wit

students

Foreign capital, monopoly |

control threat to fishery

Continued from pg. 1

Union secretary George Hewison
said that several fishermen have put
upwards of $10,000 into rental on
herring punts and have recovered
nothing.

“Those debts will have to be car-
ried over to the salmon season —
and they’ll be starting out that
much in the hole,’’ he said.

But if a good section of the fleet
will see little from this year’s
fishery, -the reduced catches and
soaring prices have dramatized the
problem of increased foreign, large-
ly Japanese, investment and
monopoly control that dominates
the industry.

The hefty profits to be made on
the substantial Japanese market has
brought scores of buyers into the
fishery with cash buying right on
the grounds driving prices up far
above the minimum prices set by

AUCE rally
draws 500

A demonstration to support the
Association of University and Col-
lege Employees’ (AUCE) struggle
with the Simon Fraser University
administration drew 500 students
and faculty Tuesday afternoon on
the campus mall.

Tuesday’s rally in support of the
strikers was organized by the Simon
Fraser Students Society and heard
student leaders and faculty
members state that the wage

demands of AUCE are fair and that
the: resolution of the strike rests

h the administration.
Faculty member Mason Harris

said that the tense situation on cam-

us grew out of the attempt by the

| administration of “union bashing

at the expense of the students.” He

noted that the administration didn’t,

care about the deteriorating condi-
tions on campus.

Students reps Jim Young and
Chris Gibbons stressed that
shouldn’t let the ad-
ministration play off one section of
the university community against
the other. The source of problems

for students, faculty and support

staff is the inadequate budget set by
the provincial government, they

said.

—§ PROVINCIAL NOTES—

patient care standards can be

Grim picture for
interior health

care seen in '79

By ALLAN MORREY

.PRINCE GEORGE —
Although the full effect of the
Socred’s five per cent limitation

not yet fully known, with a

rojected Overrun of $1 million in
the 1978-1979 budget of the
Prince George Regional Hospital,
and no indication that the govern-
ment will meet the overrun,
together with the five per cent
‘limitation on the 1979-1980

in the Central Interior of B.C.
looks grim.

The 1979-1980 budget for the
hospital faces another $1 million
overrun. The hospital plan to
make up about half of the deficit
by increasing the workloads on
staff, but it looks like about 27
hospital jobs may be lost.

With the loss of jobs, increased
costs to people using hospital
{services and a general lowering of

on hospital operating budgets is”

budget, the future of health care |

the UFAWU in its bargaining with
the Fisheries Association.

Japanese companies, who have
already invested heavily in the West
Coast fishing industry, both in this
province and in Alaska, were a ma-
jor factor in forcing prices up since
they are able to eliminate the mid-
dleman and market the Toe
themselves in Japan where the retail
markup is astronomical.

One company, Pisces Trading
Company Ltd., was paying a flat
$100 to $200 per ton premium

above any other bidder’s price, ac-'

cording to the Fisherman, and had
reportedly taken 10 percent of the
gillnet catch at a cost in excess of $5
million.

As are several other companies,
Pisces is a newcomer to the industry
but clearly had substantial capital
with which to outbid competitors,

But in addition to the direct
Japanese intervention in the fishery
there is increasing evidence that
several established B.C. companies
— including the major ones such as
B.C. Packers, Canadian Fishing
Company and Norpac — are work-
ing closely with Japanese investors
to increase their already dominant
control of the industry.

Nichol pointed out that, accor-
ding to their information, ‘‘the
same people who are bankrolling
Pisces, are also bankrolling Nor-
pac’’ a company which is known to
have considerable Japanese capital.

Hewison also noted that the main
company, B.C. Packers, has licens-
ed three of its plants to the huge
Japanese multinational Marubeni.

Although B.C. Packers denies
any control is involved in the deal,
the arrangement is an indication of
the close working relationship,

The consequences are already evi-
dent. There are 120 companies in-
volved in the roe fishery but price
bidding drove out all but the big
ones.

According to federal herring co-
ordinator Bob Humphries, ‘‘the
smaller companies are really getting
hurt.”’ 2

But worse than that is the loss of
jobs for union shoreworkers. With
only a small part of the catch going
to the established plants, there is lit-
tle work.

““We’ve got people getting a day
or a day-and-a-half where they used
to get a few weeks work,’’ Nichol
said, noting that some plants in

Prince Rupert have only 20 tons of
fish to process.

Instead, the newcomers are leas-
ing processing facilities and
operating them non-union for the
duration .of the season, usually
about six weeks. s

““We’ve got a situation similar to
that in the construction industry,”’
Hewison noted. Companies buy the
fish, process it quickly in leased
facilities and are gone before the
union can even begin to organize.

In the long run, uncontrolled
foreign, investment and increased
monopoly control over the fishery
could spell disaster, particularly
since the roe herring stocks have
already shown a drastic decline.
And the warning isn’t limited to-the
herring roe fishery — the declara-
tion of the 200-mile limit -and the
sudden influx of Japanese has also
created new pressures on the
valuable salmon fishery.

“The fact is; we don’t need
Japanese capital,’? Nichol em-
phasized, speaking to the Van-
couver Labor Council. ‘‘Those
markets are open to us.”’

buyers — and non-union plants.

ork.

