FROM PAGE 5

Bill Goodacre is retiring as head of the
Terrace unemployment action centre, but
will retain his membership in Local 2924 of
the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The local, of which he is president, repres-
ents B.C.’s paid action centre co-ordinators.

Goodacre reports that the Kitimat, Ter-
Tace and District Labor Council and the
Terrace Anti-Poverty Group are keeping

the centre going on a day-to-day basis, but

hopes to have something more secure in the
way of funding by the fall. The need for the
Terrace centre has never been greater, he
Says. The area suffers “chronic” unem-
Ployment in excess of 30 per cent, the result
of federal cutbacks in the northern city, a
80vernment centre.

Goodacre has been compiling a list of the
centres hoping to remain open. He is also
Working on a scheme to provide long-term
funding for the centres.

“We had hoped to get something
together by the end of June. But with the
fight against Bills 19 and 20 taking up every-
One’s time, we know it’s going to take long
that that,” he relates.

The long term goal involves setting up
four regional “societies” to administer fund-
Ing for the centres in the north, the Okana-
8an and the Kootenays, and on Yancouver
Island. That doesn’t include the Lower
Mainland since it has the bulk of the trade
Union membership, the large Vancouver
and New Westminster labor councils and
their centres, and the Building Trades centre
in Burnaby.

Goodacre stresses that the main source of
continued funding should be trade unions.
For the time being the centres are seek-

Aubrey Burton
Bill Bennett
Burnaby
Campbell River
Comox Valley
Correspondence
Coquitlam

Effie Jones
Fishermen
Fort Lang
Fraser V
Kamloops

NO TO BILLS 19 AND 20!

Vancouver Unemployment Action Centre co-ordinator Mike Watrin speaks out
against Bill 19 at special labor council meeting. Behind him is centre secretary-
treasurer Garry Colley.

ing federal government job development
funding to train advocates. There are also
charities and church groups, but basically,

we like to stick with the trade unions

because they aren’t inclined to pressure us
to refrain from political controversies,” he
explains.

Goodacre worries that without adequate
funding, “the educational and related work

are things we’re going to have problems
maintaining.”

Is there a political role for the centres?

“Well, there’s not much use in having
them if they’re not going to be speaking out
on the issues as they come through the door.
I sometimes find it frustrating that the
energy level among the poor is so low.
That’s why it’s important that we have ade-

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Centres seek secure funding

quate funding for the educational and polit-
ical activities.”

Based on Goodacre’s information, the
following centres are planning to stay in
business: Prince Rupert, Prince George,
Terrace, Kelowna (incorporated into the
food bank), Castlegar/Trail, Gibsons (for
the Sunshine Coast), the Burnaby centre
run by the Building Trades unions, New
Westminster, Duncan, Port Alberni (run by
the Organization of Unemployed Workers)
and Powell River.

It’s “touch and go” for the centre in Pen-
ticton, while Williams Lake “looks promis-
ing,” Goodacre reports. Closed are the cen-
tresin Barriere, Nanaimo and Salmon Arm.

While not financed by a trade union per
se, the Unemployed Teachers Action
Centre — funded entirely by the B.C.
Teachers Federation — performs a similar
role to the labor council centres and is still in
business, co-ordinator Mel Lehan reports.

Founded in March, 1983, the centre has
become known recently for finding hun-
dreds of jobs for B.C.’s jobless teachers and
education school graduates south of the
border. Lehan, who predicts severe teacher
shortages for the province in the future, said
the departure of B.C.-trained teachers to
California, Texas and other U.S. states is a
statement about Social Credit restraint pol-
icies.

Socred policies are still a threat, says
Lehan. “Bill 20 (the proposed Teaching
Profession Act) can destroy the centre
because it can destroy the BCTF.”

The centre will be involved in the fight
against Bill 20. ““Whether or not a teacher is
unemployed, he or she is still a teacher, and
wants the right to include the issues of pov-
erty and racism in the curriculum.”

Surrey
Trail/Castlegar
Vancouver East
Vernon

Victoria
Westside

White Rock

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 29, 1987 e 23