Faces of concerned tenants at last Sunday’s meeting where some 150 people packed the Ironworkers Hall to
voice their support for a major campaign against rising rents.

— Sean Griffin photo

Union concern grows over
Labor Board appointments

‘Concern among trade unionists
over the newly-constituted Labor
Relations Board and the policies
it will pursue was heightened last
weekend with the passing of the
provincial cabinet’s order-in-
council naming seven more
members to the 12-man board.

The order released by Labor
Minister Bill King, brings the
total number of appointees to 11
with one more to be named.
Despite Deputy labor minister
James Matkin’s assurance that
labor will have ‘‘equality”’ on the
board, the feeling in the trade un-
ion movement is that the board is
overwhelmingly weighted on the
side of the employers.

When the first four members of
the board were named, soon after
the NDP government put through
its labor code over trade union
objections, the B.C. Federation
of Labor voiced strong criticism
of the appointments.

The four named at that time
were Paul Weiler as chairman,
and three vice-chairmen: Ed

Peck, Jack Moore and Nancy
Morrison. Labor took the view
that of the four, three are out-
right employer representatives
or anti-labor, and the fourth,
Moore, could hardly be con-
sidered a strong advocate of
labor’s rights. Nancy Morrison is
a judge who is known for her
anti-union attitudes.

Named to the board in the new
order-in-council were some of
the top representatives of big
business in B.C. and some of the
most hard-nosed anti-labor
spokesmen in the province.
These include John Billings, well-
known to woodworkers as head of
Forest-Industrial Relations until
his recent retirement; Herbert
Fritz, former vice-president and
director of Dillingham Corp. of
Canada; Graham Leslie, director
of the Municipal Labor Relations
Board, which bargains with the
Greater Vancouver civic
workers; Ken Martin of Manage-
ment Research (Western) Ltd.

REFINERY

Cont'd. from pg. 11

and Energy Corporation under
public ownership to ensure that
the needs of the Canadian people
are met.”’

Orest Moysiuk, who worked for
some years as a chemist for
Standard Oil, made a detailed
presentation for Burnaby SPEC
outlining the problems of air,
water and noise ‘pollution that
would result from the refinery
expansion.

He challenged the claims of

both the B.C. Research Council

which was engaged by the
municipality to investigate the
proposed expansion and Chevron
itself which has claimed that
pollution will be significantly
reduced with the new installa-
tion. He pointed out that the ex-
pansion will result in a massive
increase in the emission of
nitrogen oxides

Burnaby Teachers Association
president Betty Griffin also
challenged the misleading claims
of the company and noted that
the initial decision to sell land to

Chevron was made in 1935 during
the time that the municipality of
Burnaby was under receivership
by the province and neither
elected officials nor the citizens
had any voice in that decision.
Mrs. Griffin, who headed up a
citizens committee in the early
1950’s which protested Chevron’s
application for an easement cut-
ting through Confederation Park
noted that Chevron’s success in
the bid for the easement and also
for additional land purchases was
based largely on false claims
that Gamma Street would not be
closed off to the inlet. It was, in
fact closed.

But the issue is not final.
Several groups have indicated
their intention to press the senior
governments, particularly the
provincial government, to take
action on energy policies and the
location of the refineries in Bur-
naby. Municipal Affairs Minister
Jim Lorimer indicated Tuesday
that the government was -‘‘very
concerned”’ about the issue.

And they certainly intend to
mount an even bigger campaign
in the event that other refineries
decide to spread themselves even
farther across Burnaby,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1974—PAGE 12

It has always been a basic prin-
ciple for which the trade union
movement has fought over the
years that nominations to
government boards be nominated
and chosen by the labor move-
ment. This principle has been im-

portant from the point of view’

that union memberships wanted
to have a democratic choice and
control over who was selected.

The Minister of Labor and his
assistants completely ignored
this principle. The three hand-
picked members so far named
were not nominated by the main
trade union bodies of the
province. The three announced
are John Brown of the
Teamsters; Mike Kramer, ap-
pointed national representative
of CUPE; and Angus Macdonald
an appointed representative of
the United Steelworkers of
America.

