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