LABOR SCENE:

Victoria millworkers on the picket line protecting their jobs.

Management vs labor
rights Victoria issue

When management demands
overtime work at the drop of
the hat, lays off 36 workers
in the process, imports stop-
watch efficiency experts from
the U.S, to shove speedup into
high gear so that every last
ounce of production-per-man can
be squeezed out, something is
bound to break — and did,

Some 400 employees of the
B.C, Forest Products mill in
Victoria walked off the job early
last week. Members of the Vic-
toria local of the IWA, their prime
grievance was a vital oneinvolv-
ing an issue of major importance
to all labor; that of management
rights versus workers’ rights,

BCFP mill manager T, D,
Humphreys stated in defense
of his efficiency experts, that
his company “was seeking to
achieve reasonable levels of
efficiency in accordance with
its right to do so”, Obviously
what Mr, Humphreys regarded
as reasonable differed drasti-
cally from that of the IWA, which
described their members at the
BCFP plant as “being pushed to
the limit by absolutely ruthless
experts”, then being arbitrarily
laid off as a result.

The Victoria plywood walk-
out ended Tuesday of this week
with an announcement by the
company that “normal operations
will be resumed”, and that talks
with the IWA will be scheduled
when all employees return to
work, Earlier BCFP described
the walkout as “illegal” and a
breach of the union contract.

Certain operations in plywood
production require overtime work
during weekends, But the prime
issue of concern to the union, in
order to reach a satisfactory
settlement of the dispute, is first
of all a return to work of all
workers who were arbitrarily
laid off by BCFP, plus an end
to the company’s efficiency ex-
pert blitz on millworkers,

* * *

In this new era of labor-man-

agement relations on the job, in
which new methods and tech-
niques of production are steadily
coming into being, the Victoria
IWA has scored a Significant
first-round win against exces-
sive speedup and the right of a
worker to his job.

** *

A recent session of the Vic-
toria Trades Council unanimous-
adopted a 7-point resolution on
housing, and ‘under separate
motion scored the federal gov-
ernment for hoisting National
Housing interest rates to 83-
percent, declaring that the new
“interest rate can only compound
the problem of housing”,

Some of the points in the VTC
resolution include subsidized
housing with rentals geared to
means, and a halt to the use of
housing statistics as an economic
regulation, “The industry’s func-
tion,” says the resolution, “is to
provide more and better hous-
ing, and not as an agency to
control inflation.”

The resolution also urges the
removal of the government’s 11-
percent tax on building materials
and a roll back to the 3-percent
rate,

A wage conference covering
some 4,000 civic workers in
Greater Vancouver is scheduled
to be held October 21, Key issue
before the conference will be
discussion and co-ordination of
wage and other demands in the
coming union contact negotiations
with civic bodies,

The Vancouver conference will
cover all outside civic workers
and non-teaching school board
employees in Vancouver, North
Vancouver, Burnaby, New West-
minster, Richmond and Coquit-
lam.
Canadian Union of Public Employ-
ees (CUPE),

George Cole, CUPE represent-
ative, states that similar area
wage conferences are scheduled
on a provice-wide basis for Nov.
5.

October 13, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 12

All are members of the:

ISSUE GOES TO COURT

Indians say blankets not
fair exchange for B.C.

By NIGEL MORGAN

A long-standing grievance of
the Indian people of British Co-
lumbia — the occupation and
usurping of their lands without
compensation, without consent or
conquest, is now headed for the
courts,

Five B.C. Indian bands have
launched a court test that can
have far-reaching implications
for the government of British
Columbia and decisively affect
the welfare of this province’s
45,000 non-treaty Indians.

A writ has been filed in Su-
preme Court on Vancouver on be-
half of the Nishga Tribal Council
suing the Attorney General of
B.C. for title of nearly 7,000
square miles of land in the Nass
River Valley. The action is a
test case in which the Indians
seek judicial recognition of’their
long standing claim to aboriginal
title to most of B.C.’s 366,000
square miles,

Unlike most of the rest of
Canada, Indian title had not been
recognized and no treaty had been
negotiated when this province
entered Confederation in 1871,
And since, successive B, C,
governments have persistently
refused to meet Indian repre-
sentatives for discussions lead-
ing to extinguishment of well-
founded claims to Native title
of the lands of B.C.