Rumor has it that the B.C.
Employers Council took a direct
hand in naming the employers
representatives. The provincial
government directly approached
the employer organizations in

_ B.C. to make their nomination.

The opposite was the case with
regard to labor. Through reliable
sources the PT has established
that the B.C. Federation of Labor
was never officially asked to sub-
mit names, and to the best of
available knowledge, none were
officially submitted.

In view of the one-sided nature
of the board and labor’s opposi-
tion to many features of the new
legislation, the B.C. Federation
of Labor took the stand that none
of its top officers would go on the
board.

The final nomination to round
out the 12-man board will not
basically change its character as
being one sided in favor of the
employers.

With an unprecedented year of
contract negotiations ahead
trade unionists are apprehensive
that the board ‘and the anti-labor
features of the new labor code
will be used to deny labor its
rights. There is a growing
realization that only a united
labor movement will be able to
win for B.C.’s working people
their just demands.

on jobless

Cont'd. from pg. 1
the unwilling tools and
spokesmen for .the big oil
monopolies.’’ The vote was un-
animous with only Philp opposed.

Delegates also voiced their
protest over the transport of
Canadian oil fromthe west coast
to east coast ports in foreign
ships and called on the federal
government to mobilize trucking
and alternate means of transpor-
ting the oil and to begin construc-
tion immediately on an _all-
Canadian pipeline.

Until alternate means of
transportation can be found, the
resolution added, the federal
government should strictly en-
force Canadian shipping
regulations, man the ships with
Canadian seamen and service all
ships in Canadian yards.

Elsewhere in the council,
delegates voted to urge the Cana-
dian Labor Congress to request
that the federal government ap-
point a union representative
from the Pacific Region to the
Unemployment Insurance Com-

mission advisory bureau and.

urge the B.C. Federation of
Labor to make a similar request
to the CLC.

Laborers delegate Charlie
Shane cited federal government
reports that the total bill for un-
employment insurance benefits
was likely to exceed $24 billion
in 1974 and said that “‘if anything
attests to the inability of the old-
line parties to solve the crisis
they have created, it must cer-
tainly be this.”

Shane also pointed out that a
further attack on the unemployed
and on unemployment insurance
seemed to be imminent with the
new program initiated by the
UIC called the ‘‘active job search
program.”

Shane emphasized that the
program indicated an attempt to
undermine union hiring halls and
said ‘what it means is that we're
going to be forced to fill non-
union jobs with skilled men.”’

He called for an active cam-
paign on the part of the trade un-
ion movement to counter the UIC
offensive.

The executive council also

VLC warns of attac (

insurance

presented a resolution to add!
voice of the labor council to tht
calling for peace in the Mid
East and send a wire to?
Geneva conference n the M
East calling for speedy #
plementation of United Nat
resolution 242.
Postal workers -delegate

Hamilton stressed in the dist
sion that ‘‘had resolution num!

242 been implemented in #
when it was passed, we might

have war in the Mid-East not
The resolution was unanimol
adopted.

TENANTS

Cont'd. from pg. 1

‘change the situation for tend
He emphasized the need
rental grievance boards W

,would ~be empowered 1t0

something about the grievall
registered by tenants #
moreover, have the power
force action. The board in ¥
couver is virtually powerless
has little more than heard ¢
plaints from tenants —
have been coming in by th
dreds. :

‘For most people the situa!
is tough but for some
desperate. We need action ™
not a year from now,” Ral
said. ;

The Vancouver Tenants ©
cil succeeded in gaining
audience with Vancouver !
council Tuesday, January
when the council will ?
representation from tenants:
will also debate a resolution!
presented by alderman Ral
calling for a delegation to be*
to Victoria from city council!

the tenants organizations. —

Bruce Yorke said that
tenants council also plat
a candlelight march from
Plaza 500 Hotel to city hall 0”
night of the meeting with col
to dramatize the tenants’ ©

Yorke emphasized particu!
the need for tenants to conl!
organizing and to continue?
ting pressure on the provi!
government to bring
legislation. _

ani

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