mt

___ Pictured above is the Palace of Textile Workers in Tash-
kent, Soviet Uzbeskistan. The palace is the scene of cur-
_ fent efforts by Soviet Premier Kosygin to mediate the
Kashmir dispute. He is meeting with India’s Premier Sash-

___ For the second time within a
_ decade members of Vancouver
Local 213, International Broth-
_ €rhood of Electrical Workers
MBEW) are facing a showdown
With their U.S, - resident inter-
National executive. -

In a wage contract dispute in
Which negotiations have cavered a
Jong drawn out. period of 18

‘B.C. District Felegraph Com-
‘Pany, and in which the local has

_ of British Columbia, the IBEW
~ Local is faced with a confronta-
tion Friday of this week: either

Strike the company in accordance _

With’ 4 government - approved
_ Strike vote before the stipulated
_ Friday deadline, or forfeit that
_ Tight by backing down before the
- International officers’ diktat
which flatly refuses sanction for
the strike,

Advised of Local 213 rights
Under the Trade Union laws of
B.C, a top U.S, official of the
IBEW retorted “the laws of B.C.

_ be damned . e « our constitution

Provisions supercede these
- laws,”

_ Over nine months ago IBEW
international representative Jack
Ross, disregarding local union
authority, moved in and signed a

Months between the IBEW and ~..
“Ross with the company, without

‘Strictly observed the labor laws”

SECOND TIME IN TEN YEARS

_ Local IBEW members
again face showdown

“sweetheart” wage contract with
B.C. District Telegraph; a “con-
tract” which contained some
minor wage gains, but far below
the wage demands put forward by
Local 213,

Appraised of the Ross “con-
tract” the Union went te Court
last menth to have it invalidated,
‘Mr. Justice G. F. Gregory ruled
that the agreement signed ‘by

the knowledge or consent of Local
213 membership, was not bind-
ing upon the Local.

Following that historic court

ruling, negotiations between
Local 213 and the B.C, Tele-
graphs were resumed, Since no
satisfactory settlement could be
reached the Union secured a gov-
ernment-authorized strike vote.
In accordance with B.C. labor
laws, strike action must be taken
before January 7, otherwise the
right to strike expires.

Under IBEW constitutional pro-
visions all local unions of the
IBEW must have the “sanction”
of their international office be-
fore strike action can be taken,
This “sanction” has been denied
to Local 213.

Prior to the possibility of the
general strike called by the B.C.

triand Pakistani President Ayub Khan an in attempt to
resolve the problem which has been festering since 1947,
when British imperialism partitioned the Indian sub-con-
tinent and set the stage for future strife.

Federation of Labor in support
of the striking Oilworkers, and
which was fully supported by
Local. 213, IBEW international
officers in the U.S, expressed
“erave concern® about the “le-
gaility” of such strike action,
Now however despite Local 213
observance of the law in seeking
a new wage contract, and a B.C,
Court ruling upholding its auton-
omous right to dq so, the U,S.-
based international bureaucrats
say “The laws‘in B,C, be damned”
and utilize the international con-
stitution as a club to withhold
‘¢sanction’’ for strike action.

‘As one IBEW member put it,
a wage agreement between an
employer and an IBEW local
union means nothing to the in-
ternational bureaucrats unless
THEY sign it,”

It is reliably reported that
many IBEW locals in Canada are
giving their approval to a cir-
cular resolution to be presented
to the International Convention of
the IBEW early this year is St,
Louis. This resolution recom-
mends the holding of a Canadian
convention of IBEW locals inCa-
nada at which a Canadian inter-
national vice-president will be
elected by Canadian locals, and
all affairs affecting Canadian-
based locals debated.

‘Cuba marks 7th anniversary

Cuba celebrated the seventh
anniversary of its revolution last
Sunday, January 2 with a march

Past and demonstration in Ha-
Vana, :

_ Premier Fidel Castro, in an
_ address to the demonstrators,
_ Said Cuba must continue to re-
__ inforce its defences.
_ “We are a revolutionary coun-
_ try nearest to the heart of the
_ Yankee empire,” he said, “We

must always be preparedto make
the enemyepmy dearly for any

Criminal acts against our coun-
try,” ; ag

He disclosed that because of
a misunderstanding and because
of the need to supply Vietnain
with rice, China had cut its rice

shipments to Cuba by half and

would not be taking its full quota
of Cuban sugar.

The parade was watched by
delegates from nearly 100 coun-
tries of Africa, Asia and Latin

America gathered in Havana for
the Tri-Continental Conference
Against Imperialism which
opened the next day.

A joint statement by the Mexi-
can Communist Party and the
Mexican Socialist People’s Party
said the conference would be an
event of exceptional importance,

It said it would “raise to anew
level the struggle by the peoples
of the three continents for na-
tional liberation, freedom,
democratic rights and world
peace, against the common enemy
—imperialism.”

