ce |
aid
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lu- |
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™ | Wood: CP action program
egy | While IWA leaders continue to pin their hopes ona recovery
out | in international markets to bolster the B.C. forest industry
and end the continuing layoffs, little is being done in B.C. to
on: | mobilize workers in a fight for jobs. Labor Comment author
cuts Jack Phillips contrasts the action program developed by
* Communists in the industry, page 8.
od, :
0k | 5; e © d
| ran invasion expose
big The Carter administration has been struggling to suppress a
lian series of columns by noted columnist Jack Anderson. But it
ljan . hasn’t been able to stop Anderson’s expose of Carter's plann-
het . ed election gimmick — a military invasion of Iran, page 3.
om: |
5 ill |
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pet
=| tak f ion hik
1° ;
«| take most of pension nike
s 6
10D | When the Liberal government — jiua jo a ee \
du¢| | Swept back into office last
ate?) | February — partly on the basis of
B.C; | @ promise to give pensioners an
nt) | €xtra $35 per month — there were
rom | definite assurances that the in-
rom) | crease would not be taken away
and) | by a corresponding reduction in
wall;| | the provincial GAIN supplement
| and Which low income pensioners
| } Teceive. ee
pede! And when pensioners began to
inal’ } Teceive the $35 increase a few
inst’) } Months ago the GAIN -sup-
. this} | plements were not affected.
ome It didn’t take the Socreds long,
tha?) | however, to get a third hand into
j n0!|-} the pockets of thousands of pen-
e If) | Sioners in B.C. and take away the
welt | lion’s share of the pension in-
ret! | crease,  —_
Effective September 1, the ~~
f | Nearly 10,000 pensioners living in
wee Subsidized senior citizens housing
vot | projects run by the B.C. Housing
ght? | Management Commission will be
Se Paying increased rents, based on
own © pension increases.
rei’ | — Pauline Bartko, ah east Van- 2
, oof |" couver pensioner, is one of those £
| | Affected. Living on only the basic 2
eo? | federal pension, and a $21 GAIN §
d for | Supplement, she welcomed the |
xpa? | $3Sincrease in the federal pension £
esi | Which brought her monthly to z
g thi | Just $366.31. ye :
ort But the modest pension in- 8 = seat a a es :
cy | fase Was followed by aletter in-* payLINE BARTKO AT GRANDVIEW TOWERS . . . little left
a aft ©rming her that the B.C. Hous- after the provincial government hikes the rent.
-) Management Commission ae :
f ui had reveiwed her rent and wasin- said. ‘‘AllIcandoisexpose what didn’t know of any specific
ee | ‘Teasing her rent from $86to$105 _ is happening. - discussion about it.
1 OV) | Per month. “Tt is unjust. We waited a long Rents aren’t supposed to ex-
on 4 | The $19 increase is more than ‘time for the pension increase. ceed 25 percent of income in
nce half the $35 she received from Ot- Andassoonaswegetit,theytake senior citizens housing, but the
pmel | 'awa, and a 22 percent increase. most of it back.” $19 increase faced by Mrs. Bartko
atio”’ | Units managed by the Housing B.C. Housing Management _ willbring her rent to 29 percent of
in mmission, however, are -ex- , Commission spokesman Keith income. Tenants in other
sam, | €mpt from rent controls. * Davis confirmed to the Tribune buildings have also complained
e is increase comes shortly this week that the pension in- that the increases are bring their
& oe other increases in hydro _ creases Lae ors amas into _ rents above 25 percent.
| Payments and telephone bills _ rent increases for senior citizens. : :
6 Which together eat up another $21 Rents are set at 25 percent of in- ar toatl cbs rhc :
ae Pt her income. And laundry costs come, he said, and all those  ahove2s percent should appeal to
j have also been raised — by a whoseincome increased will get? — onagement officials. In Mrs.
r | | Tckel for the washers, and by 15 rent increase. For pensioners, . p- so%s case it could save her

} “ents for the dryer.

| A long time member of the

‘| | Association of United Ukrainian

_ | Ganadians and active in the pro-

‘| } Sessive labor movement for most

i Ofher life, Mrs. Bartko is used to
} “landing up for her fights. But in
} <8 Case there is little she can do.
€ have no protection,’’ she

who received the pension in-
creases aS a group, rents go up
September 1.

