Pulp union vote on independence
hailed as big advance for labor

4

In a statement issued this
week, the B.C. labor committee
of the Communist Party welcom-
ed the resolution adopted by the
United Paperworkers Inter-
national Union calling for the es-
tablishment of an independent
Canadian section of the union
and amicable separation from
the international.

The resolution, passed last
month in a meeting in Montreal
of UPIU officers and local
presidents, outlined the desire of
the Canadian membership for a
Canadian union and the need for
separation from the inter-
national, while maintaining close
cooperation between the two un-
ions at the trade union level and

in all other areas of common in-
terest. A referendum vote on the
resolution is to be completed by
April 30.

“If the majority votes yes,”
the labor committee’s statement
said, ‘‘there will be a friendly
separation from the inter-
national. The Canadian members
of every international union are
encouraged by this
development.”

The committee pointed out
that the Communist Party has

‘consistently fought for an in-

dependent Canadian trade union
movement throughout its fifty-
year history and noted a recent
statement on trade union policy

issued by the central executive
of the Communist Party, which
reads in part:

“An independent, sovereign
and united trade union move-
ment would greatly strengthen
the possibility of international
trade union unity, so imperative
today as imperialism seeks to
solve its problems at the expense
of the working class. Inter-
national unity is an urgent re-
quirement to avance the struggle
for peace and security in the in-
terests of the working class
everywhere.”

The committee also-noted that
a majority yes vote on the UPIU
referendum would make it possi-
ble to heal the split between the

two unions in the pulp industry
and emphasized that the split
was largely the result of the
failure of the international
leadership of that period to res-
pond to the demand for Canadian
autonomy.

The committee emphasized,
too, the importance of Canadian
autonomy as an issue in the up-
coming Canadian Labor
Congress convention, to be held
in Vancouver in May.

“If the convention fails to take,
a decisive stand on an indepen-
dent, sovereign and united trade
union movement, it will fail the
working class,’’ the committee’s
statement said. ‘‘Such a failure

could lead to an extension ©
raiding and more splits. .

“On the other hand, if the CH
boldly calls upon all inter
national unions in Canada @
follow the example of the UPIU
it will open the door to one of
finest periods in the history of
our labor movement.”’ Nees

The Communist Party’s lab0!
committee statement is beilé
widely distributed as leaflet ©
trade unionists. In its concludille
paragraph it calls on “evel
trade union and every trade um
ionist to welcome the U
referendum and to step up
overall pressure for a complete
ly independent, sovereign
united trade union movement

LABOR

Cont'd from pg. 1

“What is needed,’ Phillips
emphasized, ‘‘is true inter-
national solidarity, based on
fraternal cooperation between
free and equal trade union cen-
tres organized on a national
basis; we need an independent
trade union movement so that
working people in this country
can advance policies that will.
assist in the establishment of a
truly independent foreign policy
free from interference by the
AFL-CIO.”

In a further resolution,
delegates registered their op-
position to the U.S. Burke-
Hartke bill which delegates
pointed out ‘‘makes Canadian
workers and the Canadian
economy the victims of a made-
in-USA economic crisis.”

The resolution called on the
CLC to bring pressure to bear on
the federal government for
representations to the U.S. to
reconsider the ill-conceived bill
and for the Congress to register
its opposition to the AFL-CIO
against the passage of the bill.

_ Speaking to the resolution,
CUPE delegate Dave Werlin
noted that while the future of this
country lies in her developing
her own secondary industry,
“‘we’re dependent on U.S.-owned
industry at this time.”

“The U.S. has used all our
resources to expand its in-
dustry,’’ Werlin charged, ‘‘and
now that it is in an economic
crisis, it wants-to raise tariffs
against imports from other coun-
tries including Canada.

“Tf this bill passes, we can ex-
pect to see massive layoffs in the
auto industry and elsewhere in
this country. We can expect to
see thousands and thousands of
jobs lost,” he said.

Elsewhere in the council,

delegates voted unanimously to
reaffirm their position on the
coup in Chile and to call on the
federal government to rescind
its diplomatic recognition of the
fascist regime, to grant asylum
to all refugees seeking to come
to Canada and to give more
material assistance to Chilean
refugees already in this country.

Delegates also voted to add
their voices to that of the CLC in
protesting the arrest and im-
prisonment of five trade un-
ionists in the seaport town of
Cadiz in Spain.

Ever since the surrender of
control and diversion of valuable
glacier waters of the Columbia
watershed to the U.S. were first
mooted, the Communist Party
warned of the grave dangers in-
volved and sought to mobilize
public opinion to oppose it.

