Nova Scotia une

By DAVID GUTNICK

HALIFAX — In what Nova
Scotia Federation of Labor
President Gerald Yetman called ‘‘a
tremendous victory for the
Unemployed and labor,’’ some 800
trade unionists, unemployed and
Students marched along a two-mile
Toute September 28 to protest
“disastrous” unemployment levels
and to demand work and wages.

More than 200 of the 700 mar-
chers came from the Nova Scotia
Federation of Labor convention
which was convening for its first
Session. The convention was ex-

Frday, October 7, 1977

; 20° oars 18
Vol. 39, No. 39

pected to give particular attention
to the question of unémployment.

The march, organized by the
Metro (Halifax) Coalition for
Support of the Unemployed is
believed to be the largest on the
theme of unemployment to be held
in Halifax since the mid-1930’s.

Federation president Yetman
said that organized labor’s
growing understanding of its duty
to stand with its unemployed
brothers and sisters was ‘“‘one of
the proudest things I have ever
witnessed as a Nova Scotian and a
Canadian.”’

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UMAN RICHT
JOBS

Telecommunications Workers at

B.C. Telephone's headquarters

'n Burnaby set up picket lines Tuesday in the latest of a series of
rotating strikes aimed at compelling the telephone monopoly to
Sccept the terms of the Hall report, long established as the basis
or a settlement. On Wednesday, however, with a vindictiveness
at has come to typify its approach to labor relations, B.C. Tel.
Ocked out the 1,400 employees at the Kingsway operation.

—Sean Griffin photo

Oil ports protest set
for Steveston hearing

West Coast Oil Ports com-
Missioner Andrew Thompson will
freeted by as many as 1,000
Southern fishermen when he takes
'S inquiry to Steveston, B.C. for a
“ommunity hearing October 21-22.
he United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union have called
the 4 mass turnout of fishermen to
hearing to let Thompson know
€y are opposed to a giant oil port
or near B.C.’s coast.
2 teveston fishermen are bitterly
eyposed to proposals for oil ports at
ther Port Angeles, Washington,
across from Victoria, or at Cherry
Bae” Washington, just south of
aine. A minor oil spill at the
Beeston Canfisco fish plant three
ao ago forced closure of the
ery for a day and revealed a
ack of organization and ability to
ER an up the spill. The proposed
upertankers will carry 3,000 times

ot oil as the recent Steveston

mate UFAWU have organizers
- "Orking full time for the hearing at

Steveston’s Buddhist Church, 4360
Gary Street, 12 noon to 6: p.m. on
October 21, and 10:00 a.m. to
conclusion, October 22.

Phaseone of Thompson’s inquiry
— on environmental and marine
law — is drawing to a close in
Vancouver’s Devonshire Hotel. It
is set to conclude next week but not
before the Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs takes the opportunity to
make a major presentation on the
legal basis of native land claims as
it affects the oil ports issue.

The highlight of phase one, so
far, was the grilling cross
examination of federal bureaucrat
Eric Wang by UFAWU secretary
treasurer George Hewison. On the
second day of the hearing, Hewison
zeroed in on Wang about the
negotiations he had conducted with
the U.S. government for.a treaty to
govern oil tanker traffic in the
Straits of Juan de Fuca.

“Tf the purpose of this com-
mission that we are dealing with

see U.S. pg. 8

A recent decision by the
Supreme Court of Canada
upholding an appeal by Manitoba
Government Employees in. their
fight against a wage rollback may
give new impetus to a long stan-
ding court case affecting B.C.

teachers.
In a court action begun several

months ago, employees of the
Manitoba Liquor Commission,
members’ of the Manitoba
Government Employees Union,
applied to the Manitoba Court of
the Queen’s Bench, arguing that
the anti-inflation agreement signed
between the Manitoba and federal
governments and under which
employees had suffered a wage
rollback did not apply to them. The
lower court disagreed and the issue
was placed directly before the
Supreme Court of Canada.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court
ruled that the Manitoba govern-
ment did not have the legislative
authority to bring its employees
under wage guidelines. Justice
Roland Ritchie, who wrote the
majority decision for the court,
also noted that the agreement
between the two governments was
signed after the _ collective
agreement was ratified by
government employees.

