48

VOL. 38, No. 11

Friday, March 19, 1976

s

Speaking to a press’ conference in Montreal

last week, Quebec

Federation of Labor president Louis Laberge outlined the united
Campaign of Quebec’s Common Front against the federal and provincial

Wage control programs. (See story).

—Sean Griffin photo

BCTF voices protest
over cutback threats

Education minister Pat
McGeer’s threats to reduce school
board budgets by up to 10 per cent
has left the province’s teachers
Very uncertain as to the future of
education in B.C., but united in
their opposition to cutbacks in
Education spending.

B.C. Teachers Federation
President Bill Broadley said that if

cGeer sticks to his statements of

February 27 in which he called
Mcreases in local school board
budgets, which averaged 19.3 per
Cent throughout the province,
unrealistic’? and demanded
Tollbacks to within the federal
Wage guidelines, up to 7,000
teachers will be laid off.

Broadley said that when
cGeer’s axe falls it will be the

€reatest single disruption to
€ducation in the history of this
Province.” As well as reducing the
Number of teachers, the budget
Cuts will increase class sizes by
Some 30 per cent, and bring about
the elimination of a number of
Special and remedial . programs
Within the school system.

The BCTF president said that the
10 per cent cutback figure men-
tioned by McGeer is misleading
because in actuality it would rep-
resent a reduction in school ser-
vices of 25 per cent. Broadley
explained that that was so because
of the peculiarities of school
financing, which operates on a
calendar year basis, while school
costs are determined by the
September to June school year.

With McGeer’s pronouncements
coming in the middle of the school
year, it would be impossible to

See BUDGET ps. 3

The three trade union centres
comprising Quebec’s Common
Front merged their forces last
week to wage a united campaign
against wage controls as labor
throughout the country began final
preparations -for the massive
demonstrations, called for March
22 in Ottawa.

The unity of the Common Front
federations around the wage
control issue was seen as a major
blow against the Quebec govern-
ment of Robert Bourassa which
has sought to cripple labor
militancy in the province with
successive pieces of anti-labor
legislation including the latest one,
Bill 64, the provincial counterpart
to the federal wage control
legislation.

Quebec Federation of Labor
president Louis Laberge told a
press conference in Montreal
Thursday that he had earlier called
on the leaders of both the Con-
federation of National Trade Union
(CSN) and the Quebec Teachers
Corporations (CEQ) to join the
Federation in a united effort to
defeat wage control.

Thursday’s conference was
called to announce agreement on a
joint campaign and to issue a
statement outlining the stand of the
three centres.

Signed by Marcel Pepin, Yvon
Charbonneau and Laberge, the
statement called on Quebec
workers to ‘‘unite in protest’’ and
to ‘make March 22 a day of op-
position to Bill C-73 and Quebec’s
Bill 64.”

Workers who have the right to
strike on March 22 were urged to

utilize that right on March 22 to
begin their strikes and _ so
demonstrate their opposition to the
controls.

The three leaders also un-
derscored the government’s
purpose in imposing the controls
and told the conference: ‘“Those
who thought the Trudeau and
Bourassa governments had the will
to fight inflation must be disen-
chanted. There can no longer be
any doubt that it is workers who
are being hit while prices and
profits are still climbing.

“The Pepin Commission has
already used its hatchet on some 40
collective agreements while at the
same time, the Montreal Gas
Company has received
authorization to increase its rates
by an average of 30 per cent. The
same is true of Quebec Hydro and
Bell Telephone.

‘All workers in the public and
the private sector and particularly
those in the pulp and paper and the
food sector, have been hit badly by
Bill C-73. In Quebec, the teachers,
maintenance employees in schools,
Quebec Hydro employees,
university employees and
municipal employees have been
affected by Bill 64, the provincial
counterpart to Bill C-73.

The statement also pointed to
cutbacks in social services and
education introduced by the
federal and provincial govern-
ments under the guise of “‘fiscal
restraint” as a further attack on
working people and the poor.
“That is apparent in budget
restrictions,” it said, ‘‘while the
same is true for other measures

VANCOUVER EAST BYELECTION

“The main question in the
byelection in Vancouver East is to
deliver a crushing defeat to Social
Credit and its big business
policies,’”’ Nigel Morgan,

Students in Victoria

About 200 university and college
Students from all areas of the
Province protested anticipated
‘“uts to university and college
budgets at the March 17 opening of
“Ne provincial legislature in Vic-
ria,

The protest was part of an
°Verall campaign launched by the

-C. Students Federation last week
© increase public awareness of
Teductions in post-secondary
€ducation spending and to pressure

© government to make more
Money available.

