en ell, ‘ me at siti 1 Hie | an No. 3 Vancouver, British Columbia, January 18, 1952 Whine LLY Gh ] qi Cf PRICE FIVE-CENTS Petition demands: STOP 19-CENT BUS FARE FIRE RUBBER STAMP PUC ee Walkout of several hundred | hardrock miners working on the Mountain tunnel being con- ‘Structed by the Aluminum Com- Pany of Canada in the Kemano district tied up the $160 million Project this week. Another Walkout of 40 miners at Jones Lake halted BCElectric’s power Project there, a $6,500,000 job, Scheduled to bring into produc- tion 82,000 ‘h.p. Miners working on the Kem- ano tunnel are members of the Znternational Mine,. Mill and Smelter Workers Union. In hiring out for the job, they be- came members of the AFL Building Laborers Union, which aS a contract to provide men is the entire project. Failure © recognize experienced min- ane as skilled workers and pay €m miners’ rates led to the Walkout, Refusing to continue Working for laborers’ wages of 0 an hour, the miners or- a pe and took job 7 : settled, get their grievance sen icials of Morrison-Knud- Repco eny of Canada, con- sist or on the Kemano job, in- ~ that ithe trouble is of a Minor nature.” Miners stage walkout | on Alcan tunnel job \\ LaVIL Tab ae “You AIN'T GOING = NYWHERE TILL YOU, AN aU THE BUS? +2 \ NN ATA SS YANAY ma AR AQ WO TOSSES ‘ SAA You're paving for the BCER—why not take it over? Commission provoked Toronto transit strike in bid to impose 10-cent fare, blame union The executive of Division 101, , 2ncouver Street Railwaymen’s Veveelth this week sent a message Support ito the TTC Street ‘allway Union, whose 4,700 members are striking for a $1.55 ‘Ourly wage rate. one are the facts on the sreat TTC strike: $1 age workers’ demands for ‘be an hour is just and can Paid at once. The 15 cents an hour wage increase can be paid without imposing the 10- cent fare. ® Toronto Transportation Commissioners flatly reject honest negotiations for a settle- ment because they want to pro- long the strike; they want to break the TTC employees’ union and get the 10-cent fare. Continued on page 7 See TTC Mine known death trap STELLARTON, NSS. The McGregor mine, where 19 local coal miners met death on Monday this week in the worst Canadian mining disaster in 11 years, has long been recognized as a potential death trap. Only last year its main pit, the Allan shaft, was closed down because of dangerous gases. Petitioners will be on downtown streets in Van- couver this Saturday asking citizens to add_ their names to a demand that city council flatly reject any attempt to increase stteet car and bus fares to 15 cents a ride or two-for-a-quarter, and calling on Premier Byron Johnson to dismiss immediately Pub- lic Utilities Commissioners D. K. Penfold and R. E. Potter for failing to protect the interests.of the com- On Monday morning, Janu- ary 21, at 10 am., delegations from Civic Reform Association, community organizations, trade unions and other bodies will lobby city council to present these demands. Sparking the campaign against the B.C. Electric threat to boost transit fares is Effie Jones, .consistent ‘battler for lower fares and one of the lead- ers of the Civic Reform Asso- ciation, which is launching the petition campaign. In last month’s civic elections, Mrs. Jones, fighting Non-Parti- san policies as an aldermanic candidate, warned Vancouver citizens that BCER was plan- ning to jump fare rates “as soon as a Non-Partisan council is safely returned to office.” PUC Chairman D. K. Pen- fold brought down the wrath of the entire trade union move- ment on his head this week when he urged city councils to fight wage increases of unions in the public utility field. Van- couver and District Trades and Labor Council (AFL-TLC) con- demned Penfold and his fellow- commissioner, R. E. Potter, ‘for meddling in trade union bar- gaining, and demanded Pen- fold’s resignation. In principle, the duty of the PUC is to control private utili- ties in the interests of consum- mers. In practice, PUC mem- bers have always acted as a rubber stamp for BCER re- quests ‘This time Penfold; in a race with BCE vice-president W. C. Mainwaring to see who could serve the company most diligently, put his public stamp of approval on another fare in- crease even before it had for- mally been made. “Transit fares are going up,” said Penfold during a hearing Continued on back page See BCER