Friday, May 21, 1976

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A forest of signs and people greeted ferry patrons at Langdale on t
irate residents blockaded the ferry terminal in protest over the increased ferry fares scheduled to go into
effect June 1. The Langdale demonstration followed a similar protest in Powell River the day-before (See

tory.)

In Powell River, Langdale

aANGDALE — More than 600
atl Sunshine Coast residents
sean the ferry terminal here
ey to back up their demands
cag the provincial government
Scind announced increases in
aay rates and reinstate com-
luter cards for residents of the
helt peninsula.
unday’s action here came on
© heels of a protest rally and
ch in Powell River Saturday.
Monstrators said that there
3 between 75 and 100 people who
§vel to Vancouver daily and that
With the loss of their commuter
“ards, and the doubling of ferry
“ates, they face a 300 per cent
Crease in their travel costs. With
x new rates, a person travelling
G a foot passenger between
mesons and Vancouver will pay
“ore than $1,000 a year.
_, One young demonstrator, who
Ad.the Tribune that he was a

student at Mary Hill Secondary
school in Coquitlam, said: “It’s
incredible, just a huge rip-off. My
parents can’t afford to keep me
going to that school, and I certainly
can’t pay $4 per day myself.”’

Wayne Everett, a doctor in
residence at Vancouver General
Hospital said that the govern-
ment’s decision to increase fares is
coupled with a general cutback in
transportation services. The
government recently cancelled the
daily 6:45 sailing from Langdale,
which Everett said, was designed
specifically to get people to Van-
couver in time for an 8 a.m. job.
Commuters now must leave
Langdale at 5:30 a.m. and arrive in
Vancouver at about 7 a.m. Everett
said.

“There has been no effort to look
at a general coordination of trans-
portation services at all. The whole
question goes beyond the ferry

Amendment rejected

aa a4 resounding three-to-one
ie delegates to the Canadian
Qu r Congress Convention in
, ebec City this week rejected
Come endations from a CLC
Bepennittee that -would have
tee. restricted the number of
Vereates to subsequent con-
Ntions,
de © scene among the 2,300
ihe was tumultuous as the
Ire report of the commission on
rete tution and_ structure _was
fol] fred back’ to committee
Seine a debate in which
os €s in opposition to the
«endments Pere accorded
ding ovations and those in
€nce boos and hisses.

Several resolutions based on

recommendations in the report had -

yet to. come to the floor as
delegates wound up the second day
of the five-day convention but the
overwhelming vote on resolution C-
11 — restricting the number and
selection of delegates — gave clear
indication of the feeling of the
convention.

Purportedly recommended as a
means of eliminating unwieldiness
of CLC conventions, the resolution
would have changed the basis of
selection of delegates to a system
based on the size of the union
rather than the size of the local and
would have provided for the ap-

see AMENDMENT pg. 12

he Sechelt peninsula Sunday as more than

— Mike Gidora photo

services, and includes the ex-
pansion and development of all
forms of transit, including rapid
transit which people can afford.”

Everett said that he suspected
that the decision to cancel com-
muter cards would benefit a
number of Social Credit party
members in the Sechelt area,
whom he said would experience a
sharp increase in business as
people will find it increasingly
difficult to travel to Vancouver for
shopping and business purposes.

One of the organizers of the
demonstration, Eileen Glassford,

~stressed that the demonstration

was mostly of a spontaneous
nature. ‘‘We didn’t go to the people
and organize them, they came to
us. The response really shows the
concern people up here feel.”’

Glassford pointed out that one of
the most insulting aspects of the
ferry fare increase was the can-
cellation of commuter cards for
residents of the Sunshine Coast.
“The people on Bowen Island had
their cards reinstated and the
increase reduced to half of the
general increase, and residents of
the Gulf Islands will be allowed to
continue with their commuter
cards,” she said. ‘But Jack Davis
(minister of transport in the
Socred government) has said that
we will have to pay the full cost.”

“Tt’s obviously political wrist
slapping because both of those
other areas are represented by
Social Credit members in Victoria
while we had the gall to elect an
NDP MLA.”

