| cheers ercer ene tee fetninn cacsemaieciezeieeeeae ieee iniennnmnemen ete tems Summary of Brief to. Victoria Feb. 21. WHAT B.C’s JOBLESS DEMANI When the unemployed march to Victoria on Feb. 21, they will be carrying a brief to present: to the Provincial Legislative Assembly and will lobby MLA’s on its contents: Because of the importance of the document, we have published below an outline of the main demands of. the unemployed, including exten- sive quotes from the section of the brief dealing with B. C.’s natural resources, JOBLESS DEMANDS The first set of proposals deal with providing an. ade- quate standard of living. for those unemployed while the second deals with plans which would work towards putting the unemployed back to work. Here are the proposals: e Increase social asstance by 20%. @ Restore medical cards to unemployed on social assi- stance. e Extend and increase Un- employmend Insurance bene- | fits for the duration of unem- ployment. e Declare a moratorium on mortgages to protect the homes of unemployed. e Extend winter works program. ® Develop the Columbia Hydro Project for Canada as proposed by General Mc- Naughton (Dorr Division). ® Build a Canadian merch- ant fleet. @ Take action to establish the 35 hour work week. ® Trade with all countries who need and are willing to buy our goods. ® Process Our natural: re- sources now being. exported. CREATE B.C, JOBS “The following points will list the. fields-in- which the jobs of Canadian workers, and particularly those in our own province, are being lost, while large profits are being made. (a) “Meat Packing Industry —We find that the 1960 beef, veal, pork, and live cattle ex- ported to the U.S.A. was vel- ued at $3,800.000. During the same period we imported from them 636,000 tons of beef, veal, pork, and canned meats. “Tt can be seen that during the period when we exported far more than we imported, 500 workers were laid off in the meat packing industry, and virtual closure of the en- tire trade is imminent. “With the processing of these products in this prov- ince we would draw atten- listed above, had been pro- cessed and shipped to all o countries as finished products, the value would have been more than doubled: Also: it would have provided work for many more who have al- |: ready been laid off in this in- ‘ dustry. “A kindred industry to the above trade is that of ‘hides and. skins’, where we find that-during 1960 we exported 177,000.raw skins, both calf and cattle to the USA and Japan, while during the first six. months of 1961 alone, we imported into Canada tanned and dressed leather to the value of $1,766,000. “With the processing of these products in Canada we would have given employ- ment to many hundreds of yeaple, and greater profits to our own country. MINING: “(b) Metals -.Copper - Lead- Zine — During 1960 we find that in the export of straight ore the amount was 1,765,000 tons valued at $18,600,000. Ingots, tubing, pigs, smelter and manufactures exported was 196,411 tons valued at $40,900,000. “The foregoing shows the obvious need for the refin- ing and rolling of our own B.C. ores, as can be noted by the figures, that the valte’ of the semi-processed ore is far greater than the crude ore. We need to develop smelters and rolling mills so we can process these ores to usable metal products, so as to give employment to more people than we have at present in ‘Canada. “Tron —- We cite the statis- tics from “Trade of Canada; Government of Canad’a,’ where a total of 6,950,000 tons were exported worth $64,900.000 while the imports amounted to $6,277,000. “Aluminum — Here we find that we exported 636,- 000 tons primary and semi- fabricated ore valued at $58,- 667.000 while we imported sheet plates worth $208,000: “The point of all the fore- going as far as our natural eres are concerned, is that we also have all the necess- ary materials in the way. of sandstone, coal, etc., to set up our own processing plants and smelters in B.C. LUMBER “(c) Lumbering — The lumber industry of Canada exported during 1959 {DBS) a total raw log export of 6,- ' 168,000 B.F. During 1960 the tion to the fact that, if’ this / j exports were 11,020,000 B.F. $3,806,000 worth of cattle as “Whereas in the first six NOT MUCH ON BOARD. Even w ith increased production the rolls of permanent unemployed bespme longer and longer. These