Captain Arnold Davis said
after winning his appeal this
Week against a six month
Sentence arising from the
fecent towboat dispute, that
© was “bitter that the courts
Sould be used for the
PUrpose.”’ :

Davis, who was chairman

Of the union’s negotiating
Committee, was removed by
Court ‘action from the
Negotiations at a critical
Stage and kept in Oakalla
Prison for seven days before
ail was granted pending an
appeal.

In sentencing him to six
Months, Mr. Justice Dohm
held that Davis was an officer
of the union and guilty of
efying an injunction which
ordered a halt to picketing at
the Powell River pulp plant of
MacMillan Bloedel.

he appeal was launched by

avis’ lawyer, Ald. Harry
Rankin, who told the B.C.

Ourt of Appeal there was no
€vidence that Captain Davis

See DAVIS, pg. 12

ort’ taming of a mediation
oh er by the Mediation
dispupe som in the Kitimat
Ministe on direction of Labor
again €r Leslie Peterson, has

Talsed the threat of govern-
Intervention and com-

Dul: :
Sory arbitration in a labor

dispute.

oni 2PPoint ment of Mediation
Re. R. Freeborn in the
fro ot dispute came under fire
Ore B.C. Federation of
intrusion Canesday as being an
§aining In collective bar

Pe e :
ly, gon acted under section _
“Section 2 of the Act

(

Arnie Davis freed,
hits use of courts

FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1970

MILLION NEW JOBS URGED

Captain Arnold Davis is sho

which reads: ‘‘The minister
may at any time during the
course of collective bargaining,
if he considers that the public
interest is or may be affected by
a dispute, direct the commis-
sion to appoint a mediation

officer...”

The labor federation, in a wire

to Peterson; charged that he
was in error in claiming that
“public interest’? was involved
in the dispute. Earlier the
government had claimed that a
shut down at Kitimat would
close the powerhouse which
supplies electricity to the
northern areas.

wn here with his wife Rosemarie and

one of his two sons, Jeffrey, aged 11.

a legal position to strike last

The wire said that “although
you may not have been aware,
both the employer and the union
were in the process of making
arrangements to ensure con-
tinued operation of the power-
house at Kemano.”

The Steelworkers Union was in

Sunday.. Peterson’s intervention
was aimed at interfering with
the union’s right to strike, since
no strike can now take place for
a ten day period.

Behind Peterson’s haste in

~ imposing provisions of the Act

in Kitimat is seen the fear that

VOL. 31 No. 26

Tribune

= 10c¢

SCRAP AUSTERITY

Prime Minister Trudeau was urged this week to
call an emergency session of Parliament to deal with
the present critical situation and to take action to
scrap the austerity program and adopt new policies to
create a million new jobs in Canada.

This action came in an Open
Letter addressed to the Prime
Minister and Members of Parlia-
ment by William Kashtan,
national. leader of the Com-
munist Party. The appeal took
on greater urgency than ever
with the disclosure last week by
the bureau of statistics in
Ottawa that 513,000 Canadians,
or 6.1 percent of the labor force,
was out of work.

In B.C., the bureau revealed,
unemployment stood at 72,000
out of a labor force of 886,000, or
8.1 percent. B.C.’s jobless figure
was surpassed only by Quebec
with 8.6 percent.

Kashtan’s Open ° Letter,
addressed to Prime Minister
Trudeau says: :

It is over a year now since your
Government inaugurated its aus-
terity and anti-inflation pro
gram.

Its results are here for all to
see.

Economic growth has slowed
down. If lack of job opportunity
for ‘students and_ hidden
unemployment is_ included,
unemployment is now close to
the million mark. Prices
continue to rise. The war on
poverty has been turned into its

Government intervention hit

the government wants to. head
off a settlement or strike which
may set a pattern for other
unions in the resource indus-
tries, such as lumber, pulp,
mining and smelting. The
government is thus acting to
protect the interests of the big

- monopolies in the resource

industries.

Meanwhile, mediators were
named this week in the. con-
struction industry which has
been virtually paralyzed for
three months by an employers
lockout, despite union attempts
to end the lockout.

j
|

opposite — a war of words not of
action. The housing crisis has
become more acute. Regional
inequalities are widening.

Not: least, your policies are
disuniting the country. How can
unemployment and inequality
be dealt with in Quebec when
your Government’s policies
promote unemployment and
inequalities? How can the
growing hostility in Western
Canada be overcome when your
policies aggravate the economic
and social problems in Western
Canada?

One would think that in light of
this situation your Government
would re-examine its position
and reverse its policies. Instead,
like Nero, your Government
fiddles while the situation
worsens.

ANTI-LABOR =

Your Government has not only
created unemployment. It has
cynically and cold-bloodedly
blamed working people for this
situation. And now, adding insult
to injury, it has imposed a form
of wage freeze on working people
while refusing to take action to
curb monopoly profits.

To the workers you say: wage —
freeze. To the farmers you say:
stop wheat production. To the
young generation you say: no
jobs.

They add up to one thing. Your
Government is anti-labor, anti-
farmer and against the interests
of the young people. 7

Where is the Just Society and
the participatory democracy
you spoke so much about?

Your policies are reactionary
policies. They have already
brought about a mini recession.
The continuation of these
policies, accentuated by the
growing recession in the USA,
will inevitably lead to a major
recession in Canada. °

Your Government cannot
‘evade responsibility for this
situation. The fact is that there

See OPEN LETTER, pg. 12