Friday, January 28, 1983 Newsstand ES 18. price 40c Vol. 45, No. 4 SiIBUNE AS ‘Critical times for public sector — page 12 — f PU RADE ee men ft | Some 30 members and | } Supporters of Canadians | | for Democracy in Chile | Picketed the Chilean- | | '@gistry freighter Tolter at | Vancouver's Centennial the ship which is in port to Crop. members of the Interna- Picket, that they would not work On the ship’s cargo so long as the picket line was Up. The demonstrators, Who went on to the dock began, two hours. Significantly, their action came as the Pinochet regime began further austerity battered economy which Cy of 13 major companies Pier Wednesday, tem- | Porarily halting loading of | Pick up containers for | {Shipment of Chile’s fruit Longshoremen, | tional Longshoremen and | Warehousemen’s Union, | honored the protest | assuring CDC | President Elspeth Gardner | Measures to salvage its | Was marked last week by j the impending bankrupt- | cee we: ronercoe crs yor ron oem sae before the day shift | left after about | THE ROAD TO PEACE The full text of the Warsaw Pact’s proposals for peace — pages 4-8 — Pickets halt Chile ship loading |°°; TO — SEAN GRIFFIN Hl A majority of Vancouver city } council agreed Tuesday that a } referendum in which citizens voted 80 percent in favor of disarmament constituted a mandate, both for the civic and the federal government. In that spirit aldermen voted ina strong majority comunicate officially the results of the peace vote held during the Nov. 20 elec- tions to prime minister Pierre Trudeau and the federal cabinet, and other world governments. And in the face of virulent op- position from some right-wing councillors, the new progressive leaning council also decided to urge the federal government not to ““become involved in any new arms race supporting programs,’’ and to request a meeting with the four B.C. senators to express Van- couver citizens’ fears about nuclear annihilation. é The two-hour debate on the in- — itial three-point motion from alder- man Bruce Yorke of the Commit- See NO CRUISE page 11 PSTN OTA AUP UR TS ITE DECAL OTT Oe EIT, oF escent The people who staff the Unemployment Action Centre in Vancouver don’t see their ad- vocacy role as the sole answer to the question of organizing the region’s jobless. Since it first opened in mid- December, the new centre has been flooded with calls from jobless workers receiving the bureaucratic run-around from the ministry of human resources and the Unemployment In- surance Commission. And, as the centre has helped more and more people cut through the jungle of red tape to receive much needed welfare or UI benefits, the staff have seen the ranks of volunteers swell. - ‘“‘When we help. the unemployed with the day-to-day problems. of survival, then they have more time to think about what the real solutions to their problem should be,’’ asserted Kim Zander, the centre’s full- time co-ordinator. Some of those solutions will be presented in a three-point list of demands to UIC officials when Lower Mainland unemployed workers demonstrate at regional UI offices Feb. 7. Marchers will leave Robson Square following a noon assembly in an action organized by the Vancouver and District Labor Council’s Unemployed Committee, the organization which oversees the operations of the action centre. “I think once (UIC and MHR officials) realize that the unemployed are very serious and extremely angry and not willing to play games on the end of a phone anymore, they’ll reconsider the methods they use on claimants,’’. said Zander during one of several interviews constantly interrupted by phone calls. People have been phoning in a wide variety of complaints and entreaties for help in dealing with the agencies, which often seem determined to keep recipients from receiving their benefits. Zander, an unemployed shoreworker and member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, is the only paid * SS COORDINATOR KIM ZANDER staff member. The other are mainly jobless people from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom have been forced to become virtual experts overnight to deal with the confusing tangle of legalities and regulations governing welfare and UI benefits claims. The complaints can range from asimple request for help in filing a claim to distress calls from those TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON . . - phone rarely stops ringing whose despair has driven them to consider suicide. In the case of ‘‘Linda’’, incor- rect answers on her UI claims card left her without benefits from mid-November, when she applied, to mid-January. A cancer patient, she was forced to quit her job and apply for UI medical benefits. “No one told me how to See MEDICAL page 12 WAAR WARS