SMA At fy LI LLL Jo io COPE fields strong slate — for November election Continued from pg. 1 received from the reform last election with 40 percent more movement which has often “‘filled votes than his nearest opponent. the galleries to support you, and In accepting nomination Rankin More important to support your planner Sol Jackson are also said that unlike TEAM and NPA _ ideas.” strong aldermanic candidates, and aldermen he knew where he stood Both Rankin and Yorke hit on all have a good shot at a on major city issues because his taxesasamaincampaignissuefor council seat. West end activists policies ‘‘correspond with the COPE. Yorke said that COPE will Paul Murphy and Joe Arnaud policies of COPE.” “campaign for a real tax revolt ... round out the council slate. Rankin credited his strength on against the calculated program of | COPE’s school board slate is also council to the support he has theprovincialgovernmenttodump strong with Irene Foulks having se every conceivable cost on to the the best chance for election. Foulks _ the past two years. Schreck, DERA officers Libby Davies and Jean Swanson, and DAVID SCHRECK ... . Former municipalities which are the least able to pay.”’ Victoria contributes only seven percent of education costs in Vancouver, he said, while For the first time in years, Rankin added, business is almost paying its share of property taxes in Vancouver, but mayor Jack Volrich wants to turn the clock back and reduce industry’s taxes in order to make the city more attractive to industry. ‘‘We want business here,’ Rankin replied, “But not riding on the taxpayer’s backs.” On the request of the Vancouver and District Labor Council, COPE it boasts of a surplus of $14 million. | accepted nomination in her ab- sence Sunday but indicated that she may have to pull out of the race for health reasons. Other school board candidates include COPE education committee chairperson Polly Weinstein, BCTF staffperson Wes Knapp and B.C. Home and School vice-president Betty Greenwell. Mike Chrunik, an electrician, union organizer Helen O’Shaughnessy and law student Connie Fogal are the others run- ning for school board. With negotiations apparently underway with a number of potential COPE candidates, the meeting decided to leave two spots ., agreed to nominate only. eight on the school board slate and two pea manager seeks council candidates for aldermen, leaving on the parks board slate vacant, two spots open. The meeting stopped short, however, of actually endorsing aldermen Mike Har- court and Darlene Marzari who presumably would fill the other two spots, as both Harcourt and Marzari have compromised themselves by endorsing TEAM mayoralty candidate May. Brown. The eight alermanic candidates are, however, perhaps’ the strongest ever for COPE with some of the candidates having a good chance of joining Rankin on council. COPE’s leading contender for another council seat is un- doubtedly Bruce Eriksen, the but the executive has the authority to nominate in the extra spots. The five parks board candidates include social worker and parks board committee chairperson Pat Wilson, lawyer David Stone, unionist Glyn Thomas, Doug Laalo and Peter Marcus. COPE intends to run a $45,000 campaign, it was announced, anda collection at the meeting raised $4,000 to kick off the fund raising drive. An election headquarters has been open for some weeks, located at 1588 Commercial Drive at Gravely Street, Vancouver. Pa president of veteran campaigner is running Who polleda strong vote in 1976 and for the fourth time. f there were any last lingering doubts that those who control the municipal councils in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Richmond were concerned about the plight of jobless workers who stand to be disentitled by the latest changes to the Unemployment Insurance Act, those doubts would have to be dispelled by the council’s latest action — or rather lack of it — on a request from the” city’s trade unionists. The Vancouver and District Labor Council sent letters out to the four municipal councils in its jurisdiction emphasizing the injustice of the UI cuts and asked that the councils voice their opposition to the federal minister, Bud Cullen. The response? A collective yawn. All four councils moved only to “receive and file.’’ The clerk from West Vancouver assured the VLC that the request for action would be given “‘careful consideration” but the letter was written after the council had voted — to do nothing — on the matter. For its part, the VLC moved to receive the councils’ letters “with regret’’ — and added a_ pointed reminder to trade unionists to take appropriate ac- tion in the November 15 civic election. * * * ae! weeks ago, as readers may recall, we commented on the appearance in a number of newspapers of advertisements inserted by a group calling itself DARE: :the name purporting to sym- bolize the organization’s self-righteous protest over “discrimination against the rights of employees.’” The group was insisting that Decker Lake Forest Products at Burns Lake had been cerified without a majority and was demanding new restrictions in labor legislation which would make representation votes mandatory for every union certification ap- plication. : After the ads had run in the Vancouver Sun a couple of times — at about $500 a throw — we called the International Woodworkers of America who con- firmed our suspicions that if DARE was not a right- to-work association, it was a distinction that only the group itself would make. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 6, 1978—Page 2 SOL JACKSON ...Plannerand Eastside Residents Association, has led numerous campaigns over PEOPLE AND ISSUES the Downtown Campaign manager Joyce Andres has asked that all those willing to work in the campaign drop into the office or phone 251-2446. What-we didn’t know until just this week, with the release of the IWA’s organization report, is that DARE was unfortunately successful in its campaign to force a decertification at Decker Lake Forest Products. And the way in. which that objective was accomplished makes it pretty clear that the group not only had the active support of employers — but their money as well. The so-called ‘‘dissident”” employees at the mill first hired themselves a Prince George lawyer, William Hibbard, who set about his job with a vengeance. Ads — some of them were as large as half a page in the bigger newspapers — appeared throughout the province and a lobby to Victoria was - organized to meet with the Socreds. The employer even obliged when the dissidents set up a picket lone by shutting down the mill for three days (strange there was no application for a cease and desist or- der). Finally, both the company and the dissidents ‘applied to the Labor Relations Board for decer- tification — and got it. - But Hibbard also appeared at yet another mill in the area — Dunkley Lumber Ltd. — this time to collect signatures on a petition calling on the LRB to cancel the certification and conduct a representation vote. The appeal was rejected and the certification still holds but Hibbard and DARE are still clamoring for new labor code restrictions. And given the Socreds’ predilection for anti-labor legislation, there are undoubtedly a good many government members listening very closely. oe * * Ok i W: have a note from the organizers of the Van- couver School for Labor and Social Sciences telling us that the response for the upcoming seminar on October 14 and 15 has been more than expected with close to sixty participants registered for the series of four lectures. They assure us, however, for any of you who neglected to put the form into the mail in time for last week’s deadline, that they’ll do everything possible to accommodate any late registrants. Top: COPE alderman Harry Rankin and aldermanic candidate Brucé Eriksen talk over issues; Bottom: the 300 COPE members that jam- med Sunday's nominating meeting. — Sean Griffin photos Hotels rattle Volrich’s chains on trade centre By ALD. HARRY RANKIN I support the building of a:trade convention centre in Vancouver on the Vancouver waterfront, but on certain conditions. Before I give my reasons I’d like to say that the reasons being ad- vanced by economic minister Don Phillips, tourism minister Grace McCarthy, mayor jumping Jack Volrich and others — to the effect that they support it because it is good for Canada, it will help the balance of payments problem, support the sagging dollar and so on, are a lot of crap. The reason they want a trade convention centre is because it will be good for the profits of private business, and private business, and its political spokesmen want the convention centre built with public funds and its operating costs subsidized out of public funds. In . other words, they want all the gravy and the homeowners of the city must foot all the bills. I support the trade convention centre because it means about 500 to 1,000 jobs during its construction and several hundred jobs at least, after it’s finished. I support it also because I think a convention and trade centre would be a good thing for a Pacific port city like Van-- couver. It will also lead to several other developments including a cruise ship facility and a trade centre. That’s why I made a motion in city council, which passed, that Vancouver contribute $5 million to the construction costs. But my motion also stipulated that the city will not be the owner, that the city will not pay the operating deficits and that the building will be taxed in the same was as any other business. The centre should be owned and operated by a separate and in- dependent body. The annual deficit will be at least in the neighbourhood of $500,000 a year. come to about $700,000. It will cost The annual property taxes would | all of that to service this building — _ police and fire protection, the increased costs brought about by the huge amount of traffic it will engender, servicing it with water, sewers, etc. should also mention that it will cost about $2.5 million for street improvement to provide tran- sportation access to the centre. Who will put up the money has not been decided, but the city is being pressured to pay at least half. Tourism minister Grace Mc _ Carthy doesn’t know what she’s | talking about when she says that all convention centres are own and run by the cities. The Toronto centre is not run by the city — 4 special body was established t0 administer it. ES The deficits and taxes should be put up by the business interests that will directly benefit from the trade convention centre — starting with the hotel and tourist industry and the provincial and federal — governments who will derive 4 — great deal of tax revenue from thé project. Mayor jumping Jack Volrich who says the main plank in his civic election platform will be — “fiscal responsibility” wants the — city to cover the deficits and exempt the centre from taxes. He is giving us a good example of what he means. — cut services to the — poor (cut grants to organizations — like the Downtown Eastside Residents Association who only asked for but were refused a0 additional $24,000) and at the same time use taxpayers’ money 0 subsidize private industry to the — tune of well over one million 4 — year, as in the case of the con vention centre. | The mayor says he will raise the _ matter in council again and try an@ have my motion rescinded. You — don’t have to think twice as tO — who’s rattling his chain. .