a ee ee — ae ene oN a bette! So Se ea SL iahees, 5 AA A Friday, October 10, 1975 ] 30 48 ] 5 VOL. 37, No. 41 Firemen hose down gutted hulk of Burrard Terminals after explosion and fire last Friday in which one man died and sixteen were injured. See story below. inquiry urge Elevator to ‘hold Grainworkers business agent €nry Kancs said this week that he b Pes “no facts will be held back” Y the commission appointed by the federal labor department to inquire into the explosion and fire at Burrard Terminals last Friday . which one man is presumed ufad and 16 others seriously in- Jured, _ Two explosions were touched off a the grain terminal early Friday Morning when a friction fire on a °onveyor belt ignited the swirling Stain dust. ances was extremely critical of Stain companies and the federal 80vernment for failing to initiate a dust control program in the €vators even after a similar -€xplosion in the same elevator in 1973. dj ‘We’ve been arguing about the Ust for years in our negotiations,” ts told the Tribune this week. “We €dicted that this would happen.” ap I will happen again unless Mething is done immediately,” warned. hela nes’ demand that “no facts be fo back” was prompted by in- Tmation which he received only see that several fires had also ae in past months in other ing ators but the union was not ‘ormed at the time. €re apparently were seven See FULL INQUIRY pg. 11 back no —Sean Griffin photo facts’ Full isolation of Spain urged by labor council A resolution registering ‘abhorrence of the repression of trade unionists and democrats in Spain’’ and calling on the federal govern- ment to sever all diplomatic ties with that country passed unanimously at the meeting of Vancouver and District Labor Council ‘this week. The resolution also called on Ottawa to support any moves to oust the fascist country from the United Nations. CUPE 1004 delegate Dave Werlin, in supporting the executive motion also called on the trade union movement to follow the lead of the European trade unions in calling for a boycott, ‘‘until Franco’s fascist regime is brought to its knees.” Fed pledges all-out fight against Bill By FRED WILSON The B.C. Federation of Labor reacted to the Barrett govern- ment’s slave labor act — Bill 146 — with a pledge to ‘‘fight it in every way possible” and to offer “full support to any affiliate which refuse to capitulate to Bill 146”. As the Tribune went to press on Thursday the Federation was meeting to plan a mobilization of the labor movement to defeat the legislation. Bill 146 — the most massive piece of strikebreaking legislation in B.C. history — passed second reading in Tuesday’s emergency session of the provincial legislature after barely four hours of debate. More than 60,000 workers in four unrelated industries are involved, ordered back to work without so muchas a one cent increase in pay. In the house, only three NDP backbenchers stood in principled opposition to the strikebreaking legislation. Colin Gabelmann, Harold Steves and Rosemary Brown voted no against the entire legislature. Shock and disbelief, the initial reaction of the trade unions, quickly became outright con- demnation, not only of the anti- labor legislation but of the government itself. Tuesday evening, just hours after the passage of the Bill, Len Guy left a special session of the B.C. Federation of Labor to attend the regular meeting of the Van- couver and District Labor Council. In a powerful statement adopted unanimously by the Federation Council and read by Guy to the delegates, the Federation con- demned “Bill 146 in its entirety, condemns the minister of labor and the government for introducing it LEN GUY B.C.F.L. SECRETARY and condemns all MLA’s who supported it. “Bill 146 represents a complete betrayal of the principles and policies of the NDP,” the statement said, “and a complete betrayal of the working people who helped to elect this government. “Rarely in modern times has any government in. Canada in- terfered so brutally in free collective bargaining. No govern- ment has engaged in strike- breaking on such a massive scale. “The government has, like governments before it, sought political gain through the popular route of enacting anti-labor legislation. And most MLA’s have chosen the path of political ex- pediency by supporting it. “Clearly the New Democratic Party must repudiate this legislation and those opportunistic MLA’s who voted for it. Similarly this Federation condemns any trade unionists who make statements supporting this anti- See LABOR, pg. 12 Communists denounce Bill 146 The provincial executive of the Communist Party of Canada sharply condemned the Barrett government for its slave labor legislation which ordered 60,000 workers back to their jobs for 90 days. “We appeal to the membership of the NDP to repudiate Bill 146 ‘and to support the unanimous stand taken by the B.C. Federation of Labor and the Vancouver Labor Council for repeal of this anti-labor legislation,” said Nigel Morgan, provincial leader of the Party “October 7, the day the Collective Bargaining Continuation Act was rammed through a special session of the legislature, will be remembered as a day of shame. “This legislation transformed the legislature into a strikebreaking agency,” he said. The CP statement pointed out that by Premier. Barrett’s own admission, Bill 146 was agreed to by cabinet on Monday afternoon, with the special session due to open at 10 a.m. the next day. The NDP caucus had no idea of the contents of the bill before it was tabled in the house. ‘‘The cabinet demon- strated an arrogant contempt for NDP backbenchers.”’ : Morgan drew attention to the fact that on Monday night, when cabinet had already agreed to Barrett’s proposal for a sweeping back-to-work bill,- Dave Stupich, Minister of Finance, went on television and told the public the special session had-been called to deal with the strike of propane workers only. “Tt is obvious,’ said Morgan, “that the government gave in to big business. The Barrett govern- ment is trying to minimize op- position from big business by proving it is not afraid to get tough ‘with organized labor.” The CP leader warned that this latest retreat is part of a pattern of surrender to pressure from the monopolies. “Bill Bennett, leader of the Socreds, publicly called upon the government to legislate all workers involved in major disputes See BILL 146, pg. 12