Tax windfall profits—Rush UIC overpayment case put to Bud Cullen EMIL BJARNASON ... “rate unequivocally higher than 1 per cent.” i LOCAL 115, TAG The strike-lockout at Pacific Press, now into its sixth mo FANCIES NEW STIS a Unionists handling the appeal in the contentious Unemployment Insurance case intend to put the demand to manpower minister Bud Cullen that he intervene to ensure that thousands of UIC claimants across the province are not forced to make repayment of benefits paid to them. because of computer error. Fishermen’s union welfare di- rector Bert Ogden, one of those handling the appeals, said that Cullen would be pressed for ac- tion in the wake of a ruling by a UIC board of referees Tuesday re- jecting the representative appeal made on behalf of more than 115 union claimants. The three-mem- ber board unanimously disallowed the appeal in spite of overwhelm- ing statistical evidence that the so- called error was not an error at all, a contention supported even by Statistics Canada staff. The overpayments issue has sparked angry reaction from un- ionists all across the country ever since the Commission sought the repayment of extended UIC bene- fits paid to claimants as the result of a supposed computer error which raised the regional rate of unemployment more than 1 per cent above the national rate. But as economist and statisti- cian Dr. Emil Bjarnason told a | VANCOUVER ~ | | TYPOGRAPHICAL ey { LOCAL 226 4 AFL-ClLO~ this week follow- ing the release of mediator John Kagel’s report which favored the employer's stand on the crucial man- ning issue involving the Printing Pressmen. The talks resumed without the Pressmen who have main- tained their position on the manning clause, seeing it as decisive for job security in an increasingly automated industry. —Sean Griffin photo day-long hearing Friday, the error would not have been an error at all if conventional statistical meth- ods had been used. Bjarnason pointed out that he used the same StatsCan figures as the Commission but he used a “‘weighted: average’ by which fig- ures are taken out to at least three decimal points to determine a pre- cise figure. Stats Canada in establishing un- employment rates uses only a sim- ple average, using only one-deci- mal point to arrive at a figure. By the weighted average, the re- gional rate of unemployment was “unequivocally more than | per See STATSCAN pg. 15 NANAIMO — Communist Party provincial leader Maurice Rush call- ed Sunday for an immediate imple- mentation of a windfall profit tax to stop large corporations f ro m reaping exorbitant profits from the devaluation of the Canadian dollar. MacMillan Bloedel has made windfall profits of $52.5 million in 1978 due to the devaluation of the dollar alone, Rush charged, but consumers and the public have been compelled to pay more for import- ed. goods because of the devalua- tion. eae “There is no reason why. large companies should be able to gather in super-profits as a result of pol- icies adopted by the federal govern- ment which lower the value of the Canadian dollar,’’ the CP leader asserted. Rush made his demands at a CP rally of Vancouver Island election workers in the Nanaimo Tally Ho hotel. The meeting was held to sup- port the campaigns of CP provin- cial candidate in Alberni, Gary Swann, and CP federal candidates Ernie Knott, Cowichan-Malahat, Sy Pederson, Comox-Powell River See DON'T RENEW page 15 Placer strikebreaking blamed in incidents Solidarity rally called for CAIMAW A spokesman for the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and. Allied Workers said this week that unionists in Prince George would be holding a mass rally Saturday to demonstrate support for the striking miners at Placer Development’s Endako mine at Fraser Lake. John Bowman told the Tribune that the International Wood- workers of America and the Teamsters would be among the unions taking part in the solidarity rally, called for 11 o’clock Satur- day. The miners at the molybdenum mine have been out since February 14 to back wage demands but the strike has become increasingly bit- Neruda’s wilow arrested SANTIAGO — The. widow of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was ar- rested along with more than 60 other women who chained them- selves to the iron railing of the Chil- ean ministry of justice building here recently. Matilda Urrutia de Neruda had joined the women, who were de- manding that relatives be given the remains of the patriots found in a quarry last December. Police, after cutting the chains, threw the dem- onstrators into waiting police vans. Thousands of Chilean mothers, wives and sisters are camping out on the doorsteps of various institu- tions hoping to learn something about relatives who have ‘‘disap- peared’”’ since the fascists seized power in a bloody coup September 1973. Secret burial places of people murdered by the junta have been found in various parts of the coun- try. ter following the company’s action in bringing in security guards and non-union truckers to carry hot molybdenum, mined by supervisory staff across picket lines. The action sparked an incident last week in which - tires were reportedly shot out by a shotgun. CAIMAW staff representative Bill Green blamed the incident on Placer’s use of professional strikebreakers and on action by the non-union truckers in attempting to run union cars off the road. The Socreds also attempted to utilize the incident to attack B.C. Federation of Labor president Jim Kinnaird. : CAIMAW. began picketing various trucking companies, in- Bees Pathfinder Lines in Fort St. ohn which Placer has hired to carry the hot ore out. Pickets were also set up at Trimac Trucking in Burnaby with Teamsters honoring the line. Machinists at Vancouver Interna- tional Airport have refused to han- dle molybdenum bound for Japan, forcing Placer to truck the ore to Calgary where it is being held in a non-union warehouse. Bowman said that a mediator has called the two parties together for talks Tuesday, May 1, in a bid to end the strike. May Day rally set for April 29 Ernie Hall, NDP provincial can- didate in Surrey, and Jack Phillips, Communist Party candidate for the federal riding of Vancouver Kingsway, share the speakers’ plat- form at the May Day rally in Van- couver April 29. The annual rally, sponsored by the Vancouver Trade Union May Day Committee, is slated for 7:30 p.m. in the Templeton High School,. 727 Templeton Drive in Vancouver. Vancouver Labor Council Secretary Paddy Neale will chair the meeting. BERT OGDEN ... pressing de- mand to Bud Cullen. May Day issue ceemrergerntn is: i aa om EP: @ DARSHAN SINGH ERew in Canada for a visit after a 30-year absence Indian ‘Communist MLA Dar- shan Singh looks at the East Indian Community — then and now, page 8 i @ THE COALITION: There has been a deal to rule B.C. for over 37 years, and it b eg an with the first coalition govern- ment of John Hart and Byron Johnson, 1942-1952, page 9. @ INTERVENTION: Jack Treliving is 82 and he remembers the world’s first socialist revolution, for he was assigned to the expeditionary force sent to intervene, page 10. fy a