UFAWU president Jack Nichol (r) opens fightback rally. With
him are (I to r) secretary George Hewison, Nanaimo NDP MP Ted
Miller and (not shown) NDP MLAs Dennis Cocke and Jim Lori-
mer.

Only through winning profound
social, economic and political
change can Canadian workers
achieve security and jobs for them-
selves and the following genera-
tions, Steelworkers’ leader Dave
Patterson told delegates to the
UFAWU convention in Vancouver
Feb. 2.

Patterson, the militant leader of
the eight-month Inco strike in Sud-
bury in 1978-79 and now head of
District 6 of the United Steelwork-
ers in Ontario, said union members
should take pride in their historic
role of changing the society in
which they live.

““We’ve never been bashful
about our role to change this soci-
ety, and I don’t think we should be

now. If that means a social revolt,
there’s not a damn thing wrong
with it,’’ he declared.

Emphasizing the issue of factory
shutdowns, Patterson said workers
should consider occupying plants
threatened with closure, a topic
currently before the week-long
UFAWU convention. ‘‘If you start
occupying those plants, the way
you’ve been talking about today,
you'll change the social structure of
this country,”’ he asserted.

The Steelworkers’ director ac-
cused the multinationals of being
the chief cause of massive indust-
rial layoffs and the destruction of
key industries through corporate
concentration. He pointed to the
U.S. Steel Corporation’s closure of

Campbell River rally
| targets delay in UIC |

| About 60 people protested
+ delays in the processing of
| claims outside the local unem-
ployment insurance office in a
demonstration organized by the
Campbell River, Courtenay and
| District Labor Council’s com-
mittee of the unemployed, Jan.
27. The demonstrators also cit-
ed the federal government’s re-
+ duction in benefits from 66 per-
| cent to 60 percent of the average
wage and eligibility restrictions.
Labor council secretary-trea-
+ surer Nick Chernoff told the ral-
| ly the council wired employ-
ment and immigration minister
Lloyd Axworthy demanding a
speedup in claims processing
} that has resulted in up to three
month delays for some recipi-
ents. North Island MLA Colin
Gabelmann called for further
demonstrations and a diversion
of mega-project funds to assist
those forced on welfare. There
is currently an estimated 300 ap-
plications for assistance in the
district welfare office.
Unemployed committee or-
ganizer Sy Pederson, who called
for a 90 percent benefit rate,
noted that the additional de-
mands include the establish-

ee

ment of a federally-sponsored
housing program to put the
forest and construction indus-
tries back to work.

According to the committee’s
first bulletin, close to 50 percent
of the area’s union carpenters
are out of work. The IWA local
has also been decimated by lay-
offs.

Included with the bulletin, |
which the committee has been
distributing daily outside the
UIC office, is a questionnaire
designed ‘‘to place a ‘human
face’ on the question of unem-
ployment and problems people
are facing.’”? The committee
plans to use it as ammunition in
its campaign.

Gabelmann, who has been
coordinating his efforts with
local NDP MP Ray Skelly, has
challenged both the UIC and
Statistics Canada figures for un-
employment in B.C., claiming
that the figure is closer to
200,000.

Meanwhile, district employ-
ment office manager Don
Walker has said his office has a
backlog of over 1,500 claims
and has farmed out nearly 2,000
cases to other Island centres.

SRR ASS SOON BE I

TRIBUNE PHOTOS — SEAN GRIFFIN

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 5, 1982—Page 8

soe

its Youngstown, Ohio plant result-

ing in 8,000 layoffs at a time when

the company was acquiring con-

trolling interest in Marathon Oil.
Now the employers in the U.S.

and Canada want to roll back.

wages and benefits, taking advant-
age of high unemployment, said
Patterson, noting that jobs have
declined in the 1971-81 period by 90
percent in Ontario, 119 percent in
Quebec, 91 percent in Alberta and
87 percent in B.C.

‘‘The industrial barons are now
saying, ‘let’s reopen negotiations,’
and we know they’ re not proposing
it to give us a bigger cut. Thank god
we’ve got labor leaders in this
country to say ‘no way’ tothat,”’ he
said.

