MEMBERS of the Amalgamated Transit Union have joined the campaign to stop the unjustified fare in- creases imposed by B.C. Hydro. Above an unnamed driver has COPE aldermanic candidate Bruce Eriksen sign his petition against the fare hikes. City to meet provincial cabinet to oppose transit fare increases Vancouver city council voted Tuesday to “‘strenuously oppose”’ the bus fare increase imposed by B.C. Hydro and to send a delegation of council members to meet with the provincial cabinet before the increases take effect on September 5. The action by council to block the increases was moved by COPE alderman Harry Rankin and passed over the objections of NPA aldermen George Puil and Warnett Kennedy and TEAM mayor Jack Volrich. Council turned down the last part of Rankin’s motion however which called on the city to set up a well advertised public meeting on the fare increase and service cutbacks and to invite the provincial cabinet to it to hear the views of Vancouver citizens. ~ Rankin and May Brown offered to join the delegation to Victoria to speak against the increases and Volrich indicated that he would arrange for the meeting. ‘“‘Just do it as if it were something you wanted to do,” Rankin warned. Also on Tuesday, the Committee of Progressive Electors, the Downtown Eastside Residents’. Association, the Amalgamated Transit Union, SFU and UBC student societies and some other _ community organizations formed the Coalition Against Fare Hikes _ and Service Cuts. The coalition is hoping to gather support for a boycott of the fare increase September 5. . The Coalition will be askin supporters to deposit 35 cents and a promissory coupon. The coupon, to be published in community papers, states that the transit increases are not justified and that the extra 15 cents will be paid on the condition that Hydro opens its books to public scrutiny and justifies the fare increases and service cutbacks. DERA’s Bruce Eriksen responded last: Sunday to Hydro spokesman Harry Atterton‘s charges that the campaign was an attempt to defraud Hydro with a letter asking him to accept the promissory coupons. “We are not suggesting that anyone refuse to make legitimate payment for service,” he said, ‘‘We are suggesting that there is some question as to the legitimate justification for the fare increases and the service cutbacks.” Province snoops after destitute By ALD. HARRY RANKIN “Chicken shit reporting” is the best way to describe the article by Phillip Mills which appeared in the Vancouver Province, August 19, 1978, titled ‘‘Transients’ rip off welfare in B.C.” Here is a Province staff reporter on a comfortable salary, going out into the interior of the province, pretending to be destitute and without a job and a home and putting the finger on welfare of- ficials who in some cases took pity on him and offered him a small allowance of $9 in food and shelter vouchers. This is not investigative reporting; this is mean, petty snooping and spying on destitute young people and on government officials who are concerned enough to do something for them. In all his travels for a week he admits he found only three young people who ‘‘appeared to be simply freeloading and were not in- terested in finding work.” This seemed enough, however, for him to make the unsubstantiated charge that ‘‘freeloaders are roaming B.C. ripping off the welfare system.” Minister of inhuman resources Vander Zalm and all the rednecks who think that every unemployed young person is a shiftless bum who doesn’t want work will be happy with Mill’s article. And it will give Vander Zalm additional argument for a cracking down harder on young people who are destitute and refusing them any aid. Who knows, the person asking for help may be some investigative snooper working for Vander Zalm. I call the arti¢le chicken shit because the amount of money involved is just that. Giving a few homeless young people a $9 allowance so they will have a place. to eat and sleep for a few days isn’t going to break either Vander Zalm’s department or the provincial government. And it will help some young people in a way in which this well-fed reporter ob- viously does not understand. If this reporter. wanted to do some genuine investigative reporting on rip-offs, he wouldn't have far to look — the chain stores with their rip-off markups, the federal governments go-ahead to the big oil companies to increase the price of gasoline every few ‘months, the continuous increases in telephone, electric and gas rates, the exemption from the business tax that city council gave to two big companies (which will cost taxpayers an additional $250,000 a year), the marketing board which would rather see vegetables rot than sold at lower prices, and so on. The list is endless_ and the amount of money involved runs into many millions. When it comes to ripping off the public the real villians are the world of big business. : Yet this reporter and whoever sent him there in the disguise of a young destitute have the gall and arrogance to centre their attention on a few young destitutes and charge them with “ripping off the welfare system.” Are there some among the destitute young people who are freeloading? Probably there are but there is no evidence that there number is greater or even as great as the number of corporations who are freeloading on government (and therefore on the people) through tax concessions, subsidies they don’t need or deserve, and outright grants that go only to add to their profits. The Province knows and its reporters know (if they read their own paper) that the number of unemployed in B.C. is close to the hundred thousand mark, that 4 very high proportion of them are young people for whom there just are no jobs. Is it a crime to be unemployed when there is no work? Is it 4 crime to ask for some assistance, even $9 worth, when without food