Ed Nelson, NDP MP for Burnaby-Seymour joined several others outside
Pacific Centre Saturday to get signatures on petition for Coordinating
Committee to Roll Back Prices. Some 6000 names were received in
various centres on the lower mainland while hundreds of people across
the country were out on the national day of petitioning. Provincial
Conservative leader and MLA Scott Wallace also appeared but at the
last moment stated that he could not support the petition because it

called for the rejection of wage controls.

—Sean Griffin photo

MAY DAY

Continued from page 3

on the strike or arbitrary im-
position of the contentious ‘‘ac-
creditation clause’? which would
effectively deny workers the right
to bargain through the union of
their choice.

Chairman Dave Werlin, in
opening the meeting, also com-
mented on the construction strike
and noted that “‘while we are
commemorating May Day,
thousands and thousands of
workers all over the city are at
mass meetings deciding their
course of action in the collective
bargaining struggle.”

Richmond NDP MLA Harold
Steeves echoed the May Day
theme, “‘unite against high prices
and profits” and told the audience
that ‘“‘we must roll back prices —
that is the first issue.”

‘“‘When that is done,” he said,

“then let’s have a look at those who

~are ripping us off and do something
about them.”

May Day Committee chairman
and secretary Jeff. Power and
George Hewison as well as long-
time Steelworkers and Mine-Mill
leader Harvey Murphy were also
on the platform. The Surrey song
group “Bargain at Half the Price”’
and Tom Hawken brought a new
spirit to the meeting with several
songs.

FISHERIES

Continued from page 1

taking a firm stand against U.S.
encroachment because of the
upcoming Law of the Sea con-
ference scheduled for June in
Caracas, Venezuela.

“Davis is using the Law of the
Sea conference as an excuse,’
business agent Hewison said,
“while our position is that we
should be taking positions now that
will strengthen us at that con-
ference.

“‘Salmon belong to their country
of origin and should be harvested:
only by that country. In the halibut
fishery, we should be moving uni-
laterally toward extending our
territorial sea out to give
protection to our resources on the
continental shelf and slope.

Halibut depletion has made even
more imperative the need for the
negotiation of an all-inclusive
North Pacific treaty which would
encompass Canada, the U.S.,
Japan, the USSR and South Korea.
South Korea and the USSR are
presently excluded.

It’s a position the UFAWU has
advanced for some two decades
and now the standing committee on
fisheries has seen the sense of it. A
resolution passed endorsed the
concept and recommends to the
government to consider the ad-
visability of convening a con-
ference of the governments of the
five countries.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1974—PAGE 12

MACKENZIE

Continued from page 3

taken the time to explain the
project, inform them of their
rights, or to make plans for their
future survival. They were left in
temporary housing beside a
logging road for three years, 20%
of the tribe afflicted with tuber-
culosis. Finally they were left with
the choice to move on to a reserve
or to migrate 150 miles up the
Finlay river to pick up a new life.

Industry and townsite
development at Mackenzie began
in 1966 when Alexandra Forest
Industries, later B.C. Forest
Products, established a townsite on
640 acres of Crown granted land
(for $10 per acre). Since the
beginning development has been
under complete control of the
forest companies.

In May of 1966 B.C. Forest
Products secured a ‘‘Letters
Patent” from the minister of
municipal affairs to incorporate
the District of Mackenzie as a
municipality covering 53,000 acres
of land. These “Letters Patent’’
appointed a municipal council of
seven to hold office for 6-1/2 years
and granted exceptions to the
Municipal Act covering the extent
of municipal debt and _ liability,
minimum rates of business taxes,
and public hearings for rezoning
bylaws and other regulations.

A majority of the ‘‘appointed’’
council members were top officials
of B.C. Forest Products, many of
whom had Vancouver residences.
The first and only mayor of
Mackenzie is B.C. Forest Products
housing property manager.

Growing from a population of 300
to 6,000 in less than eight years, the
public utility services for a modern
community have required massive
capital expenditures in a short
space of time. With limited taxing
powers and forest industry repre-
sentatives at the municipal helm,
Mackenzie residents have been
saddled with taxes and_ utility
charges that will reach an
estimated $947 per year on the
average in 1976.

Commercial development has
been restricted to one shopping
centre-hotel complex. There is one

Store of each kind offering

residents little choice among ex-
pensive consumer products. Small
merchants wishing to build stores
in competition have difficulty in
obtaining land.

Housing construction and sales
are controlled completely by B.C.
Forest Products and Finlay Forest
Products. While skilled labor is
given first choice, other workers
must join long. waiting lists.
Employment with one of the forest
companies for no less than five
years is conditional to purchase a
house. Few workers in service
industries, such as teachers, are
given the opportunity to buy
houses. There is evidence that B.C.
Forest Product has profited on the
Sale of Crown-granted land.

