Continued from pg. 1
join with it at city hall August 29 in
support of COPE alderman Harry
Rankin’s motion calling on city
council to oppose the fare in-
creases and to send a delegation to

Victoria to protest directly to the ~~

Socred government.

The impact of the increased
fares on young people was
documented in a statement this
week by the provincial council of
the Young Communist League. The
increases will mean that parents
with children that ride the bus to
school will now have to pay $1.50
per child per week in tran-
sportation costs.
costs for a secondary school
student will reach $3.50 per week,
while post secondary students bus
costs will be in the order of $5 per
week. :

Hydro has used the time worn
argument that the fare increases
are necessary to improve service.
But the Tribune this week obtained
information detailing a new round
of bus service cutbacks scheduled
to be implemented August 18.

In Port Coquitlam bus service
from city hall to outlying areas
such as Mary Hill, Coast Meridian
and Pitt River Rd. will be cut back
to hourly service instead of every
half hour in the evenings and on
Sundays.

Other bus routes in Coquitlam
along Lougheed Highway are being
cut out altogether. In Surrey the
east-west service between Newton
and Cloverdale along No. 10 High-
way is also being cut back. In
Delta, the service from Scottsdale
Mall to Ladner and Tsawwassen
Ferry terminal will operate every
two hours instead of the present
hourly service.

The heavily used Canada Way -
8th St. bus linking downtown
Vancouver and New Westminster
will be affected as well,

Transportation ~ ¢%

Although salmon runs in many areas have been short of expecta-
tions, the catch was heavy enough last week to ensure work for a
full crew of shoreworkers at. B.C. Packer's Imperial plant in

Steveston, seen here preparing fish for canning.

—Geoff Meggs photo

Continued from pg. 1

approximately equivalent to six
percent in each year — will be
made retroactive to May 1 once it
is ratified by the 800-odd con-
tractors which are memibers of
CLRA.

The unions’ ratification vote, the
results of which were announced
Monday, followed the vote of a
majority of the 17 unions to
recommend the tentative
agreement, reached July 13 after
some 10 weeks of bargaining.

The required majority of 12
unions voted to recommend
although five unions — the Cement
Masons, the Boilermakers,
Ironworkers, Elevator Con-
structors and Teamsters — voted
against ratification.

Fed report on Co-op expected
as Prince Rupert lockout ends

PRINCE RUPERT
Amalgamated Shoreworkers and
Clerks returned to their jobs at the
Prince Rupert Fishermen’s Co-
operative Monday, ending the
bitter lockout that had embroiled
much of the labor movement

during the seven weeks since it was.

imposed.

The shoreworkers accepted
wage increases giving them a 10-
cent premium over the $7.75 base
rate paid to United Fishermen and
Allied Workers’ Union
shoreworkers in the area, although
ASCU members had twice rejected
a similar offer earlier.

The union, chartered directly by
the Canadian Labor Congress, was
unsuccessful in obtaining the
various changes in the contract,
including clauses against con-
tracting-out, and giving protection

for technological change, which it:

had sought.

Following the Prince Rupert Co-
op’s action in locking its 500 plant
workers out June 23, the dispute
had sparked a bitter controversy
since the co-op is owned and
directed by several hundred
fishermen who are members of the
Co-operative Fishermen’s Guild,
itself a directly-chartered CLC

affiliate.

Charges levelled by ASCU
shoreworkers that Guild members
were scabbing by. fishing after the
lockout led the Prince Rupert
Labor Council to expel the Guild
from the council and prompted the
B.C. Federation of Labor to launch
an investigation into the Guild’

That investigation, ordered by
Federation secretary Dave
McIntyre and carried out by for-
mer executive council member
Don Dunphy, has been completed
and the Federation’s executive is
expected to deal with it at its next
meeting early in September.

At least one of the five — the
Cement Masons — had earlier

voiced opposition to the concept of

a joint bargaining council. :
Several unions in the building

trades had sought in previous |

negotiations to form a_ joint

council, but had been unsuccessful. |

The present council was form
this spring following a Labor

Relations Board ruling which

instructed the unions to form 4
voluntary council or face the
possibility of an LRB-imposed
council.

Sheet Metal Workers delegate CY |

Stairs told the Vancouver ail
District Labor Council after the
vote that the new agreement wo

cover some 35,000 workers — dow! |

substantially from previous yeat®

“because of heavy unemployment if

the construction industry.

“Nobody was too happy with the
wage settlement,” he said, “but
compared to the rates in
building trades elsewhere in thé
country, it’s pretty good.”

Carpenters delegate Colin Snell
also pointed oto the terms of thé
settlement, noting that his local
members “‘weren’t too happy Wl!
it, considering double-digit im
flation, .but we were also aware
that we would not have been able
improve it without a long
protracted strike.”

Both unionists hailed the cot
tract, however, as a demonstratiol |

of the validity of the joint

bargaining concept with a single |

council covering all the trades.

