= coos = —J o i=} a == AU ~ FO oe = 33... oO » > ae eet aoe — ’ L| \ ( EP i Wi isn FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1970 TENANTS TO LOBBY VICTORIA VOL. 31, NO. 5 Tribune eS aR dite. STOP RUNAWAY RENTS Faced with rising rents and denial of elementary World peace leaders Pastor Martin Niemoller and Krishna Menon, two out- Standing world figures and Peace leaders, will speak at a Public meeting at Vancouver's John Oliver High School, 41st and Fraser, on Friday, February 6 at 8 p.m. The rally is sponsored by the newly - formed Vancouver Moratorium Com- mittee to End the War in Vietnam. Chairman of the committee is Prof. Robin Harger, UBC Dept. of Ecology and secretary is Mrs. lrene Foulks. Pastor Niemoller won world attention because of his heroic defiance of Hitler’s nazi church doctrines. He was tried for high treason by the nazi regime and sent to Dachau concentration camp. ~ An ardent advocate of Peaceful co-existence, Pastor Niemoller was elected one of SIX Co-presidents of the World Council of Churches in 1961. ~ Labor resists Bill PASTOR NIEMOLLER In 1967 he visited Hanoi with A.J. Muste and Rabbi Feinberg. Krishna Menon is a renowned Indian statesman who was a member of Nehru’s cabinet and a life- By OBSERVER Why did 206 engineer-custodians employed by the Vancouver School Board go on strike on Friday, January 23? Why did these members of the Operating Engineers, Ocal 963, refuse to accept a wage increase of vl Percent for 1970, despite the fact that this would be in Ine with the average settlement for teachers in British olumbia? Engineer-custodians have a Tesponsible function in the Van- Couver school system and their 969 pay rates ranged from $510 to $769 a month. What with the Increase in the cost of consumer 800ds and higher taxes, the Proposed 7.1 percent increase Would barely have maintained their 1969 purchasing power for 1970. Teachers were unhappy about their settlements but Most of the awards were the _ Tesult of mandatory arbitration. he _engineer-custodians, enjoying what they considered be the right of ‘‘free collective bargaining’, struck on Friday, January 23, after lengthy nego- tiations (including the services of a government mediation officer) failed to produce a settle- ment. ae Next day Labor Minister Leslie Peterson broadly hinted that he would invoke com- pulsory arbitration to end the strike which had closed most of Vancouver’s 100 schools. The B.C. Mediation Commission, an instrument of government speak at city rally KRISHNA MENON long fighter for Indian inde- pendence. For many years he was India’s delegate to the UN General Assembly. Admission is $1.00 at the door. For further information phone 224-3975. on Monday, January 26. The Union, with the public backing of the B.C. Federation of Labor, boycotted the session. SOCRED THREAT On Tuesday, the 27th, the Minister announced that another hearing would commence on Wednesday, the 28th, to go into the ‘‘merits’”’ of the case and to bring down recommendations for a settlement. This announce- ment was underlined with a threat: The strike must be ended by Friday, January 30, or com- pulsory arbitration will be invoked under Bill 33! The strikers did not panic and the officers of the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor did not retreat from their position of full support of the engineer- custodians, in line with policy vention of that bod adopted by the November con- civil rights, tenants in Greater Vancouver and other B.C. centres have launched a province-wide petition campaign and plan a mass lobby to the Legislature on Tuesday, February 17 to put their demands before the government and MLAs. The petition, which is sponsored by the newly formed B.C. Tenants Organization, is being launched from a public meeting in the Burnaby South High School Saturday at which Vancouver alderman Harry Rankin and Burnaby Alderman Jim Dailly are featured speakers. A press statement issued by Bruce Yorke, acting secretary for the B.C. Tenant’s Organi- zation, drew attention to the Throne Speech last week in which the Provincial govern- ment indicated it will bring down legislation at this session on tenants rights. “In our view the legislation must contain teeth. We intend to let the government know our feelings about this in no uncer- tain terms. To this end a large delegation of tenants will lobby the Parliament Buildings on Tuesday, February 17,” he said. Yorke stressed that a Tenant’s Bill of Rights is made necessary by their present ‘‘second class” citizenship status. Tenants have little or no “‘rights”’ in a court of law; tenants lack elementary civil rights regarding privacy, choice of company and the like. Later that day, on Tuesday, it was announced that direct nego- tiations had been resumed between the Union and the School Board and that the hearing before the Commission had been postponed. There is reasun to believe that the Minister of Labor made his threat of compulsory arbitration after learning that negotiations were to be resumed, in the hope that he would add enough pressure to avoid a show-down with the B.C. Federation of Labor. With 75,000 students sent home because heat and water had been shut off, and with 3,000 teachers spending their work time on ‘‘an in-service professional develop- ment program,’’ the School Board was in a crisis. Instead of finding an honorable way out of that crisis by direct bargaining, they turned to the Mediation Tenants have no protection against arbitrary evictions. Neither have tenants any right. at present to vote on municipal money by-laws, nor do they qualify for ‘‘homeowner’’ grants, yet indirectly through rents, pay substantial taxes. In most municipalities they are not enumerated for civic voters -lists. Tenants have no protec- tion against sky-rocketing rents. Nigel Morgan, provincial leader of the Communist Party, said this week that, ‘‘the promise of a new Bill of Rights for tenants represents an important advance for the organi- zation and pressure which brought it about.”’ “However, what is most needed is firm government action to stop runaway rents. The Provincial government has the authority to act. The Legislature must see that they use it, and don’t pass the buck.” The B.C. Communist spokesman said that ‘‘protective rights won’t amount to much if repeated, ruthless rent hoists are to be permitted to be piled one on top of the other.”’ THRONE SPEECH HIT “Sharpest dissatisfaction with Throne Speech projections will undoubtedly centre around the Socred government’s failure to provide any answer to the threatened hoist in Hydro rates and bus fares and_ the exhorbitant charges for the new, government-ordered com- pulsory insurance,” Morgan stated. “The people of this province are not going to be satisfied with another government enquiry. The experience with the gas hearing, the Gaglardi and Commonwealth scandals are too fresh in people’s minds. What we want, and are entitled to, isa halt to monopoly profiteering. If insurance is to be compulsory, ~ and there are logical reasons _why it should be, then it should be made available at cost.”’ “And while no one expected too much from a government whose re-election was so lavishly financed by big business, there will be dismay and disap- pointment that the highly unpopular and completely inade- _ See THRONE SPEECH,