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Study links disease to smelter work

CASAW seeks action by Alcan, gov't

The Canadian Association of
Smelter and Allied Workers will be
Pressing the Aluminium company
of Canada to take immediate ac-
tion to reduce levels of toxic
Substances in its Kitimat smelter
following release of a lengthy
health study which revealed an
_alarming number of work related

abnormalities among the work
force and a new bone disease which
Study directors have described as
“Tausculoskeletal fluorosis.”

The concluding report of the
$187,000 study, commissioned by

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CASAW ina pioneering effort, was
brought down Monday by the
directors, Dr. Bertram Carnow,
director of occupational and en-
vironmental medicine at the
University of Illinois, and his wife,
Dr. Shirley Conibear, director of
the occupational hazards
evaluation unit at Cook County
Hospital in Chicago.

Begun ten months ago, the study
involved more than 1,200 workers
at the Alcan smelter and was based
on a variety of tests which were
later co-related to occupation.

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Hundreds of people began lining up early in the morning last Sunday to take advantage of bargain herring as

Results clearly indicated that the
abnormalities manifested by
smelter workers were wor
related. ;
Jim Brisebois, who co-ordinated
the study for the union, said that
Alcan would be given two weeks to
study the report before the union
pressed for action to reduce the
levels of irritant dusts and gasses

in the smelter and to remove

workers with bone or lung ab-
normalities to safer areas.

He added that the union ‘‘should
not be afraid to lay criminal

:

the UFAWU opened the first of its sales, organized jointly with radio station CKNIW. Another sale is
Scheduled for Dac. 4 on False Creek, under the south end of the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver with sales

-Starting at 6 a.m. The price is still a mere $1.50 a bucket.

—Richard Morgan photo

Twice crosses picket-line

CPUSA blasts Carrillo —

The U.S. Communist Party last
Week blasted Spanish Communist
Party leader Santiago Carrillo for
What it called “a vulgar exhibition
of contempt for the U.S.. working
Class and distain for the most
Universal and elementary concept
of class loyalty’? following

‘Carrillo’s action November 15 in
Crossing a picket line outside Yale
a

University manned by striking

members of the Hotel and
Restaurant Workers Union.
Carrillo, in: the U.S. for a

speaking tour at a number of
universities, crossed the picket line
again on November 17 despite
pleas from the striking workers
and from the CPUSA to respect the
strike.

- Women from Vietnam
_ to speak November 26

Visas were finally granted to the representatives of the Vietnam
Women’s Union last week, opening the way for their visit to this coueiey

beginning November 25.

Tran Thi An, a member. of the National Assembly of the Socialist
<‘€public of Vietnam and an executive member of the Women’s Union a
Le Thi Thuy, deputy head of the foreign relations department xe the
Women’s Union, along with their nee Le Khanh,
Speak at a public meeting in Vancouver November 26. -

The nicer Tag been set for 8 p.m. in the Floral Room of the ven

n Gardent at 37th and Oak in Vancouver. It is organized by the

nhadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians, sponsors of the tour.
The Women’s Union representatives will be making several stops

the children of Vietnam,
‘astntnnees,

in
across the country including a meeting with the legislative committee
~ Victoria to aietae the province’s pledge to provide $2.25 ue in aid to

The Spanish Communist leader
had earlier received telegrams
from Local 35 and from Gus Hall,
U.S. Communist Party leader,
askinghim to support the strikers.
Hall’s message had also pointed

out that U.S. Senators McGovern

and Ribicoff and U.S. labor
secretary Marshwll had refused to
‘cross the picket line.

At a press conference, Carrillo
sought to justify his action by
presenting it as a criticism of the
U.S. labor movement. for its sup-
port of the Vietnam War and for
maintaining reactionary elements
in its leadership.

He later sought the excuse that
he had “‘a contractual obligation”
to speak at Yale.

In response, the CPUSA de-
clared, ‘‘Carrillo has chosen to
adhere to his business contract and
violate the lifetime duty and
obligation of loyal working people
(not to mention Communist
leaders) to uphold inviolate their
contract with their working
brothers and sisters.’’

The party’s statement, issued
over the signature of secretary Gus
Hall and national chairman Henry

See CP pg. 11

charges” against the company if
plans to “clean up the smelter are
not forthcoming within a
reasonable amount of time.’

As a result of the study, CASAW
will also be pressing claims for
industrial disease before the
Workers’ Compensation Board.
“And we’re going to demand that
the WCB recognize a much larger
group of diseases for aluminim
smelter workers than they have
ever recognized before,” Brisobois
said.

“I’m 100 percent convinced,” he

told a special membership meeting
of the union local, “that the
smelter .. . is responsible for the
large amount of skeletal and lung
problems.”’

Project director Dr. Carnow
confirmed Brisebois’ comments
when he told the meeting:
“Workers in large number are
already being affected. Many of
the abnormalities being affected.
Many of the abnormalities are stil]
in the early stage but if conditions
are allowed to continue these

See DISEASES pg. 3

Fishermen press
to open oil probe

The West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry
is about to be ‘‘suspended to death”’
unless opposition groups can force
the federal government to re-
activate the Inquiry with its full
powers.

While the Inquiry remains idle, a
Bill in the U.S. House of
Representatives is going ahead
which will force the Canadian
government to make a decision on
the proposal for an oil port at
Kitimat in less than seven months.

Fishery Opposition to Tankers

and Oil Ports co-ordinator Arnie
Thomlinson told the Tribune this
week that the oil companies and
federal officials consider the
Inquiry ‘‘too hot to handle, and
they want to shut it down.”

“The Inquiry is the voice of the

‘people,’’ Thomlinson said, “And

they want to shut us up. That
seems to be the simple truth of it.”

Commissioner Andrew Thomp-
son has set December 13 as a date

for re-opening the Inquiry, but only .

See U.S. pg. 3

Ana Gonzales, Gabriela Bravo
and Ulda Ortiz, the three Chilean
women who were in Toronto last
month to appear before a com-

Chile appeal issued —

mission of inquiry, were expected

to arrive in Santiago, Chile,
Wednesday, raising fears for their
safety should the junta attempt to
take action against them.

Chile solidarity committees
around the world have appealed to
people everywhere to follow their
arrival home with telegrams
demanding that no reprisals be
taken.

In this province, the Canadians
for Democracy in Chile has asked
that telegrams be sent both to
external affairs minister Don
Jamieson at- the Parliament
Buildings in Ottawa, and to the
Canadian Embassy, I] Ahumada,
Floor 10, Santiago, Chile.

The three women, all of whom
had participated in the heroic
occupation of the UN building in
Santiago in June, testified before
the Canadian Inquiry into Human
Rights in Chile in Toronto October
29 and 30, that their relatives were
among the ‘‘disappeared’’
prisoners of the fascist regime in
Chile.

The Inquiry, which recently
issued a bulletin outlining its ac-

tions, also condemned a tour .

presently underway across Canada
under the spurious title of
“People’s Front of Chile”.

The tour, organized by the
Maoist “Communist Party of
Canada — Marxist-Leninist”, does
not support or represent the anti-
fascist forces, either in Chile or
internationally, the bulletin said.

ANA GONZALES ... returning

to Chile.
INSIDE

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3 ARE Just TOO

e RCMP: Probing the illegal
activities of the Mounties,
pages 4, 6-7, 12.

e ELECTIONS: Some gains for
the labor movement in the |
municipal vote, page 2.

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