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ON STRIEE

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bc MARTH
EWAN

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Homeowners vs CPR -

A t Reena
ManiTing
EMPLONEES

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. —Jack Phillips photo
“ON STRIKE.’ ILWU strikers manning the picket line in front of
Vancouver's historic Ballantyne Pier. Old timers will recall the “Battle of
Ballantyne Pier’’ in 1935 when the Shipping Federation with the aid of
the police tried to break the longshoremen’s picket lines. This time the
lines are standing firm with support from labor up and down the coast.

key issue at Arbutus

The overflow public meeting held last Thursday under the
auspicies of the Vancouver City Council to reconsider once again the
C.P.R.’s attempt to force an unwanted shopping center at 25th &
Arbutus illustrated a fundamental truth in contemporary North

American politics.

This truth is that the interests
of the monopolies (the C.P.R. is
Canada’s largest) runs counter
to those of all other classes in
society, and that a united front of
all those affected can be success-
ful in curbing the monopolies.

In this particular instance the _
leadership in the anti-monopoly
fight was taken by the home-
owners in the area. They know
that the proposed development
would turn their relatively quiet
and settled area into a traffic
and commercial nightmare. In
the main these homeowners
represent the middle strata in
Vancouver society — profes-
sional people, small business
men, middle management
personnel and the like.

Although their particular
interests were somewhat
narrow, nevertheless they objec-

tively stood in the way of the
C.P.R.’s long standing plans to
capture the existing West Side
shopping market, wipe out a
number of individual merchants
and force all the taxpayers of
Vancouver to pay for the addi-
tional transportation facilities
and the like required.

Their spokesman, John
Volrich, at one point placed the
issue quite squarely—- namely,
that it is the right of all the
citizens of Vancouver to deter-
mine how the city is to be
developed, not the arbitrary
right of the developers.

A number of civic organi-
zations concerned with planning
etc. spoke out against the C.P.R.
proposals. So did the merchants
in the South Granville and
Kerrisdale area. The Parent-

Teacher Associations added

_ their voices to the protests.

i

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 3, 1969—Page 12

It should be pointed out

however that the C.P.R.’s cam-
paign to appeal to the narrow
interests of people in outlying
areas for so-called convenience
did attract some support and this
should not be underestimated.

It is sad to have to report that
representatives of the working
people, who have always been
the chief victims of the C.P.R.’s
greed, were unrepresented at
the meeting. The possibility of
defeating monopoly on all ques-
tions is strengthened immeasur-
ably by the participation of
labor. Historically labor has
always spoken out for the inter-
ests of groups in society with
pressing social problems.

LABOR SCENE:

which closed its three-day
session this week in Kelowna,
B.C., resolved among other
matters, to uphold the B.C.
Federation of Labor policy by
directing its officers not to
appear before the Bill 33
Mediation Commission.

This decision is all the more
important since officers of the
Carpenters will be engaged in
province-wide contract
negotiations next year,
bargaining for some 8,500
carpenters in construction work.
Next year carpenters locals
throughout the province will also
be faced with the newly-formed
employers’ organization, the
B.C. Construction Labor
Relations Association (CLR).

This decision is mandatory
upon all council officers, so that
any ‘‘invitation’’ by the
Mediation Commission to appear
before it for a hearing relating to
any dispute, will be ignored as
per convention decision.

With the establishment of the
Construction Labor Relations
Association (CLR), that body
will now have a 5-man team of
“professional” negotiators who
will sit on all construction trades

bargaining. In face of this set-up -

the Carpenters’ convention laid
particular stress on the need of
unity if wage and other gains are
to be won in 1970.

Many resolutions were
adopted by the convention
affecting all locals of the
Building Trades. Canadian
autonomy, pollution, inter-union
relations, increased taxes, living
costs, etc. The 7-hour day is also
now on the docket of demands.

Convention delegates also
turned thumbs-down on a
proposal by the CLR for a 1-cent
levy on building contractors to
help finance the operations of

- CLR. Union officials described

such a levy as a fund ‘‘to be used
against the unions’. General
concensus’ ofthe Council
delegates was that ‘‘next year’s
bargaining is going to be tough”’
since comparative wage rates in
the construction industry are
now far behind that obtained in
other industries.
* * *

High on the agenda of the B.C.
Government Association
(BCGEA) annual

convention _

Carpenters meet decides
‘thumbs down’ on Bill 33)

The 27th Annual Convention of
the B.C. Council of Carpenters

which opens this week in Prince products of the establishment
George, _will be an a Canadian-built, Canadiah
intensification of the BCGEA registered, and Canadiat 1
struggle for’ the right of manned merchant marine Wo
collective bargaining with its be increased economic activ! i
employer, i.e., the Bennett for the port of Vancouvel |
Government, B.C. is one of the resulting in additional ;

four Canadian provinces which revenues for the City, both dire
denies its

government and indirect.”
employees that basic right. :

The BCGEA annual convention
this year is expected to be the
largest in the organization’s TES TS
history with over 125 delegates Cont'd from pg. | :
slated to attend. three major campuses dec!

