ee EE EE oOOOOOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEEEEEEOEOEOEOEEEEEeEeEeEeEee BRITISH COLUMBIA Provincial Court Jan. 14, 1988. Activists arrested at CPMETR base # RCMP haul off one of 18 people arrested for blockading the main gate to the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges (CFMETR) base at Nanoose Bay Oct. 26. The early morning blockade, organized by the Nanoose Conversion Campaign, was part of a continent-wide initiative launched by the New-York based Mobilization for Survival which organized similar actions at several nuclear weapons manufacturers and test sites around the U.S. Those arrested include people from Vancouver, Victoria, Parksville, Nanoose, and Gabriola and Denman Islands. They are to appear in Parksville New talk at paper: hold off IR The Vancouver-New Westminster N paper Guild and the Joint Council of P ing Trades Unions got Pacific Press ba the bargaining table this week, headin for the moment a confrontation witl Industrial Relations Council. Guild administrative officer Roy T said Tuesday that the talks with the C resumed Monday following a membe: meeting of the unit at Pacific Press, put ers of the Vancouver Sun and Province packed meeting had voted “nearly una ously” to proceed to a strike vote, T said. The joint council, which bargains s¢ ately, had resumed talks earlier. | groups were in negotiations at Tri press time and were expected to cont through at least Wednesday. ’ Still at issue on both bargaining tab the contentious issue of an early Satu edition of the Sun which would co: editorial, printing and circulation sta begin work some time around 4a.m. S day. Pacific Press is seeking to incorp the new time into a regular shift, elimin: By DAVID FAIREY } Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s recent announcement of phase one of the massive sell-off of public assets and services is a re-start of the much discredited privatiza- tion program begun by former premier Bill Bennett. In 1979, the Social Credit government created B.C. Resources Investment Corpo- ration (BCRIC) out of a number of Crown corporations in the forest and energy resources sector. BCRIC was then partly ~ given away through free shares to every B.C. resident and partly through a sales of shares at $6 a share. Thousands of people, many of them first time share buyers, invested $487 million in BCRIC. Within a few months, the shares were trading at $9.25. However, the shares - price rise and speculative profit-taking was not to last long. From the spring of 1980, the price of BCRIC shares went nowhere but down. Within three years, the shares had dropped in value by 73 per cent. There was a brief recovery in 1983 when stock promoter Murray Pezim tried to heavy share purchases and a round-up of proxy votes prior to a shareholders’ meet- ing. As recently as this year, Pezim was listed as owning 500,000 BCRIC shares. But prominent Social Credit supporters in the financial community were opposed to Pezim’s crass moves which came at a deli- cate time for the government. Determined to maintain the image of BCRIC asa “peo- ple’s corporation” and to sustain the facade of BCRIC as a “privatization success”, the corporate party faithful blocked Pezim from obtaining a controlling interest. In the months and years that followed, BCRIC shares continued their fall on the stock market. By mid-October of this year, they had dropped to 83 cents — a decline of $8.42, or 91 per cent, from the high reached shortly after privatization. ) Since 1982, BCRIC has lost money every ) year except one — not exactly an example of how better a corporation performs when | the private sector is in control and profit : : } maximization is the only objective. engineer a controlling interest through ~ It has been reported that at every share- holders’ meeting, there has been an out- pouring of anger from small investors who are enraged by the loss of their savings. At the 1987 meeting, they were critical of BCRIC’s management strategy and of the EXCESSIVE Executive salaries (over $250,000 per year for the chief executive officer). They also accused the directors of “ripping off” shareholders, One woman, who had put her life Savings of $30,000 into BCRIC shares in 1979, complained she had not received as much as five cents from BCRIC. According to several financial analysts, the privatization of BCRIC has been a fail- ure, both politically and economically. What was to have been in Bill Bennett’s words, “an object lesson in people’s demo- cracy” has