WILL BE FINE
JOHN...
AS LONG AS

Chile conference
affirms solidarity —

A pledge to step up the consumer
boycott of Chilean products and
intensify the pressure on the
military junta to free. the
‘“‘disappeared”’ prisoners were
among the actions outlined by last
weekend’s Chile conference
sponsored jointly by the Canadians
for Democracy in Chile and the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council.

The one-day conference, at-
tended by some 100 people repre-
senting 23 organizations, was one
of a number of events organized by
the CDC to mark the fourth an-
niversary of the fascist coup in
Chile.

Several feature speakers ad-
dressed the conference including
Toronto NDP MP Andrew Brewin;
Ricardo Recabarren, representing
the Chilean trade union federation
(CUT); Katie McGovern, repre-
senting the Co-ordinating Com-
mittee for Solidarity with
Democratic Chile; and Elspeth
Gardiner, president -of the
Canadians for Democracy in Chile.
B.C. Federation of Labor president
George Johnston chaired the
conference.~

Andrew Brewin told conference
delegates, ‘‘There is a grim
phenomenon throughout much of
South America -- the wholesale
deprivation of human rights.

“Tn many cases, of which Chile is
the most dramatic, it is not only a
question of deprivation of rights —
it is a question of murder, and

cases where people completely -

disappear,” he said.

Brewin, along with two other
MP’s and a representative of, the
Inter-Church Committee on Chile;
went to several countries in Latin
America on a fact-finding mission
last year inquiring about political
prisoners and human rights. They
were to have gone to Chile but at
the last minute, they were denied
entry.

Katie McGovern noted the
solidarity actions taking place all
around the world marking the
anniversary of the coup but
stressed, “solidarity must be more
than a once-a-year event.” —

She condemned the federal
government for its duplicity on the
issue of Chile, allowing refugees to
enter the country on the one hand,
while, on the other hand, in-
creasing trade with the fascist
junta.

In B.C. alone, she pointed out,
the trade between 1974 and 1976 has
almost doubled. ‘‘That under-
scores the importance of stepping
up the consumer boycott.

“The greater our solidarity

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 16,

, 1977—Page 12

actions, the faster the federal
government will be forced to end
its relations with the fascist junta
— and the faster will come the
downfall of the junta,’”’ McGovern
said.

Delegates to the conference
endorsed a special resolution
denouncing the Pinochet regime
for its kidnapping of Chilean
citizens, which has resulted in the
disappearance of more than 2,500
citizens, “many of whom have
been found to be tortured or
murdered.”’

The resolution called on the
military junta to release in-
formation as to the whereabouts of
the 2,500 ‘“‘disappeared’”’ prisoners
and to abide by the UN resolution
on human rights in Chile which
calls on the Chilean authorities to
‘restore and -safeguard, without
delay, basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms.”

The resolution also called on the
federal government to press the
junta for implementation of the
resolution. —

Laborers: members
call for elections

Members‘ of Local 602 of the
Laborers International Union
voted overwhelmingly last week to
call on the international president
of the union to order immediate
elections in the local.

The motion, which also called for
continuation of the voting formula
which prevailed in the last elec-
tions with only the candidates
previously nominated and ac-
cepted by the membership to be
eligible, was endorsed by the
Laborers meeting Thursday as
unionists sought to resolve the
internal dispute within the union
and to end what they have seen as
manipulation of the elections by
the incumbent officers.

The precisely-worded resolution
which asked for assistance and
cooperation from the sub-regional
office of the Laborers’ and the B.C.
Federation of Labor to ‘‘assure a
fair and honest election,’ was
introduced by Charles Shane who
has spearheaded the battle by
rank-and-filemembers of the union
to force the incumbent officers to
hold elections ever since their term
of office ended June 9. Shane also
heads an opposition slate con-
testing the local elections.

Local 602 president Nick Kiniak,
secretary-treasurer Ron McClurg
and business manager Al Herd as
well as other officers had earlier
sought to manipulate the elections,
thus precipitating a dispute with
the international office of the union
which has since resulted in the
imposition of a trusteeship, lengthy
hearings and a court action which
is, as yet, unresolved.

Shane, whose opposition slate
has been the target of attack by the
local executive officers, said
following Thursday’s meeting,
“the hearings clearly showed that
the incumbent officers tried to rig
the election. The international sub-
regional office of the union under
John Hart was well aware of that
fact. :

“Our demand — as expressed in
the motion — is that the in-
ternational office order immediate
election and following the election
of new officers, to lift the trustee-
ship.”

‘Bill 89 aims blow
at all labor'—Fed

Cont'd from pg. 1
authority only to set ‘‘guidelines’
and is not bound by _ those
guidelines in reaching subsequent
decisions.

The Federation noted that the
amendment “‘is obviously designed
to destroy the LRB practice of
writing decisions insuch a manner
that they can be used as a policy to
ensure consistency and _predic-
tability in industrial relations.”

Also changed in Bill 89 is the
definition of employee to the extent
that many more will be excluded
from thedefinition for the purposes
of determining an appropriate
bargaining unit.

With that change, many workers
who have chosen to. belong to a
union may be excluded from the
bargaining unit. In addition, the
number of employer applications
for exclusions will probably in-
crease considerably. ;

A change to Section 82 of the code
allows the LRB the right to extend
the 72-hour strike or lockout notice

to an indefinite period when

perishable goods, life, health or
property are involved.

