e vate ‘No’ os giactlay. shopping a : 7 : . - Labor’s 40-hour week in danger The six-day shopping plebiscite is the only issue on which all Van- city revenue from the airport will exceed the proposed sale price. Estimated airport is sold present employees will suffer a 25 percent cut in wages. Vancouver City Council wants to sell the airport for $1,000,000 to the federal government, despite the fact that in eight years profits for this year will be in excess of $130,000. df the couver voters, property owners and non-owners, will be able to vote on June 23. Big business is counting on a low mid-summer vote and the dis- franchising of 40,000 tenants (whose names will be on. the new voters list prior to the December civic elections) to push through its plan to scuttle Wednesday clos- ing. : Every progressive citizen en- titled to vote June 23 should go to the polls and vote “No” on the six- day proposal. Promises made by supporters of the six-day shopping week that the 40-hour work week will be guaran- teed will not stand examination. « | The hoax was exposed by Bert Price, Social Credit member for Burrard, who pointed out that the six-day shopping week would be introduced by a city bylaw, which would make it impossible for the provincial government to enforce the five-day work week “guaran- tee.” ; The city has no apparatus for enforcing the 40-hour week in thousands of large and small es- tablishments. ’ Experience in cities in the Unit- ed States where the six-day shop- ping week was introduced show that retail clerks have suffered cuts in take-home pay; in many stores half the staff had changed Airport making money, Poor turnout aim from full time to part time em- ployees. The argument that the six-day week means more employment is a false one; in the main it will mean of big business Big business interests are banking on less than 40,000 cit- zens, only 25 percent of the registered voters, turning out to vote June 23. Such a low turn- out might enable them to put across their schemes for the six- stagger shifts. Return to the Wednesday open- ing would be a backward step for Vancouver. It would open the door to attack on the 40-hour week for all workers. It is vital for the welfare of our city that progressive citizens go to the polls June 23 and defeat the Ro wit keep it? SO why not keep it? 1 Vancouver City Council, dominated by the Non-Partisan Association, is proposing that the muni- _ cipally-owned airport be sold to the federal government for $1,000,000. This move has been opposed by both labor councils, many independent unions, Civic Reform Association, Labor-Progressive party, and 1: Birt Showler, chairman of the airport committee. -. In the June 23 plebiscite citizens should vote “No” on the proposal to sell the airport. Here are There is no need for the city to sell the property to the BCE . The company originally ask- ed for an extension of its lease, and would certainly do so again if the proposed sale is rejected. Threat of the BCE to “move : its depot” if the city does not sell it the property is an obvi- ous bluff, tried once before. Last October the BCE said its “highest offer” was $292,000 and threatened ‘to move to New Westminster if its _ offer was not accepted. It wasn’t, but instead of moving the company now offers $430,000, which is still a ridiculously low figure. _ The BCE has spent $400,000 on a bus depot at Larwill Park; it will not be prepared to make another investment of that size when it can go on leasing the property. 3 Sale of Larwill Park for : $430,000 would be a fire-sale disposal of an extremely valuable city property. In 1946 the BCE and the city signed an agreement for a 10-year lease at annual rental of $10,000, at the end of which time the property ,including any build- ings the company might erect, BCE tries bluff to ‘steal’ Larwill Park ; issues involved in the proposed sale of Larwill Park are very simple and straightforward despite attempts of the B.C. Electric to confuse the public.. A brief examination of the salient points should - eonvinee all progressive citizens to vote “No” on the proposed sale, _ which will be decided in a plebiscite June 23. would revert to the city. Annual rental is less than what the tax on the land alone would have come to last year. The lease is now near expiry and the BCE is trying to renege on the agreement, arguing that a bus depot is of no use to the city, and that $430,000 is the company’s top offer. This closely resembles black- mail; legally and morally the city has every right to hold the BCE to its original agreement. The land was valued last year at $470,000 and is now estimated to be worth at least $600,000 (the nearby site for the new Post Office was sold to Ottawa for more than $606,000). The depot building is worth $400,000, raising the total value of the property to over $1,000,000. If Larwill Park is to be sold, it should be sold at its full price. In the event of the city operating it own transit system at some future date, such a property would be very valuable. In any case the site is useful for many @ The airport is a paying pro- position; profits for 1954 will be in excess of $130,000. At this rate day shopping week, sale of Lar- will Park and the airport. schemes of big business and the NPA-dominated city council. city revenue would exceed the pro- posed sale price within eight years. ® In 1952 when the airport was barely paying its way council of- fered to sell it for $2,175,000. Now that it is making money council proposes to sell it for only $1,000,- 000! ® Vancouver’s experience with placing facilities under the federal government is an unhappy one. Vancouver harbor is run by Ot- tawa; there has been no expansion program, and help for fireboats and a circling highway to serve the port has been refused. ® Council argues that Ottawa would develop the airport. But Transport Minister Lionel Chevier told council in a letter May 11 that Ottawa would “accept no responsi- bility for construction or mainten- ance of highway facilities, includ- ing bridges giving access to the airport.” i ® If the airport as sold to the federal. government, present em- ployees will be faced with a 25 per- cent cut in wages. ; ae Rose garden for Lidice LONDON The Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Wales are among sponsors of a scheme to establish an English rose garden at Lidice, Czech mining village wiped out by Hitler on June 10, 1943. Barnett Stross, Labor MP, said: “The new village of Lidice Issa place of pilgrimage. We want to establish a rose garden there that purposes. f will be worth a special journey to see.” ENB~ On Wednesday Opening GF On Sale of Larwill Park EME On Sale. of Airport a small vote . The Big-Business NPA Council : “When you vote June 23 -- vote -for what is best for Vancouver” ‘NE~ On $2,000,000 Sewer By-law—vVote “YES” —Vote “NO” —Vote “NO” —Vote “NO” is counting on BE SURE YOU VOTE ON JUNE 23° y Civic Reform Association — 5038 Sherbrooke _ St. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 18, 1954 — PAGE 10