Established processing plants like that of Canadian Fishing Com-
pany at Tofino (above) have seen only a fraction of the roe herring
tonnages received in previous years as declines in stocks and fran-
tic sales on the grounds saw catches going to a handful of big

—Geoff Meggs photo

Dene, Yukon Indians launch
joint native rights campaign

A Northern Native Rights.
campaign aimed at securing a place
for Native peoples in any future
discussions on a new Canadian
constitution and establishing self-
determination for Native peoples in
the North was launched across the
country last week as representatives
of the Dene Nation and the Council
of Yukon Indians held simul-
taneous press conferences in several
Canadian cities. .

In Vancouver, Mary Easterson,
an executive board member of: the
CYI and Richard Nerysoo, vice-
president of the Dene Nation,
issued a statement outlining the
joint position of the two groups,
copies of which were also released
across the country.

With Easterson and Nerysoo in
the Vancouver conference was
Percy Tait, executive assistant to
the Nishga Tribal Council who
Teleased the council’s position on
the Nass Valley land claim talks,
Stalemated since 1976 by dis-

agreements between the federal and
provincial governments.

In the joint statement, the CYI

‘and the Dene Nation emphasized
that the aboriginal people of the
Yukon and the Northwest
Territories ‘‘have never surrendered
our rights and our lands’? and de-
clared:. ‘‘The rights of our people
must be recognized -and be en-
trenched in any new Canadian
constitution.

“We do not anticipate for-
mulating our social political
contract with Canada only in light
of special status as aboriginal
people who would be dealt with by
federal legislation,’’ it stated.
“Instead we intend to do so in
terms of nation status and the sub-
sequent recognition of this fact in a
Canadian constitution. ’

““We charge that the current con-
stitutional debate is not legal unless
the aboriginal people are invited to
sit at the bargaining table on the
Canadian constitution.

expected. The cuts will affect not
only the city of Prince George,
but the entire Central Interior
because the hospital serves the In-
terior as a referral centre,

Already part-time employees
have been reduced to the status of
casual employees and when full-

time positions become vacant the -

hospital appears to be in no hurry
to fill them. With lower staffing it
is increasing the waiting time for
surgery.

The hospital is also increasing
costs to the public for the
emergency, physiotherapy and
occupational therapy depart-
ments, in effect, lowering the
amount of funds the government
has to contribute. Many people

are concerned that it is a move

towards a ‘“‘user pay’’ policy.

Instead of an attack on health
standards, more funds are needed
for an updating of equipment and

services. For example, instead of

sending badly burned patients to
Vancouver, Prince George should
have a burn unit to care for the
people of the Interior.

The problem of health care is
obviously bound up with the need
to defeat the Social Credit
government in the next election
and hospital workers will likely
play a larger role than previously
in the election. Trade unionists
and progressives are also being
encouraged to join hospital
Societies and to get elected to
Boards of Directors to put
pressure on the government and
to see that the hospitals are run in
the interests of the community.

Unemployment

Up with Socreds

VICTORIA — In three years of
the Social Credit government,
average unemployment: in B.C.
has increased from an average of
74,000 or 7.1 per cent during the
previous three years of the NDP
government, to 97,000 or 8.5 per
cent, NDP MLA Karen Sanford
said this week. Unemployment in.
B.C. reached a high in February
with 112,000 or 9.4 per cent of the
labor force out of work.

‘periods of the year when demand

Backlash over
cuts could pose

threat to Bennett

KELOWNA — The Kelowna
General Hospital faces a $500,000
deficit for 1978 and the Socred
government does not seem in-
clined to assist the hospital meet
its obligations. With the deficit
carrying over, the five per cent
limitation on budgets for 1979 will
likely force a closure of certain
wards at Kelowna General for

is least, hospital spokesmen have
stated.

Socred budget restrictions have
also forced the city of Kelowna to
lay off 17 workers and there is an
indication that the five per cent
budget freeze may also force a
permanent layoff of 10 per cent of
city staff.

With the trade union movement
committed to playing a large role
in the next provincial election,
there is strong speculation that
premier Bill Bennett may be in
trouble in his home riding. =

\

The joint statement also called
for public support to compel the
federal government to alter its
stance on negotiation of two key
aspects of claim settlement —
political self-determination and
allocation of land.

‘Up to now the government has
refused to negotiate political rights
as part of the total claims process,”’
it said. ‘‘Political self-determina-
tion is our inalienable right. Our
right to set up systems within which
all citizens, native and non-native,
enjoy basic rights, must be
recognized.’’

On the issue of land allocation,
the two. groups noted that the
federal government, in settling
claims, has sought to take 95 to 99
per cent of aboriginal lands while
leaving only one to five per cent for
the people affected. ‘‘The
aboriginal people must be assured
that there will be sufficient land to
be maintained by them in order to
ensure that their basic requirements
are met,’’ the statement declared.
_ The CYI and the Dene Nation
also released policy documents by
their individual organizations
outlining their stand on future
negotiations with the federal
government.

Of particular significance was the
Dene Nation statement which
detailed for the first time, the
specific proposals for Dene self-
government including an outline
of areas of jurisdiction and the
division of powers.

After the press conferences and a
public meeting and workshop
session in Vancouver, the campaign
was expected to go to several
centres on Vancouver Island and
the central Interior, including

. Victoria, Comox, Kamloops and

Prince George.
Although the issues of Northern

‘Native rights and the forthright:

stand taken by the Dene Nation

were dramatized two years ago with —

the release of the Berger Commis-
sion Report, progress on land
claims and aboriginal rights
negotiations has been virtually non-
existent since.

At Thursday’s press conference
the two groups pledged to work
together to oppose pipeline con-
struction pending the settlement of
the CYI claims.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 23, 1979—Page 3

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