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The Soviet people are this week celebrating the 51st anniversary of the
founding of the first socialist state. This imposing statue is entitled
“Worker and Peasant” and was unveiled early this year in front of the

Economics Achievement Exhibition.

To the left is Moscow's new

Ostankino TV Tower which is 1,575 feet high. The Eiffel Tower is 985
feet. It also houses the Seventh Heaven Restaurant which is 1,085 feet

above the ground.

Hit ‘big stick’ policies
of Interior city councils

By Special Correspondent

KAMLOOPS. Last week saw
the third Okanagan city in a row
have its municipal workers take
strike action within six weeks.
This is Kamloops, the largest in
the area, the other two
previously struck are Vernon
and Kelowna.

A detailed study of events
which have led to these strike
positions show the union
(CUPE) members having done
everything possible, including
giving up a previous and
perfectly just demand for parity
with the Coast, to avoid walking
off the job. Guided, no doubt, by
a special sense of public
responsibility -arising from the
very nature of their work they
have, over the months, shown a
tolerance that workers would not
normally give to a private
employer.

This sense of responsibility |

seems entirely lacking amongst
the City Councils involved who
have now instituted a ‘“‘big stick”’

Labor parley hits Bill 33

Cont'd from pg. 1
defense system, while at the
-Same time, showing a callous
disregard for the housing needs
of the nation.”
_ On Bill 33 there was a good
deal of criticism and acrimon-
ious comment levelled and the
BCFL Executive Council for
its timid and hesitant leader-
ship

Many delegates argued that
the time to put on a real
campaign and ‘‘pull out all the
stops’’ was before Bill 33 became
“Jaw’’. Others demanded that
the BCFL leadership ‘‘spell it
out’’, or in other words clearly
restate the position taken at the
Special BCFL conference
‘(March 5) at which it was agreed
the BCFL “will immédiately
mobilize its full resources, using
whatever means it deems
necessary, to ensure that the
union involved (under Bill 33), is
successful in winning its
dispute.’’ In the minds of many
delegates that ‘‘whatever
.._hécessary”’ implied the use of
the general strike weapon.

Delegate E.P. Neale, Vancou-
ver Labor Council secretary,
voiced the opinion that labor has
“no quarrel’ with Bill 33, but
only with Sections 18-19 where
eompulsory arbitration is
involved. Not a few delegates
reminded Paddy Neale that ‘‘we
are not dealing with Bill 33 in bits
and pieces’, but the whole
statute — which becomes fully
operative as a of December 2.

Under a rising demand from
the floor that the Executive
“spell it out’’ in the resolution,
president Staley repeated the
decision cited above from the
March 65 conference.

A BCFL Executive Council
resolution on the Mediation Com-
mission asking for union co-
operation, passed unanimously
“that all unions refuse to comply
with the Commission’s request
of October 8th, 1968 for, copies of
their collective agreements,
ratifications, etc.”

A number of delegates
suggested that at the first sign of
danger of any union coming
under attack, ‘“‘before any
confrontation’, a conference of
shop stewards and union officers
be convened to outline labor’s
stand. BCFL secretary Ray
Haynes. short-circuited that
proposal by expressing his ‘‘hope
that the government will take
one of its ‘second looks’ and
hesitates before it leaps on Dec.
2 by making Bill 33 fully
operative.’ Few delegates
shared Haynes’ ‘‘hopes’’.

The BCFL committee on
Manpower, Automation and
Technological Change got a
rough ride from the floor, and
was referred back for re-writing.
Among a mass of federal and
provincial government
statistics, this report stated that
“‘a rate of 3% unemployment is
considered the maximum level
tolerable, reflecting labor force
mobility, etc.’’ Longshore
delegate Roy Smith asked,
“acceptable by whom, this body,

or by the 3-percent themselves? ”’

Arising out of the BCFL
committee report on Inter-
national Affairs a_ lively
discussion ensued on the issue of

peace and the right of nations to |

self-determination. The report
contained eight recom-
mendations for B.C. labor (and
labor in general) to advance the
cause of peace. Some of these
included the seating of China in
the UN, the ending of all
shipments of war materials from
Canada to the U.S., condem-
nation of Rhodesia’s and South
Africa’s policy of denying demo-
cratic equality to their pre-
dominantly Negro populations;
the grave concern about the rise
of neo-fascism in West Germany
as witnessed in the NPD, etc.
That section of the Inter-
national Affairs report
expressing strong criticism of
the Soviet-Warsaw Pact inter-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 8, 1968—Page 12

vention in Czechoslovakia in
mid-August was obviously not
strong enough for some
delegates from Steel, the IWA
and Electrical workers, who
proposed an additional recom-
mendation be added to the report
expressing the ‘‘strongest
condemnation’”’ of the Soviet
action. BCFL secretary Ray
Haynes added his bit to the
debate by expressing ‘‘surprise
that there was no such recom-
mendation on Czechoslovakia in
the report,

Closing ‘the debate on that
issue, a resolution sponsored by
Local 213, Electrical Workers,
stating that ‘‘the BCFL is
opposed to the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia and demands
that all Soviet troops withdraw
immediately from that
country,’’ was passed without
debate.

In the course of this discussion
however, a delegate had
expressed the view that the
report should have said
something about the Hemis-
pheric Conference to be held in
Montreal, Que. November 28 to
Dec. 1.

