Friday, July 22, 1977

€S>*
Vol. 39, No. 29

PACIFIC

of the oil companies in the West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry.

: —Fred Wilson photo.
UFAWU president Jack Nichol told commissioner Andrew Thompson

“to do it right from the beginning” and eliminate the built-in advantage

As commissioner
Thompson opened the West Coast
Oil Port Inquiry this week in
Vancouver it became immediately
clear to fishermen, natives, en-
vironmentalists and other op-
ponents of the oil port schemes that
they will have an uphill battle to
stop the imminent threat to British
Columbia’s coast line.

But as the opponents and
proponents of the oil ports
delivered their initial statements,
it was the voice of the native
organizations and of the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers’
Union that rang out with force and
logic, telling Thompson that there
must beno oil port anywhere on the
B.C. coast or in the Strait of Juan
de Fuca.

“The oil port proposal and the
stream of supertankers that will
ply the internal waters of Canada
is not our doing nor our choosing,”
UFAWU president Jack Nichol told
Thompson. ‘‘We have nothing to
gain from it and everything to lose
by it. We reject all such proposals
categorically and call on all
Canadians to support us in this
endeavor..”’ :

Andrew

‘Fight AIB’ parley urged

Vancouver labor has called on
the Canadian Labor Congress to
Convene a special conference of
Unions this fall to hear a report on

S with the federal government
On the AIB guidelines and to
Consider action to fight wage
Controls.

This action came Tuesday night
at the Vancouver Labor Council
When delegates unanimously
adopted a motion submitted by

AWU secretary Jack Nichol.
kevriticizing CLC officials for
nee png the results of their
€gotiations with the government
Secret, Nichol said it was time

ngress affiliates were informed
about what was taking place and to
Plan national action to end the
Wage freeze.
p Nichol’s motion came after a
Federation of Labor

statement was read and endorsed
which condemned the wage freeze
in light of sharp increases in the
price of food and the cost of living.
(See story page 8.)

Earlier, in reports from unions,
Nichol said shoreworkers were
voting in a salmon price settlement

andthat some sections had already,

approved the _ settlement.
Criticizing the AIB guidelines
which are forcing workers to ac-
cept six per cent settlements or
less, he said, “it was scandalous
that workers are forced to settle in
the fishing industry for six per cent
when the: fishing industry is
booming.”

He pointed to the vast expansion
of the export market to Japan of
B.C. salmon and charged that the
windfall profits of these exports
are going to the companies while

workers are forced to accept low
settlements at a time when prices
are skyrocketing. ‘‘They’re not
going to hold workers down if the
cost of living keeps going up,” he
said.

Other delegates spoke in support
of the stand by the B.C. Federation
of Labor and pointed out that while
workers are being held to a
maximum of six per cent in wage
settlements, ( and, as one pointed
out it’s due to go to four per cent in
October), the rate of inflation is
rising by almost a point a month
and may go up to 12 per cent by the
end of the year.

“The Canadian Labor Congress
should give the kind of a lead that
can force the federal government
to changeits policy,’’ Nichol said in
support of his motion.

Nishga Tribal Council repre-
sentative Don Rosenbloom echoed
the fishermen’s call to protect
B.C.’s fishery, adding that no
proposals be considered “until
settlement of the land claims issue
is arrived at between the govern-
ments and the native people.’’

Three main proposals have been
placed before the Thompson
Inquiry. One is for the construction
of a massive oil port at Kitimat
which would be followed by an oil
pipeline across British Columbia to
Edmonton which would link with
the existing pipeline to the
American midwest. The other
proposals are for supertanker
ports in the Strait of Juan de Fuca
—at Cherry Point or Port Angeles.

In the case of Cherry Point, oil
would be pumped through the
Trans Mountain Pipeline to Ed-
monton and then to the American
midwest, while the Por: Angeles
proposal would have a pipeline
built across the northern U.S. to
the midwest.

Each of the proposals are
designed to serve specifically
American markets and needs. The
risks, however, are very Canadian.
The inevitable oil spills at either
Kitimat or in the Strait of Juan de
Fuca would do irreparable damage
to British Columbia’s ecology and
economy. Natives will be most
severely affected, their economy
and social structure threatened,
and the vital land claims issue
compromised beyond redemption.
Perhaps most important, the use of
Canadian land or water to ship
resources to the U.S. grants extra-
territorial rights that threatens
Canadian sovereignty.

