NO BARGAIN HERE UNDER TRUDEAU PLAN. Photo shows only house for sale coming under Liberal plan Kingsway Communist candidate Fred Wilson could find. (See story below). Would you pay more than $100,000 in full and 50 per cent of your income each month for the privilege of living in a rundown, two-bedroom home in Vancouver’s East End. ‘A working man has more sense than to fall for a phony deal like that,’ answered Fred Wilson, candidate in Vancouver Kingsway for the Communist Party of Canada, ‘“‘Trudeau’s housing plan is totally divorced from the needs | of ordinary people.” Wilson selected one home in his constituency to actas a “‘test case”’ for the Liberal housing program. After a two hour drive through Vancouver Kingsway, Wilson found a two-bedroom house at 3521 Marshall St., handled by Wall and- Redekop. (See photo above). The purchase price was $36,500, making it well under the $44,900 ceiling affixed to the Liberal plan. “‘Under Trudeau’s plan you only need put 5 per cent down. For this house it would amount to $1,825, leaving a $35,675 mortgage. If that mortgage was over 30 years, as it is for most younger buyers, they would end up paying $108,452 for that near-dilapidated house. Not only that, it would require a monthly payment of $301.25 which is just under 50 per cent of the average take home pay in Van- couver,”’ Wilson said. Wilson said that the Marshall St. home was the lowest priced home that he could find but was never- theless totally out of the question for the average Kingsway resident. ‘“‘There’s a house for sale at 10th and Clarke Dr. whose condition is hardly better than this,” Wilson said, ‘‘But it costs $38,500 and would have monthly payments of’ $333.94,. more than 50 per cent of the average monthly income.” Pointing to the fact that :more than 60 per cent of the total cost was payment to money lenders, Wilson termed the situation ‘pure usury”, in which the Liberals were willing partners. “Communists consider housing to be a basic right and should be treated as a public utility, made available according to the ability to pay,” he concluded. Housing action needed Continued from page 1 election. Recognizing that housing” is the major social problem facing Canadians today, the Communist Party has advanced the following plan: > Housing to be made a _ public utility. A crash program of new housing construction of 300,000: units annually be undertaken. That | land be taken out of the hands of | speculators. Mortgage interest on homes to be limited to five per cent. Military spending be cut by 50 per cent with a major portion of the | saving used for housing. The NDP took the wraps off its housing program Monday night with a speech by David Lewis in New Westminster. While the NDP plan contains some worthwhile proposals it does not call for a nation-wide crash program around which the resources of the country ‘would be mobilized, nor does it call for a cutback in arms spending to finance a housing program to meet © people’s needs. While many workers will welcome the NDP plan, most working people and tenants are painfully aware of the lack of action by the NDP government in . B.C. to get moving on a housing program or to adequately protect tenants from the big landlords. The attitude of a party on housing is a good harometer today on whether it puts peoples’ needs before-corporate profits. The Liberals put private profits first. - The Tories have no. program on housing because they want to cut | back on spending on social programs. The NDP, while an- nouncing good intentions, tend to .back down before big business pressure too easily. ; Only the Communist Party has - taken a forthright stand on housing ‘because it places people’s needs ‘before profits. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 14 1974—PAGE 12° Contract. talks in three major industries in B.C. moved into a critical stage this week with the imminent possibility of strikes among coast woodworkers and Trail steelworkers as well as a lockout in the construction in- dustry. In the construction industry, involving close to 60,000 workers, the Construction Labor Relations Association has not budged from its offer, moving instead to take a lockout vote among its 800 member companies. CLRA officers were touring the province this week conducting the vote. The CLRA offer continues to be misrepresented in several press reports of negotiations, with statements reporting that the offer calls for a $2.90 increase over a two-year period. The 10-pact unions have pointed out that this figure includes holiday pay, statutory holidays and several other benefits — all converted into money terms. The actual offer from CLRA — to be applied directly to wages — is $2.40. . The wage increase and the cost- of-living adjustment (COLA) continue to be decisive elements in contract talks with the unions stressing the importance of the COLA as a means of protection for earnings in the second