Hsinhua,

Solzhenitsyn's anti-Soviet slanders. Above, U.S. Dai

development.

the official Maoist press agency, in an article broadcast throughout China last week, echoed

ly World cartoonist Bill Andrews, gives his reaction to that

LABOR SCENE

Textile workers on strike
at woollen mill sweatshop

Workers at West Coast Woollen
Mills, members of the Textile
Workers of America, launched
their first strike January 17 after
_the company refused to bargain
further on union wage demands
of $1.00 an hour over two years.

Wages presently paid at the
Vancouver. plant are reminiscent
of those paid in sweatshops a
generation ago. Many of the
some-130 workers earn $2.37 an
hour — only pennies above the
minimum wage — and the
highest paid only get $3.46 an
hour — and that for a skilled job.

The plant comprises the only .

local of the union in’B.C.
although the Textile Workers of
America has several thousand
members in the eastern
provinces.

’ The final offer of the company
— which is reportedly owned by
Canadian Forest Products —
amounted to some 75 cents over
two years but Helen Irwin, presi-
dent of the local and a plant
worker herself, pointed out that
“these are very skilled workers
and the wages are pathetic for
the skills involved.

“This strike is absolutely
necessary,’’ she said. We’re
better off pushing brooms. And
we're going to stay out till the
company sees it our way.”’

** *

Delegates to the New West-
minster and District Labor Coun-
cil last week unanimously
adopted ‘a six-point program to
deal with the energy crisis in this
country. The program — to be
forwarded to the Canadian Labor
Congress for immediate action —
was presented by Rod Doran,
newly-reelected chairman of the
Legislative committee of the
council.

The program included the
following recommendations:

e That the CLC demand the
federal government place Cana-
dian oil and gas and other energy
resources and industries under
public ownership.

e That the federal government
halt increases in exports of oil
and gas until Canadian needs are
met.

e That the federal government
build an east-west publicly-
owned pipeline along an all-

Woodworkers

Cont'd from pg. 1

Bureau of the Communist Party
stressed that unity of
woodworkers and the labor
movement was the key to win-
ning substantial gains in this
year’s round of negotiations.

It singled out a-shorter work
day or week and an across the
board wage increase as the top
demands woodworkers should go
for this year. It also stressed the
need to amend grievance
procedures, making it man-
datory that management get per-
mission from the union prior to
taking any punitive disciplinary
measures; and elimination of the
30 day probationary clause in the
agreements.

The Communist Party Wood
Bureau also points up the need to
strengthen the technological
change clause in the agreement,
and provisions making parent
companies signatory to the
agreement responsible for the
action of their contractors or
sub-contractors.

In its January bulletin which is
widely circulated among coast

parley meets

woodworkers. the Woodworker's
Rank and File Committee out-
lines seven major demands
which it says are ‘‘the most im-
portant to woodworkers in
general and must be resolved to
the complete satisfaction of the
membership in this year's
negotiations.”

The seven major demands it
lists are: A shorter work period
for all woodworkers: an across
the board wage increase in line
with the increased cost of living
and increases in productivity and
a cost of living clause; a one year
contract.

It calls for improvements in
benefits to include more realistic
rates of Pension Plan Benefits, a
dental plan completely paid for
by the employer, voluntary
retirement of age 60 and volun-
tary retirement after 30 years in
the industry.

With all the issues before the
IWA Wages and Contract con-
ference on which a stand will
have to be taken, there can be no

doubt that the top priority issue’

will be the workers pay cheque
and hours of work.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1974 PAGE 12

Canadian route.

e The establishment by the

federal’ government of a Cana-
dian petroleum corporation to
undertake research, exploration
and development of Canadian oil.

¢ Federal establishment of the
lowest possible, uniform price
for oil and gas in Canada and
price controls.

e An end to federal subsidies to
private oil companies.

* * OK

The Vancouver Sun came un-
der fire from delegates to the
UFAWU convention this week for
falsely identifying a photo of a
meeting held in the Fishermen’s
Hall in Vancouver as having been
taken in the USSR.

The photo, showing UFAWU
president Homer Stevens with
three Soviet trade unionists —
guests of the UFAWU — was
used to illustrate an article by
Sun labor reporter George Dobie.
Although the picture showed a
reception in Vancouver, the cap-
tion under it read ‘‘Homer
Stevens (left) at a recent labor
meeting in Russia.’’ It accom-
panied an article commenting on
the Stevens’ withdrawal from the
CLC presidency contest.

