Friday, August 6, 1982 40 serstS Peace rallies planned Peace organizations around B.C. are gearing up for weekend Activities to commemorate Hirosh- ima Day and focus opposition to the stockpiling and testing of nuc- lear weapons in Canada. In Vancouver, the End the Arms Race Committee will stage an Open-air festival with street theatre and music at Robson Square at Noon Friday. EAR co-chair Car- Mela Allevato said the activity Marks the opening of the Refuse the Cruise campaign, with the dis- tribution-of a brochure and post- cards to protest the federal govern- Ment’s planned testing of the U.S. Cruise missile in northern Alberta. At 8 p.m. people will gather be- hind the MacMillan Planetarium at Vanier Park, to begin the Candle- light Vigil, with speakers and enter- tainment. \ Victoria will see a Unite for Sur- Vival march and rally Saturday, ac- Cording to organizer Gudin Do-. “ herty. Leaving Centennial Square at city hall at 1 p.m., marchers will Proceed to a rally at the Parliament buildings. . _ In Courtenay, those protesting the nuclear arms stockpile at the nearby armed forces base at Com- Ox will leave Courtenay Civic Square just after 2 p.m. for a short March through the downtown area. A featured speaker will be Kinuko Laske, a survivor of the Hiroshima blast. A rally to protest the arrival of the first Trident nuclear submarine at its Bangor base is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at Pt. Julia, Wash. (more Information at 681-7841 or 251-1495). Locally, the Bowen Island peace group will hold a vigil in support of the protest at the ferry terminal on Sunday. Vol. 44, No. 30 Why U.S. opposes pipeline — page 3 — Labor fighting back against big business, gov't drive on wages ANT FSMEMEN Z axetD Woayip TRIBUNE PHOTO—DAN KEETON Shoreworkers leave the Canadian Fish plant in Vancouver Friday as strike commences. Demand for price cuts, wage freeze forces 9,000 fish workers From Steveston to Prince Rupert, fish processing plants are closed and boats are tied up behind picket lines in an industry-wide strike provoked by the Fisheries Association’s demand for a wage freeze, concessions and price cuts in negotiations for a 1982 salmon contract. Some 9,000 fishermen, shoreworkers and tendermen are affected by the strike, which started July 30 after bargaining between the joint UFAWU-Native Brotherhood negotiating commit- - tee and the association, dominated by the B.C. Packers monopoly, failed to produce an acceptable of- fer. “The companies’ stand was ob- viously calculated to produce a confrontation,’’ declared UFAWU president Jack Nicol. “Our members have given their answer in their strike votes — fishermen 87 percent, shoreworkers 85 percent, tendermen 75 percent.”” The strike votes reflect industry workers’ conviction that B.C. Packers is striving to maintain its Socreds grabbing school grants In its obsession with balancing. its budget by slashing health, edu- cation and other vital services, the Social Credit government last weekend lopped $60 million from * school budgets already pared by cuts imposed earlier this year. Education minister Brian Smith’s announcement that school district grants will be cut by $37.5 million Aug. 1 and $22.5 million Jan. 1 was made in the context of the government’s com- plicated wage restraint formula. But there was nothing complicat- ed about its intent. Either teachers voluntarily agree to roll back salary increases negotiated in current contracts to “ conform with reduced budgets or thousands of them face layoffs. In any event, the government will grab the money and muni- cipal taxpayers who generally paid higher school taxes this year will get no relief. The dirty work is being left to local school boards who must file their plans for reducing operating budgets with the minister by Sept. 15. But they are constrained from laying off staff without the min- ister’s written permission and the B.C. School Trustees Association is warning them that if one district cuts non-salary costs and another only salary costs, the compensa- tion commissioner will equalize salaries in the first district to the lower level of the second on Jan. is And, adds the BCSTA, school boards will find it difficult to rein- state any non-salary cuts they make. See CONTRACTS page 7 Faced with the wage restraints steadily being fastened upon them by federal and provincial govern- ments and a well coordinated of- fensive by employers to weaken their union contracts, British Co- lumbia’s organized workers are fighting back. : Despite a continuous stream of media reports designed to reinforce government exhortations for . labor’s cooperation in resolving the economic crisis created by the monopolies’ greed for profit — and government policies to facili- tate that aim — workers are giving their unions strong strike man- dates. The reason is obvious. : They know how inflation is steadily cut- ting into their earnings. ANALYSIS — page 8— At Tribune press time, 9,000 fishing industry workers, in the fifth day of their strike, were await- ing the outcome of resumed talks initiated by the Fisheries Associa- tion. Some 40,000 members of the B.C. Government Employees Un- ion set their strike deadline back to Aug. 6, after intervention by prem- ier Bennett opened the possibility that a province-wide shutdown might be averted. on strike profits at their expense and seizing on the general economic crisis, ac- centuated by the crisis in the fishing industry caused by monopoly- dictated federal policies, as the ex- cuse. Rejected association demands bear this out. A wage freeze for shoreworkers and tendermen. Price cuts for fishermen, who have seen their fuel, gear and other costs double over seven years — $1 a pound for sockeye salmon, down from $1.08 last year, 30 cents for — pink salmon, down from 48 cents. In bargaining. talks, union fishermen’s spokesman Bill Pro- copation refuted every association argument. The anticipated glut of fish from big Alaskan sockeye and pink runs was not materializing. The botulism scare, which fishermen suspect was manipulated, was fading — Britain lifted its ban Aug. 1. And there were no large Canadian inventories being held at declining wholesale prices.