or a place to sleep? No reporter needs to make 4 living by stooping to snooping on the victims of our economic system. He can always make 4 living robbing blind men’s cups. PEOPLE AND ISSUES . many people who were angered at Canadian Labor Congress president Dennis McDermott’s flouting of Congress policy on the 32-hour work week will be scarcely less dismayed to find that tripartism, even though it has been repudiated by the major CLC affiliates, hasn’t quite been abandoned by the Congress’ top leadership. Readers may remember that McDermott, in an interview earlier this year, said that there was “no point” for Canadian workers to press for the 32-hour work week so long as workers in other countries were not also pressing the demand — a comment which sparked criticism from several quarters including the B.C. Federation of Labor which pointed to a Congress convention resolution calling on all affiliates to press the 32-hour week as a bargaining demand. But the CLC pursuit of tripartism — despite resolutions of opposition from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the B.C. Federation of Labor, the Postal Workers and other unions including McDermott’s own United Auto Workers — has involved more than mere passing comments. We see by the Financial Post that a number of tripartite committees in 23 manufacturing sectors have been busily working on industrial strategy papers which, we un- derstand, are to be presented to the first ministers’ con- ference slated for November. But particularly disturbing is the fact that, although the drafting of the papers was primarily the responsibility of business representatives, most of them received unanimous consent from the tripartite committees. Only in a few instances did labor spokesmen voice dissenting views. In fact, one committee chairman commented, “I’m quite surprised at the unanimity of views that were expressed.” Of course, we’re not prepared to accept the Post’s report without some skepticism, but the remarks of CLC executive vice-president Shirley Carr, in affirming the Congress intention to continue working on tripartite forums, speak for themselves. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 1, 1978—Page 2 - “It was probably a surprise to government that labor has taken these working parties seriously,” she said. “There won’t be any miracles performed but business and labor don’t have to like each other to make this process work.” We're not sure what Shirley Carr and the CLC leadership would consider to be proof that ‘the process” had worked but we are certain that working people would get much more satisfaction if the Congress were to conduct a vigorous campaign for jobs through housing construction, public ownership of energy and the establishment of a merchant marine — as demanded by the last CLC con- vention. be ae * ie weeks now the disparity between the statistical - precautions that ‘‘prices are expected to decline’ and the. reality of supermarket prices has been getting steadily greater. But it seems that it’s going to increase still more. Statistics Canada has given notice that it is going to be manipulating the figures even more — making the already- suspect Consumer Price Index even less a part of the real world. To its alarm, Statistics Canada recently discovered what many already knew — that the prices of basic necessities, particularly food, were rising faster than the average rate of inflation. That fact was confirmed in the U.S. where a formal study conducted by the National Centre for Economic Alternatives showed that while the general rate of inflation ( the U.S. equivalent of the CPI) was 9.5 percent, the prices of basic necessities such as food, housing and energy, rose by 12.6 percent. . _ Accordingly, Statistics Canada has decided to ‘‘weight”’ food costs less in its regular surveys, so that the Consumer ’ Price Index will show little change even as food costs climb. * Ke * AG if you thought the figures produced by Statistics Canada were just that — figures — the information that Bert Ogden, welfare director for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, gives us might come as something of a shock. Apparently, several UFAWU members have received letters from the Unemployment Insurance of- ficials demanding repayment of UIC benefits — just because the unemployment statistics punched into the computer were slightly in error. According to UIC regulations, if the regional unem- ployment rate is from one to two percent higher than the national rate, then recipients are entitled to extra weeks of benefit. As a result, during the spring of 1977, many unemployed workers got two weeks’ extra benefit when 2 computer error increased the unemployment rate ‘“‘by 4 fraction of one percent.” And now that the statistician’: have discovered their “‘error’’, the UIC wants its money back. But as we noted above, the statistics are highly suspect in the first place — a point which Ogden intends-to press. He. tells us that he is going to insist that the UIC tell him ‘just how they arrived at those figures before we advise our members to give any money back.” The UIC regulations do provide for “overpayments” to be- written off if collection would impose undue hardship 02 recipients. And it goes without saying that the unemployed are suffering enough hardship. * * * W hen the staff of the Vancouver Art Gallery said last week that it was desperately in need of funds to restore the paintings of Emily Carr, it seems the appeal didn’t fall 0? deaf ears. Apart from those who turned out for the car wash, we se that Vancouver alderman Harry Rankin has presented 2 notice of motion to Vancouver City council calling of council to hold meetings with the Art Gallery to discuss the extent of assistance necessary to make the restoratio!: Now we’ll wait to see what council does with the motion.