already letter j Pos ed “Jobs Now’ demanded 10,000 U.S. autowo' FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1975 rkers in Washington, D.C., Feb. 5 in a demoristration sponsored by the United Auto Workers. They came from all parts of the U.S. 5,000 were expected, but 10,000 Came. Union president Leonard Woodcock has now called for a march °n Washington by 250,000 workers to demand action on jobs. VOL. 37, No.7 The first action in what the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union intends to be a major campaign against the threatened sellout of Canadian salmon resources in the face of U.S. treaty demands, was set last week as the Fraser River District Council of the UFAWU announced plans for a demonstration outside the Fisheries Service Building, .1090. West Pender in Vancouver Friday, February 14 at 1 p.m. Dave McIntosh, Vancouver Fishermen’s local, announced plans for the demonstration following the conclusion of the UFAWU annual convention and said that all locals and union members have been urged to at- tend. : The issue occasioned con- siderable debate in the UFAWU convention as the latest meeting of Canadian advisors, held December 17, indicated that if any firm stance had been adopted in the past,.it was now on the verge of crumbling completely. : _Lockouts against locals of the mnadian Union of Public Em- mares in the Greater Victoria o. began spreading this week an Several Lower Mainland locals a © poised to strike as negotiators ae various municipal and city. Uncils, seemingly determined to Bi public employees the first ae of a drive against wage ae ands, refused to move beyond We offers that would have been a year ago. [Wo more CUPE locals in Vic- - toria Were locked out early this hae bringing to some 1,600 the eg of workers in that area Vie €d out. Outside workers in 27 toria, on strike since January ae Temained out this week with © immediate hope for a return € bargaining table. caout notice. against Surrey Seoved employees was also expir Monday night following the = y of the 72-hour strike notice ~+ved by the union earlier. members in Surrey have begun working to rule and & safety regulations to the nan effort to force removal unrealistic wage ceilings im- G@ on negotiators b the "Municipal council. . orkers in the Greater Van- followin a a couver area began taking their own job actions this week as little more progress was achieved in negotiations. The seven CUPE locals in the Greater Vancouver area also recorded a substantial 85.5% strike vote to back up their demands. Talks had resumed following the announcement of the strike vote but were adjourned until Monday, February 17 to give municipalities time to consider a new union offer. The stalemated situation in 1975 contract talks — with strikes, either in progress: or impending, - the case in a number of Interior centres as well — has been seen by CUPE representatives aS an at- tempt to set a “hold-the-line” trend for all 1975 wage talks — an effort coordinated by the Employers Council. Speaking to a press conference last week called to announce the results of the strike vote held among the seven Greater Van- couver locals, CUPE represen- tatives Aubrey Burton stated: ‘“We believe the mayors and aldermen in this area are guilty of abdicating their responsibility to their em- loyees and to the people who elected them. They are letting a hired spokesman do the talking for * “ them and that spokesman cannot and does not speak for the elec- torate, nor is he responsible to the electorate. “T am referring to Mr. Graham Leslie,” Burton said, “who is a member of the bargaining council of the Employers Council of British Columbia.” : See CUPE TALKS, pg. 12 Several resolutions adopted in the convention called for a cam- paign against the sellout utilizing leaflets, radio and television ap- pearances and cooperation with ‘other interested organizations as well as the establishment of a fund to finance the project. The issues involved in the Canada-U.S. reciprocal talks on salmon are quite complex but at the centre of negotiations between the two countries is the question of interceptions of salmon bound for other country’s rivers. Purportedly, the objective of treaty talks is to balance any in- terception and to ensure that the total value of salmon bound for Canadian rivers and intercepted by U.S. fishermen be as equal as possible to the total value of salmon bound for U.S. rivers and intercepted by Canadian fisher- men. : Special arrangements were also made in the case of the Fraser River which were based on bilateral contributions to funding -. of projects aimed at developing salmon resources on the river — the Fraser River enhancement program. is Although negotiations in June, 1971 reached basic accord on the principle that equitable balance should be achieved on_ in- terceptions as well as. the ad- ditional principle that such balance~ ‘be reached by reducing, rather than increasing interceptions, _ differences arose hetween the two countries as to the means of computing the total ,value of in- tercepted salmon. Then the U.S. proposed various ‘‘gimmick’’ he Syncrude deal -Pg. 5 Tribune «es 15° pricing schemes, aimed at per- petuating the imbalance. in its ~ favor and later announced that it would not reduce interceptions even if Canada did. Faced with the intransigent position of the U.S., Canadian negotiators, at the bidding of the Liberal cabinet, began to retreat © and their position ever since — with one short-lived exception — has been one of capitulating before stern U.S. pressure. See SALMON, pg. 12 Jobless total rises sharply Unemployment in Canada and in B.C. took another sharp jump in January, according to figures released by Statistics Canada this - week. Nationally the jobless rate climbed from six percent in December to 6.7 percent in January. This is according to the complicated ‘‘seasonally ad- justed”’ figure given out by Statistics Canada. The actual jobless rise in Canada in January was 8.4 percent, which is higher than the U.S. 8.2 percent. The total number of jobless given for €anada is 817,000. In B.C., which is one of the worst hit, unemployment rose from 6.8 percent in December to 7.5 percent in January, according to the “Seasonally adjusted”’ - figure, which means that the jobless rate in B.C. is closer to 8.5 percent. Among the hardest hit are women and those 24 years of age and younger. Sit-in workers Despite rumors — repeated by radio and television news reports — that the Willows poultry processing plant in Clearbrook was to be boarded up and workers who have been sitting in at the plant cafeteria forced out, the sitdown is continuing unabated and shifts are going in.and out of the cafeteria “tas usual.” Ross Bremner, business agent for the Canadian Food and Allied Workers Union, told the Tribune at. the plant Friday that the workers ‘were still. sitting in and would continue their action. ; The rumor apparently cam from a Canada Packers foreman who announced to the workers that “Friday will be your last day”’ See SIT-IN, pg. 12 morale ‘very high’ —Sean Griffin photo CFAWU business agent Ross Bremner outside Willows plant.