se

—Carey Robson photo

BUILDING BOSSES HOLD UP NEEDED HOSPITAL. Photo shows the almost completed extended care centre at
the Vancouver General Hospital. This urgently needed medical centre is less than one month from
completion, but construction contractors through CLRA told Labor Minister Chabot last week that they will not
lift the lockout on school and hospital construction, as the unions are urging. While hospitals and schools
stand incomplete, construction on some big industrial projects such as pulp mills is allowed by CLRA.

LABOR SCENE:

Ray Haynes, secretary of the
B.C. Federation of Labor said
Tuesday striking CUPE and Re-
gional Employees Union of four
greater Vancouver area. munici-
palities will get the full support
of the federation in their refusal
to go to the Mediation Com-
mission under Bill 33.

Civic employees have made it
clear they are ready to nego-
tiate any time the Municipal
Labor Relations Board under
Graham Leslie will agree to sit
down and bargain without prior
Stipulations— such as a commit-
ment to accept a two year agree-
ment; to go back to work while
negotiations proceed, and to
accept binding arbitration.

CUPE has suggested non-bind-
ing mediation again and again.
MLRB on the other hand has
been adamant in their demand
the unions accept their terms.

Acting mayor Marion Linnell
is quoted as saying, however, the
municipalities ‘‘are still avail-
able for direct negotiations.”’

As the Tribune went to press
Wednesday, union negotiators
were meeting to work out media-
tion terms which could be accep-
table to all parties were an
independent mediator appointed
as per their repeated requests.

A hard-hitting pamphlet dis-
tributed by several locals of
CUPE and the Municipal and Re-
gional Employees Union (inside
workers) gives chapter and
verse of the wage situation
where civic workers are con-
cerned.

The pamphlet points out a
machinist for the City of Van-
couver earns 12 percent less than
an IWA mechanic, 19 percent
less than a mechanic in
industry, and 9 percent less than
a steelworker at Trail.

A clerk-typist 1 working for
Burnaby civic government gets
less than $100 a week. If she
worked for Hydro, B.C. Tel, Mac-
Millan Bloedel or even in a B.C.
hospital she would earn $57 a
month more.

The lower wage situation holds
true in most other categories. Is
it any wonder civic employees
are determined to fight the role
of second class citizens where
wages are concerned? It is clear
who really keeps this city func-
tioning now that the workers are
not on the job on streets, parks
and offices.

**e*

Carpenters Ready to Finish

This Hospital read the signs car-.

ried by hundreds of locked-out
carpenters when they marched
near the uncompleted extended
care unit of the Burnaby Gen-
eral Hospital last week. And
other members of the locked-out
building trades are ready to
continue work on schools and
hospitals immediately.

Chuck Connaghan and the Con-
struction Labor Relations Bur-

eau are stopping them from
doing so. Despite their offer, and
despite the urging of Minister of
Labor Chabot, this arrogant
section of the Employers
Council of B.C. have shown their
contempt for the public by refus-
ing to terminate their lockout.

In Kamloops, however, and at
Quesnel there are construction
projects going on apace. These
projects are for big, big business-
such as Weyerhauser and Weld-
wood, so powerful a section of
big business they get special
dispensation from CLRA.

The public projects especially
the hospitals for extended care
which are being held up by
CLRA’s lockout, are of vital
interest to every citizen. The
public should make it clear to the
construction bosses they want
an end to the lockout now.

IWA takes

Cont'd from pg. 1

expressed recently by Rehabili-
tation Minister Phil Gaglardi.
Speaking to the Industrial
Accountants of B.C., Gaglardi
said B.C. is entering an era of
“tremendous greed as far as
labor is concerned.’’ He
described the industrialist as
“the greatest individual in the
country today,’’ adding that
profits are considered a swear
word by some but that ‘‘as far as
I’m concerned I want to see
industry make more and more
profit.”

Encouraged by the attitude of
the Socred government to
squeeze all the profits they can
out of the sweat of the workers,
and to keep wage settlements
down, the forest monopolies
through FIR have refused to
enter into any serious negotia-
tions with the IWA, adopting one
stalling device after another.