— to stage a mass blockade at

Through the media of a well- .S. border Wednesday i
prepared Brief on the urgency protest the test and have called
and need of a Ganadian op campuses all across Cana
Merchant Marine, Monday of to join them. They planned
this week the Marine Workers stage mass protests 0 t
and Boilermakers Union made a_ highways leading into Canada#
submission to the Vancouver .S. border points. oe
City Council, proposing among —_ Jp Alberni, which was a cel
other things, that City Council: “of the earthquake disaster

(1) Establish a three-member 1964, more than 500 people add@”
committee of Council members their names to a write-in C#! a.
to hold public hearings on the paign sponsored by the loge :
question of aCanadian Merchant paper for a mass wité 3
Marine. Interested parties would president Nixon, while 4 es
include the various trade unions sponsored by Channel 8 T
in the shipping and ship-building brought an overwhelm!
fields, Vancouver-based shipping response from the public. He
companies and ship builders, citizens who phoned the sta?
merchants in the supplies foynd the switchboard pluge®

industry, exporters and withcalls.
importers, and naval architects
and engineers. FIGHT GOES ON

(2) That upon conclusion of
the hearings the Vancouver City Among the trade union
Council draw up an independent BC. to strongly condemn
Brief for presentation to the test was the B.C. Federation °
Canadian Transport Labor, IWA District Count :
Commission. the 5000-member IWA local?

The union brief drew City Alberni, and the 8,000 mem
Council’s attention to a United Fishermen and All!
commitment made and signed Workers Union. aq bY ]
some fifty-six years ago by the The UFAWU letter, signed ; {
Canadian National Railways and ynion president Steve Staver™
its predecessors, (Canadian warned that ‘should nucle
Northern and Canadian Northern radiation find its way in the
Pacific Railways) to establish sea, it would not be outside ihe '
and ‘‘permanently maintain” a yealm of possibility that fi )
trans-Pacific passenger and entire fish population Of ©
freight steamship service. No North Pacific would beco™® At
action of any kind has since been contaminated that it woud?
forthcoming on this long-past and end to the fisheries 9 it q
“deal”. -North Pacific as we know

5 iD

The Marine Workers Union ae municipal councils pave
brief to the City suggests that in adopted resolutions cor
its support for a modern demning the test Include!
Canadian Merchant Marine, it » ort Albegea
3 : among these was Por ape

could impress upon the federal Nanaimo. and Campbell Riv

government the above long-
standing :commitment to the
City’. The union’s brief also
emphasizes that ‘‘one of the by-

on Vancouver Island. This Wy
Vancouver City o ie
_ endorsed a wire by May
Campbell protesting the test. 3
Protests came from all P#,,

Double shifting hits schools

4,200 students on shifts last September. The past-
president of the Coquitlam Teachers’ Association
, “It’s as bad, if not worse, this

Lack of adequate provincial - government
support for education, which has been worsened
under the new “‘anti-educaticn’’ formula, has
brought Vancouver schools to the point where for
the first time since 1954 the school board is

" compelled to resort to shift classes.

At present about 210 school children are
attending classes on a shift basis at Grandview
annex and Hastings annex.
construction freeze imposed by Victoria has held
up eight elementary school building projects
which were delayed and now are not likely to be
ready for occupancy until near December.

in the city are
overcrowded, using makeshift classrooms on a

Many other schools

temporary basis.

Other school districts are also hard-hit.
Particularly hard hit is Coquitlam where the
school construction freeze resulted in more than

said last week
year.”

The. school

denied some

He said the provincial government released
some money last fall as a result of protests by
teachers, parents and the school board, but ‘‘not
nearly enough for the needs of our district.”’

Almost 1,300 elementary school pupils in
Coquitlam are on shifts and some students are
subjects
activities because of overcrowded conditions.

The extent to which education in B.C. is being
starved by the Socred government was brought to
light in the recent report of the Economic Council
of Canada. It showed that the number of students
per teacher in the secondary school system of
B.C. averages the same as poor Nova Scotia and
is among the worst in Canada.

of Canada as well as from
U.S., Hawaii, Japan and °
world centres. In Washlte
many elected representa ‘in
condemned the tests, inclu®
Senate leader J.W. Fulbright.
Toronto the Central Exel” ,
of the Communist Party seal
wire condemning the tea
demanding they be called off-

The fight against the leutit’
tests does not end this hee:
must go on to demand tha the
further tests be conducted ae
North Pacific, or anywhere “pat
World opinion must demand
the test ban treaty be exter ing
to ban all underground td
and that greater speed be
toward banning the ™
facture and use of all nue
weapons. Until that is doBé

and _ extra-curricular

world lives on a razor’s edg®