Taken in their entirety the
amendments to the code impose

severe restrictions on unions in
organizing and maintaining
bargaining units, giving substance
to the charge, voiced by several
trade union leaders, that Bill 89 ‘‘is

a capitulation to right-to-work.

employers.”’

Although -Williams has denied
any suggestion that the amend-
ments have taken labor legislation
in that direction, the increased
powers of employers to distribute
anti-union propaganda, alter
wages and conditions and exclude
people from the bargaining unit,
clearly indicate otherwise..

Taken in the context of a growing
clamor among employers and
forces within the Social Credit
party for right-to-work legislation,
moreover, Bill 89 is ‘yet more in-
sidious.

A significant. minority of
delegates at the last convention of
the B.C. Social Credit party
demanded right-to-work
legislation and only this week,
former Socred cabinet minister
Phil Gagliardi, who built a string of
Sandman Hotels using non-union
labor and anti-union contractors,
addedhis voice to the attack on the
trade union movement for its “lack
of democracy.”

to the U.S.

Shane emphasized that. the
membership “doesn’t want self-
appointed officers” — a reference
to the fact that. the present
executive board’s mandate ended
June 9 — “‘nor do we want officers
imposed by the international office
in Washington.”’

The hearings referred to by
Shane were those ordered by the
international union in respect to its
appointment of Stacey Warner as
trustee of Local 602 of the Con-
struction and General Laborers’
Union.

The three-day hearings covered
more than 600 pages of transcript
and testimony under oath which
revealed an incredible pattern of
election-rigging and manipulation.

Incumbent business agent
Manny Conceicao also admitted
under oath that an earlier trial of
Charles Shane — which resulted,
until his appeal was upheld, in
Shane’s being banned from at-
tending union meetings — was
intended ‘‘primarily to deal a blow
at Mr. Shane, not to have him run
in the elections of 1977.” :

Shane’s trial, and the charges on
which it was based involved his
battle to prevent local officers
from imposing an irregular pen-
sion plan which would benefit only
a handful of union members while
leaving the vast majority of local
members without an adequate
pension.

But despite the overwhelming
vote-in last Thursday’s meeting of
Local 602, the international office
has shown no indication so far to
move toward immediate elections.

Seen as part of its reluctance
moveis an adverse court judgment
in which the judge ruled that there
had not been sufficient evidence
presented by the international
office of the union to justify the
action by trustee Stacey Warner 1!
dismissing Local 602 officels
following the imposition of the
trusteeship. Constitutionally,
international had to show that a!
emergency existed in order
justify such action.

That judgment may be appealed,
however, following the interné
tional’s report — expected
week or next — on the three-day
hearings. Evidence presented
the hearings could, presumably;
demonstrate that an emergency
did, in fact, exist. :

Whatever the outcome of what
could be protracted _ lega!
wrangling, the question of ele
tions will still remain, however.

“The legal proceedings até
nothing more than a stalling tacté
to keep Kiniak; McClurg, Herd amt
the other incumbent officers ”
office,’ Shane charged. 5

He pointed out that both th
international and the incumbetl!
officers ‘‘are looking for a legal
conclusion to the dispute, ev@
though such a course would
costly and could last indefinitely:

“The fundamental principle *-
that the members must be allowel
to decide who will represent the!”
— that’s why we called on the i.
ternational to order that electiot

Pipeline branded
‘major betrayal!’

Cont'd from pg. 1

Canada’s energy minister Alastair
Gillespie said Canada now exports
about one trillion cubic feet of gas
annually — about 45 per cent of
production — and that he would
support an increase in natural gas
to the U.S. ;

That such a sellout of our gas
resources is contemplated is
revealed by a recent story in the
Financial Post which reported that
there has been a vast expansion of
gas exploration in the northeast
corner of B.C., through which the
Alcan pipeline will run, and that
Westcoast Transmission, one of the
companies which makes up the
conglomerate building the
pipeline, has already applied to the
National Energy Board in Ottawa

for permission to build a pipeline

gathering system:
Undoubtedly the Alcan pipeline

will gather up, available gas

resources along its entire route
through Canada for the U.S.
market. The Alcan pipeline thus
emerges not just as a pipeline to
earry Alaska gas to the USS.
market, but as a vast funnel
through which Canadian gas
resources will be gathered and sent

be held,” Shane said. >

As indicated earlier, the feder®!
government retreated on pot!
concessions it sought during
pipeline negotiations. The 4
million Heritage Fund, which Ww
proposed by the Lysyk Comm
sion, has been turned into a fare
Apparently the agreemé!
provides that such a fund will #
advanced by the pipeline comp
as a loan against future i
payments to the Yukon, and that!
will be repaid ‘‘with interest.”

Much ballyhoo surrounded
proposal that the U.S. would agree
to pay a major share of the cost
building a connecting line betw
Dawson and Whitehorse to link ¥
with any future pipeline to ¢
Mackenzie delta along the Demp,
ster highway. A complicalt’
formula involving the overrun if
costs of the Alcan pipeline has
worked out in which Canada ma)
ultimately be taken to the cleane!®

Inany case, if the Dempster SP
is ever built to get at the Canad? f
gas in the Mackenzie Valley, 2”
this is by no means certain, tht
US. will get amajor portion of #
gas as well, according to an earli@!
statement by prime minist
Trudeau. F

The whole deal ends up a§
colossal sellout of Canada.