Employers are asking wage cuts
so they can be more competitive in
the international market, said Pat-
terson. ‘‘They are asking us to take
cuts in the name of free enterprise.
We’ve seen what free enterprise has
done for our workers. It means
they’re forced out into the labor
market to cut each other’s throats
for a few meagre jobs.

“The Trudeaus, Bill Bennetts
and Bill Davises of this country
have the answers to our problems:
accept wage controls, tighten your
belts, seek work overseas. As long
as we continue to support these
politicians, we’ll have the same
problems,’’ he asserted.

Patterson also warned against
divisive trends within the labor
movement, noting the old adage,

| “United we stand, divided we
| fall,’ and urged national labor un-

ity as the only means of fighting
back against the corporate powers.

Grenada envoy
speaks Feb. 7

James Emmanuel, the high
commissioner to Canada from
Grenada is to address a public
meeting in Vancouver Feb. 7, 7:30
p.m. in the Rio Hall, 3325 Kings-
way. With Emmanuel is Ian Ja-
cobs, Grenada’s deputy ambassa-
dor to the Organization of Ameri-
can States and the UN.

The meeting, organized by the
Grenada Support Group, will also
show the film, In Nobody’s Back-
yard, about the struggle of the Gre-
nadian people to rebuild after oust-
ing the Gairy dictatorship.

Recalling the earlier Davis Plan and its devastating effect on the commercial fishing fleet, UFAWU
trustee Homer Stevens addresses unionists from the floor during Jan. 29 rally.

Impact of Pearse
report on fishing |
like ‘neutron bomb}

The impact of the Pearse Re-
port proposals on the fishing in-
dustry was likened to that of the
neutron bomb Jan. 29 as 500
unionists turned out for a
‘Pearse Fightback Commit-
tee”’ rally in the Queen Elizabeth
Playhouse.

“You know how the neutron
bomb kills all the people but
leaves the buildings standing,”’
George Hewison, secretary of
the United Fishermen and Al-
lied Workers’ Union, told the
meeting.

““Well, the Pearse report will
wipe out all the fishermen but
leave the corporations and the
corporate structure intact.”

Friday’s rally was called by
the committee to launch the
campaign against the report
which has been widely criticized
throughout the fishing industry.
Only the Fisheries Association,
representing the major compan-
ies, and one fishermen’s organi-
zation — the Pacific Gillnetters
Association — have endorsed
Pearse’s proposals which
sought to rationalize the in-

' dustry through catch royalties
on fishermen, boat buy-back
schemes and licencing revisions
and other proposals.

The criticism has prompted

} Romeo LeBlanc to concede that
| he has ‘‘revamped my positions
considerably’’ although his de-
partment has already proposed
a new policy, adopted from the
Pearse report which; unless it is

= fe he

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Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial
Vancouver, B.C. VSL 3X9. Phone 251-1186 “pe

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changed, could result on 500
jobs being lost in the herring
fishery this spring.

“There are very serious im-
plications to this report,’’ Na-
naimo NDP MP and fisheries
critic Ted Miller told the rally.
“Tt is a direct attempt to bank-
rupt fishermen through regula-
tions and it puts in the hands of |
the big companies the ability to |)
control the fishing fleet.”” a

He urged support for the
UFAWU demand for a one-
year moratorium on implemen-
tation of the report’s recom-
mendations -and called on
LeBlanc to take action on some
of the proposals which fisher-
men had advanced but which
““were buried by Pearse.”

The demand for the morator-
ium as well as complete con-
demnation of the report were
also reaffirmed at the annual
convention of the UFAWU
which dealt with the commis-
sioner’s report in a lengthy ses-
sion Monday.

The convention adopted a de-
tailed nine-page study of the
Pearse report which, in addition
to criticizing Pearse’s recom-
mendations, outlined union
proposals for change, _includ-
ing a proposal for a ‘‘de-control
committee,’’ elected from
among commercial fishermen,
which would oversee licence
transfers and any other aspects
of a fleet rationalization
scheme.

New rates effective February |

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