LABOR

editorial shows that no suchethi- —_ ago.
cal bounds exist.

jority of your paper each week. —_ your paper.
For our records, however, a letter

appropriate,

Fawkes assails editorial

Tom Fawkes, director of com- _ tions against the Polish people, in stage of simple discomfort and
munications, B.C. Federation of —_ fact the opposite is true. 1 have was threatening to do serious
Labor, writes: 1 found theeditor- made public statements con- harm totender parts of your anat-
ial comment in your Jan. 8, 1982 demning the action of the Ameri-_ omy.
issue (“But wheredo Munroand _can government as being narrow- Knowing that the Communist
Fawkes belong?’’) absolutely as- © minded and designed to cause Party and your paper support the
tonishing. Although the Pacific harm to the Polish people. use of tanks, guns, physical beat-
Tribune has never been recogniz- It is also public record that ing and murder of Polish work-
ed as a bastion of journalistic ex-- both the Federation officers and ers, in order to preserve and
cellence and integrity, certainly myself have made statements maintain the Polish Communist
plain ethics should draw a line _ pointing out the hypocrisy of Party, gives me every reason to be
that must not be crossed in de- —_U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s confident in the position I have
termining how much you will position on Poland, inlight of his personally taken with regard to
stretch the truth or distort theac- vicious _union-busting actions Poland.
tions of individuals. Your Jan.8 against PATCO several months In closing, allow me to suggest |

If you had taken the time to
I notice with some amusement _—_ contact me regarding these facts
that your paper has no regular you would not have made the er-
“letters to the editor’? column, _ rors you have. But then again the
thus deliberately cutting off any ld saying, “why ruin a good . sets
outlet for people to criticize the —_ story witha lot of facts,’’ has been pe ee oe Ue
content of your paper, or point well preserved by you and I’m
out the gross inaccuraciesanddis- sure we will see this attitude
tortions which make up the ma- bloom again in future issues of __,,O” *#e record, the Tribune has

‘ sae - Your Jan. 8, 1982 issue has Forum or, more recently, simply
Sanding the edworial' would be " clarified the Communist Party’s Letters — the appearance of
position on Poland. I was begin- Which has been dependent on let-

To set the record straight, I ning to become concerned that ers being received. In fact, vir-
have never madea statement con- __ the “‘fence-sitting”” on Poland by ‘wally all letters received are print-
doning the action of the Reagan your paper might begettingtothe _¢d, critical or not — as the above
administration in imposing sanc- point where it had passed the etter should indicate.—Ed.

that if you insist on ‘‘playing”’ re-

porter/editor that you at least
make an effort to do so with some |
vestige of sincerity. I understand
that you are severely restricted by
party doctrine and policy, how-

so refreshing.

always had a letters to the editor
column — called variously Open

‘ racy, it was abletogetthenecessary havesought cooperation. Electio 1s

New tax formula even worse

Continued from page 1 minister Brian Smith is proposing
But, despite all the evidence of still another education finance for-
injustices, the government is mak- mula — worse, if anything, than
ing no attempt to rewrite the As- the present scheme.
sessment Act. Presented only in general outline
~ Obsessed with maintaining a and not yet defined in proposed
balanced budget, jeopardized by legislation, it would commit the
megaproject costs and declining government to paying the cost of a
revenues, the government isimpos- basic education program, with all
ing new levies and taxes in every di- additional costs to be paid by local

rection. School taxes are no excep- taxpayers.

tion. The concealed snare for local

Unless it is compelled by public taxpayers who may be beguiled by
outcry to offer relief to homeown- this seemingly simple formula is
ers, taxes will be higher this year — that Smith is proposing to pay part
and it will not be the fault of trust- of the basic education cost by im-
ees. posing a direct provincial property |

The provisional mill rate set by tax, breaking all precedent to in-
the government — a marginal re- vade a tax field which traditionally WES KNAPP
duction of .6 mills to 41.2 mills — has been an exclusive municipal

and the reduction of one percent,

right.
from 11 to 10 percent of assessed § ‘‘Apart from this dangerous en-

dangerous
government encroachment on:
municipal taxation rights.

value, in calculating school taxes croachment on municipal taxation clared Wes Knapp, Vancouver
will more than be offset by inflated rights, what this means is greater COPE school trustee.
assessments. And there is no indi- centralization, loss of local auton- “The governmentis not trying to
cation that the government will in- omy, a further narrowing of trust- _ meet its responsibility for financing
crease the homeowner grant. ees’ ability to respond to local needs ~ education. It’s only trying to create

With the government’s ‘“‘popu- anda lessening of the quality ofed- _ that illusion while foisting the cost
list’’ image wearing thin, education ucation at students’ expense,”” de- on to homeowners.”