become “a lesson on how to be taken by a political gimmick”, according to Vancouver Sun columnist Jack Clarke. BCRIC — the 1st selloff fiasco But if BCRIC has been an unmitigated disaster for the uninitiated small stock investor, it was a great success for the privi- leged few who arranged the original privati- zation. Initially estimated to cost the government $2.5 million for the first BCRIC share offer- ing in 1979, the final costs of selling off BCRIC soared to $30.4 million, including fees and commissions to investment brok- ers, advertising and charges levied by banks and other financial institutions for process- ing the free share applications. © As with BCRIC, so with the privatization of B.C. Hydro’s gas and rail divisions and all the other government sell-offs announced by Vander Zalm. The really. big profits are to be made by the few during the privatiza- tion process — at public expense. David Fairey is an economist and a direc- tor of Trade Union Research Bureau. hare cerbfrcates of a delivery of Mts verlificals Iu Witness Whercef the British Columbia Resources BEARER SHARE CERTIFICATE THIS CERTIFIES THAT THE BEARER OF THIS CERTIFICATE IS THE HOLDER OF 5 FULLY PAID AND NON-ASSESSABLE COMMON SHARES WITHOUT PAR VALUE IN THE CAPITAL OF BRITISH COLUMBIA RESOURCES INVESTMENT CORPORATION, The bearer of this corlipeate, f yualified under the British Cctumbia Rescarces Snvedment Conperation Ae. ts entilled. on presentation al the offies.tn Tame aver, Calgary, Winnipeg. Terente and. Ue ntrval f > Ua ntieal Trust Company of hes certificate teqelher wil addité wal Conporation representing (evetealing thes certificate) al boast 100 commen shares of the Coxperalion, te have bssued tn eahange therefor a verlificate fu cominen hares tn lhe niame ff he beterer, and dhe RR be ved in the ippr priate register of the Co apcralin aia mettle? hcldeme such shares The commen thares repro AAy Che cerdifecate are Pansgerable by cordifioate tebe ugued SS by the factintle ugnatan of ts duty authe vised Fe es, effrcee and te be waled with the vommen wat. ESS bly : far * SASy Zs: : DATED AUGUST 7, 1979 fSISEAL: 2 g 13% 8] 4, Gp x. ee . % Ly Be, ice ws SEE i igre" Ws Investment Corporation INCORPORATED IN THE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA B1965573 CUSIP 110721 10 7? —] oivioenD & © | PAYMENTS + the aggregate number f such Cc aperateen has caused thes BCRIC share ... symbol of Socreds’ privatization folly. all overtime premiums that would norr apply. Tubbs said the Guild, the biggest wu: at PP, is also facing two further rollbac’ company demand for an increase in number of people that can be laid through technological change and cha to severance pay provisions. The unions have been without a con since Feb. 28, and much of’that time been spent chiselling down the 78 rolll demands originally tabled by Pacific P The new talks also put off, temporari least, an impending confrontation witt IRC. The pressmen, members of the Gra Communications International Ur conducted a strike vote last month acc ing to the procedures outlined in the | Federation of Labour’s boycott of Bil The company immediately challenged vote before the IRC, posing the thre< punitive action by the IRC or the cou the pressmen decide to act on their 72h strike notice. Meanwhile, another group of wor who had earlier been ordered to bring d their picket line by the IRC, this week ; 100 per cent ratification to their first co tive agreement. Members of Local 1-357 of the I' Canada at North Mitchell Lumber in L signed the pact Nov. 3, bringing sta rates at the lumber remanufacturing r from $6.50 an hour to $10.25 immedia with wages slated to reach 95 per cer those in the IWA standard agreemen the end of the three year agreement. Local 1-357 third vice-president Dubas said the deal also includes drop} suspensions against workers as well as damage suit launched by North Mit against the union. But still outstanding is a contemp court action against Dubas, financial s¢ tary Joe Leclair and four rank and members of the local, for defiance o IRC order which instructed them to b down the picket line outside the plant. In upholding the B.C. boycott, the | had not given the IRC 72 hours st notice, prompting the cease picketing or At the company’s request, the order filed in B.C. Supreme Court for enfc ment. The case is expected to draw close at tion from the trade union movement v a hearing date is set, expected some tin January. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 4, 1987