Latest unemployment figures
released Tuesday by Statistics

| Canada show that almost one out of
| very 10 workers in B.C. is jobless.

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-C. showed the sharpest rise of
any province in Canada in April.
Yet despite this, the Socred
S0vernment announced that it will
lay off 1,200 railway workers, and
has already sent out notices to 450
ferry workers telling them their
Jobs will be terminated on June 1.

The gloomy jobless picture for
Canada as a whole showed that
Unemployment was now higher
than at any time since 1961. Ac-
Cording to Ottawa, 7.4 per cent of

Friday, May 14, 1976

20° VOL.

38, No. 19

~

the n&tional labor force — a total of
769,000 — Were out of work in April,
up from 6.9 per cent a_ month
earlier.

B.C.’s unemployment rate in
April jumped to 9.7 per cent. In
March the province listed 102,000
without work. This rose in April to
110,000. A year ago, in April, there
were 88,000 jobless in B.C. With the
new projected layoffs by , the
Socred government, the number of
unemployed will likely pass the 10
per cent mark within the next few
weeks.

Statistics Canada is gloomy over
the prospects this summer. It

points out that new jobs are not
being created. This is the direct
result of the federal government’s
anti-inflation program which hds
the objective to ‘‘cool the
economy” and fight inflation with
mass unemployment and cutbacks
in living standards. The survey
points out that the sharpest rise
took place among men and women
over 25 — who are most likely
supporting families.

Holding out no prospects for an
improvement in the situation,
Statistics Canada has pointed out
that an expected quarter of a
million students will enter the

labor market in the near future for
whom there is no work.

Socred premier Bill Bennett said
Tuesday that the jobless rate is
“unacceptable” to B.C. and said
that it will likely be three years
before there is any improvement in
the. situation. Meanwhile, his
government ordered new layoffs of
railway workers as part of the
government’s fight against the
railway unions, and in an attempt
to intimidate them into accepting
B.C. Railway’s terms of set-
tlement, and the four-year ban on
strikes.

The same anti-labor policy in the

B.C. Ferry service is being used to
attack union conditions and rights.
Unemployment is being used by
the provincial government as a
weapon in its war against working
people at a time when the economy
is in crisis and unemployment is
running rampant.

This criminal and irresponsible
policy by the Socred government
should be condemned on all sides.
Instead of creating more unem-
ployment Premier Bennett must
be pressed to launch a crash
program to create tens of
thousands of new jobs needed now.

ee Sit Sve

Under the glare of television lights, Justice Tom Berger (at left) listens to testimony as hearings into the

ackenzie Valley Pipeline opened in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver this week. Held Monday,

aed and Wednesday of this week, the Vancouver hearings began the commission’s southern tour which

| hy ey it to Calgary, Edmonton and other cities before hearings resume in Yellowknife June 14. (See
ty).

— Sean Griffin photo

i The Berger commission of
Ulry into the Mackenzie Valley

| Pibeline concluded three days of

hear; ;
arings in Vancouver this week

a receiving submissions from

40 organizations urging that
bine Posed Arctic natural gas
Sete} Ine be held up until a just
Tey, ent of native land claims is
ched.

Position to the pipeline came
Various groups including the
Cc N of B.C. Indian Chiefs, the
Pe Federation of Labor, B.C.
Poli, Council, and the Scientific
Ution and Environmental
Ol Society, as well as from a
ea of individuals including
vo geal alderman Harry
Chain and Bishop Remi De Roo,
Rigen of the B.C. Human
Th Commission.
the 4 Vancouver hearings were
| Sale conducted by the com-
Points in southern Canadian
Simi] » 4nd will be followed up by
Rm ar hearings in Calgary,
of anal and other cities outside
Bi e Arctic,
i Wilson, an executive
dig Per of the Union of B.C. In-

