Se | td ? ; : Ve Thousands of Ontario unionists demonstrated in Toronto last Saturday against the Rand Report and for a Labor Bill of Rights. FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1969 VOL. 30, NO. 23 c Tribune ‘Boycott beef’ call of consumer group 10c¢ gon Ty A mass protest aZainst high food prices took root i | with whirlwind speed this week among Vancouver vil housewives. The protest grew out of the hundreds of i ae calls made to ‘“‘hot line’ radio programs on the Lower qh Hid Mainland and exploded into action on Monday morning. i crowd demanded, ‘‘Punish Profiteers, Not Pensioners,” Under the leadership of a Kerrisdale housewife, Mrs. HOUsEWivEs PROTEST HIGH PRICES. °rning, Photo shows demonstration at Woodwards downtown store Tuesday Elizabeth Piccini, more than 200 women and children and a scattering of men, met at the doorstep of Kelly Douglas wholsesalers in Burnaby Monday morning. Following the successful protest an executive of 13 women got together Monday night, and formed a new _ organization, “Concerned Consumers.” Interested women are urged to contact Mrs. Piccini at 263-3697. Signs carried by young mothers, old age pensioners and dozens of other women in the —Jack Phillips photo Stop the profiteering gouge! " The big supermarkets have been gouging the public the most disgraceful way. a. Taking their example from the big forest Onopolies in B.C. who boosted lumber prices skyhigh, 3 € food supermarkets have been charging the public Verything the traffic will bear. It’s time to call a halt to this profiteering gouge! th On Page 2 of this paper Alderman Harry Rankin points out how te Price of beef has jumped 70 percent in the last five months. The Permarkets can’t get away with blaming the unions for that! ankin calls on Ottawa to step in under the Combines Act to stop Monopoly price-fixing and to bring prices down. On page 12 we also carry an article showing how the public is being gouged by the fish monopolies who are forcing up prices to Consumers, Take a look at the profits of the big supermarkets: . Canada Safeway Ltd. reported net profits after taxes for 1968 - amounting to $11,988,000. In 1965 its profits were $10,274,000. . George Weston Ltd. recorded a profit in 1968 of $23.2 million, up 17 percent from 1967. . Super-Valu, owned by Kelly Douglas, which in turn is owned by Weston (which also controls most of the fishing industry) reported profits of $1,833,102 up to June 3, 1967 - the last year for which profits are available. Weston in B.C. also owns Shop Easy Stores, W.H. Malkin, Mini Marts and Red & White stores and others. It is an open secret that the supermarkets hide much of their profits in subsidiary operations in order to show the lowest possible profit on food sold to consumers. Even at that. the profits are fantastic and going up all the time. It must be stopped! “Stop Food Profiteering!”’ ‘“‘Make a Meatless Month - Let it Rot!’ Other placards protested the sharp rise in meat prices in the last five months. Small twin boys in a carriage held up a sign saying, ‘“‘We Can't Afford the ‘Good Life.’”’ Tuesday morning another three-score women picketed Woodwards Store on Hastings Street, and an estimated 450 more marched at Oakridgé. A leaflet handed ott by “Concerned Consumers” urged the public to ‘help fight unfair food prices.” It called for united action by consumers and urged a beef. boycott. The protest marchers won the support of the publie who obviously felt it was time something was done. Xeroxed copies of a Globe and Mail story of May 31 were much in evidence, and passed from hand to hand. The storv .said Weston told his shareholders: ‘Our company is the largest in the food industry with sales of $1.6 billion last year: Be Proud of us— we worked for you!” Further actions are being planned in the next few days. which are expected to centre around the campaign to boycott beef.