THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, NDP LEADER of the Opposition Dave Bar LABOU ¢: MSIRE FOR OURS f AISH FOR ALL ¥ igs ‘eae i rett was one of the featured speakers at the B.C. Federa- tion of Labour Convention. His blistering attack on the policies of both the federal and provincial governments brought him a standing ovation from the almost one thousand delegates in attendance. FEDERATION STEPS UP PROGRAMME The British Columbia Federation of Labour has launched a campaign to in- form its members and the public about unemploy- ment, its social conse- quences, and the govern- ment’s reluctance to deal with the problem. Concentrating on women and youth unemployment, the campaign includes a media campaign with ad- vertising in both news- papers and the radio, dis- tribution of leaflets on what unemployment is and who creates it, and rallies to pro- test high unemployment and the government’s unwilling- ness to take necessary steps to halt it. Currently the B.C. Feder- ation has three full-time people working on their UI campaign. Bill Dennison, Unemployment Campaign Co-ordinator, says he is amazed at the steady flow of jobless people. ‘‘It’s almost a torrent, including a lot of young women,” he said. Last January at its annual convention the Federation passed a resolution en- dorsing the campaign. Since then the campaign has been gearing up with a few inter- ruptions such as the provin- cial and federal elections held in May. But even then, the federation considered unemployment a major issue in the elections and highlighted it throughout the campaigns. Since the summer, Denni- full-time son has been travelling around the province in the federation’s Unemployment Van, going from UI centre to UI centre distributing leaf- lets, with the help of jobless volunteers, to the jobless in the centres’ waiting rooms. The leaflets not only decry the jobless rate but there are some that explain how to apply for assistance. One pamphlet, soon to be re- leased, explains how one goes about applying for wel- fare in B.C. Trying to remove the stigma associated with welfare, the leaflet explains that changes to unemployment have forced more people to turn to local social assis- tance. Instead of blaming the unemployed for their situ- ation, the federation says that the government should take immediate steps to create jobs. The federation suggest, among other things, that the government should immediately: © speed up the insulation program so all homes are eligible for grants.. © increase tree planting in the province © build more low income housing for seniors and low income groups e@ develop a more flexible retirement age so that workers can retire before 65, leaving job openings for younger people. In the long term, the federation says that unem- ployment will persist unless an industrial strategy is de- veloped for Canada. As part of an industrial strategy for Canada, the federation would like to see a commit- ment to a Canadian mer- chant marine, energy self- sufficiency and more re- search and development money coming from the multinational corporations. For instance, the federation claims that an additional 70,000 jobs could be created in B.C. if wood manufac- turing was developed in- stead of simply a forestry industry alone. In his presidential address to the 24th Annual Convention of the B.C. Federation of Labour November 19th, in Vancouver, Jim Kinnaird warned the nearly 1,000 delegates that there was an organized attack against the whole labour movement which would re- quire all Federation affiliates to unite in a common purpose. He told the delegates that they would face new chal- lenges in the 1980’s. ‘‘When we look around us, we see working people in this province under attack like they have rarely been attacked be- fore; we see governments that have demonstrated clearly the inability to change the system, to make B.C. an equal place for all to live; we see employers who have only one goal, to suck as much from out of the economy before the bottom falls out. “We see politicians that are leading the nation down a road that must surely end in social and economic chaos,’’ he stated. The tenor of his address obviously sat well with the delegates who refrained during the week-long convention from carrying on the bitter fights on the floor that have marred so many previous conventions. The province’s high level of unemployment was a major issue at the convention and drew wide discussion following the report by the Federation’s Unemployment Committee. In their report, the Com- mittee stated, that they had been largely successful in carrying out the nine-point programme adopted at the previous convention to focus attention on the unemployment problem. They stated, however, that during the past year turnouts to unemployment meetings ae Local 1 -85 IWA Port Alberni