”

LABOR URGES GOV'T HOUSING PARLEY

Tenants to lobby for rent act changes

Outlining plans for a lobby to the
Legislature February 25 to press
for amendments to the Landlord
and Tenant Act and calling for a
full investigation by the newly-
appointed Rent Review Com-
Mission into tenants’ charges that
90% of present rents are illegal, the
B.C. Tenants Organization laun-
Ched its campaign for 1975
following a conference Saturday.

Vancouver and District Labor
Council president Syd Thompson
addressed the one-day conference
and told the 91 delegates that the
Council, in conjunction with the

B.C. Federation of Labor, was
planning a meeting with the
cabinet and would be calling on the
government to sponsor a major
provincial conference on housing.

Thompson also noted the council
and the tenants had worked closely
together in the past and could
continue to do so in pressing for the
conference and in securing
government action on the housing
crisis.

Several thousand copies of the
labor council’s housing leaflet — a
popular version of its housing brief
— were circulated among tenants

Mm. 4 DIVISION oF
punications

vl

UURLAMIS

‘

Spirits still high despite a major anti-union campaign -
Man picket lines outside CKLG radio station in
cluding officials from the B.C. Federation o

4

a

Vancouver.

limiting the number to eight CUPE members. (See story).

for distribution and delegates to
the conference endorsed the
council’s housing program.
Saturday’s conference also
reiterated the demand that the
Rent Review Commission conduct
a full investigation into charges
made by the B.C. Tenant’s
Organization that at least half of
present rents are illegal. The
B.C.T.O. made the charges some
months ago on the basis of
numerous complaints from tenants
of illegal rent levels but, in most
instances were unable to document
cases as tenants feared reprisals.

including scabs — by the employer, CUPE members
Scores of pickets walked the line last Saturday,
f Labor, but the company obtained an exparte injunction

—Sean Griffin photo

LABOR COUNCIL TELLS CLC

Whether or not the Canadian
abor Congress is. actually
€ngaged in discussions with the
federal cabinet on any proposals
Or wage restraints was not firmly
*stablished during a heated debate
t Tuesday’s Vancouver and
istrict Labor Council meeting but
legates were unequivocal in
©manding that the CLC not take

rt in any such meetings and
Move instead to take public action

avert the economic crisis facing
Working people.

Delegates also reiterated their
Sng standing opposition to any
orm of wage restraint or control.

The debate was sparked by an
€xecutive resolution which noted
that the CLC was holding meetings

i! With the federal cabinet with the
ff Mtention of finding answers to the

fips

Current economic problems and
aq Ointed out that the only con-

x tibution that the CLC could make
| _. \Ne discussion would be a con-
4 Sideration of some form of wage
| restraint. The resolution em-

t
|

suppositions

phasized that this was contrary to
both the policy of the Congress as
well as the best interests of
working people and called on the
CLC officers to decline any further
meetings. It also declared
“unequivocal opposition” to any
form of wage control.

Council president Syd Thomp-
son, apparently absent from the
earlier executive meeting, found
fault immediately with the
resolution, arguing that the subject
matter of the Cl.C-cabinet
discussions was only a supposition.
He added, ‘“‘there’s a hell of a lot
more that the CLC could contribute
to discussions with the cabinet”
and recommended that all the
preamble to the resolution be
deleted.

CUPE 1004 delegate Dave
Werlin, the author of the
resolution, told delegates that
about the CLC
discussions were ‘‘the only thing
possible” since CLC officers didn’t
communicate but pointed out that

statements by finance minister
John Turner and CLC executive
vice-president Shirley Carr clearly
indicated that talks about wage
controls were, in fact, taking place.

Werlin added that he wasn’t

opposed to the amendment
See LABOR, Pg. 12

One thoroughly documented case
— against. B.C. Rental Housing
Council executive director,
Richard Dolman — had to take a
circuitous route before charges
were actually laid and Dolman has
not yet come up for trial although
the case is set to be heard March
26.

