PEACE KITE. High-flying peace symbol was one of many kites in the air
at Crescent Beach on Easter Sunday. Another kite carried the message: .
“Stop Amchitka Tests.’ Attracting much attention, the peace mes-

sages were sponsored by the Fraser Valley Peace Committee.

STRIKE IF NECESSARY

Interior IWA demands
wage parity with coast

Southern Interior members of the I.W.A. are determined this year to gain wage
parity with their fellow woodworkers at the.coast.

Priority in the new round of
wage talks with interior forest
industries is given to the demand
for an increase of $1.14 an hour
across the board on a one-year
contract.

The demand for the additional
14 cents an hour is necessary to
bring them up to par with coast
woodworkers.

The I.W.A. will hold its annual
delegated convention’ in
Kamloops on April 25 where the

. wage demands will receive
top priority in discussion.
Negotiations for new contracts
were started around the middle
of March.

Gloves are off on pension
issue, say B.C. Teachers

Angered by the plight of retired teachers attempting to subsist on pensions barely
enough to pay their rent, and the B.C. government’s arrogant refusal to reply to
repeated visits of teachers’ representatives to Victoria and meetings with government
officials asking for pension increases, delegates to the B.C. Teachers Federation’s
convention this week voted almost unanimously to strike if substantial improvements
in pensions are not guaranteed by the government.

A further resolution recom-
mended that BCTF actions be co-
ordinated with those of organi-
zations representing employees
in the other ‘‘captive’’ pension
plans of this province.

Delegates also pledged full
support toWest Vancouver
teachers when it was reported
that there is talk of some
teachers being laid off following
defeat of the recent school
referendum.

West Vancouver teachers are
prepared to strike if any teacher
on permanent staff is laid off, a

stand in which the local
association will receive full
BCTF support.

B.C. teachers have the worst
pension benefits of almost any
plan in the country. The $165
million pension fund which has
come mainly from the teachers
who contribute six percent of
salaries, is made use of by: the
government to help finance its
hydro projects, and while ‘it
blames increased hydro rates on
the cost of borrowing money, it
only has to guarantee the
teachers four percent on their
pension investments. Present
interest income amounts to
about 5% percent. Even at that,
total interest earned by the fund
would more than pay for the 10
major proposals asked for by the
teachers.

Shocking stories from retired
teachers themselves, many of
whom attended the convention,
revealed the desperate plight of
most.

‘After teaching 45 years in
Canada (14 years in B.C.) I have
been retired since June 1965 on a
pension of $110 a month.”

“Amount of pension, $69.47;
date of retirement, June 1968.
Years of teaching in B.C. 23. I
fully realize that my pension was
determined on my last 10 years
of teaching in B.C. but it is
pitifully small! It might be of
interest to you to know that
several teachers on my staff

who, owing to work strain, would
have retired this year are forced
to continue for at least a year
more due to the meager pension
that they would receive.”

“Amount of pension, $98. Date
of retirement, June 1958; years
of teaching, 25.

“T retired in June 1959, with a
pension of about $130 a month
(aged 60). I received a supple-
ment between 65 and 70 and the
pension was increased gradually
until August, 1969, when I
received $186.80. I reached the
age of 70 last August and my
pension was reduced by $55, so
now I am back to $131.80.”

Shocking too, was the fact that
of 76 teachers eligible to retire in
June only 16 will actually retire,
and of those 11 consider their
pension inadequate. Only nine of
those not retiring will continue
to teach because they want to do
so. :

Legal action may also be taken
by the Federation. The Teachers
Pensions Act calls for valuations
of the pension fund every three
years, but the last and only
valuation report made available
to the BCTF was for a valuation
as at December 31, 1962.

The Federation may also
attempt to sue the government
over its management of the
pension plan, the issue being
whether or not these is a conflict
of interest when a government
representing all the people of
the province serves as a trustee
of funds belonging to some of the
people and invests all those
funds in one type of security —
bonds that it guarantees itself.

It was little wonder that
Education Minister Donald
Brothers received such a chilly
welcome when he addressed the
convention, adding insult to
injury by suggesting that only
dedicated people went into the
teaching profession when
salaries were low, but now it’s
long holidays and good salaries
that attract newcomers.

He afterward told reporters
that there would be no change in
the education finance legislation
and scoffed at any suggestion
that school referendums were
going down to defeat because of
ratepayers’ dissatisfaction

with the Socred policy of piling

costs onto municipalities.

