NEWS ITEM: The Socred government announced last week that it had
offered the CPR-owned Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company a
$2.5 million subsidy to build a copper smelter. It is one of the many
handouts by the provincial government to giant corporations.

’ introduce

) LABOR SCENE:

Building unions demand.
Chabot prove his charges}

Labor minister James Chabot
has been shooting in all
directions since the building
trades unions refused to knuckle
down to his compulsory back-to-
work order.

First he charged that union
leaders were using hiring hall

‘provisions to intimidate workers

not to go back to work, claiming
unnamed workers had wired,
phoned or’ written him to that
effect. He warned that he will
anti-hiring hall
legislation at the next session of
the Legislature.

Last week he returned again to
the attack, claiming this time
that he had letters from workers
in the Prince George area asking
for protection should they defy
their unions and return to work.

His bluff was called last
Sunday by the B.C.-Yukon
Building Trades Council
president Jim Kinnaird who

Action to promote port
urged by Longshore union

By BILL MOZDIR

A brief prepared by the
International Longshoremen’s
and Warehousemen’s Union
Canadian area presented to
Transport Minister Don
Jamieson proposed the following
program to improve. the
competitive position of the Port
of Vancouver. !

* Canada should build a
publicly - owned merchant
marine to become “independent
of the foreign price-fixing
conferences which now decide
the rates on goods imported into
or exported out of Canada.”’

* Federal government action on
construction of the proposed new
container, and géneral cargo
facilities in Vancouver and New
Westminster. °

eAction under the Canada
Shipping Act to bring an end to
discriminatory rates and
practices against the Port of
.Vancouver. :

*The Canadian Transport
Commission should order the
railways to withdraw any
privileges now being advanced
on goods imported through
Seattle. Have imports destined
for Canada come in through
Canadian ports and all Canadian
exports go out through Canadian
ports.

The brief, signed by Don
Garcia, Canadian area, ILWU
president, says Vancouver has
one 18 acre container terminal
with one gantry crane, a facility
that is efficient but which can’t
handle all potential cargo. It
charges that 30 percent of the
container cargo destined for
Vancouver is being handled
through Seattle. If the present
trend continues it could amount
to 40 percent.

“Involved in this issue is the
future of our port, hundreds of
jobs, and the welfare of a

‘Young Worker’
drive underway

Members of the Young
Communist League in B.C.
are involved in a drive to
raise $750 for their national
paper, ‘‘The Young Worker.”’

At a recent gathering at the
Fisherman’s Hall about $250
was raised to help in the
drive. Members are now
circulating with pledge cards,
aiming to raise the rest of
their objective or surpass it.

Readers of the PT are
asked to give their support to
help maintain the national
youth paper.

(In unity there is strength)

a AB eh eee foe mr ae

24 ASA

nanra

‘trades unions involved.

sagging Canadian economy, the
brief continued.

“For every ton of cargo
coming over our docks, $20 at the
minimum is injected into the
local economy. Our estimates is
that Vancouver cargo now

coming through the port of

Seattle is approximately the
equivalent of 1,200 twenty foot
containers per month. This
works out at about 25,000 cubic
tons a month or 300,000 cubic
tons a year.

“Yet our government does
nothing about this.’’ Seattle has
larger container terminals with
six gantry cranes, and plans
further expansion.’

LABOR FED

Cont'd from pg. 1

The unity pact also provides
that there will be no settlement
until all trades settle and that
they will hold out for an-across-
the-board settlement for all
trades with no cuts in existing
conditions and negotiations on
improvements.

A mass rally in the Queen
Elizabeth Theatre last week
drew nearly 2,000 members of
the six unions, who over-
whelmingly approved the united
stand of the six unions. Joint
meetings have also been held in
provincial centres.

As the PT went to press it was

announced that the CLRA has
agreed to negotiations starting
Friday morning with the six
unions. Up until now it has re-
fused to meet them jointly, but
undoubtedly the united stand of
the unions and the support it has
received from the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor finally compelled
the contractors to agree to nego-
tiations.

Meanwhile the B.C. Mediation
Commission is holding hearings
into the dispute which are being
boycotted’ by the building

+ Shu . ‘

denied that there was any

intimidation of construction.

workers. In fact, he said there is
no sign that any of the ‘“‘holdout”’
union workers even want to
return to work. This was
overwhelmingly demonstrated
by the rally at the Queen
Elizabeth Theater last week of
construction workers, and by
joint meetings held throughout
B.C. during the past few days.

Kinnaird said that Labor
Minister Chabot should produce
letters he said he received. ‘“‘He
says he has the letters but he
hasn’t produced them; he talks
about making legislative
changes as a result of things like
this, but he’d better start
producing the letters.”

Chabot’s threats to introduce
“right to work” legislation
which has long been sought by
right wing politicians in the U.S.
and Canada, is another one of the
latest threats by the right wing
Socred government aimed to
intimidate the unions and
attempt to undermine their
strength.

Kw

The B.C. Hospital  Employ-
ees Union, meeting. in con-
vention last week, voted to
allocate $10,000 to a fund to
oppose the Socred government.
Although the original resolution
was watered down to voting the
money for ‘‘political education
and political advertising,’’ it
expressed the deep dissatis-
faction with the govern- ment’s
6.5 percent wage freeze.

Earlier in the convention the
business manager for the 10,500
member union, Ray McCready,
told the delegates the Mediation
Commission was a star-chamber
court. The union appeared before
.the Commission last spring and
was deeply dissatisfied with the
award which amounted to 6.25
percent. Delegates voiced strong

mediator expires.

criticism of the Socred :
government and its anti-labol |
policies. ,

xxx

The 23,000-member BO}
Teachers Federation let it ®
known this week that despite tf |
court action which temporatil) |
halted collection of one day’SP) |
from each member to fight Bille ji
and the anti-education policies, ’
the government, they wil tf
continue to take action to opps |
the Socred government’s po!)
cies. ee

The action against the of |
day’s pay program came 454 |
result of a court action by ee a
teachers, admitted members ® |
the Social Credit League, Wl? }
sought an interim injunctio® |
Mr. Justice McIntyre granted
interim restraining order whit
prevents the Teacher *
Federation from collecting #™ |
distributing the funds. The ode! |
is good until a suit brought by the y
two teachers can come to tl@ |
which may be some time. ~

In the meantime, the on ;

prevents the fund, which sta® at
at nearly $900,000, from ee, :
distributed. The action broué I
by the two teachers claimed ;
the resolutions adopted at 0
B.C. Teachers conventl®
authorizing the levy weré Fy
validly passed becau>”
individual members were ® |
given a vote; that the resoluul? ‘
were unlawful because he
exceeded the objects of 150 t
Federation; and they were # ni |
void for vagueness — |
uncertainty.

kee
The 3,800 members of Lot |
480 of the United Steelworkel® oF
America covering the Co 42 Ir
operations have reaché! |i
crucial point in negotiatl?
Their contract expired
Thursday and the union is ie i
take strike action Tuesd@
this week after the term &