The Rent Review Commission
was established by the provincial
government last year to take the
matter of rents out of the hands of
the rentalsman and is invested
with the responsibility ~ of . con-
ducting a study on. rents and

VOL. 37, No. 6

Wide labor support gathered this
week for the strike at Vancouver
radio station CKLG which, though
only four days old at Tribune press
time, has already emerged as one
of the most bitter disputes in many
years.

Company use of scabs, im-
pending criminal charges against
picketers and the issuing of an ex
parte injunction to limit picketing
have all combined to bring the
attention of the whole labor
movement on the strike, con-
sidered to be the ‘“‘first
breakthrough” in broadcasting .

Last Friday, as the station stood
poised to strike following the
company’s adamant refusal to
accept the terms of a conciliation
report, the B.C. Federation of
Labor declared that ‘‘this industry
cannot be permitted to carry out
union-busting tactics’ and em-
phasized, ‘“‘however long the strike
and whatever actions the labor
movement must take, the result
will be victory for the workers at
CKLG.”

Delegates to the Vancouver and
District Labor Council Tuesday
night added their voices to that of
the Federation, pledging full
support to the CKLG workers,
members of CUPE, Local 686 and
underlined their support with a
resolution ‘‘condemning the ac-
tions of this reactionary em-
ployer.”’

making a recommendation to the
cabinet for legislative action.

The B.C.T.O. met with the
commission last week and
president Bruce Yorke outlined
several of the tenants proposals,
all of which were subsequently
reiterated at Saturday’s con-
ference.

Tenants want the commission to
use its vested authority to hire at
least 10 inquiry officers to conduct
the investigation into the charges
of illegal rents and wants the

See TENANTS, pg. 12

Tribune

«o 15

Local members launched the
strike late Saturday morning and
left the station with a tape running
on the FM broadcast, playing the
song ‘‘You Can’t Get Me, I’m Part
of the Union,” alternating with a
statement by one of the announcers
that ‘‘radio station CKLG is on
strike and will remain on strike
until a first contract is won.”

The union tape, which ran for
several hours before being swit-
ched off by management per-
sonnel, may have resulted in
charges against the announcer,
Greg Collins. In one of several
vicious retaliatory moves against
the union’s bid for a_ union
agreement, Moffat Com-
muncations Ltd., parent company
of CKLG, laid an information with
the Canadian Radio and Television
Commission against Collins, ac-
cusing him of pirating a radio
station. The CRTC may or may not
elect to act on the information.

The company also moved swiftly
Saturday night to secure an ex

- parte injunction to limit the

number of picketers to eight with
the additional provision that all be
CUPE members. A mass picket
line ‘had been held earlier which
included officers of the B.C.
Federation of Labor and the B.C.
and Yukon Building Trades
Council as well as New West-

-minster NDP MP Stu Leggatt.

See CKLG, Pg. 12

The Syncrude sellout

The deal announced Monday between the federal,
Alberta and Ontario governments to put up $600
million of public funds for the Synerude oil sands
project, under which the giant oil companies will
retain 70 percent control, has been branded as a

giant sellout to the oil barons.

“The consortium of oil companies sold us the
Brooklyn Bridge,” was the reaction of many
Canadians. InB.C., Premier Dave Barrett said the
deal is ‘‘a handout and sellout to the oil companies”’
and “worse in the long run” than the Columbia

River deal.

Tuesday night the Vancouver Labor Council
called for the oil companies to be nationalized and

Crown company.

In a statement released Monday,
Kashtan, Canadian Communist Party leader, said
that Canada should not acquiesce in the blackmail
by the oil companies.

operated by the Canadian Petroleum Corporation, a

William

The Communist Party central executive
statement released by Kashtan proposed that ‘‘the
federal and provincial governments jointly develop
Syncrude as a publicly owned Crown corporation

with the profits accruing from such development

prices.”

going to the Canadian people in the form of reduced