A section of the audience at labor's anti-Bill 33 rally in Vancouver last

Sunday afternoon. —Fisherman photo

Why is Williston on
secret trip to Japan?

Why is B.C. Lands and Forest Minister Ray Williston on a secret two
week mission to Japan? This is the question which emerges this week
following release of the story that B.C.’s chief natural resources official is

leaving Sunday for talks in Japan.

Asked what business he will be carrying out for the B.C. government,
Williston said he was not at liberty to divulge the details.

He did disclose however. that he will hold discussions with powerful
business circles in Japan who are associated with the Catermole Timlerr Co.

on the proposed construction of a giant pulp mill at Mackenzie in the Rocky

Mountain Trench.

The Financial Post recently revealed that huge Japanese takeovers in
B.C.’s mining industry are pending and that in the foreseeable future
Japanese investments in mining may reach $1 billion. His secret talks are
expected to pave the way for many giveaway deals in the near future.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING
Martyr to the Cause
of Peace and Justice

COMMENTS ON MURDER OF U.S. LEADER, SEE PGS. 2, 4 & 8.

Tribun

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1968

VOL. 29, NO. 15

ESB 50

FORUM RALLY SHOWS

nionists want

10c

tronger fight

By TOM McEWEN

‘Laws or no laws, when any group of workers has decided
the time has come to hit the bricks, that is what they will do,”’
declared NDP provincial leader Robert Strachan during his
address at last Sunday’s rally against Bill 33 at Exhibition

Forum.

The event was the April 7 trade
union rally in Vancouver held under
the joint auspices of the B.C.
Federation of Labor, the Vancouver
and District Labor Council and the
New Westminster Labor Council in
protest against the Bennett
government’s compulsory
arbitration Bill 33; and to take
decisive action if, as and when the
government may decide “‘in the
public interest’? to impose the
compulsory arbitration-provisions of
the Bill upon any section of the
BCFL’s 130,000 trade union
membership.

The rally was opened by BCFL
president E. T. Staley who welcomed
the audience and guest speakers then
read a prepared statement on Bill 33,
which quoted extensively from a
recent statement by the B.C. Civil
Rights Association (See March 29 PT
edition for full text of statement).

Before any speakers were
introduced the chairman requested
the audience stand in a minute of
silent tribute to the memory of Dr.
Martin Luther King, assasinated last
week in Memphis, Tenn.

Charging “‘rank discrimination
against the working men and women
in this province’’ by the enactment of

Bill 33, “‘by which workers can have
their wages dictatorially cut back or
set and other objectionable
conditions of employment arbitrarily
forced upon them’’, no similar
restriction will apply to other areas
of the economy. Medical, legal and
other professional costs will remain
at what the traffic will bear.
similarly with corporation profits,
consumer prices, high interest
rates, etc. Only ‘trade union mem-

bers will be subject to compulsory .

arbitration,’’ declared Staley.

In his opening address, president
Staley made two important
statements which brought
resounding applause from the
audience and clearly indicated the
setiment of rank-and-file willingness
to fight Bill 33 if effective leadership
is given.

Asking where the Bennett
government will find members for
its ‘‘mediation commission’’ to
impose compulsory arbitration,
Staley declared: ‘‘No self-respecting
labor man could accept such an
appointment while knowing one of
his duties would be to revoke
freedom and enforce compulsion

. Any man who purports to
represent labor by accepting an
appointment to this commission will

gainst Bill 33

be someone who, for the sake of a
political appointment and personal
gain, is prepared to sell his
principles and-become a tool of
government that has no
understanding of, or no sympathy for
labor’.

President Staley also made clear |

that ‘the first time the Lievtenant-
Governor in Council (Cabinet)
imposes compulsory arbitration or
the penalties set out in this Bill on
free men and women of this
province, then the full resources of
the Federation will be mobilized to
support those persons whose
freedom is jeopardized”’.

Both declarations were received
with resounding applause from the
audience, again underscoring the.
fact that the weak campaign against .
Bill 33 up until now is not the fault
of union rank-and-file member-
ship.

NDP leader Strachan outlined the
long and sustained opposition of NDP-
MLA’s in the legislature against Bill
33, during its early origin and in
more recent debate. The NDP leader
charged that J. V. Clyne, head of the
MacMillan-Bloedel lumber

monopoly had been the key promoter .

of the terms embodied in Bill 33 (see
PT April 5 edition). The government,
said the speaker, had also distorted
the report of Mr. Justice Nathan
Nemetz on labor-management
relations in Sweden to suit its own
ends in the enactment of Bill 33.

“This bill will fail as all other
See BILL 33, pg. 12

i