| Paver i ow JUL

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eee Th Pe

Cen eT TT

Portrait of the ‘enemy’

A South Vietnamese grandfather tagged and blindfolded by U.S. Marines for
grilling as a suspected supporter of the National Liberation Front.

UBC STUDENTS COUNCIL

GIVES STAND

The University of “BéC. Stu-
dent’s Council adopted a policy
statement Tuesday regarding the
strike of Vancouver Civic Em-
ployees Union (Outside Workers),
The statement says:

The recent press statement
from the President’s office re-
garding the present strike of the
Vancouver Civic Employees
Union (Outside Workers), has
been re-examined and clarified
by the Students’ Council as a
whole.

The student community is in-
evitably affected by strikes es-
pecially by strikes called during
the summer months when stu-
dents are looking for work to
earn their next year’s tuition
fees, At the same time, however,
there are a number of reasons
why. students should avoid break-

Morgan ill

Nigel Morgan, B.C. leader of the Com-
munist Party, is on the sick list. His
doctor has ordered him to have acom-
plete rest for the next two weeks. The
readers and staff of the PT extend
warm greetings to Nigel and wish
him a speedy recovery.

ON STRIKE

ing strikes called by the regular
workers in. any given industry,

One reason is that students who
work in industry during thesum-
mer always enjoy the wage rates
set by the trade union in that
industry, Another reason students
should not violate strikes is be-
cause the trade union movement
has continually supported the de-
sires of the students for a better
education and a more easily ac-
cessible higher education inB.C,

With these thoughts in mind
the Students’ Council at UBC
adopted the following resolution:

That UBC Student Council poli-
cy regarding the recent strike of
the Vancouver Civic Employees
Union (Outside Workers) be the
same as it is to all legitimate
strikes called by the trade union
involved, i.e. that we encourage
students to respect the picket
lines of those strikes and urge
students not to violate those
strikes.

It must be remembered, how-
ever, that the Students’ Council
has no way of imposing its policy
upon individual students but we
hope that students will take direc-
tion from this policy because we
feel it is in the best interests of
both the trade union and student
comimunity,

INJUNCTIONS BOOED

Labor takes united action
to protest Lenkurt firing

By a unanimous standing vote
more than 600 members of Local
213, International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Monday rejected the “ agreement”
signed by their Local President,
Angus MacDonald and the Lenkurt
Electric Company.

The dispute arose three weeks
ago when Lenkurt Electric ar-
bitrarily fired 275 employees on
the issue of overtime work, The
workers walked off the job on
April 26 when the company reneg-
ed on promises that no more
overtime work would be demand-
ed while union contract negotia-
tions were in process,

Local business agent Art
O’Keefe stated the “agreement”
signed by president MacDonald
would mean loss of all seniority
rights for the workers involved.
When made aware of theterms of
“settlement,” which also included
the permanent firing of some 50
of the 275 workers involved, the
executive of the B.C, Federa-
tion of Labor, with the IBEW,
rejected the “agreement” as did
a full meeting of the Lenkurt
Electric employees.

The general meeting of Local
213 membership authorized its

VIETNAM

Cont'd from pg. 1
U.S. should stay in South Viet-
nam under any conditions,
even if asked to leave by a
neutralist government,

This coming . weekend the
spotlight will be on Washing-
ton, D.C. where the giant
“Voters March on Washing-
ton” is due to take place, I.F.
Stone, who recently returned
from a fact-finding mission to
South Vietnam and famed Dr.

Benjamin Spock, are sched-

uled to speak, Many thou-
sands of Americans from all
parts of the country are ex-
pected to converge on the
capital to demand peace in
Vietnam,

In Canada, this weekend,
demonstrations are scheduled
in many Canadian centres, in-
cluding Vancouver, against the
projected visit to Montreal of
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert
McNamara, For details ofthe
Vancouver protest, see the
story on page eight.

China now H-power

Following on the explosion of

China’s first hydrogen bomb this,

week, the New China News Agency

issued the following statement: .

