on enn eee ann” =e EO eT

eae te Ne I rE EME Ee Ni tn

a.

The powerful B.C. Federation of
abor threw its weight behind
Support for government takeover
of plants to prevent layoffs last
ursday when it called on the
C government to take over the
anada Packers poultry operation
0 “Save desperately needed jobs
and forestall the possibility of
easter examples of ‘corporate
tresponsibility.””
ae a statement issued by
BCR treasurer Len Guy, the
. L urged the takeover ‘“‘at the
Trent market value of the land
equipment, the Canada
ts Willow Poultry Farms
of Operate Willow as a subsidiary
aay Poultry.” Panco was
ment. Y acquired by the govern
The BCFL statement said:
. Canada Packers, after recently
See a collective agreement at
Mow Poultry Farms with the
ean Food & Allied Workers,
pc ce omced its intention of
these’ the plant next week,
Wing 112 people out of work. At
time when unemployment is
(early high, in an area
ea eerOok) of low job op-
tol Unities, such a move is in-
erable.
et Federation urges the
Wil cial government to take over
Ow Poultry Farms and operate

the plant as a subsidiary of Panco
Poultry. Since the collective
agreement at Willow is identical in
wage rates and fringe benefits to
the agreement at Panco and at
Scott Poultry, the major firms in
the industry, the Willow’s
operation can obviously continue to
operate on an economically sound
basis.

“In fact, the only reason for
Canada Packer’s threatened
closure of this plant is to attempt to
intimidate other Canada Packers
employees who are currently in-
volved in negotiations at Canada
Packers York Farms divisions. We
can not tolerate this kind of
irresponsibility in British
Columbia. We are not going to
allow a giant national company to
try to bludgeon B.C. -workers into
submission.

“Jf Canada Packers continue to
operate in this fashion, our
Federation will do everything
possible to drive this company,
their vicious industrial relations
tactics and their products out of the
province of B.C.

“A government takeover of
Willow Poultry Farms will not only
save the desperately needed jobs,
it will forestall the possibility of
further examples of corporate
irresponsibility.”

FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1975

ow B.C. Tel rooks public—Pg 3
Tribune

= 15

VOL. 37, No. 4

Threat of a major disaster on B.C.’s coast as a result of U.S. supertankers carrying oil from
Alaska to refineries at Cherry Point, Washington, mounted sharply this week with announcements
of projected stepped up tanker traffic and abandonment by the U.S. of earlier promised measures

to safeguard B.C.’s coast.

Two major announcements of
importance came days apart.

First was the statement by U.S.
president Ford that the U.S. plans
to build a second pipeline in Alaska
which will double the flow of oil
down B.C.’s coast. The first
pipeline is now being built and is
expected to be completed by 1977.

With completion of the first line,
oil tanker traffic down B.C.’s coast
was expected to increase 10-fold in
the first two years and 20-fold by
1985. Now, with a second pipeline
projected, the tanker traffic down
B.C.’s_ coast will increase
drastically.

The second important an-
nouncement came from the USS.
Coast Guard which said that
double bottomed tankers, earlier.
promised by the U.S. for Alaskan
oil shipments, have now been
abandoned. It turns out that it was
a major snow job on Canadians in
order to lessen criticism of the U.S.
Double bottomed tankers were
said to be able to prevent ac-
cidental spills in 90 percent of the
tanker groundings.

With the U.S. government in-

creasingly casting environmental
precautions to the winds in order to
quickly increase its energy supply,
it appears that the B.C. coast is to
be sacrificed to the same ex-
pediency. The double bottom
tankers would be more costly and
cut into profits, therefore they are
to be abandoned for the single
bottomed tankers, some of which
will carry up to 250,000 tons of oil.

Bringing of this supertanker
traffic into the dangerous, island-
studded waters of the Strait of
Juan de Fuca, creates the threat of
a major catastrophe for B.C.

Studies abound to show that no
matter what precautions are
taken, oil spills and disasters are
bound to occur, and in fact have
been increasing around the world
rather than decreasing. The latest
being the grounding of the
Japanese tanker in Malacca Strait.

A major spill in the Strait of Juan
de Fuca would result in a
catastrophe for B.C. It has been
shown in studies that tidal
movements in the area would
carry the oil up to the mouth of the
Fraser River and even as far as

Vancouver. It would have a
devastating effect on marine life,
the major Fraser salmon run, on
the Gulf Islands, Victoria and
environs.

With the start of the traffic now
about two years away, U-S.
authorities are holding out new
promises of a new traffic system
for control of major marine traffic
down the coast, and talk of a
possible shifting of the oil terminal
to Port Angeles. Canadian officials
are going along in talks with the
U.S. just as they did on the double
bottom proposal. In doing so they
are being drawn in to support the
major U.S. aim: to turn the B.C.
coast into a major seaway for
supertankers to haul oil to’ the
Puget Sound — which is the
cheapest route for them.

The public should urge that
Canada take a firm stand in
demanding that U.S. oil tankers be
compelled to travel further out in
the Pacific, a safe distance off the
B.C. coast; that the Puget Sound
area be ruled out entirely as the
major terminus for Alaska oil, and
that the U.S. move its refinery
further down the U.S. coast.

aes

—Sean Griffin photo

Three former South Vietnamese political prisoners were in Vancouver last week calling for an end to the
repressive Thieu regime. L to r, Ton That Lap, Vo Nhu Lanh, Nguyen Long. (Story, page 2).