Resources
. Sellout
| To Japan

ha huge giveways of B.C.
: Sources loom in the near
me as a result of the recent
Wat to Japan by Premier
A.C. Bennett and leading
embers of the Socred cabinet,
Neluding Mines Minister Frank
Ichter and Forestry Minister
Y Williston.
aking part in three days of
een with representatives
- he biggest mining and forest
°Nopolies in Japan were 15 of
‘\. S top business men.
Following the talks, Premier
eect Said that Japanese con-
ale were interested in the
orc” S iron ore, copper, coal
of .sorest industry. “Hundreds
. Millions of dollars’? in new
Yestments are predicted by
ennett.
re N insight into where the
s Panese capital will go is seen
Min Statement made by Mines
Jena Richter. He admitted
Wa a major topic of discussion
. the B.C. Mineral Processing
» Passed at the last session of
© Legislature. “They’re (the
ae monopolies) keenly
pened in copper concen-
chine and found the act fright-
8 We explained the

ae
Ia ails to them and they’re no_

Onger
concerned to an rea
extent.» to any great

: Under the act the government
Sar Mine’s copper production be
R aside for a smelter in the
Vince,

ae the House adjourned,
= ever, the government
Sed an order-in-council at the
aa April authorizing the
a S Minister to order only 12%
Btodurr: of a mine’s copper
. Ction to be set aside for a

ce
thig now appears certain that
thro order-in-council was rushed
in 8h prior to the trip to Japan
ane to be able to assure
Nese big business that the
them Eislation wouldn’t affect
Would and that no restrictions
be put on the -wholesale

See RESOURCES, pg. 11

“0 direct that up to 50 percent -

Marching under the giant figure
Office, these postal workers wer
decent wages and security again h

of a postie at the Vancouver Post
e on strike in 1968. Their fight for
as the support of all labor.

VOL. 31 No.

End bosses lockout
demands labor rally

By MABEL RICHARDS

‘Unite to defeat the employers’ attack!’’ was the
key slogan of a labor rally in the Agrodome Tuesday

‘night attended by more than 2,000 workers who

unanimously endorsed a resolution demanding that
employers sit down at the bargaining table and negotiate

settlements in good faith.

One after another of the labor
leaders representing key unions
in the area reiterated the theme
that B.C. labor was confronted
by a gang-up- of provincial-
federal government and Big
Business interests whose main
purpose is to keep corporate
profits at high levels and control
in the hands of the few.

Al Staley, president cf the B.C.
Federation of Labor, told the
meeting that he believed that
Premier Bennett had promised
the employers an open season on
organized labor after last
summer’s provincial election.

He said that across Canada
corporate profits had soared
while the workers struggled to
keep up with soaring prices. Yet,
he said, they demand
“restraints’’ on labor.

“Have you ever heard of a
government official who has
suggested that any company
accept reduced profits?”

Don Lawson, introduced as a
rank and file member of the
Merchant’s Service Guild, said
that the employers thought they
could use the courts to crush the
unions but have found out it is
not successful.

“Every union has rallied
behind the ~Guild in this
struggle’’, he said. ‘‘The dictator-

ship of the bosses is crumbling,
and they know it!”’

IWA leader Jack Moore said
the real reason the forest
industry bosses were refusing to
negotiate is not that Haynes and
O’Neal of other unions were
present at the bargaining table
but because the companies do
not want to pay the justified pay
demands ‘of the woodworkers.

“We will not knuckle down to
the giant corporations that run
this province,”’ he said.

Postal worker Bob Capstick

x

told the audience that the federal
and provincial governments
give away billions of dollars of
our resources but have no money
to give their employees a decent
standard of living, and have no
money for the pensioners, the
underprivileged, and the needy.

POSTAL STRIKE

He outlined the conditions of
postal work on which the federal
government allows no _nego-

_tiations. “‘We can’t bargain on

job evaluation, or reclassi-
fication, or pensions,’’ he said.
“The government wants to
make changes in our working
conditions without consulting
our union, but we demand a say
in how changes are to be
applied.”

William Mahoney, of the Cana-
dian Labor Congress, said that
through his restrictive labor
legislation Premier Bennett had
brought more turmoil to B.C.
than was true of any province in
Canada. .

CLRA’s lockout in the
construction industry has
stopped the work on 45 schools
costing $23 million, and 11
hospitals worth $34 million, Ed
Fay of -the Building Trades
Council told the meeting. ‘“‘Had
we been onstrike we would never
have closed down a hospital or a
school”’, he said.

HIT AUSTERITY

The federal government’s
austerity program came in for
sharp attack in the resolution
endorsed by the workers.

Points made in the document
were that the campaign
supposedly aimed at inflation is

See LABOR RALLY, pg. 12