*We solemnly declare once
again that at no time and in no
circumstances will China be the
first to use nuclear weapons,
the Chinese people sincerely hope

that a nuclear war will never
take place,”

China’s latest test means that
there are now four countries
which have produced a hydrogen

bomb — the Soviet Union, the U.S,, »

Britain and now China, The fifth
nuclear country, France, has so
far produced only atomic bombs,

business agent to seek joint action
with the B.C, Federation of Labor
and the Vancouver and District
Labor Council (VLC) on behalf
of the Lenkurt workers and to
effect a back-to-work settlement
with no discrimination against
the 275 dismissed workers,

Wednesday morning of this
week a leaflet was distributed
to Lenkurt employees going to
work, The leaflet outlined the
issues and the mass firing of
Lenkurt employees and was sign-
ed jointly by the B.C, Federation
of Labor, the VLC and the IBEW,

An estimated five or six hun-
dred trade unionists assembled
at the plant gates in support of
the fired workers, and heard
“law” officers over plant loud-
speakers read their latest “re-
straining” injunction against such
demonstrations of labor unity.
A chorus of boos accompanied the
injunction reading at all three
plant gates,

While many of the first Len-
kurt Electric employees sought
to explain the issues involved to
their fellow workers going on
shift, a heavy cordon of RCMP
busied themselves waving union
pickets aside to clear the entrance
for Lenkurt staffs,

At press time the B.C, Fed-
eration executive together with
the VLC and IBEW leaders and
members were meeting in the
IWA Hall to assess the morning’s
events and lay further plans to-
wards winning a settlement for
the discharged Lenkurt workers,

Contract negotiations between
the IWA and Forest Industrial
Relations (FIR) having literally
ground to a standstill, IWA de-
cided last week to make applica-
tion for a government-super-
vised strike vote, This decision
was taken when Conciliation Of-
ficer JackSherlock recommended
that no conciliation board be set
up in this lumber contract dispute,

A statement by IWA Regional
President Jack Moore said that
“the situation created by the
recommendation is that IWA
members must now register by
means of a strike vote, and em-
phatic demand for a more satis-

‘factory contract . .. the gulf

between the union ‘and the oper-
ators is as wide as at the com-
mencement of bargaining talks,

All our demands have met with
outright opposition by the em-
ployers, All their proposals are
designed to restrict existing con-
tract benefits, A solid strike
vote is now the best and only way
to secure worthwhile negotia-
tions.”

At such negotiations as have
taken place Joe Billings, FIR
president has offered nothing to
negotiate, except to clamor for
more restrictive anti-labor leg-
islation against “wildcat” work
stoppages, etc. He now blames
the IWA for failing to “negotiate,”

Aside from the pending IWA
authorised strike vote, the IWA
plans to go ahead next week with
its own secret vote on contract
developments,

WAY TO END STRIKE:

Civic workers propose
talks with city council

Cont'd from pg. 1

of the membership meeting last
Friday, after the membership
rejected the last wage offer of
City Council, On Monday and
Tuesday, hundreds of strikers
demonstrated in front of City
Hall,

The union has informed the
public that the purpose of this
demonstration was to “dramati-
cally demonstrate to City Council
and the general public that the
union was on strike, that the
union wanted a square deal in
1966 and that the sooner nego-
tiations got under way, the
better.*’

JACK PHILLIPS

Union secretary, Jack Phillips,
assured the Pacific Tribune that
this demonstration was not
directed against the members of
the Vancouver City Hall Em-
ployees Association, This was
proved on Wednesday when the
picket line at City Hall was
reduced to a token line,

When asked what readers of
the Pacific Tribune could do to
help, Phillips suggested that
trade union and other organiza-
tions should send letters to City
Council demanding re-opening
of negotiations, He also suggest-
ed that private citizens, tax-
payers, should send letters to the
Mayor voicing their support of
the civic employees and demand-
ing that negotiations be re-open-
ed,

He further suggested that all
trade unionists should respect
the picket lines of the Vancou-
ver Civic Employees Union with
particular reference to the Kerr
Road Dump, “We know that the
question of waste disposal is a
difficult one. However, the fact
remains that Kerr Road Dump is
being picketed and we asking
every trade unionist to stay away
from Kerr Road Dump and to find
other means of disposing of their
waste, This will help to settle the
strike, That’s the best way to end
the inconvenience to the public
— and not by crossing picket
lines,”

May 13, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3