=— a Threaten union FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1974 lockout ee =— = Sn He of roa Second class mail registration number 1560 VOL. 35, No. 31 GRAIN COMPANIES CRIPPLE EXPORTS FROM B.C. PORTS | Victoria, points up Utio e grave danger from B nN which faces the C. coast if U.S. plans i Cherny nent of oil from Alaska to §n the giant tankers will haul Alaska oil — was Wever, disaster was avoided. » it was recently disaster this is not the only ait of in the Puget Sound : Juan de Fuca area. eae two years two ee out of control in aes €s to Rosario Strait, -“ajor routes which will $i Ships heading for the ~ refinery, © was loaded with 10 gctions of crude oil which is €n the supertankers HE TRIBUNE reproduced the above cartoon from the US. Id. Disclosures this week in the new tapes, and President Wan” Own confessions, now prove how true to the mark the as, at rises dary, and with favorable winds and tides might have come as far north as the mouth of the Fraser. _ A second similar incident in- volved a tanker carrying only ballast. Despite repeated warnings the U.S. government is determined to go ahead with its plans for shipping Alaska oil down the B.C. coast into the highly dangerous waters between the southern tip of Vancouver Island and the inland. needa ambassador to the U.S., Marcel Cadieux, warned in a speech in March on ‘Alaska oil shipments that ‘‘in car son time a particularly scenic ~~ populated part of Canada will faced with a major oil spill and all the subsequent spoilage of marine life.” He didn’t name the place, which Vancouver’s port is blocked with freighters and an armada of ships are lined up off English Bay waiting to load grain for the markets of the world, but an adamant anti-labor stahd by the grain companies is preventing a settlement with the Grain Workers Union. The Vancouver grain workers have been striving for a new collective bargaining agreement since November, 1973 when their last contract expired, but they have been blocked by the grain companies, and later the federal government who stepped in last May to order there be no strike or lockout until after the federal election. Ottawa acted in May _under a-section ofthe labor code. In April, federal labor con- ciliator L. Neil Perry brought down his recommendations which the Grain Workers Union in Vancouver accepted but the grain companies rejected and have persisted in their refusal to accept the terms of the recommendations. A spokesman for the companies said this week they have no intention of accepting the terms of settlement. At the time the contract expired last November the base rate for grain workers was $4.96 an hour. The Perry recommendations in- cluded the following provisions: A two-year contract to run until December, 1975; pay increases of 87 cents an hour the first year and is indicative of the “‘soft’’ approach of the Canadian government to the threat to B.C.’s coast. In fact, the major concern of Ottawa has been to urge that “safety” arrangements be worked out with the U.S. to ‘“‘minimize”’ the results of an oil spill. One of the major proposals which came from Ottawa and which the U.S. government agreed it would go along with when it approved the Alaska pipeline, was that Alaskan oil would be carried only by tankers with double bot- toms. The building of such tankers was hailed as assuring safety. However, at recent hearings of the U.S. Coast Guard into safety precautions against an oil spill, the idea of double bottomed super- tankers was discounted because it would add to the construction costs of tankers and operating costs. So once again, for the sake of greater profits even this questionable “safety’? measure 1S to be discarded. 65 cents the second; cost-of-living adjustments; a new pension plan starting August’ 1, 1975 and a number of benefits including over- time pay, holidays, shift dif- ferential and insurance. The four grain companies _in- volved are Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, United Grain Growers, Alberta Wheat Pool which operates through Pacific Terminals, and Pioneer Grain Co. which operates Burrard Terminals. The federal government’s order forbidding a lockout or strike was passed May 24 and expires Thursday, August 8. Grain Workers Union business agent Henry Kancs blamed the slowdown in grain handling on the companies _ REMEMBERED _ More than 40,000 people gathered at Hiroshima’s Peace ‘Memorial Park on August 6 to -mark the 29th anniversary since the U.S. dropped the first | atomic bomb in history, on | PAugust G, 18450 _ The anniversary will be marked in Vancouver this Friday, August 9 with a com-— _memoration rally at the Court - House Square fro ) 9 p.m.“ There will be a ph and Dr. David Suzuki at 7:30: p.m. will speak and said the 600 union members have been threatened with a lockout this Thursday. As the deadline approached, federal justice minister Otto Lang issued a statement that if west coast grain companies don’t accept the terms of the Perry award and end the current dispute Ottawa would act. But he did not make it clear what action the federal] government will take. The federal government, and Otto Lang in particular, is under strong pressure from farmers on the prairies to untie the knot now holding up grain shipments from Vancouver and other B.C. ports. At present less than half the number of grain cars a day are being loaded on ships than can normally be handled. Not only are grain shipments being held up, but the cost of ships waiting, in some cases two weeks in English Bay before being loaded, is skyrocketing. It is estimated that the 14 ships an- chored at English Bay last week cost the farmers and taxpayers an average of $140,000 a day. The major blame for this state of affairs rests squarely on the shoulders of the grain companies who stubbornly refuse to accept the Perry recommendations which the Grain Workers Union have accepted, despite the fact that they fall far. short of many of the original demands of the union. Surpluses ‘alarming’ in Common Market Meat surplus troubles ECM The European Common Market currently is battling with meat surpluses and agricultural officials back on production to. such an extent in about two years short- ages will develop. ‘Beef, eggs and poultry meat are all in surplus supply and, to a lesser. extent, lamb and. pork, ac- cording to’ David ‘Steers of London Sunday Telegraph. In Britain prices of eggs, beef and poultry meat have all declined to the farmer and also at retail levels, Common Market ministers are currently discussing. what to do about the beef situation with about 120,000 tons of beef in stor- mage. ” Despite consumer affairs minister Eugene Whelan’s attempts to justify higher food prices on the excuse of world food shortages, these clippings prove the opposite. The Sunday Telegraph News Service of July 27, 1974 carries a number of stories such as shown on this page, reporting “‘alarming’’ food surpluses in Europe. This is particularly true of meat, eggs and poultry. On page 7 Tribune writer H. K. Warren exposes Whelan’s false arguments and points to the monopolies being the main culprit in the Present prices gouge of the consuming public.