“The gun is cocked; it’s
just a matter of pressing
the trigger.”

That was the arrogant
attitude of C.J. Connaghan,
mouthpiece for the big construc-
tion bosses this week, as the con-
tractors served 72 hours lockout
notice and threatened to pull the
trigger on Friday.

But the trigger they are
threatening to pull is aimed not
only at the heads of 50,000
building trades workers who
want a decent wage. It is also
aimed at the heads of all the
people of B.C. Its purpose would
be to put economic pressure on
the province to force the unions
to settle on the contractors
terms.

Compare the arrogant
attitude of Connaghan and the
Construction Labor Relations
Association (CLRA) with the
responsible attitude of the
building trades unions and their
leaders who have demanded all
along responsible collective
bargaining to reach a settle-
ment at the negotiating table to
avoid a costly shutdown in the
building industry.

Speaking for the Building
Trades Council, president Jim
Kinnaird said, ‘‘Our affiliates
are prepared, as we have been
for several months, to negotiate
reasonable. settlements in the
construction industry.”

“Unfortunately,” he said, “‘it
appears clear that once again the
CLRA is determined to have an
industry-wide shutdown.’
Kinnaird said the CLRA has
refused to negotiate meaning-
fully. Instead, their wage offer
was far below increases being
negotiated in other parts of
Canada, and to make matters
worse, their proposals seek to
destroy conditions negotiated
in the industry years ago.

“The building trades will not
‘see long-established conditions
taken away,” he said.

After three and a half months
of negotiations during which no
offers were made to the 18
building trades unions involved,
the CLRA timed its lockout
threat with the offer of an
average 6.5 percent each year of
a two year contract. Also in
dispute are conditions the con-
tractors want to eliminate from
agreements which include
hiring hall procedures, union
security clauses, travel time,

real

See CONSTRUCTION, pg. 16

FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1972

‘VOL. 33, No. 17

‘a2

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Loy Toy A

M M Cour w..
: “COMar, ;

tee eR 50
CreAGES NOM COUReL;
Ses

Construction workers have made every possible attem
ve" ‘ pt to prevent a lockout
settlement through negotiations, as this recent demonstration ai ihe courthouse ray fo,kopeh: 9 engtees

Stop the shutdowns

By MAURICE RUSH

The boards of directors of two
giant.U.S. monopolies some-
where in the U.S.A. have decided
to close down two pulp and paper
towns in B.C. and throw hun-
dreds of workers on the bread-
line along with their families.

Last week Crown-Zellerbach
announced it will shut down
Ocean Falls where the whole
town of over 1,100 people are
dependent on the mill.

At Woodfibre the giant
Rayonier Corporation, which is
part of the U.S. ITT conglom-

erate now under investigation.

by the U.S. Senate, shut down its
plant for four weeks with more
shutdowns announced. Last
year Rayonier tried to close

down Woodfibre completely. A
public outcry stopped them, but
they are still trying.

Undoubtedly these giant U.S.
companies figure they can make
a bigger profit on their invest-
ment elsewhere. But they must
be told in no uncertain terms
that the interests of B.C.
workers must come before
corporation profits. B.C.
workers and their families are
not expendable to the glory of
profits for U.S. monopolies.

Neither Ocean Falls nor Wood-
fibre should be allowed to close
down. Their argument that
these operations are ‘“‘no longer
profitable’ should be taken with
a grain of salt and should be fully
investigated. What — they
probably mean is that other

operations
profitable.

Both of these U.S. corpora-
tions have and are making
tremendous profits from their
varied operations in B.C. and
Canada. They must not be
allowed to pick and choose with
the only consideration being
where can they wring out maxi-
mum profits without regard to
the social needs of the public and
the working people.

In 1971 Crown-Zellerbach
Canada announced record sales
and profits. Its net income rose
36 percent to $8,821,000. This
company has also been granted
over 378,000 acres of prime
Crown forest lands under the

See SHUTDOWNS, pg. 16

might be more