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Sin ad

Bn tS, Te al

Friday, July 4, 1975

4

5 48
No. 27

15c VOL. a

ag are drawn for a massive
foll € in B.C.’s forest industry
as ag the release Wednesday of
sf 3% strike vote from the 30,000
ast members of the IWA. :
a My opinion it is an excellent
the *€ vote,’ IWA. regional
Sident Jack Munro stated in
houncing the results of the
Faun? “The industry should now
re ize that our members are
She to fight for a wage in-
aa a ee and are determined
Shother increase one way or
ere vote is a firm rebuff to the
Pees ploy of last week in
With ee the master agreement
4 ee IWA which expired June
Mun € cancellation, described by
ae , a8 ‘‘confrontation
after tr was made public only
Dleteg. € strike vote was com-
ce IWA vote joins B.C.’s largest
Oe with the two other forest
W as mB.C., the Pulp Paper and
Workers Union and the

wha an Paperworkers Union
strik last Tuesday announced
re € Votes of 77% and. 78%
Pectively,
haalthough no official strike notice
Publ; as yet been served, IWA
Trib wy director Don Fox told the
Said a that it can be expected. He
be q € union’s next move would
Com, Bed by the negotiating
ag in conjunction with the
comme established liaison
Worn ttee that unites the three
Tt Unions.
appears clear that the forest

Stein odies are intent on forcing a
The can-
of the agreement was in

this summer
“ellation :

—Sean Griffin photo

It Was a rather unorthodox demonstration last Saturday at the Peace
tch as the Pacific Life Community gathered some 150 people to
Celebrate “Interdependence Day,” but the group’s opposition to the
nstruction of the Trident sub base at Bangor, Washington was clear,
Nevertheless. Supporters came from both sides of the border.

Three wood unions vote
‘Tesoundingly for strike

itself an unprecedented act, the
usual procedure being to continue
the old agreement until a new
settlement is reached.

The companies followed up their
cancellation with the insertion of
near full page advertisements in
daily newspapers aimed ‘at
whipping up anti-labor hysteria.
“BC. is losing its ability to com-
pete in world markets” the com-
panies complained in an attempt to

Provincial labor minister Bill
King’s contentious Bill 84 — the
amendments to the labor code —
was pushed through the legislature
in the final session last Thursday
sparking grave concern through
the labor movement with the trend
toward compulsion embodied in
the Act and evoking a statement
from the B.C. Federation of Labor
that it had lost confidence in the
labor minister’ and the politics
developed by his advisors.

The legislation was enacted
virtually without change despite
what the Federation called ‘‘the
strongest possible representa-
tions’? to urge withdrawal of the
bill until further consultations
could be held.

All four opposition groups
supported the. bill with the only
dissenting votes coming from three

justify their refusal to offer any
pay increase to woodworkers.

The labor movement expressed
its awareness last week of the
extra importance of the forest
industry negotiations. Affiliated
unions to the B.C. Federation of
Labor began a’ series of coor-
dinating meetings of unions which
would be directly affected by a
strike in the industry.

See VOTES pg. 8

NDP MLA’s — Colin Gabelmann,
Harold Steves and Rosemary
Brown.

Steves and Gabelmann had also
registered their opposition when
the labor code itself went to third
and final reading last year.

“The Federation had made
known to the labor minister and
government members, labor’s
grave concern over sweeping
extensions of the powers of the
Labor Relations Board and over
amendments which will permit the
LRB and arbitration boards to
ignore the wording of collective
agreements negotiated between
unions and employers.’ the
Federation noted in a statement
following the passage of the
legislation.

“In spite of this, and in spite of
the fact that many NDP MLA’s
recognized the legitimate concerns
of the trade union movement,”’ the
statement said, “labor minister
King persisted in pushing through
Bill 84.”

Provincial Communist Party
leader Nigel Morgan warned of the
dangers inherent in Bill 84, poin-
ting out that its passage last
Thursday “has established it as the
final decision-making authority in
arbitration cases.

“There’s good reason for the
trade union in this province to be
worried about the strong trend
toward compulsory arbitration,”
he said in a statement this week.