When. Andrew Thompson
pledged in his opening remarks to
maintain a “national and even a
continental’ approach, it was
bound to evoke response.

‘We reject from the very start,
the concept of continentalism that
is inherent in the proponents
case,’’ the UFAWU countered in
their submission. ‘‘Continentalism
and the struggle for Canadian
unity and nationhood are com-
pletely opposite poles. No single
action could more tie British
Columbia into the north-south

United States axis, than any one of
the proponents’ schemes to link us
physically by the most powerful
economic factor of our time — oil.”

The fishermen questioned the
validity of the Inquiry itself which,
they contended, has given the oil
companies the edge due to “the
present fractured approach in the
West Coast Oil Port Inquiry.”’ The
constraints of a five-month time

See PROBE, pg. 8

a

HAL GRIFFIN

B.C. colleges
next on list

Vancouver Labor Council heard
a charge Tuesday night that
education minister Pat McGeer
has a bill ready which would place
all community colleges under
central contfol in Victoria, and
that the only thing holding it up is a
disagreement between McGeer
and labor minister Williams.

This charge was made by
UFAWU delegate Hal Griffin.
Griffin told the Tribune that if
McGeer has his way all unions
affected will be lumped under one
jurisdiction. The Bill would likely
be similar to union-busting Bill 69
introduced previously by McGeer.

VRB must stay - Vander Zalm should go

EDITORIAL

This coming Sunday

thousands of people will join a

~ March and rally in downtown
Vancouver to save the Van-
Couver Resources Board and to
force the provincial govern-
ment to withdraw -human
resources minister Vander
Zalm’s Bill 65.

Every thinking person with a
grain of feeling for humanity
and justice will support the fight
to save the VRB. What started
out as an issue affecting Van-
Couver’s social services has
Now become a.much broader
issue of concern to every British
Columbian.

Vander Zalm’s attack on the
VRB is the latest shot in his

continuing war against the
poor, handicapped and under-
privileged.

The VRB introduced an
element of humanity and
democracy in dealing with the
thousands of people who have to
rely on social services. The fact
that this agency is being over-
whelmingly supported by the
recipients of social services, by
the city council and by over 60
community organizations, is a
powerful testament to the
popularity and success of the
VRB. The provincial govern-
ment cannot ignore this over-
whelming popular sentiment!

All this is too much for B.C.’s
minister of human resources
whose policies have turned the
social services of the province

into a disaster area. Not only
has he drastically cut social
service payments and services
in all directions and imposed
severe hardships on tens of
thousands of our less fortunate
citizens, but he is also deter-
mined to deny them any human-
like treatment or any
democratic expression.

Vander Zalm is determined to
subordinate them to his wishes
and control and to make himself
complete and unquestioned
dictator over their lives —
leaving them no dignity, self-
respect or democratic ex-
pression. This is part of his war
against the victims of society.
To him it’s all part of building a
political career on the suffering
of the poor.

Brushing aside all criticism
and opposition, Vander Zalm’s
Bill 65 is as well an open attack
on the trade unions. With one
stroke he would wipe out the
rights of the unions involved. If
he and the Socred government
can get away with this, then no
union in the province is safe.

In his attack on the VRB he
has arrogantly refused to state
reasons why Bill 65 should be
passed. Every argument used
by him has proven false and
half-truths. He has been dis-
honest with the public, hiding
his real reasons and motives for
this attack on the VRB. The
reason he has not been frank
and honest is that he knows the
public will not back him.

The people of B.C. have lost
confidence in the minister of
human resources. It’s true the
Socred government has backed
his every move. But premier
Bennett must now be compelled
by public opinion to realize the
folly of Bill 65 and Vander
Zalm’s policies. He must be
pressed to withdraw Bill 65 and
to remove Bill Vander Zalm
from his postin order to signal a
change in the government’s
social services policies.

Join the march and rally on
Sunday. Demand the VRB
stays—but that Vander Zalm
go. Join the march at the south
end of Granville Bridge at 12
noon and attend the Orpheum
rally at 1 p.m. Your support is
vital.