On this, BCFL secretary Ray
Haynes, on the basis of a letter
he is alleged to have received
from CLC vice-president Gerard
Rancourt, who had lent his name
as one of the conference
sponsors, was now finding out
the people he was dealing with
and their motives, and that the
conference was not what had
been suggested to him, etc., etc.

On the basis of the above,
Haynes stated ‘‘apparently they
are more interested in a straight
condemnation of the U.S., and
not the priority item of being
against the war in Vietnam.”
This gratuitous insult to the
integrity of the Hemispheric
Conference by Haynes was not
allowed to pass unchallenged.
Transit Union delegate Chas.
“‘Chuck”’ Stewart took the mike
to set the Haynes version
straight.

policy in dealing with public
employees. It may sound
unbelievable to anyone enjoying

more enlightened city
management, but in these
Interior communities the

Councils, instead of negotiating
with their own workers as each
individual contract comes up for
renewal, are trying to insist that
the local union bargaining unit
negotiate with all 13
municipalities collectively
through an organization called
the Okanagan Mainline
Municipal Association!”

The general feeling among the
strikers, and now spilling over to
the rest of the electorate, is that
it’s bad enough when a group of
private outfits gang-up on a
single set of workers to try and
force down their living
conditions. But when public
elected employers attempt this
tactic it’s a public scandal.

As one picket said to me this
morning outside Kamloops City
Hall, ‘“‘This bunch seems more
interested in causing strikes and
union busting than in running our
city properly.”’ Certainly this
man’s contention would seem
valid for Kamloops Council have
seen fit to use the services of the
OMMA’s high paid professional
negotiator, a Mr. R. S. S. Wilson
of Vancouver, after his previous
attempts at negotiating in
Vernon and Kelowna resulted in
strikes there.

Neither has it escaped the
notice of Kamloops citizens that
just previous to the strike here,
and while negotiations were
proceeding, the City Council held
several secret meetings from
which even the press was
excluded.

A further proof, if this is
needed, that Kamloops City
Council seem hell-bent on
causing chaos, is that
immediately after the strike
vote was taken — showing a
resounding ‘‘yes’’ majority, they
sat down with the union and
reached a joint agreement upon
which emergency.-departments
of the City, (police office,
welfare), could still be manned

All out to
peace vigil

A Mass Silent Vigil to End
the War in Vietnam,
sponsored by the Peace
Action League, will take
place at the Vancouver
Cenotaph, Monday Nov. 11.
‘Those planning to take part
are asked to assemble at 12
noon on the south side of
Victory Square on Pender
between Cambie and Ham-
ilton Streets.

After a short address by the
Rev. J. Kent of the North
Vancouver Unitarian Church,
and the laying of a wreath
there will be a silent march
along Hastings Street, south
on Granville to Georgia
where a silent vigil will be
held. The public are urged to
demonstrate their support for
an end to the Vietnam war by
joining this Remembrance
Day event.

Vernon strikers:
pledged support

A demand that Vernon City
Council return to direct collec-
tive bargaining with Local 626
Canadian Union of Public Em-
ployees, together with 4
pledge of full support to strik-
ing civic workers was voted at
a meeting of Vernon Club of
the Communist Party Saturday
night.

“Scabbing, name-calling by
newspaper. adverts — and
threats of no settlement before
spring, can only inflame and
worsen a_ bad _ situation,”
Charlie Johnson declared.
“Strikes can’t be settled any-
where except at the bar-
gaining table and the quicker
our Mayor and Council get
down to business the less the
cost and public inconvenience
will be. Each one of us should
press this on Council by phon-
ing, writing and getting our
neighbors and friends to do
likewise.’’

in the event of a strike. Yet, in
spite of this agreed-upon
limitation, City Council have
allowed two scabs to operate
City Hall!

In sharp contrast to the Mayor
and Aldermen’s_ arrogant
actions, the attitude of the 186
Kamloops men and women of
CUPE Local 900 is simple and
straightforward. In their No. 2
Strike News Release, after
explaining the causes which led
up to the strike they say,

“The public, in our opinion, —
must recognize that in the last
analysis they are the collective
employer. Their elected
representatives have let them
down by passing up every chance
for an honorable settlement
without a strike. Therefore, we
Suggest it is the responsibility of
the public to call City Council to
task. Council must be told in no
uncertain terms to go back to the
bargaining table and negotiate a
speedy settlement.”’

Talking to the union members
on the picket line this morning in
Kamloops I was impressed with
their business-like confidence,
their soliddrity, their
cheerfulness. But there was

‘something else there also that

could have been missed by
anyone who hadn’t lived for a
while in these Interior cities.
There was a sense of challenge
among these men and women, of
being some kind of modest
pioneers. And, considering that
these City Councils and their
mayors have never been
seriously challenged before.
“‘pioneers’’ is right.

Assault case

brings fine

James A. McLean of 3772 St.
Catherines St., Vancouver, was
fined $175. in magistrates court
Wednesday on a charge of
assault causing bodily harm. The
charge was laid after 23-year old
McLean attacked PT salesman
Steve Nickyforuk, 52, in front of
the Empress Hotel on Hastings
Street.

Nickyforuk — suffered severe
bruises and head lacerations