J

Pea nO amen ae TF

Se ee ee

WN RP a

More than 100 unionists turned our (right) despite the season’s first snowfall Dec. 6
at Union Furniture, formerly Stacy’s Furniture Mart in Surrey to demonstrate in
support of members of Teamsters Local 31 who have been on strike since May 7 at
Stacy’s warehouse in Richmond. At left, Local 31 president Doug McLeod was one
of several speakers, including B.C. Federation of Labor research director David
Rice, Mike Cramer from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Vancouver

PHOTOS — JOSHUA BERSON

Postal Workers president L

ee a er “ss

loyd Ingram and CAIMAW president Jess Succamoré,
who addressed the rally. The strike has been a particularly bitter one because of
repeated assaults against picketers and because of employer's practice of closing 4
store under one name and reopening under another. Union Furniture was opened
just last October by Stephen Siber — only weeks after his father Arnold Silber had
“closed out’ as Stacy’s Furniture at the same location.

phon

, MARINEWORKERS AND }
\BOILERMAKERS

‘INDUSTRIAL UNION
Local No. 1

So wt

c.L.e;

to our members,
friends and supporters
in the labor movement

UNITED FISHERMEN AND
ALLIED WORKERS UNION

(Local 1)

Season’s Greetings
for peace on earth

Kathy and»Miguel Figuer¢
Stan and Sylvia Lowe
William (Moose) Mozdir
Olive and Stan Padgham
The Padgham’s, Popkum, B.
Jack Phillips

Ed Skeeles

John and Rita Tanche

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DEC. 19, 1980—Page 8

Season's Greetings

March, rally in Vancouver
continues BCTF campaign

Some 4,000 marching teachers
filled nearly two square city blocks
in downtown Vancouver Thursday
as the mass protests against the
government’s de-indexing of pen-
sions continued to mount and
teachers reaffirmed their pledge to
carry out a province-wide strike if
the government won’t come to the
bargaining table.

The mass rally in the Queen
Elizabeth Theatre and a march
through Vancouver streets to the
old courthouse followed closely
earlier demonstrations in Kelowna
and in Victoria where 3,500
teachers took their demands direct-
ly to finance minister Evan Wolfe. _

~ At one point during Thursday’s
action, demonstrators met their
own march, as they encircled a
complete city block and had to wait

; . to cross as hundreds more teachers

marched by.

Once at the courthouse, the huge
plaza became a sea of placards as
teachers poured in to hear rally
speakers and to sing once again
their parody of The Twelve Days of
Christmas, lampooning the Social
Credit government.

The numbers who turned out for
the march and rally underscored
the high priority teachers have
given to the issue as nearly 80 per-
cent of those who booked off for
the day came out. Some 5,000
teachers were off in Langley, Co-
quitlam, New Westminster and
Vancouver.

Concurrent with the demonstra-

i; Kamloops & District Labor Council

oe On 7 Earth

tion, a delegation of represen-
tatives of the B.C. Teachers’
Federation and retired teachers
took a mass telegram to Victoria to
reiterate the demand for the return
of indexed pensions and the
withdrawal of Bill 29 which caps
pension increases at eight percent.

One week earlier, some 3,500
teachers marched on Victoria for
the opening of the Legislature to
press that demand.

There, finance minister Evan
Wolfe was jeered loudly as he in-
sisted that teachers should ‘“‘be
responsible and think about the
future of all pensions.”

Asked by Wolfe to call for order,
BCTF president Al Blakey told the
minister: ‘‘I think what they (the
teachers) are saying is that they’ve
heard this before.”’

Blakey told therally to applause:
“Our strength here shows that the
government can’t get away with
platitudes. It is their intransigence
that forced us to unite and to take
this action.”’

Somewhat at odds with the
government’s stand were com-
ments by education minister Brian
Smith who promised to ‘‘register
your concerns strongly with cabi-
net.”’

His remarks, coupled with other
reports, have been seen as evidence
of a split within the Social Credit
cabinet over the contentious issue.
The teachers protest has gathered
great momentum since it began

several months ago and clearly has"

worried the Socreds whose hold 08
government has become increas
ingly precarious. :

At rallies in both Victoria and
Vancouver, placards which sal
tauntingly, ‘(Remember 1972” ap-
peared frequently — a reminder to
the Bennett government that it wa5
the effective political action by the
BCTF which figured prominently
in the defeat of the former W.A.C-
Bennett government.

NDP leader Dave Barrett,
whose government was swept into
power in the 1972 election, told thé
Victoria rally that it was the NDP
which introduced full indexing for
pensions in 1972. ;

‘‘You are not asking fof
something,’’ he said, noting that
the Socreds had not given teachers:
indexed pensions. ‘You are only
asking that something you won by
bargaining not be abolished
unilaterally by law.”’

Geasons |
Greetings |

‘to workerst

t and their
| families

| LLW.U.-New :
‘Westminster!

‘local Ladies’ |

Auxiliary |