Provincial Archivist Willard
Ireland reports there are cer-
tain treaties under which small
portions of Vancouver Island were
purchased prior to Confederation

in exchange for blankets, a bottle
of rum or other “valuables”, But
there is not record of any over-
all compensation or consent to
occupation of the far-flung lands
across what is now British Co-
lumbia.

Under the reign of Queen Vic-
toria, the British government
claimed it couldn’t pay for lands,
But British authorities under-
took to sell the land with one-
third going to the Queen, one-
third to Canada to run the
country, and one-third to the
Indians, which numbered 150,000
in B.C, in those days, The Indians
have been waiting for their money
ever since,

As long ago as 1910, Prime
Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier
recognized the problem, promis-
ing the Indian people of B.C,
that their land question would be
taken to the Privy Council, This
was never: done, In 1914, the
Federal government passed an
Order-in-Council (PC, 751)
whereby the legitimate claims
of the Indians of B.C. would be
referred to the Exchequor Court
of Canada, Instead a Royal Com-
mission on Indian Affairs was
appointed by two governments
(1913-1916) but they did not deal
with the Native land claims.

About this time some 1,110
chiefs from all parts of B,C.
marched on the Legislative Build-
ings in Victoria and demanded
Sir Richard McBride pay for
their lands as decreed by Queen
Victoria and by Proclamation of
King George III, McBride replied
“You have no claim”, In 1916 the
Federal Government passed an

AID FOR VIETNAM. Photo shows boxes of medical supplies and children's
clothes to the value of $2,000 being ioaded aboard the Soviet freighter ‘*Ola’’

at LaPointe Pier in V ver on Sep

ber 27. This is the seventh shipment to

the people of Vietnam. Longshore union officials are seen

isting Jack Hend

son, (left) vice chairman and Dr. A. M. Inglis, chairman of the Canadian Aid for

Vietnam Civilians.

Medical care appalling
in S. Vietnam— medic

“It was one of the most de-
pressing trips I’ve ever made in
my life.” This was how Dr,
Henry Mayer,
doctor, described his recent trip
to South Vietnam.

Dr, Mayor spoke to an audience
of about 150 last Friday in the
Unitarian Church in Vancouver,
He showed slides and movies
depicting the appalling medical
conditions facing the South Viet-
namese people, These pic-
tures show small children suf-
fering terribly from the effects
of napalm and amputations,

Dr. Mayer was the head of a

an American,

three-man team from the U.S,
“Committee of Responsibility”
which went to South Vietnam to
survey the medical situation.

He described the hospitals in
Saigon as dirty, overcrowded and
understaffed. In many ofthese the
patients are two to a bed, In one
dispensary visited by Dr, Mayer
there were 10,000 patients in
charge of one man with only six
months experience.

Dr. Mayer’s pictures and talk
underscored the terrible con-
ditions imposed on the people of
South Vietnam by the U.S, war,

—KR,

to
Order-in-Council agreeilé

grant a fiat for legal action
vided the Indians yous ai!
surrender their 40 iat
rights”, a degrading %

was rightfully rejected.

These and many more cart
have been undertaken © 4s
about a settlement. si
entered into with the 0a)
the British Crown imple’ ag i
nition of their identity a5e set!
and pledged observance? ~ i
right to title and compen
for land; their right nl
sion of territory sufficle® :
able them to continue thelf
tence as a people.

Encroachments by 1and-* i
lators and government
have whittled down Indi
to a point where their 2
area is now less than He”
lands under control fy
U.S. corporations. India? syst
have often been shameles®
lated, But British com all
Indians don’t even have a!
while the Provincial 60%
continues to dispose, ® tio
and license off large ;
Indian territory such ee,
Management Licensé neo”
the Nass River are@ oe
lumbia Cellulose ©?
America,

Frank Calder, ND
Atlin who heads the
cil, sums up the ;
declaring, “We have®
tiate a settlement ¥ !

d to nee.
We are not prepared e ai?
want oi

evel
cial decision. We have® rhe

rrucr

are no treaties are
Nishga people. th
conquered people +

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crease the business a yal?
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step in the right

it doesn’t yet 8°

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