: = rf
Bus union vote
cuts ATU link

The fledgling Independent Ca- _ not to sever their connections with
nadian Transit Union (ICTU) won the CLC and the B.C. Federatiol
by a narrow 50.3 percent majority of Labor because of dissatisfactio
over the Amalgamated Transit with the contract or the local lea
Union in last week’s Labor*Rela- ership. »
tions Board-ordered vote to deter- The caucus has long advance
mine the certification for Lower _ the position that members shoul
Mainland and Victoria bus drivers __ maintain their affiliation to the la
and maintenance workers. - bor centrals while seeking to maké

The immediate result will be to changes in local leadership a
take yet another 2,700 workers out campaigning to win autonomy.
of the B.C. Federation of Labor However, caucus member
and the CLC. made it clear that, although

Results of the vote, which cli-- were unhappy with the outcomé
maxed a two-year raiding cam- they would be active members 0
paign by the independent Cana- whatever union held the. certificé
dian union, were released by the tion and would continue to cant
LRB Tuesday. Of the 2,125 ballots _ paign for rank-and-file democracy;
cast, ICTU got 1,069 andthe ATU _ militancy and membership unity i
1,053. Three were spoiled. ICTU won the Vote.

ICTU, which has no other certi- Caucus spokesman Julius Fishet
fications and which willapparently __ reaffirmed that Tuesday following
have to get a bank loan to set up __ the vote, and added that members
shop, launched a raid against the would be.considering the future of
ATU last year but fell short by 29 _ their caucus depending on the pef
cards. This year, capitalizing on formance of ICTU in taking up Js
membership bitterness over the sues. 4
contract signed with the Metro Fisher said that ICTU has al
Transit Operating Company, on ready taken points in its program
dissatisfaction with the local lead- from the caucus and ICTU leaders
ership and international bureauc- Hunter Wallace and Colin Kelly

majority. are expected to be held in
Formerly the Street Railway- months. z
men’s Union until the conversion = [CTUhasalso claimed that it ha
to buses from streetcars in many _ requests from other ATU locals
North American cities, the ATU members for action and Kelly has
has represented transit workers in been quoted as saying that ICTU
Vancouver since 1898. must expand from its present basé
The international office of the Metro Transit or risk ‘‘being all
ATU has put the local under other company union.” That poses
trusteeship. A few hundred work- the possibility of more raids an@
ers, including some 60 on West greater division unless the ATU
Vancouver’s Blue Bus system, are moves quickly on autonomy ail
still ATU members, although Blue __ related issues.
Bus workers have also been raided B.C. Federation of Labor presi-
by ICTU and a vote is pending. dent Jim Kinnaird said that the
The full-time members of the vote last week could serve as 4
ATU executive are reportedly re- message to international unions tO
turning to the job and have vowed _ grant more autonomy. 4
to fight to regain the certification. The transit union vote could also
The ATU has facedanumber of have an impact on one of the most
raids, with members in Montreal, critical struggles over union repre-
Kamloops and elsewhere leaving: ‘sentation in the province’s labof
the union in recent years, pay pas history — at Cominco in Trail.
cause of bureaucratic control by H bark a iocretea 19 S

ane sped PEE. : at the LRB to determine whether 4
The international convention ote should be ordered between

did make some tentative moves to- | CAIMAW and the Steelworkers.
wards Canadian autonomy at the = CAyMAW has applied, claiming a’

last convention — in response tO majority of the 5,000 smelter work-
motions initiated in Vancouver by. erg but Steel has ‘fought it, arg

members of the rank and fileMac- that some of the CAIMAW cards
Innis Caucus — but they were too were signed more than three mon-
few, too late. ths before the vote was sought.

The MacInnis Caucus which The LRB has traditionally ap-
published a circular among ATU plied the three-month cutoff, al-
members before'the vote, opposed _ though it is under no mi obligi
the ICTU raid and urged members tion to do so.

We took in a total of 718 subscriptions over the
1981 circulation drive which wound up Dec. 31.

Of that total, 176 were new subs and 542 were
renewals — an overall increase over 1980, although
the number of new subs was short of our target of
200 new readers.

Several press clubs and individuals made an
outstanding effort in the sub drive, but the top hon-
ors — and the drive shields — were reserved for Vic-
toria Club in the province at large and Coquitlam
Club in Greater Vancouver. Trail Club was the
runner-up in the province while Kingsway and
North Vancouver Clubs were the runners-up in
Greater Vancouver. In every instance, those clubs
surpassed their targets for new subs.

Our thanks to all who contributed to the drive, by
renewing their own sub promptly or by picking up a
new one. We’re sure that many of those whose subs
iam ampene ogre nenaienas seal as
the next few weeks. :

Circulation drive brings in 718 i Sa

New sub, ad rates

Newsubscription and ad rates go into effect
Feb. 1-as follows:

One year subscription - $14
Two years $25
Three years $35
Six months $8
. Foreign, one year $15
Foreign, air mail _ $40

Display advertising rates will rise to $7 per
column inch and $6 per column inch for three
issues or more. Classified advertising will be
$.80 per line.

Single copies of the Tribune will be 40 cents.

\
N

Renew now at the old price

== =

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 15, 1982—Page 12