r irty cents an hour. . .Dc twenty-five from Hong Kong?"' PAPERWORKERS ACCEPT CONTRACT SAINT JOHN N.B. — The 383 members of the Canadian Paper- workers Union working for Irving . Pulp and Paper here have voted to accept a two year contract provid-.. ing for a 90 cent increase retro- active to may 1, 1978. The workers ; at Irving will be remembered as : the first group of workers to strike in 1976 in response to an AIB or- dered rollback which forced them to pay back to the company as. much as $1,200, after the board . had ruled their 1976 settlement to _ be beyond the government decreed WCB HEAD REPLACED TORONTO — Ontario’s Tory government, apparently under pressure from an inner party committee has decided not to renew the term of Michael Starr as chairman of the Workmen’s Compensation Board. Starr, who has held the top position in the WCB since 1973 has yet to be ad- vised of the decision, sources say. Current speculation is that Starris being replaced in order to help ‘correct’ the WCB’s poor image. UNORGANIZED WON’T CROSS LINE FORT FRANCES — Non union workers here, employed by Boise Cascade Canada, have re- fused to cross picket lines man- ned by striking members of the Lumber. and Sawmill Workers Union who have been on strike since July. Boise Cascade Cana- da, wholely owned by Boise Cas- cade Corporation of Boise Idaho, has responded by closing down one of its three mills in Canada. In all, 1,000 unorganized mill work- ers are respecting the union’s pic- ket lines. BUILDING TRADES. JOBLESS TO CLIMB - TORONTO — Clive Ballentine, manager of the Toronto Building Trades Council has predicted that unemployment in the industry will soar this winter as construction takes a further downturn in South- ern Ontario. Already, unemploy- ment in the building trades stands at 18%, three times the rate of un- employment in Ontario generally. Ballentine laid the blame on higher mortgage rates which he said will drastically curtail residential con- struction. Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O’CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9 Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months; All other countries, $10.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE —November 3, 1878—Page 4 EDITORIAL COMMENT Strikers lead fightback Legislation to force postal workers to work without a union contract or union conditions, marks new depths in the Lib- eral government’s drive to intensify its war on labor, which was supercharged by the wage-slashing ‘“Anti-Inflation Board,” set up in 1975. Postal workers have been threatened with fines, jail, loss of their jobs, and ef- forts to destroy their union, at the hands of the big business government. The Liberals, who “granted” government workers the right to strike, have now de- cided to take away that right. But work- ers fought for it, and workers mean to keep it. : If Postmaster General Gilles Lamon- tagne has nothing to offer but injunc- tions against picketing and the threat of firings of postal workers, then he is the one who should be fired. Big business Liberals don’t stand alone, however. It was Liberal-Tory col- lusion in parliament that pushed through the anti-labor back-to-work- without-a-contract legislation against the members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Now Lamontagne has picked up on the Tory call for firing. It looks as though Joe Clark calls the shots, and Trudeau is the trigger man. But neither are the postal workers alone. Inco workers are not alone, nor are workers in other industries and ser- vices who are forced to strike for their ~ unions and living standards. The legis- lating back to work of Great Lakes ship’s engineers with threats of court. action, -points the direction of the big business | . government. Hospital workers, in On * tario, too, who are denied the right t strike, and who voted 81% to reject ar insulting offer, are face to face with government-employer hard-line policy Today, the postal workers are in the front line for all of them against hostik bosses, governments, courts, against al who defend corporate wealth anc privilege. The threat is to all labor. “It’ them or us.” We are entitled to ask: Why is the Canadian Labor Congress and its presi. dent, Dennis McDermott, dragging its heels, hedging on support of union men and women who are defending the rights of all workers? _ Why, in fact, are not Ed Broadbent and the New Democratic Party leading a storm_of protest over the attacks on the postal workers? Having given a formal vote in parliament against the legislation, does the NDP think its responsibility is over? There’s a whole lot of room out- side parliament to rally hundreds of thousands of Canadians in support of _ postal workers, in support of the Sud- bury miners and smeltermen, which re- quire more than parliamentary debate. The utmost solidarity is needed against the attacks by the two old parties, their media, and the corporations who stand behind them. This paper and the Communist Party have never wavered in their support of workers’ battling for their rights: “Again’ we call for the -ulti- mate in unity behind the postal workers, the Inco workers and all workers defend- ing their union rights and their living standards against a ruthless system. Uphold the arms talks The current Strategic Arms Limita- tion talks (SALT II) have had their latest session in: Moscow, between Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev - participating. It is no secret that one of the reasons the USSR and other socialist countries want peace, and detente, is because they _are convinced that in peaceful conditions socialism will quickly outstrip monopoly capitalism. It appears that the arms cor- porations think so too, for they took satisfaction from the Carter regime’s be- havior just before this month’s talks in Moscow, and its behavior last spring. Justas the UN reached its highest pin- nacle so far in efforts to halt the genoci- dal arms race — the General Assembly’s Special Session on Disarmament (in May and June) — the USA conducted a most provocative militarist move, welcoming ‘to New York a meeting of the aggressive North Atlantic Treaty Organization, at which decisions were made under U.S. pressure, to raise spending on war prep- arations by $81-billion. — Be This was the USA’s affront and chal; lenge to the peace seekers. On the eve of the SALT meeting, Pres- _ ident Carter further fouled efforts for arms reduction and detente by approv- \ ing production of “components” of the detested neutron bomb. Producing parts for this weapon, which kills, sears and fatally contaminates humans while pro- tecting real estate, is in fact producing the ghastly weapon in all respects short of assembling. This from the preacher of “human rights”. The Soviet Union, which has more than once faced invasion, sabotage and attempts at destabilization, refuses to be blackmailed into dropping its defences. On the other hand, its approach. at dis- armament talks is based on arms parity and security. Canadians can only benefit from world arms reduction, from cuts in its own $4. 1-billion a year on weapons while — . people are in need: Canada, as amember of NATO, and based on Prime Minister Trudeau’s proposal at the UN Special Session on Disarmament, to smother arms development, should lead in de- manding a genuine effort to cut arma- ments squandering. a The Prime Minister should live up to _ his fine speech, by prevailing upon Pres- _ ident Carter to smother the neutron bomb. That would be a positive effort toward agreement in future SALT meet- ings. In that effort the PM could count. on widespread support by all who abhor | this weapon designed to destroy nothing. _— except human life.