BENNEIT ASI
HEALTH A

ee I

mp Drm

: HP wT

er @ Si y,
ay io

TRIBUNE

On

cific

702 TPES

28

Authorised as second class mail by
the Post Office Department, Ottawa

VANCOUVER, Be () ¢

‘ow

¢ It to UBC.

uf The petition calls on the
@ ’vernment to allot some $15
i Pilion for construction of

Be ooms and dormitories.
5 |: Y overcrowded now, the
Piversity will double its en-

Wment within the next 10
tars,

Classroom space is at a pre-
pum, Wartime army huts
ad “semi-permanent” build-
8; the latter erected some
: Heats ago, serve as lecture
S and laboratories for many
‘dents,
Housing facilities, too, fall
/® short of the demand. An

UBC students plan
\Province-wide drive
for government aid

University of B.C, students have undertaken a pro-
ince-wide campaign to rally support for their demand
¢ at the provincial government grant increased financial
A signature drive, in its early stages, has
al Weady netted 45,000 names.

Dr. Gordon S. Shrum, chair-
man of the University Hous-
ing Committee, has stated that
no money has been allocated
for housing for the next seven
years, that is until 1963.

Despite the ever increasing
enrollment, the portion of the
provincial budget which goes
to UBC has been cut from 2.3
percent in 1951 to 1.5 percent
in 1956. In ‘comparison, al-
most 40-percent of last year’s
budget went to highway con-
struction and maintenance.

Armed with these and other
statistics, a committee headed
by Students Council member

Continued on back page
See STUDENTS

The many prepaid medi
cal plans now in effect in
B.C. were branded as a
“crazy patchwork quilt’ by
representatives of 100,000
trade unionists in the province
this week. when they inter-
viewed the provincial cabinet
to press their demand for pro-
vincial health insurance.

“Tt is unfair that only the
employed are obtaining cov-
erage. In many cases there

is no provision for dependants. “i

There is no coverage for the
farmer, the self-employed, the
employee of a small employer,
the unemployed or the retir-
ed,” they pointed out.

The occasion was the first-

submission to the cabinet by
the united B.C, Federation of
Labor.

The delegation told the cab-
inet that “human lives are the
nation’s most precious posses-
sion, and good health, like
education, must be available
to all people.”

The cabinet was reminded
that in 1936, the Pattullo Lib-
eral government enacted health
insurance legislation, which
has yet to be proClaimed. “We
strongly urge you, Mr. Prem-
ier, to prepare the necessary
amendments to the 1936 Health
Insurance Act to make it op-
erative, and to introduce them
and proclaim the bill at the
coming session of the legisla-
ture,’ the brief said.

In pressing their case, the
delegation pointed out that in-
dustrial development in B.C.
exceeds all other provinces on
a per capita basis and that re-
turns to the government are
far in excess of what was an-
ticipated a few years ago.

Premier Bennett is reported
to have told the delegation
that the province would be
prepared to go it alone in the
health insurance field if the
federal government would
help financially, and to have
urged: increased pressure on
Ottawa.

The government ( was also

Continued on back page
See HEALTH

2
4
Hl

IN OUR- NEXT ISSUE

4

_ What's the significance
_ of the Gordon Report?

baa

Strike solidarity compelled an agreement

‘Solidarit y forced
railroad settlement

Mounting public opinion on the safety issue, fear
of organized labor’s influence at the polls next June and
the solidarity of the labor movement behind the firemen’s
union combined to bring a close to the nine-day strike. of
2,800 CPR firemen which began January 2.

Some 67,000 non-operating and operating railroaders
backed the strike that shut down the 17,000-mile privately-
owned CPR, after the company had forced the strike to

test the temper of railroaders across North America on”

the issue of eliminating firemen on diesels in yard and

freight service.

Terms of settlement were
appointment of a three-man
commission of judges to probe
into safety and subsidiary wage
issues. Granted was a 12 per-
cent wage boost over two
years.

not later than October 1, well
beyond the expected election
date of June 17.

Vital feature of the commis-
sion’s terms of reference is
that its report will be advis-
ory and not binding on the

Continued on back page — See RAILROAD

The commission is to report

i