government action to keep Queen Charlotte
as provincial economic development minister Don
$2 million to the company. The loan is contingent, however, on

to see federal fisheries minister Romeo Le Blanc later this week.

men and Allied Workers Union lobby in Victoria last week for
Fisheries operating prompted some government action this week
Phillips proposed B.C. Development Corporation loan of
federal assistance and Phillips was expected

—Richard Morgan photo

Hilton provoked Hotel Van
strike says union director

: Cont'd from pg. 1

from its initial intention to
maintain the operation witn scab
labor although the threat of
punitive action against strikers has
loomed with the provincial at-
torney-general’s call for a police
report on alleged picket line
violence. '

Hilton has alsosought a Supreme
Court injunction which would limit
pickets totwo at each entrance and
has launched a damage suit
against the CBRT.

Acting attorney-general Allan
Williams asked Vancouver city
police for the report following
scuffles on the picket line during
the mass demonstration Thursday,
the day before the hotel closure.
Although it was expected at mid-
week it had not been completed at
Tribune press time.

Thetiming of William’s call for a
police report has been seen as
significant since pickets have

repeatedly been intimidated and
harrassed but no action has been
taken by authorities.

CBRT regional representative
Bill Apps told delegates to the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council last week that pickets had
buckets of water poured on them
from hotel windows and had had
tomatoes and other things thrown
at them.

Another union representative
this week accused Hilton of taking
a provocative stand from the very
beginning of the dispute.

John MeNevin, national
research director of the CBRT, told
a press conference in Vancouver
Monday that Hilton had
deliberately provoked the strike by
its refusal to consider a wage offer
and charged that any violence was
the responsibility of the hotel chain
because of its policy of hiring
strikebreakers and professional
security personnel.

Pipeline moratorium
group plans protest ©

Cont'd from pg. 1
it placed too much emphasis on the
needs of the north and its people,
and too little on the need to get the
gas and oil to the continental
markets, meaning the U.S.

Some supporters of a pipeline to
the U.S. have come out in favor of
the Alaska Highway gas pipeline
as an alternative to the MacKenzie
Valley line. But the Alcan
pipeline is also a U.S.-sponsored
and backed project which holds no
benefits for Canada and is strongly
opposed by many organizations
and concerned citizens.

A conference in Vancouver on
May. 27-29, called by the Working
Group for a Moratorium, took a
strong stand against the building of
either of the two pipelines, and
called for a 10-year moratorium on
northern pipeline construction.
Attended by 300 delegates from a

wide variety of organizations,
the Moratorium conference
brought together the B.C.
Federation of Labor, the B.C.
Teachers’ Federation, the
Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic
churches, the Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs, the Communist Party, the
Society for Pollution and En-
vironmental Control, as well as a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 1, 1977—Page 12

This week Michael Lewis, a staff
officer and a leading spokesman
for the B.C. Working Group for’ a
Moratorium, said that a two-day
meeting was held recently in
Toronto at which it was decided to
set up a temporary national office
at 102 Bank St., in Ottawa. It is
expected that this office will
become the coordinating centre for
national action for a moratorium
on building of a northern pipeline.

Lewis said that arrangement
have been made for an immediate
analysis of the National Energy
Board report Monday when it is
brought down. The Working Group
for a Moratorium is planning to
hold a joint press conference in
Ottawa of all concerned groups
within two days of the NEB report
being released to outline its stand
on the recommendations and to
plan national action.

The B.C. Working Group for a
Moratorium also announced this
week that it is contacting all
groups which took part in the UBC
conference to undertake a massive
leaflet distribution throughout the
province and that plans are going
ahead for a large public rally in
mid-July.

McNevin, who came in from the
union’s national office to assist in

the running of the strike, stated :

that the harassment of pciketers
began when security personnel
were brought in and laid the blame
for any incidents on the hotel
managiment.

“Our hands are clean,” he
declared. “‘There may have been
some pushing and shoving on the
picket lines but that happens
everywhere. Picketing is a normal
part of a strike.”’

The union director was also
critical of tlhe arrangement
between CN, which owns the hotel,
and Hilton, the multinational chain
which is responsible for
management.

He charged that Hilton has
“milking the Hotel Vancouver
dry” since it took over the
management and stressed that the
arrangement between the two
companies has never been
disclosed.

“CN puts up the money and then
Hilton creams off the top,’’ Mc-
Nevin said, noting that CN has to
provide whatever funds are
necessary for capital costs
whereas Hilton is responsible only
for operating costs while it shares
in the overall profits.

Despite the fact that it may have
taken a short-term loss at the Hotel
Vancouver last year, McNevin
added, the Hilton chain saw its
profits increase by 110 percent
over last year.

“T think Hilton has deliberately
provoked the strike and violence in
an attempt to cover up its own
mismanagement,’’ he stated.