Citizens of Mackenzie, fed up
with company control over their
lives, have called on the govern-
ment to review developments in
and around Mackenzie. They
believe that if the NDP is serious
about a new orientation for nor-

. thern development it should begin

by setting
Mackenzie.
They believe that the opportunity
exists to make Mackenzie a model
for a publicly planned and con-
trolled community. The provincial
government would do well to take
immediate action at finding
solutions for the Mackenzie
Situation. The company town

things right at

syndrome should be buried’

forever. Diversified industry,
public land and adequately
financed social services can and
should take its place.

Continued from page 1

that before construction workers”

could collect from a cost of living
clause "their current wage gains
would have to be wiped out. Nor did
it take into consideration
productivity increases and profits.

e That the inquiry commission
would decide whether the two per

cent statutory holiday pay would.

come off by the hour, week or year.
The CLRA wants it taken off by the
year, which the unions oppose
since it would not be beneficial in
an industry such as construction.

The 16 unions taking part in the
Victoria talks with labor minister
King rejected his proposals. The
construction unions united in 10-
pact have put forward a_ joint
program in the 1974 negotiations
which calls for $1.50 increase

Students hold par!

Policies aimed at a better deal
for students at income tax time,
more Canadian content in
education, and a guaranteed in-
come for graduate students
highlighted the second annual
conference of the National Union of
Students held May 2-5 at Burnaby’s

~Simon Fraser University.
More than a hundred delegates:

from over 20 Canadian universities
and colleges converged at SFU
with the main task of consolidating
the newly formed organization.
Such was the theme of the con-
ference’s main workshop — ‘‘NUS
— A working union’’. In the two
years since its birth NUS has
gathered 25 affiliated schools rep-
resenting more than _ 175,000
students.

Of a wide range of student
problems discussed at the con-
ference, income tax assumed a
focal position. NUS called on the
federal government to increase the
$50 living allowance deduction for
students, to make tuition fees for a
married student deductible from
the income of the working spouse,
and to make all text books and
student activity fees tax deduc-
tible. For the latter demand NUS
agreed to hire a lobbyist to
negotiate the question with Ot-
tawa.

In dealing with other student
matters NUS called for changes in
the student loan act to provide
loans to part time students and so
that all students of the age of
majority would be eligible for
loans independently, without a
parent as_ co-signer. Other
resolutions called for a guaranteed
annual income of $3,000 plus tuition
fees for graduate students, and
endorsed 1975 as International
Women’s Year. Plans were laid to

‘across the board each

two-year agreement, @
living clause to provide
against continued if
reduction in the hours of
per week; three 4
statutory holidays; and
of additional demands,
in all.

This year has seen the
level of unity by building
contract negotiations, 4”
first time in North Amie
there has been anything
pact agreement in B.C. —

Construction workers
by the PT have stressed 5
is the key to winning 4 ‘
tract this year which vad
major bearing on the 1 BC
construction industry 1?

convene a conference 08
post secondary educa
contribution to the ye4
by the United Nations:

In noting that “‘ther'
insufficient study ?@
institutions in areas
nature of Canadian 8?
conference resolved.
for ‘‘Canadianizate
secondary education.

Another resolution t
support to students 4
Brock College who are
court battles to have
residences brough
jurisdiction of the Lat
Tenants Act. A follow
calling for all student 1
be brought under Prov
dlord and tenant law Wé

NUS’ second confere?
be termed a success- ‘i
of workshops and plen
at SFU served to c0 tio
stabilize the organiza
an end to prediction ve
lived existence. ~. fe
serious shortcoming’
notably the absence © ugh
tion from Quebec. Alt ee
the campaigns jaune
second conference ‘al
NUS’ enormous PO of
backward conservall® ig
puses such as U ‘ita
bulwark against ™!
Their representatives | io
pull out if concrete cot
are not made, but they
starve the central ore ia
the funds needed to #
campaigns.

There is a lot to

=

be dom

NUS meets again ®™ its
Toronto, but NUS }§ on

- council,

united and more determined.

_ workers are being protected.”

; : e ;
_ If closer working cooperation between trade unio?
Canada and those in B.C. has already found its exP!
‘May Day celebrations, it gained a new meaning
when Louis Laberge spoke to an enthusiastic audie)
trade unionists at the meeting of the Vancouver and D}

“I think at the CLC convention that B.C. and Quebet
their determination felt,” he told the delegates, “(0 -
_ different labor movement, a more Canadian labor ™°
“Those of us who have invested a good many years i
the labor movement have got to think about the dire¢
Canadian labor is going. There is a sentiment gro™
Canadian workers that they want the right to decide
_ affairs. All workers in Canada have the same proble!
_ Must have the right to find their own solutions to thet
_ Interference from their American union officers.
“It is proper that this convention is being held in ¥'
‘one of the most militant centres in the country. And I h®
over that we will come out of it with the labor m°

“In Quebec, as in B.C., we need a strong labor mover
_ tomorrow we were to elect an NDP governme?
Quebecois government, we would still need a strot

independent labor movement to ensure that the