“T hope that now we can put oul
minds together to fight the em:
ployer and get better wages all!
conditions for all of us,” Stairs tol
delegates.

Something new in education for unionists —

Those who are active in
education work in the trade union
movement maintain that the
membership participation in
classes and seminars organized by
the Canadian Labor Congress and
its affiliates is increasing. This,

they say, is a positive development ;

because it reflects an increasing
awareness in the labor movement
along with a search for a better
understanding of what the labor
movement is all about and what
policies are required to make
further advances.

Most of the courses, for un-
derstandable reasons, are -tool
courses such as the role of job
stewards, understanding and
policing the collective agreement,
labor legislation, safe working
conditions, public speaking,
preparing leaflets and bulletins,
writing press releases and
developing collective bargaining
techniques. .

Other courses deal with
economics, international affairs
and political action. In most cases,
political action courses are
designed to win more support and
recruits for the New Democratic
Party. In line with that objective,
top NDP leaders are often brought
in to speak.

Recently it was announced in
Vancouver that something new has
been added to the scope of trade
union educational work, not as part
of the official program of the trade
union movement, but as a forum
for left and socialist-minded
members from any trade union,
CLC or independent.

The sponsoring group is the
Vancouver School for Labor and
Social Sciences. The directors
include Emil Bjarnason, director

of the Trade Union Research
Bureau; William Zander,
president of the B.C. Provincial
Council of Carpenters; George
Hewison, secretary of the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union; and Ben Swankey, well-

LABOR
COMMENT |

BY JACK PHILLIPS

known labor journalist and lec-
turer. (The information brochure
states that the unions listed are
named for identification purposes
only).

The first school project is to be a
trade union seminar to be held in
Vancouver the weekend of October
14 and 15.

When I was asked to participate
in and publicize the October school
in Labor Comment I inquired if it
was sponsored by any official trade
union body. The reply was that the
Vancouver School of Labor and
Social Sciences is an independent
educational body and is not af-
filiated with, or sponsored by any
particular union or _ labor
federation. However, I was
assured that it was not set up for
the purpose of opposing any
established labor body. Its main
purpose, I was told, is “‘to provide
an educational forum for the
discussion and dissemination of the
views of left and socialist-minded
workers in the trade union
movement.”’

Thesponsors believe that the left
and socialist currents in the trade
union movement have played a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 18, 1978—Page 8

constructive and sometimes
decisive role in this province for
more than 80 years: They also
believe that we are entering a
period in which there will be an
increasing interest in the history of
the left and socialist movements,
coupled with a search for the best
ways to adapt their policies to the
times we live in and around the
issues that confront us today.

“There is a growing feeling that
new policies are required by
organized labor to meet the attacks
by government, inflation, unem-
ployment, protection of the en-
vironment and the constitutional
crisis.”” In making that statement,
one of the directors told me that the
sponsors are of the opinion that left
and socialist-minded workers can
be expected to play an increasing
role in elaborating and gaining
support for such policies. The
October session will offer and
opportunity to debate what such
policies should be.

The fall session will feature four,
courses, each of three hours
duration. A course will include a
lecture (with an outline for every
student) and group and class
discussions designed to give
maximum participation by the
student body.

The October curriculum will
be as follows: ‘‘Labor Economics”
with Emil Bjarnason; -‘‘Labor
Political Action’? with Ben
Swankey; ‘“‘Labor and Municipal
Politics’’ with Vancouver alder-
man Harry Rankin; and ‘‘Trade
Union Perspectives” with Jack
Phillips.

Although the school is designed
for ,active trade union members
who wish to discuss left and

socialist policies, it will be open to
those who are not members of
trade unions. I’m informed that
admission will be strictly on the
basis of advance registration
which will close on September 30.

Readers interested in receiving a
brochure and application form
should write to the registrar, Ruth
Breger Smith, 1320 West 15th Ave.,
Vancouver, V6H 1S3.

If this venture is successful —
and the sponsors are optimistic —
it is to be followed by even more
abitious undertakings. The plans
include a more extensive session in
the spring, public forums on key
policy questions and_ the
publication of educational material
dealing with trade union problems.

In closing, I want to make one
clarification. When the sponsors
speak about providing a forum for
socialist-minded workers, they
have in mind a forum for those
working people who believe that
the ultimate solution to the basic
problems of the working class is to

be found in placing the principal

means of production an
distribution under public ownel-

ship and making them the commo? —

property of society as a whole.
That would mean planne

production and distribution 1
satisfy human needs, in place of 4
system in which the main motive ©
those who control the economy is |

make maximum profit,

irrespective of the social com |

sequences. :

However, there will be no pie-i” |

the-sky preaching about forgettiné
the immediate problems in orde!
to work for socialism which is

come on some unknown date .

Instead, there will be a practical

examination of today’s problem>

from a left and socialist viewpoints
along with a conscious effort
show the link between the fight for

better conditions today and thé —

establishment of socialism in thé

future. :
It should be a very excitin8

session for all who participate.

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