After months of getting
nowhere in contract negotia-
tions, the IWA announced
Tuesday that a strike vote will be
taken among its 28,000 members.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1972—PAGE 12

strike vote

In a telegram to Minister of
Labor Chabot, IWA regional
president Jack Moore charged
that the industry has refused to
make any proposals _ since
appointment of a mediation
officer 35 days ago, and that the

IWA is opposed to any extension -

of the mediators time.

“The only way to have mean-
ingful negotiations is to have
representatives of the forest
industry and ourselves meet
face-to-face at the bargaining
table,” said the IWA wire.

But FIR and its chief spokes-
man John Billings have no
desire for serious negotiations.
They have laid down ulti-
matums to the union demanding
the IWA abandon their demands
before offering a penny in
negotiations.

With only about two and a half
weeks left before the current
contract expires, the direct
responsibility for the confron-
tation shaping up in the forest
industry rests foursquare on
the shoulders of the forest mono-
polies.

The Fred Quilt Committee
hopes to have hundreds of people
attend an educational conference
on racism in Kamloops on July 4,
to coincide with the new inquest
into the death of Fred Quilt
which has been ordered by the
Attorney-General’s department.

It is rumored the case has
received such wide interest
across Canada that hundreds of
people concerned with justice
for the people of Indian origin
will converge on the Kamloops
scene that week. The Fred Quilt
Committee, in making plans for
the conference on racism, hopes
to utilize the opportunity to
further the struggle against
racism in all its forms.

After the time of the new
inquest was announced, the
Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs

through lawyer Davie Fulton, .

drew attention of Chief Justice J.
O. Wilson who gave the order for
the new inquest, to certain
aspects of the first inquest held
in Williams Lake in January.

Fulton said the fold!
questions had not rel
sufficient inquiry: The cals
the internal injury thatl®
Quilt’s death: whether the!”
was accidental or caus
some person, and if so, Way
person to blame, and ™
whether Quilt’s life could?
been saved. r

The Fred Quilt Comil
said ‘“‘we still insist that™
sufficient evidence 1
transcript alone to wall@)
laying of charges agali”
RCMP involved.”’ *

The committee is €
Native organizations
unions, church groupes
liberties organizations “7
citizens interested in %
justice for the Native peor
ending racial discriminall
send delegates to att
conference in Kamloops:

Funds to support the Ca®i
can be sent to Fredy
Committee, 1006 West
Vancouver 9, B.C. :

Fallers demands just)

Cont'd from pg. 3 ;
"75 cents back in te

established rate, and when none
is yet set, at the current camp
average, until his own individual
average is established.

--, To cover abnormal operation
conditions where they prevail,
i.e. excessive slope, rock bluff,
polemakers brush, excessive
blowdown, burned trees, snags,
runaway timber, windfalls,
slabbed timber, chunks,
saplings, limbs, suckers,
schoolmarms, timber volume
per acre is poor, or excessive
accident hazards exist — a set of
ten, simple, but clear definitions
with stipulated premiums shall
be embodied in the union
contract.

. Fallers shall have the right
to rescale on request, and shall
accompany the person doing the
rescale. If the original scale is
out 5 percent or more, the faller
shall be compensated at his
average hourly rate. If not, no
compensation shall be paid.

Fallers are the _ only
occupational grouping within the
I.W.A. that do not have a
uniform and set rate of pay.
Piece work rates vary from 90
cents per M up to $1.40,
compared with $2.00 in 1947 and

thirties. Fi
Fallers will tell you thet
almost as many oss!
practises on. the B.C: F,
there are camps, and © q
working — conditiom> 4
extremely variable ‘itt
hazardous industry wee
average life expectancy
five years in the indus:

Individual bargaininé Wot
company bullbucker has
Log stocks are now r ris
short; log prices hav’ og
sharply. And the faller® i
only united but determ™ ry
they are not going ref
there is agreement t0 LS in!
the settlement they ¥? ini
Nemetz Mediation awa? a
It is time the oto
realized that ligitation ‘util
manoeuvers are no 5% un
the present impasse: i “oe
won’t cut trees. The wet)
B.C.’s number one ust,
rolling again is to get b m
bargaining table, aM ! oi
reasonable settle’ nell
standard pricing agree wt
uniform scaling syste’ nell
B.C. coast fallers are ©

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