B.C. Federation of Labor
secretary Len Guy had earlier
charged Hilton with provoking the
strike in order that ‘‘incompetent
management can be secure in spite
of its own inefficiency.”

He also warned that
management appeared to be at-
tempting to break the union and
pledged the full support of the
labor movement for the striking
workers. : : F

The 475 employees of the hotel
struck June 9 following Hilton’s
refusal to put a wage offer on the
table. Only a dental plan was
proposed.

Although Hilton has claimed that
Hotel Vancouver wages are
pacesetters in the Vancouver hotel
industry, the CBRT pointed out
that the Bayshore, which signed a
contract after a strike last year,
pays wages which are about eight
percent higher.

Fed ends boycott ’

on Calif.

The B.C. Federation of Labor
announced last week that the long
standing boycott on California
grapes has been lifted although
consumers have been asked to
watch for the United Farm
Workers label and to buy’ only
union grapes. :

Federation secretary Len Guy,
president George Johnston and
representatives of the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store
Union met with Cesar Chavez in
California earlier this month to
clarify the “hot” declaration on

California grapes following the

signing of the agreement between
the United Farm Workers and the
International Brotherhood of
Teamsters.

The lifting of the boycott was
announced after the meeting with
Chavez.

The United Farm Workers’
Organizing Committee, under
Chevez’ leadership began its long
struggle for union representation
among the migrant workers in the
grape fields in the mid-1960’s,
launching its first major strike in
Delano in 1965. Within months, the
cry “Viva La Huelga!”’ became a
clarion call throughout the grape
fields and, in fact, throughout the
continent as thousands of people,
trade unionists and students, came
to the assistance of the struggling
union and launched the massive
boycott.

From the very beginnings the

-UFWOC faced formidable enemies

grapes —

including professional
strikebreakers and gun thugs aS”
well as armed police as local and
state authorities collaborated with
the growers in an attempt to crush
the union.

Even after it won the backing of
the AFL-CIO, the Farmworkers
still faced raids by the independent
Teamsters, a battle that ended
only after representation votes in
the fields and’ finally, the
jurisdictional agreement between
the two unions; signed March 17.

In announcing the lifting of the
nine-year-old hot declaration, B.C.
Federation of Labor secretary Len
Guy passed on the appreciation
expressed by Chavez for the
support given the Farm Workers. —

“Brother Chavezalso asked us to
express to B.C. trade unionists the
heartfelt appreciation of his
members for the support given the
Federation and members of our
affiliated locals. He emphasized
to us the great impact the hot
declaration had over the last nine
years and expressed particular
appreciation for the positive effect
of the success of the RWDSU i0
keeping California grapes out of
Safeway stores during this
period.”’

The United Farm Workers union
is currently in the midst of a major
organizing drive in the Coachella
and Imperial Valleys in California:

Internal union quarrel |
detracts from struggle

“On Wednesday, June 15 an
information picket line appeared
at Fraser Mills. It was placed there
by the Carpenters’ Union because
of a jurisdictional dispute over
construction work being done on
the new veneer plant.’’ This was
the opening paragraph of a leaflet
published by the New Westminster
local of the IWA and distributed to
it members on Friday, June 17.

Like so many internal squabbles
in the trade union movement which
divide and detract from major
issues, this one should not have
taken place.

The leaflet declares that the IWA
has had certification for com-
panies doing construction work in
existing sawmills since 1949, and
that almost all new construction
and reconstruction work in recent
years has been done by IWA
construction workers. On the other
hand, sources in the Carpenters’
Union have told the Tribune that
their union has a legitimate
complaint.

They say that many IWA con-
struction workers do not get suf-
ficient work under IWA jurisdic-
tion and are compelled to work on
“other jobs from time to time that
come under the jurisdiction of
Building Trades unions, including
the Carpenters, which means that
they pay dues to both the IWA and
the construction union of their
trade. They also claim that wages

Carpenters’ Union. “It would make

_and the threat of more anti-unio?

and working conditions of IWA
construction workers are based 08 |
those negotiated by the Buildiné
Trades.
The IWA leaflet, on the othef
hand, charges that the Carpenters
Union complained recently to thé
Canadian Labor Congress that
because of the high level of
unemployment among Carpentet®
the IWA should be convinced
turn this sawmill work over to t

little sense,”’ they say, “to transfet
the unemployment problem’ from
the Carpenters’ Union to the IWA.
The Tribune does not favor oné
union against the other in suC
disputes, but we always take
side of the labor movement. In oUF
opinion such disputes are divisivé
and particularly so at a time whe?
there are pressing problems th@
call for unity of purpose and actio®
like unemployment, wage contro

legislation. :
It is incumbent on the leaders of
unions, the provincial federation of
labor and the Canadian Labo!
Congress to use their influence
settle such jurisdictional dispute’
Above all, the welfare of those who
are directly involved must *
made the main concern of all
parties to such a dispute. The Jabot
movement was created to set
working people and not empil®
builders. : :