ltd:
is about to undertake the larg-

est Expansion program in its

history.

Mel Lastmun, Bad Boy
president, told the anual
shareholders’ meeting the

firm will ope

The above item appeared in the financial pages of Vancouver newspapers Monday. It reports that net
_ earnings of B.C.’s largest real estate company, Block Bros., rose 37 percent in the six months ending July 31,