Re Chiefs, told the inquiry ‘that
Indians have been made

victims of a policy of gradual
genocide over the past century and
pleaded for respect for native
culture in order that this crime
might not be repeated in the north.
He disputed claims made by
promoters of the pipeline that its
construction will bring prosperity
and progress to the native peoples
of the north. He said that what
Indians have received in the name
of progress in the past are ghettos,
discrimination, the lowest stan-
dard of living of any Canadians and
the bigotry and incompetence of
the department of Indian affairs.
He told the commission that the
construction of the pipeline,
without a just settlement to land
claims and respect for native
traditions and values will result in
employment opportunities for
native people’ being limited to
“making beds and slopping gar-
bage.” -
Wilson’s presentation received
strong support from the B.C.
Federation of Labor which said
that ‘any decision to proceed with
the proposed’ pipeline at the
present time or in the foreseeable
future would be a_ disastrous
blunder and a callous and inhuman

act of aggression against the
Native peoples of the north.”

Federation secretary Len Guy
placed the labor body on record as
being ‘“‘totally opposed to the
Mackenzie Valley pipeline
development.’’ He said that the
whole history of Canadian
development constituted con-
clusive proof of the ‘‘adverse effect
upon the Native people of our
normal pattern of industrialization
and urban development.”’

See PIPELINE, pg. 12

Ris INS

Storm of protest
hits ferry boost

Meeting in Nanaimo last
Saturday, delegates from four
Vancouver Island Labor Councils,
representing 40,000 trade unionists,
condemned the B.C. government’s
boost in ferry rates and protested
plans to lay off hundreds of ferry
employees.

In a statement following the
meeting; Tom Gooderham,
Canadian Labor Congress director
of organization, who chaired the
meeting, said ‘‘the ferry rate in-
creases announced by _ the
provincial government is a major
threat to the economy of Van-
couver Island and the Sunshine
Coast. These increases mean also a
reduction in the standard of living
of all residents of the Islands and
the Mainland coast.”

Gooderham said that ‘‘at a time
when all levels of government are
calling for restraints to curb in-
flation we are again faced with 100
per cent and 300 per cent increases
in the cost of travel and massive
increases in freight charges by the
B.C. Ferry System. These
proposed increases are _ totally
unacceptable and most primitive
and discriminatory toward
residents of Vancouver Island and
the Sunshine Coast.”

A statement issued at the end of
the meeting said that labor looks
upon the ferry system as an ex-
tension of the highway system
which is vital for the economic and
social well-being of hundreds of
thousands of B.C. residents living
on the Island and along the coast.

The conference wired premier
Bill Bennett demanding a meeting
on the issue, and sent letters to

transport minister Jack Davis and

labor minister Allan Williams,
protesting the increase in fares,
the cutbacks in service, and the
layoffs of ferry workers. The
government was asked to recon-
sider its decisions before June 1.
Labor delegates also agreed to
organize delegations to city
councils, to place ads in local
papers, and hold mass rallies to
protest.the government’s action.

The Port Alberni city council
adopted a resolution to go to the
conference of the Association of
Vancouver Island Municipalities,

See FERRIES, pg. 12

Powell River
plans protest

Pulp and paper workers in
Powell River have launched a
campaign of petitions and protests
against the doubling of rates on the
B.C. ferry system. Frank Garden,
president of Local 76 of the
Canadian Paperworkers Union
said that the union is circulating
petitions in the Powell River area,
and has scheduled a protest rally
for May 15 in Powell River.

Garden said that Socred tran-
sport minister Jack Davis has been
invited to the rally to explain his
actions in raising fares, which for
commuters in the Powell River
area have risen from $1 per person
and $3 per -car (with commuter
cards) to $4 per person and $10 per
car. Garden said that the increases
constitute a 250 per cent hike for

‘one person travelling by car from

Powell River to Vancouver.

B.C. Fed warns:

——

Attacks on labor could
_ lead to general strike |

SEE PAGE 12