4 _ Friday, August 22, 1975 F pp 48 l5c VOL. 37, No. 34 SS Mike Gidora photo B.C. Sugar Refinery .. . $93% million profit in six months. she Vancouver and District per Council joined with the weed Fishermen and. Allied : orkers Union Tuesday evening in ndemning the use of injunctions labor disputes. Delegates to the regular council jeeting gave unanimous approval 4 motion by UFAWU secretary- €asurer Jack Nichol to lodge the : yuncil’s protest with Labor Inister Bill King. , “Injunctions are flying thick and ig in a province where they are ‘upposed to be a thing of the past,” Nichol exclaimed. ‘The courts are Erne a farce out of the Labor e,”” : The UFAWU had been served th four injunctions last week as i. moved into the 12th week of ir strike against the Fisheries “Ssociation. Two of. the in- ‘netions, served against picketing St Shellfish and Oakland In- dustries fish plants on Vancouver SAE 4 | YFAWU VOTING ON OFFER VLC blasts injuncti Island that are receiving and processing scab salmon from the Pacific Trollers Association, were “ex-parte’’ injunctions. The other injunctions were served to prevent picketing of the -vessel ‘‘Golden Harvest’’ for violating a union agreement with the Vessel Owners Association and to prevent picketing at the Central - Native Co-op in Bella Bella. Nichol described the Co-op, formerly. Milbanke Industries, as a “front for the Marubeni Corporation of Japan.” Marubeni transformed their subsidiary into an “instant co-op” to continue marketing fish during the strike. Noting labor minister King’s statements to the effect that he was concerned over the use of in- junctions but was powerless to prevent them due to federal jurisdiction over labor relations in the fishing industry, Nichol blasted the minister’s comments as “so much nonsense.” = PORTUGAL ‘Fascist violence — threatens freedom — “ —Pgs. 3,7 | Ons “Tt is not federal jurisdiction,” he said. “‘A labor dispute is a labor dispute. And even if it was federal, it is a provincial court issuing the - injunctions. I suggest that the “minister had better read his own Labor Code and get this NDP government off its rear to assert their jurisdiction over labor matters in B.C.” Nichol told the council that UFAWU members will be voting for the fourth time on a one-year company offer even though “there is nothing néw on the table.” The offer has been rejected twice by fishermen in previous votes and then a third time when included in a two-year deal. Nichols said that it is “up to the membership if we are to lose the season.” In other council business delegates were informed of a boycott against certain General Foods products. About 500 members of the Canadian Food Allied Workers Union have been on strike against the giant multina- tional food monopoly in LaSalle, Quebec for 12 weeks. Previous to the strike, the LaSalle plant produced all coffee products for General Foods. Trade unionists are urged not to purchase Maxwell House, Yuban, Sanka, Brim or Maxim brand coffees. Also on the unfair list with labor are a number of cabarets in the Vancouver area who have thrown musicians out of work to go “discoteque.” A rep from the - Musicians Union listed Sugar Daddy’s, Valentino’s, Harry C’s, Mr. Pips and Ken Stauffer’s Lulu Belle as cabarets on the unfair list. The B.C. Sugar Refinery is making huge profits by over- charging its customers and is operating what amounts to a “virtual monopoly” in B.C. and made last week by the Food Prices Review Board in Ottawa. Outside of releasing its statement of facts on the shocking state of affairs in the sugar in- dustry by the Board’s chairman, Beryl Plumptre, there was no indication that Ottawa intends to do anything about it, except talk. The statement by the Board came only one day after B.C. Sugar announced that the wholesale price of sugar would be increased by another $1 bringing the price for 100 pounds to $29.70. It stood at $24.10 a month ago. Utilizing its monopoly position, B.C. Sugar, while denying their workers who have been on strike for nine weeks, a decent wage in- crease, have charged the public all the traffic will bear. B.C. Sugar is one of the worst examples of monopoly profiteering in the food industry. It has been one of the major contributors to soaring food prices, which has given Vancouver the distinction of having the highest food prices of any major city in North America. Not only has the price of sugar to consumers gone up drastically, but the cost of all food manufacturing in which sugar is involved has shot up drastically. Since 1974 many manufacturers and food chains boosted the cost of their products to consumers on the excuse that the international price of sugar had. gone up. Thus, the monopoly- rigged high price of sugar found its’ reflection throughout the food industry. © In November, 1974 the world price of sugar reached its highest point at 65 cents a pound. Since then the price of sugar has dropped drastically to 26 cents a pound on Despite huge profits, B.C. Sugar has refused to give its workers a decent Western Canada. This charge was . Excessive profits boost food prices March 31 of this year. Despite this sharp decline in the world price of sugar, the price of sugar continues to go up, and all food manufac- turers who raised prices on the excuse of high world prices, have retained their higher prices. The sugar monopoly, the food processors and supermarkets have retained high sugar prices through monopoly price fixing arrangements in which the con- ‘sumer is ripped off, while super profits are maintained. As the only sugar refinery in B.C., which also holds a monopoly position in Western Canada, the B.C. Sugar Refinery has been able to capitalize on the situation at the expense of the consuming public: profits of the company nearly doubled in the six munths period ending March 31, 1975. A financial statement issued a few weeks ago showed that in the See SUGAR pg. 7 ‘Scrap office of Rentalsman’ Bruce Yorke, president of the British | Columbia Tenants Organization, has once again called upon the provincial government to,‘‘scrap the office of the Rentalsman.” Yorke made his demands while giving an oral ‘presentation on behalf of the BCTO to aspecial study group of the Rent Review Commission. The study group is conducting public hearings into all aspects of rental housing and will make recom- mendations to the provincial government after its hearings are complete.. The BCTO will present a written brief to-the study group Aug. 27 in the final hearing, which will be covered in the Tribune. wage and contract. Sugar workers have been locked out for more than nine weeks. |