A remarkable improvement
in the organizations finances
was reported at the 22nd An-
nual Delegated Meeting of
Local 1-207 IWA, June 11, in
Edmonton, Alberta.

The bright financial picture
was contained in the Officers’.
Report which showed that the
Local Union through hard
organizing and_ careful
spending had increased its
income by thousands of
dollars.

This viable financial position
enabled the Local to send more
members to leadership schools
and sponsor more educational
seminars.

The Local during the past
year devoted considerable
attention to organizing the
unorganized with a good
measure of success. A great
deal of this success the officers
attribute to Regional

organizers John Smithies and
Gilbert Johnson, who spear-
headed the organizing drive.

A number of visitors at-
tended the one-day meeting
and included International ist
Vice-President Fernie Viala;
Regional ist Vice-President
Stan Parker; Local 1-423
President Bill Schumaker;
Local 1-417 President Bill
Hobbs; Local 1-424 ist Vice-
President Gerry Wolfram;
International Assistant
Director of Organization
Frank Stich; Grant Notley,
Leader of the NDP in Alberta;
and a surprise visitor in the
person of Dave Barrett, who
was on a speaking tour of the
area.

Following the meeting the
Local sponsored its annual

Banquet and dance which was

enjoyed as usual by those who
attended.

DELEGATES fori the North Canadian Forest industry
Plywood Division, Grande Prairie.

DELEGATES from the Northwestern Pulp & Power Com-

pany, Hinton.

Local 1-424, Prince George; Bill

Wolfram, 1st Vice-President

Hobbs, President Local 1-

417, Kamloops; Frank Stich, International Assistant Director

Stan Parker, Regional Ist Vice-President;

Bill

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

FEV ECUnivE BOARD MEMBERS fon left, William Sommerfeld, Recording Secretary?
Keith Finnen, 2nd Vice-President; Bob DeLeeuw, Financial Secretary; Garth Grigat, Ist
Vice-President; Vernon Burns, Conductor; Reg Phipps, Trustee; Robert Ottenbreit,
Trustee; Wayne Zolmer, Warden; Robert Henry, 3rd Vice-President; Joe Pirker,

President. Missing from picture is Esther James, Trustee.

| FOR HITTING POOR
| RANKIN CONDEMNS MINISTER

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The Minister of (In) Human
Resources, the Hon. William
Vander Zalm is continuing his
vendetta against the poor with
a vengeance. His latest act, the
abolition of the Vancouver Re-
source Board, is his way of tell-
ing the poor, the disabled and
handicapped, that if they have
any grievances or problems
they will from now on have to
take them direct to Victoria
and curry favor with Social
Credit politicians if they expect
any remedy.

The introduction of legisla-
tion to abolish the Vancouver
Resource Board follows close
on the heels of a meeting in
Vancouver on June 19 where
the minister rejected in toto all
requests for higher welfare
rates to meet increases in the
cost of living.

That meeting, chaired by me
as chairman of City Council’s
Standing Committee on Com-
munity Services, was attended
by some 70 representatives of
concerned organizations. The
minister attended reluctantly,
but the alternative was a mass
delegation to his home in
Surrey on July 1st, which he
was even more reluctant to
face.

The six point brief presented
by Bruce Eriksen, president of
the Downtown Eastside Resi-
dents Association, was en-
dorsed by a wide variety of
organizations including Van-
couver City Council, the Van-
couver Resource Board, the
B.C. Federation of Labor, the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council, 208 United Churches,
the B.C. Association of Social
Workers, the B.C. Coalition of
the Disabled, the Voice of the
Cerebral Palsied, the Van-
couver Mental Patients Asso-
ciation, the Federated Anti-
Poverty Groups, the Coast
Foundation Society and the
Committee of Progressive
Electors.

The six points on which they
all agreed were as follows:

(1) Raise rates for handi-
capped and people aged 60 to
64, to reflect the cost of living
since their last increase. (City
Council recommended that the
present rate of, $265 be in-
creased to $284), and;

(2) Increase the rates for
singles to $230 and for couples
to $340. (The present rate is
$160), and;

(3) Make all GAIN recipi-
ents eligible for daeneed

rates of basic ae ae

(4) Eliminate the four
month waiting period for in-
creased rates of assistance,
and;

(5) Immediately proclaim
Section 8 of the GAIN Act tying
rates to cost of living in-
creases, and;

(6) Increase comfort allow-
ances for people in institutions.

But the minister was
adamant. He refused point-
blank to give in to any of the
requests.

It isn’t as if the minister’s
department is without funds.
By his own admission he has
cut welfare expenses to the
point where his department
now has a surplus of $100
million. But apparently this
money is to be ear-marked to
losses of revenue incurred by
cutting taxes on big corpora-
tions, and to build roads and
railways at public expense into
areas to be exploited by mining
and other corporations. °

Bruce Eriksen minced no
words when he presented the
brief.

‘‘We want you to stop making
scapegoats of the poor and
unemployed,’’ he said, ‘‘who
are forced to request assist-
ance from your department.

- You know full well there are no

jobs for the vast majority of
the unemployed. . . yet it has
been your policy to malign

these unfortunates whenever’

you speak at Socred or public
gatherings . .. We object to
your duplicity. You are simply
‘Poor-baiting’, making
political mileage at the ex-
pense of those you are meant to
help.

~ “You claim that you are
rooting out unworthy reci-
pients so that you can give
more to the deserving. If this is
so, Mr. Vander Zalm, why did
you impound the federal in-
creases to the old age pension-
ers and the handicapped? Just
who are the deserving you
refer to? The millionaires who
no longer have to pay gift and
succession duties because you
managed a hundred million
dollar under run?”

But the minister wasn’t
bothered by these remarks, for
when it comes to the poor he is
both cynical and without a con-
science. Same minister is a real
red-neck; to describe him as
an Archie Bunker would be to
insult Bunker. He sees his job
as taking away from the poor
and giving to the rch and he’s

“Sane: a ‘good job of it. Mid the
premier is right behind him or
he wouldn’t keep him on as
minister of human resources.
Vander Zalm is the hatchet
man for his government and
party and has the full support
of the cabinet and the premier.
The decision to abolish the
Vancouver Resource Board
was not Vander Zalm’s alone
— IT WAS A CABINET DECI-
SION.

Since the meeting mentioned
above, Bruce Eriksen has
appealed to the premier per-

‘sonally to ‘“‘replace Vander

Zalm with someorie with more
compassion, sympathy, em-
pathy and political common
sense.’’ I don’t think the
premier is any less hard-nosed
than Vander Zalm, but I do
think he may have a bit more
political savvy. If he has his
ear to the political ground at
all, he should be able to hear
the ground swell of opposition
mounting to many of his pol-
icies and the need to do some
back-tracking.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER, 1977

zl GEE
' SCHOLARSHIPS
AWARDED

To STUDENTS

ot

OTTAWA — Twenty-six Can-
adian students, children of
trade union members from
across the country, have been
awarded scholarships and bur-
saries to further their educa-
tion at universities and other
post-secondary _ institutions.
The names of the successful
applicants were announced
by Joe Morris, president of the
Canadian Labour Congress.

The program has been spon-
sored jointly for the past four
years by the CLC and Carling
O’Keefe Breweries.

Twenty-four Carling O’Keefe
Bursaries of $500 each were
again awarded this year to
students entering post-second-

ary institutions. In addition,
Carlsberg Memorial Fund
scholarships were awarded to

two students for post-graduate

studies. These cover the full
cost of tuition, transportation

and living expenses for a full
academic year.

The program is open to an
Canadian student, one of ties

parents is a trade uni
member. e

Sy ae