As long ago as 1952, the Com-
munist Party in B.C. warned:

“The U.S. is attempting to
compel B.C. to take on the
burden (and it is a heavy one) of
providing the immense reser-
voirs to assure water supply to
U.S. industry, agriculture,
recreation and pollution abate-
ment. And they are doing it with
the calculated intent of stunting
this country’s economic develop-
ment, which they fear could rival
their own. They want to make us
the water-hole for North
America. They are demanding
we surrender our water aS we
have our oil and natural gas.
They don’t even want to furnish
the real cost: of a self-
liquidating scheme from which
they would derive the real
benefits. And most important of
all they want control in
perpetuity.”

Recently resources minister
Bob Williams informed the
Legislature that to carry through

JACK PHILLIPS, CUPE delegate to
the Vancouver Labor Council Tues-
day branded AFL-CIO president
George Meany as a “decrepit cold
warrior to the right of Nixon.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1974—-PAGE 12

INRIA
REGISHATURE

By NIGEL MORGAN

the work undertaken in B.C. to
control the flow of the Columbia
river to serve U.S. needs for
energy and water control as
provided under the Treaty,
would cost in excess of $450
million above the payments
received from the U.S.

That means that the Socred-
Liberal-Conservative Columbia
sellout will cost the people of
B.C. almost half a billion dollars
in addition to the loss of one of
the greatest hydro protentials in
the world, and loss of the
possibility of diverting water for
irrigation of Canada’s vast grow-
ing areas on thé Canadian
prairies.

So outrageous was the sellout
by those that led us into signing
the Columbia River Treaty with
the U.S. that the B.C. govern-
ment found it necessary to un-
dertake a study into the basis for
asking Ottawa to reopen the
treaty signed ten years ago. Last
week it was revealed that assis-
tant professor Ian McDougall of
Dalhousie University in Halifax
(an expert in energy and inter-
national law), was hired a year
ago to make a Special study and
has now submitted his report to
the cabinet.

The public will be keenly in-
terested in the McDougall
report, which should not be kept
secret, but be released as an im-
portant public document as soon
as possible. Section 5 (f) of the
Treaty allows Canada to ap-
proach the U.S. government on
“any proposal relating to the tra-
ty which Canada and B.C. agree
is in the public interest.”’

Premier Barrett and the B.C.
government are on sound ground
in proposing and preparing the
case for reopening the Treaty.
-Not only the financial terms need

renegotiation, but the whole plan ~

of development so that Canada’s
growing power and water needs
and potentials be recognized.

The B.C. government will have
to press hard to overcome the
hurdle of getting Ottawa’s agree-
ment to take advantage of the
Treaty’s reopening clause.
Strong public pressure needs to
be mobilized to obtain firm,
decisive action.

Herring strike support |
pledged by Federation —

The B.C. Federation of Labor
last week announced a _ three-
point program to give full sup-
port to the UFAWU in the
current herring strike and to pre-
vent disruption of the strike by
the anti-union Pacific Trollers
Association.

“‘At the present time, an anti-
union organization — the PTA —
is scabbing on striking members
of the UFAWU,”’ the Federation
stated. ‘“‘They have used the
courts and the injunction
process to try to destroy the
effectiveness of the UFAWU
strike. They have been assisted
in their nefarious endeavors by
the failure of federal and provin-
cial government to protect the
rights of fishermen as organized
workers.”

All herring caught by scabs
have been declared hot by the
Federation and a meeting this
week between the Federation
and the UFAWU was to have
prepared a campaign of
picketing support for the union in
the event of further injunctions.

As well, the Federation, in a
meeting with provincial govern-
ment officials scheduled for next
week, plans to ask for immediate
action to bring fish processing in
B.C. under public ownership.

The interlocutory injunction
sought last week by the Pacific
Trollers Association and aimed
at preventing UFAWU picketing
of all PTA scab operations was
denied Saturday when it was

pointed out to the court that the
scab boat — which had suc
ed in getting the original exP
injunction — was fishing ille
ly. It was not licenced by
provincial fishing authoritlé
Meanwhile, herring fisher
voted 88% to reject the
offer by the Fisheries AS
tion with the issues Of
clearance program, catch |
sion between seiners
gillnetters, separation of
and roe herring contracts
prices still unresolved. The
UFAW — Native Brothe
negotiating committeé
recommended rejection of
offer. :
* KOK
Conference delegates“.
reporting back to local meell
last week following the rat
tion of contract demands at
Southern Interior Wage al
tract conference of the 1W4:
Heading up the list of dem "
for some 10,000 union mem
included in the area’s ™
agreement, are increas®
$1.00 an hour over a One
agreement coupled with 4
of-living- allowance. rr
A dental plan providing t
coverage for union membet ie
their families, fully paid !! fi
the employer and matel
leave are also major dema?
the upcoming negotiation>
well as increased vacations 4
regular wages to be Pe
members while on vacation

AID TO INDOCHINA. Photo shows shipment number 43 being pee
by the Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians committee for the pert
Indochina. The shipment is expected to leave Vancouver shortly
a Soviet freighter which carries aid shipments free of charg®