Stevens called it ‘‘the worst
kind of yellow journalism,
suggesting some connection
between my decision and our un-
ion’s fraternal relations with a
Soviet Trade union.”

Delegates to the convention
denounced the Sun “‘in the
strongest possible terms”’ for ‘a
McCarthyite approach to labor
reporting.” - :
‘enc ae eto aaa lan cae

OBITUARY

SUSAN BROWN
Susan Brown passed away at
Vancouver General Hospital,
Saturday, January 26 at the age

of 69 after a long illness.
William Stewart of the Marine
Workers and Boilermakers
Union paid a tribute to her
memory at a service in Roselawn

Funeral Chapel Tuesday.

She was an active member of
the Women’s Labor League in the
Thirties.

The PT express its sincere con-"

dolences to her two daughters,
Connie and Helen and to her five
grandchildren.

B.C. health services |
need drastic overhaul

By NIGEL MORGAN

Sweeping changes have been
recommended in medical, dental
and health services for the people
of: B.C. in the Foulkes Report.
And more than that, by directing
its aim on achieving universality
comprehensiveness, accessibili-
ty and efficiency of service,
while taking into account the
need for continuity of care, ac-
countability, and the rights of
patients and health workers, the
2-volume, 2,000-page Report fully
substantiates the need for radical
changes.

Containing a scathing indict-
ment of a system (costing in ex-
cess of $500 million a year and
employing more than 40,000 per-
sons) for its inefficient, ine-
quitable, ineffective, outdated,
unplanned and chaotic methods,
the Report calls for encourage-
ment of
medicine,”’ better use of medical
talents, and the decentralization
of services through a new
network of medical clinics and
health centres.

A summary of the 264 specific
recommendations, which fall un-

der three main categories, in-

clude:

1) Reorganization and decen-
tralization: (a) Establishment of
seven regional medical and
health service administrations
across the Province; (b)

Organization of a network of —

community health clinics; (c)
Negotiations of a ‘‘salary”™
system of payments (to replace
the present ‘‘fee’’ system under
which some doctors chalk up an-
nual incomes in excess of $200.-
000 from the government's
BCHIS on top of other charges
for Workmen’s Compensation,
court and private cases) for doc-
tors, and the dental profession.
(d) Immedicate discontinua-
tion of admissions to present
mental hospitals and their early
phasing out by alternative local
services: (e) A feasibility study
on a nationwide program
(similar to that in use in a
number of European countries)
to supply ‘‘maintenance drugs to
registered addicts’’ to take the

‘‘npreventative

profit out of illicit drug trade; (f)
Pressure on Ottawa to remov
abortion sections from Hy
Criminal Code; (g) Appointmel

of a task force to develop a def

care program; (h) Developme
of a program of “‘preventalil®
medicine’ to eliminate U!
necessary costs, and cover eal

detection of disease and a fl
program of health maintenant

2) Integration and coordil®
tion of medical services: @
Transfer and reorganization ©
the medical and rehabilitaltilt
services of the Workmel®
Compensation Board to tt
health Department; (b) Integ!#
tion of private and publi
laboratories into a new agency?
be called the Diagnostic Serv!
Authority; (c) Unification of ®
vironmental health activities ©
form a new single agency; (d
Setting up of a new provincial
funded ambulance service WY
assistance from the armé@
forces; is

(e) Acceptance by the Pro
cial government of full respe
sibility for health service
status and non-status Indians: %
Establishment of a heal
educational program includ
program. of nutrition, manpo™
training and investigation =
price trends and distributiol

(3) Changed Funt
Methods: (a) Discontinuati
Medicare payments, with |
alternative of raising ©
necessary funds through ad@
corporation and income @

payments; or from gene
revenue; (b) Droppin
municipal taxation for heé

services and patient charg
acute care; (c) Provision D
Provincial government of the
costs of capital construction
equipment for health ©
facilities: (d) Bulk buying”
drugs througha Crown Agel
(c) Provision for a three fold®
pension of doctor training at®
universities to raise from
proximately 60 to 160 the num
of doctor graduates annually