The struggle of Vancouver com-

| Munity organizations to force
Vancouver city council to enforce

MS own maintenance and fire

bylaws came into sharp public

i focus this week with the tragic

death of two women and a child in
| 2 fire that swept through a two
| Storey apartment in East Van-
} COuver,

The fire erupted at about 3:00
| 4.m. Wednesday, reportedly
j ‘larted by a cigarette in a mat-
| ‘Tess, and quickly engulfed the en-

lire building at 434 Glen Drive,
j Tear Hastings Street.
} By the time help arrived an
| ‘lderly Chinese woman had
Jumped to her death from a se-

Fi

<n,

cond storey window, while heat
and smoke had captured a Native
Indian woman and her young
daughter.

The tragedy was the
needlessness of it. Representatives
of the local Neighbourhood Im-
provement Program committee
had written and appeared before
city council three times — most
recently only four months ago —
to demand that the apartment
building be brought into line with
fire safety and _ building
maintenance standards, or be shut
down._On each occasion the re-
quest was turned down by the city.

Assistant fire chief Birnie con-
firmed to the Tribune Wednesday

;

that the apartment failed to meet
even elementary standards laid
out in the national building code.
There was only.one entrance, no
fire escape, no alarm and no
sprinkler system.

“It’s the same old situation . . .
an old building, one
entrance...’’ Birnie said. It’s
predictable, but according to Bir-
nie there is nothing the fire depart-
ment can do. Under present city
council policy, he said, and with
the present manpower in the fire
department, fire bylaws can only
be enforced against larger
buildings, three or more storeys.

See CITY page 2

~_Story, commentary, page 7.

+ a historic signing that was watched around the world, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Presi-
nt Leonid Brezhnev put their signatures to the SALT II accords at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna June

&

: me lines came down Tuesday
Strike €ight-month old Pacific Press
me -lockout as the Printing
the oon who had earlier rejected
ea of the proposed agree-
» announced that a second vote
acy sored the proposed 40-month

$61,592!

tnavith the same fighting spirit
“a has kept the Tribune going
Sup More than four decades, our
the orters pushed us beyond even
ang formidable sum of $60,000
}.. Taised $61,592. And it was no
thirg feat considering that one-
days Of it was raised in only eight

To all who took part, the

orbers of the 500 Club, the
|, “SS builders and others, a fervent
pols. The success of the drive
1, Cnly enabled us to meet, our
teageetit_ marked a resounding

“affirmati : D .
[Port ation of the paper’s sup

A drive results are on page

The second vote was called after
meetings with the B.C. Federation
of Labor which had entered the
dispute earlier this month following
rejection of the proposed agreement
by three unions and acceptance by
the other three members of the
Joint Council.

Subsequent votes were held
among the International
Typographers after their initial re-
jection.

B.C. Federation of Labor
secretary Dave McIntyre said Tues-
day that. the Federation had asked
Pacific Press to lift its lock out
following the announcement by the
Pressmen that ‘‘their membership
had reluctantly accepted the last
proposal of the employer.’’

The Pressmen had been par-
ticularly concerned about the length
of the contract, which was increas-
ed by Pacific Press fram 36 to 40
months after the contentious mann-
ing issue had been resolved.

The new agreement which is to
expire February 28, 1982, provides
for wage increases of some 34 per-
cent over the 40 months. The issue
of manning which determines how

Pressmen vote ‘reluctantly’
to accept newspaper pact

many pressmen will be on shift,
depending on the number of pages
and color pages, will go to binding
arbitration.

The Sun and Province were ex-
pected to resume publication
Friday—with accompanying in-
creases in price.

Boycotts pressed

= = Nihon car ys
DERA’‘s Dave Lane at the razed apartment.

Fire deaths linked to bylaw policy

— Sean Griffin photo

in Adams’ strike

The boycott of the huge London
Drugs chain has taken on particular
importance as the bitter strike at
Adams Laboratories in Surrey, sup-
pliers of vitamins and health pro-
ducts to the drug firm, dragged into
its fifth month this week.

Launched earlier by the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store
Union in conjunction with the B.C.
Federation of Labor, the boycott
has become a critical factor in the
dispute in the wake of Adams’ con-
tinued use of strikebreakers and the
punitive actions of the courts.

The latest judicial blow to the
Adams’ strikers, members of Local
580 of the RWDSU, came last
Thursday when Judge E. E.
Hinkson set bail for Ron McCann
at a formidible $20,000 and barred
him. from all union activities, in-
cluding picket duty and attendance
at union meetings, until his appeal
is heard, expected some time in the
fall. ;

McCann was convicted June 8 of
cutting a brake line on a scab truck
carrying ‘‘hot’’ goods from the
Adams site. He has denied any part
in the incident and, in fact, could
not be positively identified by
management witnesses.

McCann himself had earlier been
beaten and stabbed outside his
home, in an attack linked directly to
his involvement in the strike.

The heavy bail, coupled with the
sweeping ban on McCann’s union
activity, followed earlier jail
sentences and fines imposed on the

See LONDON page 12

Clark boosts oil prices

The new Tory federal govern-
ment could throw Canada into a
new recession, economists declared
this week after prime minister Joe
Clark’s announcement in Tokyo
Wednesday that his government
would allow the price of oil in
Canada to rise by $1 per barrel
every six months until it reaches
world price levels.

Clark’s Tokyo announcement,
taken without consultation of his
cabinet or Parliament, will signal a
severe inflationary spiral in gasoline
and home heating fuels and in in-
dustry generally.

A spokesman for the Conference
Board of Canada which advises the
government on economic matters

warned that the inflation created by
moving rapidly to world prices in oil
could throw Canada into a serious
recession.

Clark said the huge increases in
oil prices were needed for conserva-
tion purposes, but only months ago
the National Energy Board declared
that Canadian oil and natural gas
supplies were sufficient to meet
Canadian needs.

The increased prices will mean
vast windfall profits for multina-
tional oil companies in Canada, and
also benefit greatly the Alberta
Tory government which has been a
major proponent of ending
Canada’s two price system for
energy.

THI
BIGGEST
NUCLEAR”
THREAT

ie ee |
@ NUCLEAR THREAT: The
possibility of an accident
at a nuclear power plant
pales in comparison to
the deadly threat posed
by the stockpiles of
nuclear weapons. The
first of two articles, page

@ UFAWU: The Fisher-
men’s Union took its
campaign for saving
fishing industry jobs to
Victoria, Rupert and

Alberni last week. See
provincial notes,
11.

page

@ SCHOOLS: What will
happen to empty school
space and education
standards in a period of
declining enrolment was
the focus of debate at
the Burnaby School
Board this week, page 2.