LABOR ROUNDUP:

Mine Mill wins
big gains in NWT

The membership of Mine Mill
Local 802, employed at the Pine
point operations of the Consoli-
dated Mining andSmelting Com-
pany of Canada in the Northwest
Territories, voted on December
20th to accept anew collective
bargaining agreement providing
for a package gain of some 685
cents hourly for the first 10
months of a three-year agree-
ment,

The Pine Point settlement, ef-

fective September ist, 1965, pro-
vided for a Trades Leader rate
of $3,294, Journeyman Machin-
ists, $3115, and a Labour rate
of $2.26. Overtime will be paid
on all hours worked over 40 a
week, The new contract also con-
tains provisions for a 20 cents
hourly premium for hours worked
in continuous operations on Sat-
urday and Sunday,

Board and room was reduced
from $3.00 to $2.50 daily, and
rent for new two-bedroom houses
with all charges including fuel
and power set at $90.00 monthly,
A new three-bedroom house will
cost $100 monthly with all fuel
and power paid,

Any wage and contract gains
made in 1966 and 1967 in the

- bargaining at the main CM&S

operations in Trail and Kimber-
ley will automatically apply in
the Pine Point operations,

* * *

E. M, Lawson, president of the
Joint Teamsters Council No, 36,
Vancouver, has been named to
represent the Vancouver Civic
Employees Union (Outside Work-
ers) on a Conciliation Board.
The board was ordered by the
Department of Labor when Con-
ciliation Officer Laffling report-

Big business expects

ed he was unable to resolve the
wage dispute between the Union
and Vancouver City Council,

The current edition ofthe Union |

“News Bulletin,” discussing pos-
sible results from the Concilia-
tion Board, stated that, “None of
us want a strike if it can be

avoided, but none of us should:

rule out the possibility of a work
stoppage, Neither should we rule
out the possibility that it could

be a longer strike than in ’64,”

* *& *

Despite the absence ofnormal
collective bargaining proced-
ures, Vancouver school teachers
and principals have been awarded
salary increases ranging be-
tween seven and eight percent by,
a government~-appointed arbitra-
tion board, Under such boards
the award is “binding on both
sides.”

The Vancouver school board
has offered an approximate five

percent increase, while the Van- —

couver Teachers Association has -
asked for a minimum 10 percent
increase, indicating that such an
increase was necessary to bring
Vancouver teachers’ salaries up

-to the level of other Lower Main-

land school districts,

__ Meany wins
War on Poverty

One positive outcome of the
well-machined 10th AFL-CIO
convention: iit unanimously in-

George Meany’s annual salary

of course doesn’t include his
expense sheet. It would appear

his Own personal War on
Poverty. ;

-ereased AFL-CIO President |

trom $45,000 to $70,000, That}

that Meany, at least, has won}

civic workers subsidy

Alderman Earle Adams, chair-
man of Vancouver's finance com-
mittee, has indicated the city’s
1966 budget will be close to a
record $53.6 million — up by
about $2 million over last year,

According to press reports in
the daily press, our big business
city council will employ the usual
method of garnering the addi-
tional money — by taxing the
homeowner, And the estimates
so far do not include the schools
‘budget, which is also expected
to be higher this year,

Thus, although the actual mill
rate won’t be struck until April
sometime, there appears to be
every prospect of Vancouver
homeowners having to fork over
more money to civic coffers in
1966, :

Adams also sounded an om~
inous note concerning current
city negotiations with its Outside
Workers, The mill rate might
be held, he hinted, but it would
necessitate “reasonable. wage
settlements” on the part of the
-Outside Workers,

He failed . to spell out what
was “reasonable” in his opinion.

but it could be supposed that if —

civic workers agreed not to ask:
for any raise at all this would

January 7, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3 e

suit Adams just fine, That way, —
big business could go merrily on.

its way, avoiding its responsi-
bilities to the city, while being
subsidized by civic workers,

The Outside Workers have
notified the city they expect wage
increases of 70 cents an hour,

which would bring them close to —
rates being paid in private in-

dustry, :

This indicates to some degree
the crisis of financing being faced
by all B,C. municipalities, faced
on the one hand with rising costs
of providing needed services and,
on the other, with a provincial
government which stubbornly re-

fuses to meet its responsibilities

in this field,
?

Alderman Adams and all the
other civic fathers should be —

pointing fingers and requesting a

“reasonable” attitude not from
workers struggling to make ends ~
meet, but from our provincial —
premier and his Socred admin-

istration,

When the provinciallegislature
begins its sitting this month, this —

question of resolving the crisis
of municipal finaneing should be —

put high on the agenda, Other-
wise, the beleaguered homeowner
will once again get it in theneck,