The rent hikes are part of an
annual review and it is coin-
cidence that they follow a pension
increase, he said. The govern-

_ment undoubtedly. discussed the

rent increases, he added, but he

nearly $5 per month. ~

However, the increases appear
to be averaging $19 per month,

and that means that possibly

thousands who receive only .the
basic pension benefits will be pay-
ing more than 25 percent of in-
come for rent.

Poland

Polish government leader Ed-
ward Gierek (left) has re-
sponded to the work stop-
pages in northern Poland
with quick action to redress
just grievances, and Polish
unions have demanded a
greater say in economic de-
cisions. But as U.S. Daily
World writer Conrad Komor-
owski points out, Poland’s
socialist system is not at is-

sue, pages 4, 5.

‘| Rent increases for seniors Protests term
‘Utilities Act

‘dictatorial’

The Socred government’s new
energy bill, the Utilities Commis-
sion Act, has been sharply con-
demned by. the labor movement
and the Communist Party which
have charged that the legislation is
designed to. give the cabinet dicta-
torial powers to push through.new
major energy projects over public
opposition.

Under the terms of the Act, in-
troduced August 8 and rammed
through second reading August 20

‘|> inthe dying hours of the legislative

session, all major energy projects in
the province, including all hydro
and thermal plants, pipelines, or
any project which will use signifi-
cant amounts of energy resources,
including coal, will be subject to a
review by a new, seven member
Utilities Commission.

However the Act also grants per-
mission to the minister of energy
and the minister of the environ-
ment to exclude the public from the
review process, or to exclude whole
projects from the entire review pro-
cess.

The August 20 passage of the

Act, over appeals from NDP mem-
bers for delay, was met with a wave
of protests from the United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union,
the B.C. Federation of Labor, the
Vancouver Labor Council and the
Communist Party.

“We never dreamed the govern-
ment would be so bold as to bring
in such an anti-democratic piece of
legislation,” UFAWU secretary
treasurer George Hewison said
August 21.

Hewison called the legislation an
“environmental time bomb which
totally subordinates the environ-
ment to energy and energy-for-ex-
port needs.’ The Act specifically
rules out appeals against any pro-
ject under the Pollution Control or
Water Act, he pointed out.

“Projects as devastating as Hat
Creek, Kemano II, the McGregor
and Mofan Dams will be able to be
steamrolled past the people of B.C.
by two cabinet ministers.”’

Also August 21, Vancouver
Labor Council secretary treasurer
Paddy Neale charged that ‘“‘no

See ENERGY page 2

CUPW sit-in prompts
new post office talks

Negotiations between the Cana-
dian Union of Postal Workers and
the production plant managers of
the Vancouver post office were set
to open Wednesday afternoon
after a sit-in by as many as 700
CUPW members forced post of-
fice management to reconsider the
union’s long standing grievancé
over shift scheduling and time off.

The sit-in in the post office
cafeteria began during the after-
noon shift Monday, in protest over
post office management’s final of-
fer on regular days off. The mid-
night shift also joined the sit-in, all
but closing down post office opera-
tions.

Although presented at the end of
more than three months of talks on

shift scheduling and time off, the
final offer ‘‘is not very different
from what was originally propos-
ed”’, CUPW president Lloyd In-
gram said in a statement issued at a
membership meeting Tuesday.

For most work areas and shifts,
the proposal would amount to cut-
backs, he-said.

The collective agreement signed

in June this year called for local
‘negotiations to effect the changes

in the contract which provided for
a reduction in the hours of work.
But nearly three months of talks
have again reflected the same in-
transigence of local post office
management which for years has
embittered labor relations.
See CUTS page 2