The decision has direct im-
plications for the Supreme Court
case affecting B.C. teachers on
which decision was reserved last
January.

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation
launched an application § in
Supreme Court November 26 last
year, seeking a ruling by the court
on the relation between the Public
Schools Act and the Anti-Inflation
Measures Act and their impact on
teachers’ salaries.

The launching of the application
followed rollbacks of arbitrated
salary agreements in four districts
in the province — Vancouver,
Surrey, Burnaby and Coquitlam.

Particularly galling to teachers
was the fact that the rollbacks
were made retroactive to January
— forcing teachers to pay back
increases already received.

The. BCTF. application, which
named, in addition to the BCTF,
the Burnaby Teachers’ Association
and one Burnaby teacher, sought
to have the court rule on the
retroactivity of the rollback as well

as the actual operation of the Anti-
Inflation Measures Act and its
relation to existing statutes.

A central part of the court case
rests on Section 6(5) of the Anti-
Inflation Measures Act which
suggests that the Act should be
modified where it conflicts with
other legislation. Of major im-
portance is the Public Schools Act
which has long the been the basis
for arbitrating teachers’ salaries.

Judgement was reserved in the
case last January, however, and
Justice Nathan Nemetz said at the

see TEACHERS, pg. 8

Joshua Nkomo to visit
Vancouver Oct. 24, 25

Joshua Nkomo, one of the
leaders of the Patriotic Front of
Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), is slated to
be in Vancouver October 24 and 25
as part of-a tour of Canada
organized for the liberation

~ movement leader by the Canadian

Labor Congress.

Nkomo’s itinerary in Vancouver
will include an address to the
convention of the Canadian Union
of Public Employees as well as
meetings with various church
leaders and a-reception October 24.

The invitation to Nkomo, who
will meet with a number of
parliamentarians, trade unionists
and diplomatic missions during his
stay in Canada, is part of a step-
ped-up campaign by the CLC to
help bring about majority rule and
free trade unionism in Southern
Africa.

“The Patriotic Front is the only
hope for real peace in Zimbabwe,”
CLC regional representative Art
Kube said.

In addition to its other actions,
the CLC is increasing its financial
assistance to black trade unions in
Southern Africa, particularly in
the Republic of South Africa where
much of the asistance will go
toward legal costs incurred by
trade unionists ‘‘in the face of the
repressive state machinery which
as cost the lives of so many
detainees in South Africa’s jails.’’

The Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe
was formed by the union of the two
previous liberation organizations,
the Zimbabwe African People’s
Union and the Zimbabwe African
National Union.

Nkomo and Robert Mugabe are
the two leaders of the Front.

Nigel Morgan steps down

Rush named as CP leader

The provincial committee of the
Communist Party last week
unanimously elected Maurice
Rush as the party’s new leader in
British Columbia. Nigel Morgan
who had been the leader for 32
years, has asked to be released
from his position for reasons of ill
health. He was elected provincial
chairman.

Party leader since 1945, Morgan

had earlier been a Canadian In-
ternational Executive Board
member of the International
Woodworkers of America and was
also a founding member of the
World Federation of Trade Unions
as the delegate from the Canadian
Congress of Labor.

A native son of B.C., he became
widely known in the province as
the leading Communist spokesman

and headed many campaigns by
the party around issues such as the
Columbia River Treaty. He was
the party spokesman in many
provincial election campaigns.
Maurice Rush, who succeeds
Morgan to the top position of the
party in B.C., is editor of the
Pacific Tribune and held the post
of provincial chairman for many
years. A veteran of the Communist
see PARLEY, pg. 3