witty Ne | tt tt i | ul lI | n B.C. YEAR-END REVIEW BY MABEL RICHARDS Just one year ago, on January 2, 1970, the Pacific Tribune printed on its reverse masthead the slogan: ~ 1970’s—Decade of Decision. 1970 has been a year of decision in many fields. Organized labor particularly made bold decisions and found new strength in its united '* struggle against forced labor as exemplified by Bill 33. While wage gains were far from adequate in meeting the rising cost of living, labor did defy the six percent guideline formula laid down by the federal government’s Price and Income’ Commission. In so doing they exposed the bare-faced govern- ment-big business plot to weaken _ unions and create unemployment to the point where industry would have a mass of jobless at their door. WINTER The PT on January 2 predicted in bold headlines that Trudeau’s jobless policy could lead to a half ‘million unemployed in 1970. We were too optimistic. Even Finance Minister Benson predicts there will be 800,000 without jobs this winter; labor leaders say the figure is closer at the present time to 900,000! Observer wrote, in the same issue of the Tribune, that corporate profits per unit of output had increased 20 percent during 1969. The average wage increase across Canada in 1968 and 1989 was 7.5 percent. In late January the B.C. Federation of Chan began its work to co-ordinate bargaining objectives in 1970. The move paid off, as the spring and summer wage struggle was to prove. Pollution and runaway rents took up the headlines in early February. The pollution problem was to multiply as the months went by, but so did the ever- widening push of people against it. (In January bus tares and domestic electricity rates went up. Houses were out of reach for the average wage-earner, although Block Brothers said the demand ‘remained high’’, and low cost housing hadn't got off the ground. ) By the end of February there were 61,690 unemployed in 18.C. The B.C. Tenants organization was in there pitching with Bruce Yorke at the head, and their fight for a Tenants Bill of Rights was making headway. The major threat to B.C.’s welfare was the steady growth of monopoly takeover and our natural resources, according to the B.C. Communist Party convention held in February. Provineial! leader Nigel Morgan told the convention ‘“‘the Bennett government’s record of giveaways of timber, petroleum, minerals, water, natural gas to the bigs monopoly concerns is unniatched in Canada.” Five p7ess unions were locked out by Pacific Press. The Trib headlined a story about the owners of PP being connected with a financial empire which included some of the top tycoons in business, banking, utilities and industry. A year later tke Pacific Press’s Sun confirmed the allegations with one of is own -- The elite that dominates Vancouver life. - Tenants Win Fight for Rent Freeze was the banner in the issue of March 6. The B.C. government was forced into taking action on-rent control as Bill 20 came into being. Tugboat crews found a conciliation board award unacceptable. The Fishermens’ Union, meeting in convention, urged Fisheries Minister Davis to ‘‘license fishermen, instead of boats’’. SPRING Labor negotiations began to get underway in earnest along in April. “Forest Companies Block Wage Talks’ was a forerunner of what was to happen everywhere along the labor front. The bosses had no intention of talking in good faith with the dozens of unions who had contracts coming up for negotiation. The VLC heard a seaman delegate blast conditions on tugboats. ‘‘We are sick and tired of having to live like dogs. . .” Second week in April the Employer’s Council made the type of provocative move which was to characterize their actions for months to come. “Construction Lockout Aims to Smash Unions’’, and 35,000 building trades workers were locked out with the Construction Labor Relations Association (CLRA) turning the key. “The Employers’ Council and the big lions it represents don’t give a damn what happens to the economy of the province or to the public — so long as their profits are maintained and their union busting is achieved’’, wrote editor Maurice Rush. That month there were 59,000 . jobless in B.C., not counting the ‘“Jocked-out”’ workers. In May the unions fought back with a huge rally in Exhibition Park. Sponsored by the Vancou- ver and New Westminster Building Trades, some 2000 workers met to challenge the gang-up of bosses united ia Employers’ Council: They determined to win the tugboat strike, break CLRA’s lockout, and show the Bennett government once and for all they would not accept forced labor. As unity all along the labor front grew, the bosses moved in through the courts to secure injunctions. The tugboat union was handed fines near big enough to pay off the national debt, and union negotiator Arnie Davis received a jail sentence. These moves solidified the ranks of labor, rather than intimidating them. SUMMER Desperate, the CLRA and the Employers’ Council turned to the government for help. Premier Bennett threatened to -impose sections of Bill 33 on the construction unions if they did not return to work by Friday, _ July 17. The building trades did not return to work. Bennett called a meeting with union heads. He backed down. The = trib) wrote. The determined united stand of the puilding trades unions, backed by the B.C. Federation of Labor, not to surrender to forced labor and Bill 33, won an important victory.”’ (At the Socred convention held in November, ’70, Premier Bennett told the delegates, “People keep telling us to use it now; use it now... but you have to Keep your head down low because if you keep raising it up every time, you are going to get it shot off.’”) Right on, Sir! As summer waned, construction trades were in negotiations with CLRA “under mediator Sands. Postal workers, International Pulp and Paper, and the IWA were in the thick of negotiations, with Pulp and Paper on the picket lines. On the civic front, the NDP provincial council decided the NDP should go it alone in the December city elections. “Unity is the only way to beat the NPA’’, COPE publicity director Ben Swankey said in a press statement. Justice Nemetz brought down his report in the IWA-FIR negotiations. The union members turned it down. ‘“‘The Nemetz report does not go far enough in respect to a general wage increase and fails to deal adequately (if at all) with many important issues . . .”’ said “‘On the Beam,’’ put out by Left Caucus in Wood. But the woodworkers refusal to accept the first offer brought a few better clauses, and they accepted. The tugboat men won many improvements in their contract and working condi- tions, and strong pressure had brought the release from jail of their leader Arnie Davis. International Pulp made a settlement, and Pulp and Paper, after a sturdy struggle, went back to work with a higher wage packet. It was a tough summer, but nowhere did the Employers’ Council have it their own way where labor took a united labor stand. year of struggles Two major unions, the Inter- national Pulp and Paper and the UFAWU, submitted briefs, along with SPEC, to the provincial government’s Pollution Probe at UBC. All the briefs put the onus for anti-pollution measures- squarely on the government, demanding controls over polluting industries.’ AUTUMN Un September 4 the Trib headline demanded an end to Trudeau’s austerity plan which had caused untold hardship. A picture showed long lines of unemployed lined up in front of the 8th Avenue welfare office, while unemployed kids from all over the land fought to keep a roof over their heads in the Beatty Street armory. In early September, after a tough long struggle, the Postal workers settled their strike. : Mayor Campbell, ignoring the lack of housing, jobs, needy welfare recipients and other problems under his nose, found the Beatty Street kids a new hobby horse, and off he rode. On a nation-wide tour, Communist Party leader William Kashtan told a public meeting that in Canada we have a choice — a million new jobs or a million unemployed. The Trib demanded a crash program for jobs. So did labor unions which presented briefs to city council and to the senior governments. October and November marked many celebrations across Canada and around the world marking the anniversary of Lenin’s birth. Workers everywhere paid homage to the man who launched socialism on a world scale. The War Measures Act burst on the Canadian people in Pacific Tribune VOU 31.No.17 EMPLOYERS PLOT AGAINST UNIONS AND PUBLIC ‘By MAURICE RUSH ACT NOW FOR JOBS mVoters hoost Rankin total, = PT HEADLINES TELL THE STORY OF ‘70. As B.C.’s only weekly labor paper, the headlines, some of which are reproduced here, told the story of labor's struggles in the year past. In ‘71 the PT will continue to spearhead the fight for labor and the people’ s needs. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1970—PAGE 3 October. Condemning acts of terrorism, the Trib editorially flayed the Act, and within hours of its invocation, reported Com- munist Party members protesting it on parliament hill. In one stroke, the Trib pointed out, the government had succeeded in wiping out the democratic rights of all Canadians. Protests against the Act, and the actions of Mayor Campbell and the Socred government in using the Act for their own purposes, spread across the province, with the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor Convention calling for its repeal. October figures revealed 68,000 out of work in B.C., with near half a million unemployed in Canada. VLC wired Prime Mihister Trudeau: Get the Economy Moving! Protests can block the Utah Mine Permit, maintained the PT headline of November 27. Utah Mining has applied for a permit to dump 9.3 million gallons per day of waste into Rupert Inlet at Port Hardy. The Tribune, along with dozens of individuals and organized anti- pollution groups have been fighting against this particularly dangerous pollution move for many months. At year’s end, after a so-called ‘‘hearing’’ on December 2, the Pollution Control Board is still stalling, while the building of the plant is almost completed. In November, B.C. had 76,000 unemployed. Civic election candidates were in a two week marathon of meetings .maiked by the appearance of scores of candidates who talked mostly to themselves. When nomination day rolled around, 105 names were on the ballot. When election day counting ended, the big news was the vote for Harry Rankin, COPE’S candidate, who topped the polls ‘with 63,667, and the much reduced support for the NPA. Dissatisfaction is breaking out all over! As 1970 whirls to an end, trade unionists (employed and unemployed) students and young people are beginning to get together to fight back in a united way against government-Big Business policies. They understand the Communist Party’s program for One Million New Jobs, launched many months ago, as a realistic and vital demand. Thanks to the uncompromising stand of the Party, and the forward-thinking section of the trade union movement who have led the fight against the Vietnam war and Trudeau’s disastrous ‘‘austerity’’, many thousands of Canadians know who and where the enemy is. and the way ahead in the struggle. As the Trib headlined the Christmas issue, we must ACT For Jobs Now, and at the same time carry on the fight against the U.S.-Canadian monopolies who own or control every item we have to buy, from:food to rent to medicine. 1971 will see a sharpened struggle on all fronts, but with the lessons of the last decade, and particularly 1970 behind us, the way ahead becomes more sharply defined. ‘~Peace and Jobs for us All!