B.C. Building Trades Council president Cy Stairs, flanked by John Squire, assistant secretary of the B.C. Fed.

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—Carey Robson photo

and Cy Sloan, Painters Union, addresses unionists outside Steelworkers Hall in Trail. (See story).

By CAREY ROBSON

TRAIL —A new attempt to drive
down wages and conditions for
workers in this province was
launched at a conference of in-
dependent contractors held here
last Saturday.

Opening the conference — after a
welcome from the mayor of Trail
and the Trail Chamber of Com-
merce — was Phil Abrams,
president of the Association of
Builders and Contractors of
Baltimore, Maryland, a
notoriously anti-union contractors
association which has_ elaborate
operations throughout the U.S.

His scheduled topic was ‘‘the
function and operation of A.B.C.
Inc. throughout the United States
and benefits derived by member
contractors.”

While contractors were meeting
in the Terra Nova Motor Inn in
Trail, some 110 contruction
workers held a rally in the
Steelworkers Hall. After hearing
from B.C. and Yukon Building
Trades Council president Cy Stairs

and B.C. Federation of Labor
assistant secretary John Squire,
the workers, including representa-
tives from the. Steelworkers and
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees, marched through the
main streets of Trail to the Terra
Nova Inn.

The Trail-Nelson labor council
also co-sponsored the demon-
stration.

The main thrust of the con-
tractors’ conference was to extend
non-union operations in British
Columbia as demonstrated in a
motion on the agenda to form an
Association of Builders and Con-
tractors in B.C. A further motion
called for the new association to
affiliate with A.B.C. Inc. in
Baltimore.

Already in the U.S., 50 cents of
every construction dollar is spent
on non-union operations and the
overwhelming majority of private
construction is completed with
non-union labor.

Building Trades _ Council
president Cy Stairs pointed out that

U.S. policy indicted

Cont'd from pg. 11

defeating a “rural revolutionary
movement’’ by ‘‘forced-draft
urbanization.”

Explaining the massive refugee
movements produced by the
Vietnamization program, the
Cambodia invasion, and the
bombing of Laos, President Nixon
declared: “The enemy will be
denied all but the most limited and
furtive access to the people.”

It was this “refugee policy”’ that
ereated what Senator Fulbright
called ‘‘a society of prostitutes and
mercenaries’” — and_ the
caricature of civilization produced
in South Vietnam by the American
way of war is what now accounts
for the collapse of a state that
never had any economic, political
or social basis except that provided
by the Americans.

The South Vietnamese soldiers
fleeing an enemy which had not yet
attacked and trying to push their
motorbikes on to U.S. ships sum up
the product of American “nation
building’? — a militarist society
with nothing worth fighting for; a
consumer society that produces
nothing; a nation of abandoned
women conditioned to flee to the
next handout of U.S. surplus rice;

of dispossessed gangs hitching
rides on U.S. planes to the next
jerry-built urban slum... .
President Ford’s ‘‘mission of
mercy”’ is merciful principally to
Americans. It camouflages
responsibility for uprooting -15
million people in the satisfaction of
providing spare bedrooms 8,000
miles away for children who will
grow up in an alien society. It
provides the ideal emotional .and
bureaucratic escape from
America’s real responsibilities.
Instead of planning com-
prehensive aid for redevelopment,
the Washington task force grind
out scenarios for airlifting millions
to freedom. As thousands claw and
bribe their way on U.S. aircraft,
U.S. officials, rather than trying to
understand the basis of their
Vietnam failure, assert yet again
that a nation is ‘‘voting with its
feet” against communism... .

If President Ford’s. proposed.

mass evacuation is permitted to
turn Saigon into another Da Nang,
America’s last “humanitarian”
effort surely will seal the fate of
South Vietnam more. thoroughly
than either the military strength of
Hanoi or the corruption of
Saigon... .

[from The Manchester Guardian ]

with its extensive U.S. operations,
A.B.C. would be able to supply
names of non-union contractors
and foremen and possibly non-
union workers from its computer
banks to a company or
conglomerate wanting to begin a
project.

He added that A.B.C. contractors
tender bids on various projects
based on union rates of pay but pay
their own crews wages that are far
inferior, thus increasing the profit
margin substantially.

Former. Socred highways
minister Phil Gagliardi, while
previously denying any in-
volvement with the conference,
was also a featured speaker along
with Bill Hamilton, president of the
Employers Council of B.C.

Gagliardi’s . address was
scheduled to deal with the ‘“‘trials
and tribulations of building a
project non-union in downtown
Vancouver.’’ Hamilton, the
evening dinner speaker, was to
discuss the ‘‘need for free en-
terprise and improvement of
relationships between employer
and employee’’ — at a time while
workers at the Sandman site are
working 10-14 hours a day for up to
six days a week with overtime at
straight time rates.

If A.B.C. is able-to extend its
operations into B.C. the result
would be further attacks on wages
and conditions — as has already
taken place at the Sandman — as
well as posing the danger of
blacklisting by computer.