men will find little here. months of 1961, from B.C. alone, we exported raw iogs to foreign countries to the amount of 24,514,000 B.F., receiving $957,000. “We would point to the discrepancy of the financial loss to Canada of the profits due to our not processing our own logs, as well as the un- employment involved. “In the matter of cedar logs alone, we exported 5.2 mil- lion B.F. and received $253,- 000, while we received °1.4 | million B.F. of processed | lumber. for $193,000. It is therefore obvious, that with basic industry, it is false -ec- onomy to sell 1.4 million B.:F. logs for $68,000 and then purchase 1.4 million B.F. of processed. lumber for $193,- 000. “We see this as an example of exporting jobs from B.C. by our failure to develop and maintain our secondary lum- ber industry.” The brief is endorsed by the B.C. Federation of Labor and the Vancouver and _ District Labor. Council. OVERTAXED The average American family loses 30 percent of its income through direct and in- direct taxes. In Great Britain, the figure is 22 percent, for France 28 percent, for Italy 20 percent and for West Ger- many, 30 percent. Scientists have estimated the age of our earth at ap- proximately 4.5 billion years. The unemployed brief summarized here shows how it would be possible to create thousands. of_new jobs in B.C. by processing our. own natural resources instead of allowing. US. monopolies to seize them. ~ -_ SE p necaliast or Coes aes Seen Se ee ed Seto, ‘| ling ATEST figures issued by L the B.C. office of the Em- employment Insurance Com- mission show 34,387 unem- ployed at the end of January, 1962. Fhis compares to a figure-of 28,976 for the end of December 1961 and 40,651 for the same month (January) 1961. This means, according. to U.LC. figures, there are ap- proximately 5,500 more un- employed workers in B.C. than one month ago, and ap- | proximately ‘6,200 less than one year ago at this time. However, these figures issused by the U.I.C. do not undertake to gauge the ex- tent of unemployment in B.C. They are nothing more than the number of unplaced applicants registered at the U.1L.C. -offices. A better measure of the gravity of the unemployment in B.C. is shown in the start- increase in the social assistance roles in B.C. Last year the number of Social Allowance claims paid went up from 19,843 to 27,- 843, an increase of 7,300 over the year. This points at the grave problem of chronic unemploy- ment which is gnawing at our economy. Most of these 7,200 claims can be consider- ed as people whose period of unemployment has exhausted their claims against unem- ployment insurance. More than 11,000 of the total claim- ing Social Allowances are heads of families and in most cases employable. Illustrative of the serious- ness of the situation are the yearend figures of the Dominion Bureau of Statis- tics. These figures show a | complete standstill of the labor force in B.C. between 1961 and 1962. DBS figures give the total labor force in B.C. for December .1960 andj: ear pm ‘1961.26 580,000. - _ At. the, same. -time.. they. Figures show startling unemployment picture show a decrease in the num- ber of men in the labor force of 4,000 and a corresponding increase of 4,000 women. The growth of the number of women in the labor force alongside the shrinkage of the number of men. also women to go out to :work—in some instances to bring the Citizenship — Rights — “Not too many Canadians are aware of the fact that successive governments in M. J. Sago, newly-appointed public relations director of the Canadian Slav Commit- ‘in Toronto last week. “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in this justice. and. indignity.” In his address to 600 per- sons at.the annual Slav ban- quet and concert, Sago charged that ‘many immi- grants who came here in the 20s, °30s and earlier, and many of whom gave 40 or their adopted land, are re- nied citizenship papers be- cause of political prejudice by those in authority.” these cases have a history of criminal activities, or any criminal recérd. They are good, honest, working people —~. constructive -members of acuety Noy e few. have: Serve tee, told a concert audience country who suffer this in-- brings home the nature of a” | problem which forces: many family budget up to thelével ~ necessary to support the:fam-"— ily—and in ‘more and’