He added that the authority to

interfere with the wording of

collective agreements negotiated
between unions and management
and the increased legal jurisdiction
and authority of the LRB to deal

isuUNE

with industrial relations was
“moving in the direction of labor
courts.

“No one should have any

illusions as to what minister of’

labor King’s statement to the
legislature _meant when he
declared: ‘Amendments are
needed to ease the process of ar-

See FEDERATION pg. 8

Pact reached
at Bayshore

A narrow acceptance vote by the
400 employees at the posh
Bayshore Inn has ended the first
strike ever at the big Vancouver
Hotel.

Members of the _ Hotel
Restaurant and Bartenders Union,
Local 16, voted 63% to accept the
company’s last offer. HRBU
business agent Glen Morgan said
the small acceptance vote in-
dicated considerable reluctance on
the part of workers to accept the
offer which he said simply ‘‘wasn’t
that good.”

‘“‘Nevertheless,”’ Morgan told the
Tribune after the vote was
tabulated, “‘it is almost the largest
increase ever in the industry for a
one-year agreement.”’

The new contract provides for a
90 cents across the board increase
plus 17 cents in fringe benefits. The
company also agreed to improve
split shift premiums to nine hours
pay for eight hours worked and to
increase severance pay to 12 hours
wages for each year worked.

HOUSING PARLEY ACCOMPLISHES LITTLE

. The long-awaited provincial
government conference on housing
in Metro Vancouver opened last
week in Vancouver and closed with
little accomplished toward the
solution of B.C.’s housing crisis.

Dubbed ‘‘Focus on the Private
Sector,” the housing conference
was heavily weighted toward
developers and government of-
ficials and, faced with & lack of
leadership from the department of
housing, failed to agree on any
definite action that could be taken.

The single plan of action that
emerged from the conference was

‘that of the Vancouver and District |

Labor Council. Delivered by panel
chairman and VLC president Syd
Thompson, the VLC brief stood-out
as the only comprehensive and
coherent set of proposals to
alleviate the housing crisis.

“Tt is our view,’ Thompson told
the 100 participants in the con-
ference, ‘‘that although there will

be a continuing role for the private
housing industry to contribute
toward the growth of our housing
stock, only a massive infusion of
government activity in the housing
field will fill the widening gap
between what is demanded and
what the private sector is able to
provide.”

Nothing short of large scale

production of housing on an
emergency basis, Thompson
stressed, would be adequate to
break the back of this housing
trisis. The VLC program for
housing was highlighted by a
demand on the federal government
to make mortgage money
available at 6% and by a call on the
provincial government to establish
a financial institution that will
provide incentives to attract long

term money for investment in

housing at low interest rates.

The provincial: government,

Thompson said, should con-
centrate its effort on the large
scale public development of
housing and aim to reduce the
artificially high cost of residential
land by means of public land
ownership and land leasing.

The government could use its
publically owned land, he con-
tinued, for a mixture of housing
production which would include
private housing in both single and
duplex structures, public rental
housing and cooperative housing.

To lower the price of con-

struction for new housing the VLC .-

brief urged the federal government
to drop its 5% federal sales tax on
building materials and that the
provincial government do likewise
and unilaterally remove the
provincial sales tax on building
materials. .

Home purchasers, Thompson
continued, should receive the same

benefit as business by changing tax ©

laws so that interest on mortgage
payments would become tax
deductible. In addition, he said, a
capital gains tax should be applied
to 100% of speculative gains for
real estate transactions. The
revenues taken from. the
speculators could then be applied
to a public housing program.

“We take this opportunity to
make it clear,” the VLC president
said, ‘‘that we are not concerned at
this time with the ability of people
earning upward of $20,000 per year
to obtain housing. We are con-
cerned strictly with the ability of
those people on incomes below
$20,000 per year to obtain -decent
living accommodation at prices
they can afford.”

According to the labor council’s
research, population growth
combined with drastic cuts in
housing starts have resulted in a
cumulative shortage of 10,000 units

See LABOR pg. 2

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