campaign.

The above cartoon was published in the recent issue of “Hotline,” put
out by Local 258 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers in Vancouver. Many union papers have given prominence to
> the COPE and NDP programs and slates in the current civic election

Sd os

* AFL ¢10 News

“REJECT POLLUTION PERMIT’

QAI uu |

Labor calls for giant lobby ,
to demand action on jobs

Delegates to the Vancouver Labor Council on Tuesday night called for the
organization of a giant lobby-demonstration of unemployed to Victoria during
legislative sessions in the new year.

Decision on a resolution to
take such action followed a
debate on the effectiveness of
the small unemployed demon-
stration which took place in New
Westminster recently when
Premier Bennett was in the city
to open Douglas College.

Delegates from the Carpenters
Union, CUPE, and the ATU said
the main drive of organized
labor must be to put pressure on
the federal and provincial
governments to provide jobs.
There must be an end to the
austerity program and a demand
to end the freeze on construction
of schools and hospitals, and for
large scale construction of low
cost housing.

Communist Party sends strong
protest to Utah mine hearing

The B.C. provincial commit-
tee of the Communist Party,
meeting in Vancouver last
weekend, decided to send a
strongly-worded wire to Pollu-
tion Control Director William
Venables ~ protesting the
exclusion of the public from the
hearing into’ the Utah Mining
Company’s application for a
permit to dump 9.3 million
gallons of effluent a day into
Rupert Inlet at Port Hardy.

The Communist Party wire
demands that the hearing be
opened to the public so that_any
interested group could make
representation, and that the
‘hearing be moved to a more
accessible place such as Vancou-
ver or Victoria.

At present the hearing is
scheduléd to open in Port Hardy
this Wednesday. The Board has
granted permission to three
individuals and one organization
to present briefs opposing the
permit to the giant U.S.-owned

Utah Mining Company.

At latest word more than 150
objections to the permit have
been received by the Pollution
Control Board, but of these only
four will be heard. .

One of the objectors, Mrs.
Elaine Price of Duncan, in a
submission released before the
hearing this Wednesday,
protests that she is being
permitted to appear while other
groups such as the Richmond
Anti-Pollution Association and
the Cowichan — Malahat Society
for Pollution and ;
Environmental Control (SPEC)
and other representatives bodies
have been denied a hearing.

Mrs. Price’s submission
expresses grave concern over
the damage caused to our
environment by the discharge of
vast quantities of wastes into the
air, water and- soil. ‘‘I
vehemently object to Utah
Mining, in the face of available
ecological facts, to begin dis-

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1970—PAGE 12

charging waste into our already
overburdened environment.”’

Mrs. Price, in her submission,
protests to Pollution Director
Venables against his stipulation
that objectors must submit
technical briefs. ‘‘Why,’’ she
asks, ‘‘has he (Venables) made
it virtually impossible to oppose
a multi-million dollar polluter
without the ordinary individual
having to face the combined
hurdles of financial sacrifice,
and the need to secure expert
opinion. ?

“Am I expected to be a super-
expert cross examiner and deal
effectively with Utah’s technical
expert when I have neither the
training to cross examine nor the
expertise to deal with a Utah
specialist?”’

These are good questions.
What they point up is that the
hearing of the Pollution Control
Board has been so arranged as to
ensure that the Utah Mining
Company will be granted its

_permit to pollute our coastal
waters.

The multi-million dollar
monopoly, backed by its
powerful Japanese financial
interests who are to receive the
copper ore from the mine, will
have high-priced lawyers and
“specialists” on hand to prove to
the Board their ‘‘technical’’
arguments why the permit
should be granted.

In all likelihood the decision
has already been made — and
Premier WAC Bennett and the
Socred cabinet have had a lot to
do with it.

The public can still block the
permit by addressing protest
letters, wires, resolutions, etc.,
to Premier WAC Bennett
demanding the permit not be
granted to the Utah Mining
Company, and that a proper
public hearing be held where the
voice of the people can be heard
against this latest destruction of
B.C.’s environment by a big
corporate polluter.

(After a 12-hour session Wed-
nesday, Pollution Control Board
chairman Venables abruptly
adjourned the hearing without
announcing a decision. Watch
next week’s PT for-a full report.)

The B.C. Federation of:Labor
and the VLC must co-ordinate
the unemployed struggle,
Phillips of CUPE and Link of the
ATU emphasized in line with the
decisions made at the recent
B.C. Fed convention.

The executives of the two main
labor bodies were urged to take
action on organizing the lobby

and co-ordinating the
unemployed struggle without
delay.

A report from ATU delegate
Len Doyle urged support for
Hydro bus drivers in their
current wage struggle. He said
negotiations with Hydro had

_ reached an impasse and they

have served the company with
strike notice.

Bus drivers have been in nego-
tiations since August 30, and the
mediator on the case has had his
time extended until December
8th. ;

“We are unalterably opposed
to the indiscriminate extension
of a mediators appointment,”
Doyle said. ‘‘While a work
stoppage is the ultimate act,
improper use of the Mediation
Act is not going to solve the
problems labor faces today.”’

““We are seeking the full
support and resources of the
labor movement to make the
mediator serve his proper
purpose in negotiations in order
to force Hydro to negotiate a
proper settlement.”’

Under no circumstance, said
the delegate, will the ATU
appear before the Mediation
Commission. Delegates
approved a resolution pledging
the full report of the VLC.

Council members also
approved a resolution which
commended the NDP federal
M.P.’s and others who opposed
the Public Order Act, and
instructed a letter be sent to the
CLC to work for the total repeal
of the act. Recalling Section 98, a
delegate said we could not be
complacent about the danger of
the restrictive bill being kept on
the books indefinitely.

Organized labor is disturbed
by the fact that an anti-labor
employer continues to function
as an officer on the Human
Rights Council on which the VLC
has representation. Employees
of Mortifee-Munshaw have been

‘engaged in the struggle for union

recognition for many months.

Josephine Halleck, who sits on
the Council, told delegates the
struggle against Mr. Mortifee’s
position on human rights must be
strengthened with the result
more VLC delegates to the
Human Right organization will
be chosen.

Halleck also pointed out many
union hotels were not using union
laundries and that union hotel
employees objected to this
breach of contract.

A.B. Dick employees are still
on strike, and when it applies,
members were urged to
terminate contracts with their
service and maintenance
department.

The VLC urged all working
people to get out and vote in the
civic elections on December 9th,
and decided to send two sound
trucks through the east end of
the city, urging citizens to get
and vote the COPE-NDP ticket.

B.C. Communists
demand Ottawa
act on jobs

The B.C. Provincial Committee
of the Communist Party, meeting
on the weekend, sent a wire to
Prime Minister Trudeau in support
of the National Party’s dele-
gation to Ottawa on Monday to
demand action for one million
new jobs.

The wire said, “The B.C. pro-
vincial committee of the C.P.C.
supports the Communist Party
delegation to Ottawa
demanding action by your govern-
ment to provide one million new
jobs. ;
“Your policy of cooling
economy has failed to cure
inflation but has driven unem-
ployment to disastrous levels.
Immediate action is needed to cut
back wasteful arms spending by
fifty percent, build a quarter
million homes, expand home and
foreign markets, stop the export
of unprocessed resources and
develop Canadian manu-
facturing, and press the war on
poverty.’’

The wire was signed by pro-.
vincial leader Nigel Morgan.

WHY BLAME US. ... LOOK WHO'S

TURNING THE HANDLES /

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UNEMPLOYMENT

(NIFLATIONs

| CAkLESS

VICE SQUAD