Friday, August 29, 1975 ] ottiesrgan 48 | 5c VOL. 37, No. 35 IBUNE Scant 100 workers at Weston Bakery on East 8th Ave.,-went out on strike Onday. Photo shows two of their pickets. The employers food council this week served lockout notice on food and supermarket workers. Story below. The actions of the B.C. Food Industry Labor Relations Council ave made a shutdown of Lower Mainland supermarkets by the end of this week almost inevitable. The Ockout notice was served even though one union, the Retail Clerks, have not as yet taken a Strike vote, and only emphasizes the determination of the Council to bring about.a closure of the food Stores. The other unions involved -8re the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union and the Meat- Cutters Union. The dispute in the food industry first surfaced six weeks ago, when the food council served similar lockout notices, but lockout action was averted.at that time with the appointment of Clive McKee as a one-man Industrial Inquiry Commission to try and bring about asettlement. McKee stepped down last Friday and declined to make any recommendations for a wage settlement saying that the two sides were too far apart .in their positions for him to do any good - with a recommendation. At that Where does NDP gov't stand on wage control? EDITORIAL — . Wher e does Premier Dave Barrett and the NDP premiers of Saskatchewan and Manitoba stand on wage controls? This question S again come to the fore as a result of statements flowing from the _ peyecial premiers’ conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland last According to reports in the press last Saturday, the premiers clared their readiness to discuss wage and price controls with Ot- Wa. Conference chairman premier Frank Moores of Newfoundland, told a news conference that the premiers are prepared to “face Teality”” and want discussions with the federal government on wage — d price controls. ‘We are prepared to bite the bullet,” he said, Claiming to speak for all 10 premiers. | ~ The widespread publicity. given by the media to this statement. has left the public with the impression that the premiers want wage and Price controls, but it is now up to Ottawa. Since none of the three NDP Provincial premiers have said anything to the contrary, are we to lieve they support the implementation of wage controls? . The daily press indicates that p: Upport to that stand in discussions, ores C the premiers. Why hasn’t Barrett made his posi remier Barrett did not give full but Moores claimed to speak for tion clear instead of See EDITORIAL pg. 12 a By MAURICE RUSH The people of B.C. face the prospect of an 18 per cent boost in the price of natural gas in the near future if the NDP government bows to the pressure of the gas and oil monopolies for more profit, and adopts the recommendations of the B.C. Energy Commission’s report released last week. Earlier this year residential consumers were hit with a 16 per cent increase. Another 18 per cent increase on top of that will mean that within one year the gas bills paid by residential users will have gone up 34 per cent. Last winter the gas producing companies in B.C. went on strike and deliberately held back production to create shortages of time he said that making any recommendation would -be irresponsible. Hugh Comber, secretary- treasurer of the Bakery Workers Union, which struck Weston Bakeries Ltd., last Friday after McKee’s retirement, told the Tribune that the food council seems to be blaming McKee for the current situation. He blasted employer spokesman Bill Mac- Donald who had. said that a ‘recommendation from McKee would have brought the two sides closer together. Comber said that the food companies had refused to move from their wage offer throughout the six weeks that McKee was involved in the negotiations. ‘‘If he (MacDonald) is so concerned with getting the two sides closer together, why doesn’t he return to the bargaining table and initiate some sincere discussion?’’ Comber said. Despite the super profits the member companies of the food council are reaping daily — Kelly. Douglas & Co. Ltd., wholesale suppliers of Super-Valu stores, and ~ a part of the giant George Weston operation, reported profits of $3.3 million for the first half of 1975, up from $1.5 million in 1974, the main issue in the current dispute remains wages. The companies have refused to budge front their final offer even though settlements in the wholesale food industry outstrip their offer of $1.30 per hour. The unions are seeking parity with Lower Mainland trades . yates which would mean an in- crease at least double the com- panies final offer. gas as a means of blackmailing the provincial government into giving them higher prices and larger profits on their investment. . The three major companies involved are among the world’s largest corporations. The biggest is Pacific Petroleum which can- celled almost entirely its drilling program at 28 wells last winter; Chevron, which abandoned and moved its equipment out of B.C.; and Gulf, which discontinued its drilling program. The attitude of the companies was, “‘the public be damned.”’ It was a case of putting the gun to the province’s head in a gamble to force higher prices and bigger _profits from the NDP government. Faced with the prospect of B.C. being unable to meet its needs, the B.C. Energy Commission was instructed by the government to hold hearings during June. The report last week is the result. The report on natural gas by the B.C. Energy Commission is a complete capitulation to the black- mail tactics of the major gas producers, and especially the three companies named earlier. It gives them the higher prices and profits they were after, and passes the cost on to the gas consuming public. The report recommends sharply increased prices to’ producers, “even at the risk of over- compensating the producers.” It recommends to the government «See REJECT, pg. 10 Abe Feinglass, vice-president of the’ Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen AFL-CIO, and.-chairman of .a U.S. labor. commission which visited Chile in February, 1974, will speak at a rally in Vancouver’s- Unitarian Church, 49th and Oak, on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. Sponsored by Canadians for Democracy in Chile, Feinglass will report on what he saw in Chile. The Vancouver Chilean Society will provide entertainment at the rally. Local speakers will round out the program. The public are urged to attend. Lisbon workers guard the revolution. Photo shows a section of the huge crowd demonstrating in the Portuguese capital last week in support of Premier Goncalves. Democratic forces in Portugal: are taking the offensive against fascist terrorist gangs as world support grows for the ‘defence, of democracy in Portugal.