Organizers of the rally said that
lere were representatives from
Virtually every post-secondary
€ducationa! institution in the

province including a contingent of
about 20 who hitch-hiked to Vic-
toria from Nelson’s Notre Dame
University. Notre Dame faces the
gravest danger from the cutbacks,
and even at this date it is not known
for sure whether or not the
university will open its doors to
students in September.

The uncertainty surrounding the
continued operations of NDU
arises from the fact that the
provincial government and
education minister Pat McGeer
have refused to commit them-
selves to providing funds for. its
1976-77 operations. In a meeting
with student representatives

during the rally, McGeer would
see STUDENTS pg. 12

provincial leader of the Com-
munist Party declared in a
statement this week.

“The Communist Party will not
be nominating a candidate in this
byelection in Vancouver East,”
Morgan said. “The Communist
Party, while critical of the policies
of right-wing social democracy, as
exemplified by the NDP leader-
ship, recognizes the urgency of
ensuring a resounding defeat of the
Socreds, and will concentrate on
that objective.”’

The statement follows:

“The Communist Party ran 13
candidates in the provincial
election last December on its own
program and policies. We hope to
double that number in the next
provincial election.

“This byelection will be watched
all across this province. It will be a
test for the Social Credit govern-
ment. The Socreds have- aban-
doned all pretence of controlling
prices, profits, interest rates and
taxes. They have committed their
administration to support of
Trudeau’s wagecutting, unem-

ployment-creating program, Bill
C-73.

They have more than doubled
ICBC insurance premiums.
Hospital and health provisions,
education, and vital services to
people are being slashed. Hydro
rates have been hoisted. Increased
government bus and ferry fares
are soon to be announced. Welfare
is being denied to those in need,
and Mincome is to be based on a
means test.

“What is needed is a powerful
anti-monopoly movement and
struggle, to bring a change in the
balance of forces in favor of the
working people and democratic
circles in B.C. :

“Reactionary, right-wing forces
are. playing upon uncertain, con-
fused positions of a considerable
number of middle class people as a
result of the monopoly offensive
and developing crisis, to push
politics to the right. It was this shift
(a consolidation of right-wing
Liberals and Tories around the
Socreds) and the NDP govern-
ment’s. position of making un-

see CP pg. 12

including the elimination of in-
dexing for family allowances and
the many restrictions which have
been added to the Unemployment
Insuranee Commission
regulations.

“The government wants the
population in general and working
people in particular to pay for the
cost of inflation. Yet it is workers
who are the victims of the crisis

see LABOR pg. 12

Fed assails
B.C. controls

The B.C. Federation of Labor,
following a meeting of its executive
council last week, condemned the
announced intention of the
provincial government to impose
wage controls on-120,000 provincial
government. employees - and
demanded an immediate recon-
sideration of the proposed action.

Federation secretary Len Guy
said that imposition of wage
guidelines would effectively mean
“the denial of free collective
bargaining.

“Employees face a ‘take it or
leave it’ situation which is com-
pletely contrary to free collective
bargaining,’’ he declared.

The provincial Board of In-
dustrial Relations has also in-
dicated that it is considering im-
posing its own version of wage
control, in the form of restrictions
on overtime pay.

In a letter issued this month it
noted that provisions in the
Minimum Wage Act (1975) which
stipulate that-all overtime be paid
at double time were “‘in violation of
the federal guidelines’ according
to its interpretation.

The Board has advanced the
position that, in seeking overtime
permits, employers should vary
payment of overtime rates in order
to bring them into conformity with
the guidelines.

The Board is seeking the views of
both employers and unions on the
question. The B.C. Federation of
Labor and the Labor councils in-
tend to make a joint submission
although the labor council has
already voiced the opinion that the
proposal is a “direct wage cut.”

Vander Zalm
policies
denounced

—page 2