=

I"

SS

F

aS

Indochina women welcomed .

s a See pg. 12

Rent
Strike
Spreads

e ;
blocks" 'n 14 apartment
“ncouver owned or
4 Wall & Redekop
hic © stage a rent strike
hois i n average 10 percent
ae * by the large land-
€ Yorke

an » Secretar
tha Couver Ty y of the

head €nants Council said
dinve Yy 144 tenants have
Counciy ;. ‘heir cheques to the
Oe Safekeeping, and

ate coming in every

Q, .

atone, Wall & Redekop
te taking <ffursday that they
Who withe) St°PS to evict tenants

pod their rents.
“ting of Wall & Redekop
Worker Cay night in the
wit . hall decided to go
€ rent strike. They
Ncludes 2 plan of action which

Tues “a
“ ~Monstration next
tenant at city hall to which all
Rank are Mvited. Ald. Harry
that ae is coming up
i i ich i
See RENTS Council, which is

TRIKE, pg, 12

mand a year’s stalling on their
from crPOod of 1. PY the CNR and CPR, the
on Montreal a tomotive Engineers announced

Mong Jey will strike both major railways
The oe April 5. .
“Vicg in ae action came after most rail
0 engines Shut down following action by
arch cere who booked off ‘‘unfit’’ for
ear ver M0 Let} he move spread from

Y this €thbridge and other yards. By

Wing; Ww
Thine ek, most rail traffic west of

Davig nS halted,

Sse of division 320 of

Seat is week they had been

peciiate a contract for 14 months.

NE ago a Ing the runaround.”

TailWay 9° /20- 16, 1970 the union notified

Saining on appanies it was ready to start
: arch 15 © Contract which was due to

» 1970. Since then the sad story of

FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1971

the present crisis has been one of guilt on the part
of the railway companies, who refused to sit
down to serious collective bargaining.

The Federal government and Minister of Labor
Mackasey allowed the railway companies to
carry on the big stall without using its offices to
compel the railways to enter into serious
negotiations. The full blame for the present crisis
rests four-square on their shoulders. The rail
workers have been more than patient.

Premier W.A.C. Bennett entered the picture -
this week with a demand that Ottawa adopt a
Federal Bill 33 which could be used to impose
compulsory arbitration on rail workers and
others. Showing no concern whatsoever for the
railway workers and the fact they have tried for
14 months to get a collective agreement, B.C.’s
anti-labor Socred Premier shed tears over the
plight of the forest and mining monopolies hit by

the rail shutdown.

Vol. 32, No. 13

The Convention was attended
by 367 delegates from every
corner of the province. It was
called by the Executive Council
because, in their opinion, the
threat to free collective bargain-
ing and the very existence of a
free trade union movement in
B.C. has reached a critical
Stage.

In his opening address
Federation President George
Johnston spoke of a kind of
terror which stalks the province.
‘“‘Not only the obvious and
identifiable terror of jackboots,
helmets and guns,’’ said
Johnston, ‘‘but a terror which is
all the more dangerous because
it is cloaked in the respectable
appearance of democratic
government...

“Terror in the name of the
law. That is what we face in
British Columbia today. When a
government, drunk with power
and undernourished on
principles, has succeeded in
using the media to manipulate
the minds of men and women to
sow fear, hatred and division in
their midst, it can use the name
of the law to silence opposition
and persecute its enemies. That
is the terrible situation we face
now in British Columbia.”

The report of the Executive
Council traced the history of the
Mediation Commission since
anti-labor Bill 33 was foisted on
the working people of this
province by the Social Credit
government in 1968. It pointed
out that the Federation policy of
boycotting the Mediation Com-
mission has been a sound policy
in that it has caused the govern-
ment some difficulty in using the

SPECIAL REPORT

Soviet Congress

—See pe. 5-6-7

AGAINST BILL 33

A fighting program to rid British Columbia of Bill 33
and compulsory arbitration was adopted by delegates to
a Special Convention of the B.C. Federation of Labor
held in Vancouver March 26.

acy

full force of the legislation
against the labor movement.

However, it also pointed out
that the government has shifted
its tactics, ignored its own com-
mission and simply used back-to-
work procedures to stop legal
strikes.

The best illustration of the full
use of Bill 33, stated the Execu-
tive report, was in the recent
trucking dispute. At 12 noon on
February 19, after talks had
broken down, a strike was called
by the Teamster’s Union against
one employer. Immediately
spokesmen for the employers
Automotive Transport Labor
Relations Association called a
lockout of the rest of the
trucking firms in the Associa
tion.

At 5:30 the same day, Labor
Minister Peterson moved a
motion in the Legislature
ordering the Teamsters back to
work. Within seven days of the
beginning of the strike and with
no evidence of a ‘“‘threat to the
public interest,” the Teamsters
had been ordered back to work.

While the Federation Presi-
dent and the Executive Council
were critical of the Teamsters’
leadership for capitulating to
the back to work order, it was
pointed out to the delegates that
it has become obvious that the
government is seeking to erode
labor’s rights by concentrating
on unions not affiliated to the
Federation.

It was pointed out too, that the
Socred government will not be
satisfied with the present anti-
labor legislation. Unless the

See LABOR, pg. 12