year of the contract. Unionists in the building trades were critical of the COLA clause offered by the CLRA which brought tentative agreement with four electrical workers locals outside the Lower Mainland. The clause — much touted in a number of press reports as being ‘“‘far in advance” of union proposals — calls for’ the appointment of an industrial inquiry commissioner to determine whether or not the cost of living increase in the second year warrants an additional wage- increase. Unionists emphasized that ‘‘we don’t need a third party to tell us what the cost of living is. Any cost- of-living adjustment should be determined at the bargaining table.” Electrical workers in Kamloops and Local 213 in Vancouver flatly rejected the same offer. Meanwhile Local 213 announced Wednesday that it would sign in- terim agreements. with in- dependent contractors but it was expected that the agreements — aimed at consolidating the strike against the CLRA — would have little effect on the outcome of talks with the CLRA which controls about two-thirds of the industry. Building’ trades leaders have also stressed the greater need for unity at this time in order to ensure that the 10-pact — representing the majority of construction workers — remains solidly behind its joint demands. The cost-of-living clause and a substantial wage increase are also the central issues in forest industry bargaining with coast wood- workers moving into the last week of their contract. As negotiations resumed early this week the IWA coast _ hegotiating team presented 72 hours strike notice on Forest In- dustrial Relations following a vote which recorded more than 93% of woodworkers in favor of strike action to back up demands. Earlier, in meetings last Saturday, woodworkers were told that no further offers had been presented by the company but that an eleventh hour proposal was expected. FIR’s offer, presented Monday, came only four days before the contract expires June 15. The offer, believed to be a general wage increase of some nine per cent was rejected at Tribune press time and forest companies were told to come up with something better by Friday. No proposals were apparently made on the cost-of-living clause - which, as elsewhere in trade union negotiations, was an important demand. Steelworkers at Consolidated Mining and Smelting at Trail and Salmo voted 85% for strike action after the company presented no new offers following the last talks in May. The company stated in May “when talks broke off that it had “shot its wad’ but the Steel EDITORIAL Cont'd from pg. 1 figures shows they are un- scrupulously trying to exploit the situation for their own reactionary ends. Now is the time for greater unity of labor and democratic forces in Canada to demand a new course for Canada. Strong action is needed to roll back prices and profits, to raise the workers living standards, to end the giveaways to the big cor- porations and to bring them under public control. The handouts given to the corporations in the form of tax concessions and subsidies of all kinds must be ended and _ that money used to roll back prices and build decent housing. This is the course proposed by the Communist Party in the present election campaign. It deserves the support of all progressive-minded people. How wages have fallen behind cost of living JAN. 70 _ JAN. 72 lost. . provides for a reduction cpl ath bargaining team preseny comprehensive analysis (75 offer which showed it © 7% satisfactory in virtu ee) area. Close to 4,000 men are Cominco’s operations centres. At issue again was the with the company Pr posile the calculation for any involv in Index three months previow the COLA to be paid t per hour for every one re the CPI has risen abov ent. : the ny The USWA pointed oul iat Consumer Price Index co! vet! ‘ as much as eight per cent ‘7 without any COLA be “a Moreover, the company reat of-living bonus if the from ite level three months YCL SENDS 16 DELEGATES 10 | NATIONAL MEET Sixteen young people 7 at will be leaving for TOFON ff end of this month, “ofl 18th national convent ~ Young Communist scheduled for June 29, in that city. ae The delegation, inclu gl observer and two mem “il outgoihg central CO p League, was elected at *ouve convention held in V@"™ aie weekend. as 1) be my tion 9 ES} The convention we | since the reorganl i League in 1970 and altoid be held some months anniversary year ~., was first establishes ing ~: Young Workers ; commemorate half @ A ty youth activism. forced postponement in tt original convention of 1973. JAN. 72 The above comparison of wages and the cost at January, 1970 and January, 1974 illustrates hOW “749 wages have fallen behind the rise in the cost of livind: 4 pet for January, 1974 show that the cost of living roS¢ higher than wages. This table appeared in 4 at newspaper. It demonstrates that a big part of the © ers have of union negotiations is to catch up on what work ;