Union members must press for
their elected representatives of
their local unions, their delegates
to labor councils and the provincial
government to stop this in-
volvement of American reaction in
the province.

Info sought

The Women’s Auxiliary of the
United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union is seeking in-
formation on the role of women in
the development of the trade union
movement in the province as part
of a project initiated by the group
to commemorate International
Women’s Year.

When completed, the project will
include a_ booklet. :

Any organization, union or in-
dividual which can supply in-
formation is asked to contact:
Women’s’ History Project,
UFAWU, 138 East Cordova,
Vancouver 4, B.C,

The B.C. Federation of Labor
has charged that news stories and
editorial comments on wage in-
creases have deliberately at-
tempted to mislead the public by
the use of percentage figures.

“The fact is that 20 or 30 per cent
of next to nothing is still next to
nothing,’’ Federation secretary
Len Guy said in a statement.
“Corporation executives, for
whom a 10% increase would
represent $5,000 or $6,000 a year or
more, express horror over 20%
increases which often amount to
little more than $1,000 a year in-
crease to particular groups of
workers.”

Guy emphasized that in the
current civic negotiations, a 20%
increase for laborers would
represent less than $36 per week
increase and by the time deduc-
tions were taken off, would amount
to little more than $20 a week more
in take home pay.

‘ven workers in_ higher
categories aren’t getting that
much when the percentages are
applied to wages of five or six
dollars per hour,” he pointed out.
“Many of the more affluent in the
community who scream about
union demands would be insulted if
their annual increase in income
was as little as that won by
organized workers.

“The fact is that few people
making less than seven dollars per
hour can qualify for a mortgage to
purchase a modest home in urban
areas in B.C. today,’’ he said.

* * *

Simon Fraser University staff
workers, members of Local 2,
Association of University and
College Employees want out on
strike Monday afternoon after
months of unsuccessful attempts to
get the university administration
to settle on an equitable first
contract.

Negotiations had begun last year
following the union’s certification
in November but the university
refused to consider across-the-

board increases, seeking instead to
‘offer separate wage packages to

various classifications within the
local.

Early this week, the university
announced it was offering parity
with UBC staff workers but AUCE
local member Linda Cowan told
the Tribune Wednesday that the
offer was misleading since it in-
volved parity with the contract
signed by UBC workers last year.

“The administration wanted B ‘|
to sign an agreement that wot! :
remain in effect until 1976 bas
what UBC workers were getting
1974,’ she said. 5

The Student Strike Suppal)
Committee has asked all studen®
faculty and other workers to hon!
the picket lines in support
AUCE’s bid for a first contrach

The SFU student society is als)
negotiating with the —
ministration on the issue
registration — scheduled to
this week — in order to ensilt
that late registration penalties ¥”
not be imposed on students wi
honored picket lines.

The union -was_ sending
delegation to Victoria Wednes®
to discuss with education ministé
Kileen Dailly administra a .
claims that university funds wert
insufficient to meet uf
demands.

The United Fishermen 4
Allied Workers Union expré
concern this week over reports W |
talks on the Canada-U»
Reciprocal Fishing Agreement hi!
been postponed until Septem

“The UFAWU and all Canad
fishermen have been adamant al
their demand that the fedel@)
government negotiate an equita!
agreement with the U.S.
mediately to ensure that Canady |
fishermen will be able to harv&
Canadian salmon,’’ the unio!
delcared in a release.

As long as a new agreement wit
the U.S. is not negotiated, the
agreement will continue tht
perpetuating the imbalance *
salmon interceptions in favor ®
the U.S. and to the detriment
Canadian fishermen.

“This imbalance must come ol
an end and the UFAWU salm0!
publicity committee has pledge@'
continue the struggle to public
the fishermen’s plight until ¢
agreement is negotiated in 4
manner satisfactory to al
Canadian fishermen,”
statement said.

va

Give to
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Protest Trident base

The following petition is being circulated in B.C. to protest the |
building of the U.S. Trident sub base at Bangor, Washington: —
Sponsor of the petition is The Pacific Life Community. We urge our —
readers to clip this petition and have friends, workmates and”

PETITION

neighbors sign it:

To: Hon. Allan MacEachen,
Minister of External Affairs

Sir: We the undersigned object strongly to the establishment of ¥]
the Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, Washington. We |
refuse to be considered ‘‘collateral civilian damage’”’ in the event of ;

a nuclear war.

Trident is the first, ‘first strike’’ system of nuclear subs to be "
developed; as such it is one of the most deadly threats to life on this —
planet. We demand that our federal government take immediate —
action to approach the U.S. federal government, requesting a hale |
to the construction of the Bangor base. %

ADDRESS

{Petitions should be returned to: The Pacific Life Community, 4
c/o Chalmers United Church, 2801 Hemlock St., Vancouver, B.C.]-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1975—Page