The Federation’s education
finance committee reported
that 42 districts are in excess of
the 110 percent limitation. Of the
seven districts which so far have
held referendums, defeats were
recorded in all seven. Six
districts are in a deficit
financing position. The result of
such cutbacks in _ spending,
coupled with the school building
freeze, can only aggravate an
already critical situation

A Burnaby Teachers Associa-
tion resolution called for joint
action by teachers and trustees
to try to obtain changes in
government education finance
legislation. Such action would
require a great change in the
attitude of the Trustees Associa-
tion, for they have consistently

refused. to join forces on this .

issue.

Only by ratepayers pressure
will school boards be forced to
change their attitude of trying to
wrangle a little extra cut of the
money pie by being ‘‘nice’’ to
Victoria.

MIKE EAGLE ILL

Mike Eagle, a veteran of the
Communist and trade union
movement in B.C., and one of
the hardest workers for the labor
press, is seriously ill in Maple
Ridge Hospital in Haney.

The PT staff joins with his
many friends and comrades in
extending their warmest regards
to him and his wife Elsie on this
occasion. We wish them to know
that our thoughts are with them
in this difficult period.

Negotiations™for the Interior
woodworkers are Wayne
Nowlin, Local 1-405, Art Kelly,

from Local 1-417, Wayne
Trineer, Regional  Vice-
President and committee
spokesman, and Bill

Schumaker, Local 1-423 and com-
mittee secretary.

Interior forest industries, with
the exception of Celgar, are
represented by the Interior
Forest Labor Relations Assoc.,
who negotiate for the group.

In early March three hundred
Celgar employees met to
approve their contract
proposals. They are similar in
detail with those of the Southern
Interior, with the notable
exception that they already have
wage parity with the coast wood
workers. :

I.W.A. of the southern interior
are specifically demanding the
following wage program: Across
the board increase of $1.14 an

hour; No ‘employee to receive —

less than base rate; Plywood.
evaluation increments increased

to 3% of base rate, plus ©
‘manual’? changes to properly
reflect relative worth of

categories. Upward revision for
tradesmen, logging categories,
graders and steam engineers,
increases to sawmill rates
resulting from evaluation, and
shift differential to be increased
to 15 cents for second and third
shifts.

Other demands __ include
benefits covering health and
welfare, vacations and holidays,
hours of work, wages and
conditions for tradesmen,
improvements in logging rates
and travel time provisions,
evaluation plans covering
playwood and sawmill
operations, the use of contrac
tors and other items covering
related problems.

More layoffs hit camps

~Three more valley logging operations will close
indefinitely. Over 280 employees are involved.

Canadian Forest Products say that “depressed”
conditions in the logging industry are to blame for the
closures of their operations. The camps are at Harrison,
Hunter Creek and Spring Creek.

The situation is so bad that the Fraser Valley Record ©
of Mission City, in its issue of March 25 editorializes: “No :
doubt the effect will be felt immediately. Most of these
wood workers have been on the job less than two months
since the normal winter layoff, and have scant resources
left to carry them over a period of unemployment,
regardless of how long it should last.”

—

Labor unity theme
of May Day rally

Jeff Powers of the Boiler-
makers Union, spokesman for
the 1970 May Day Committee,
announced this week that plans
are being finalized for the big
May Day meeting to be held in
John Oliver auditorium on
Sunday, May 3.

Sid Thompson, president of the
VLC, will speak, along with
Donald Tormey, international
representative of the United
Electrical Workers Union in the
New England states. Jack
Nichol, secretary of the
UFAWU, will chair the meeting.

May Day belongs to labor. It
originated in Chicago in 1886 in
the struggle for an 8-hour day —
a struggle which labor will not
forget.

It .was here that the
Haymarket Square martyrs
were framed by the bosses and
others imprisoned. The four
labor leaders who went to the
gallows, Parsons, Spies, Fischer
and Engel, were the forerunners
of many other men who were
persecuted and imprisoned in the
fight for better conditions for the
working man.

But the struggle for the 8-hour
day was not suppressed, nor was
labor intimidated by the

employer - instigated violence of
that first May Day.

In 1890 May Day became thé

international day of labor.

With this 1970 May Day Rally,
Vancouver labor proudly carr ies
on a 90 year tradition °
solidarity with labor in all lands
and on all continents.

DONALD TORMEY

Donate now fo the PT’s 35th Anniversary Fighting Fun

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 10, 1970—Page 10>

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