Glassford charged that Davis
has always been insensitive to the
problems of the Sechelt peninsula.
“J’ve never seen anyone so ill-

see BLOCKADE, pg. 3

By MIKE PHILLIPS
Special to Pacific Tribune

QUEBEC CITY — The eleventh
Biennial Constitutional Convention
of the Canadian Labor Congress
held here May 17-21 will go down in
the annals of labor history as a
watershed for the organized labor
movement in Canada. Over 2,300
delegates voted overwhelmingly
May 17 to endorse what the CLC
calls labor’s manifesto for Canada
and to give the CLC executive
council ‘‘a mandate to organize
and conduct a general work
stoppage or stoppages if and when
necessary.”’

Both the introduction of a labor
manifesto outlining the CLC’s
alternative to the present
economic and social crisis and the
general strike mandate broke new
ground for the Canadian labor
movement.

The CLC manifesto’s call for
“equal partnership’’ with
government and business in a
tripartite structure for planning
economic and social policy is the
first time that the labor movement
has opted in a public and political
manner for the demands of this
kind for direct participation in the
management of the economy.

Backing its demand is labor’s
commitment to uncompromising
struggle against Bill C-73. with the
power given to the executive by the
convention to call a general strike
if and when it is deemed necessary
— another first for Canadian labor.

The nature and formulation of
the manifesto was _ sufficiently
broad to attract support from both
the right and left of the Congress,
but there was some sentiment for
rejection. NDP spokesmen such as
Dennis McDermott, of the United
Autowkrers and Lynn Williams of
the Steelworkers, proclaimed it a
visionary statement of ‘‘the decent
democratic’’ or ‘‘social democratic
alternative’’ to the present crisis.

Other left spokesmen, including
Communists, approached the

CLC president Joe Morris

manifesto with caution, pointing
out its weaknesses and omissions
but supporting the principle of
placing the question of labor’s
direct role on ‘its own terms in the
economic management of the
country. The description of the
tripartite plan as social cor-
poratism gave the executive
council trouble because of the class
collaborationist overtones it
brought. Delegates approved an
amendment from the chair to
substitute the word ‘‘democracy”’
for ‘‘corporatism.”’

Dennis McDermott, Canadian
director of the UAW termed the
document ‘‘a_ clear _ social
democratic alternative.’’ It was
this concept of the manifesto which
created confusion and sparked -
much of the controversy. Larry
Arsenault, a Steelworkers
delegate, welcomed the manifesto
as “‘acoming of age”’ for the trade
union movement, but requested
clarity on who would be involved in
the. tripartite arrangement. He
said that tripartitism with the
multinationals who, he pointed out,
have robbed Canadians of millions

See LABOR, pg. 12

Welcome CLC action

EDITORIAL

Faced with growing attacks on all sides, B.C. trade unions will
welcome the militant stand taken by the Canadian Labor Congress,
and the overwhelming approval delegates gave fer a general strike to
protest Bill C-73 and the attack on workers’ wages and rights.

In the last few days, B.C. Railway announced a halt to all freight
operations and sent out layoff notices to hundreds of workers as part of
the Crown corporations fight against the unions, which have Bill 22
hanging over their heads. At the same time ferry workers, who also
face mass layoffs on June 1 by another Crown company, announced
they are proceeding to take a strike vote.

At Sparwood, in the East Kootenays, 1,500 miners, members of the
United Mine Workers, are out on strike against the Anti-Inflation
Board which cut in half a settlement they negotiated with Kaiser
Resources Ltd. Meanwhile, the hospital strike continues to spread
‘across B.C. as the hospital boards, under pressure of B.C: government
cutbacks, refuse to settle on the terms of the Blair report. Back of the
hospital strike is the attempt of officials to impose the terms of Bill C-

73 on workers.

In B.C.’s massive construction industry, contractors are holding
tough in their attempt to force an eight per cent settlement on building

trades unions.

Undoubtedly, the decisions of the CLC congress will strengthen
labor’s position all the way down the line, and show the employers and

big business governments that workers are prepared to fi for
decent contracts and in defense of their rights. par