Friday, September 9, 1977

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48

Vol. 39, No. 35

RIiBUNE

Colin Gabelmann, (left) political education director for the B.C. Federation of Labor and Mark Mosher,

Communist Party candidate in the federal riding of Comox-Alberni were among several speakers at the
annual Labor Picnic in Parksville on Labor Day which drew some 800 people. Alberni NDP MLA Robert
Skelly and Port Alberni alderman George McKnight also addressed the crowd on a program that included
Bargain at Half Price and Tom Hawken and Doug Stewart.

—George Gidora photos

‘Cease the Combines
attack' demands VLC

’_ The labor movement took the
first steps this week in a-major
Campaign to counter the Combines
attack against the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers and
press the demand for full

Tgaining rights for fishermen
Under the provincial labor code.

Delegates to the Vancouver and
District Labor Council
' Unanimously endorsed a four-part
Tesolution Tuesday calling on
Solicit or-general Francis Fox and
Consumer and corporate affairs
Minister Tony Abbott to:

© Drop all charges against

AWU members;

© Cease once and for all the
Corhbines harassment of the
United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union;

© Hold any future hearings in

Public and investigate the fish

Chile events
Sept. 10, 11

The fourth anniversary of the
fascist coup in Chile will be
Marked in Vancouver this weekend

Y a special conference Saturday,
_10a.m., at the Canadian Memorial
Church, 16th Ave. at Burrard St.,
and a concert Sunday evening, 8
P.m., at the Queen Elizabeth
Playhouse.

Organized by the Canadians For

mocracy in Chilein co-operation

_ With the Vancouver Labor Council, |

turday’s conference will hear
see CHILE pg. 8

companies which constitute the
real monopoly in the fishing in-

dustry.
An additional part of the
resolution demanded that

provincial labor. minister Allan
Williams give to fishermen the
same rights presently guaranteed
other workers under the provisions
of the labor code.

The council’s resolution comes
just a week before seven members
of the UFAWU — three of them
union officers — are to appear in
provincial court to face charges
“willfully impeding an inquiry:
under the Combines Investigation

‘secretary

Act’,, the latest attack by the
Combines branch against the
union.

UFAWU president Jack Nichol,
George Hewison,
welfare director Bert Ogden and
former president Homer Stevens
as well as Walter Tickson, Ken
Robinson and Dave McIntosh are
charged with the offence which
carries a maximum penalty of a
$5,000 fine and/or two years’ im-
prisonment. They appear in court
Sept. 12. :

The charges are allegedly based

see VLC pg. 8

The Social Credit government
has launched an “‘all-out assault on
unorganized workers of B.C.,’’ the
B.C. Federation of Labor charged
in response to the introduction of
Bill 89, the B.C. Labor Code
Amendment Act, into’ the
legislature Wednesday.

‘*Bill 89 is totally out of step with
the public interest,” Federation
secretary Len Guy declared. ‘It is
an all-out assault on unorganized
workers. It should never have been
introduced.”’

The legislation — which labor
minister Allan Williams admitted
was never discussed with labor —
reworks the B.C. labor code to
make it more difficult to establish
union organization.

Guy said Wednesday that a
detailed analysis of the Bill reveals
three main areas of government
attack on labor: ‘‘First, and
clearly the most astounding, is the
move to strengthen the employer’s
position in thwarting attempts of
workers to organize into trade
unions. Sections 2 and 3 of the Bill
give employers virtual carte
blanche to propagandize and in-
timidate employees. against union
organization. é

“Second, the Bill is designed to
deny the right of union representa-
tion to thousands of B.C. workers
who have already chosen to
become union members. Amend-
ments to the definition of “‘em-
ployees” can be expected to lead to
a substantial number of employer
applications to have workers who
exercise even the smallest amount
of supervisory functions excluded
from the bargaining unit.

‘‘And third,’”’ Guy said, “Section
5of the Bill isan obvious attempt to
undermine the efforts of the Labor
Relations Board to premote
healthy industrial relations. By
destroying the Board’s ability to
set policy precedents and changing
those policies to ‘guidelines,’ the
government will be able to appoint
Board members who can com-
pletely ignore and undermine past
LRB policy.”’

The Federation secretary ter-
med the sections of the Bill that
require larger percentages for
certifications and for representa-

tion votes “unnecessary and un-
warranted.”

“Bill 89 is an employer-oriented
Bill that tips the scales even fur-
ther in their favor,”’ he said. “‘It
must therefore lead to further
industrial unrest and confrontation
in the long run.” |

The president of the B.C. and
Yukon Building Trades Council
called Bill 89 “the tip of the iceberg
of right-to-work laws.” Jim Kin-
naird told the Tribune that the
philosophy of the labor code was to
encourage organization, but ‘‘the

see RIGHT pg. 8

Release of
Pretoria

12 pressed

Vancouver labor added yet
another voice to the worldwide
campaign to free the Pretoria 12 as
delegates to the Vancouver and
District Labor Council sent wires

to prime minister Trudeau, the- sis

South African Embassy and South
African prime minister Vorster
“strongly protesting the in-
carceration of these South African
patriots who are striving to bring

_ an end to the reprehensible system

of apartheid and to establish
democratic and human rights for
all citizens of South Africa.”

The resolution, which was
unanimously endorsed by the
council, called for an end to the
tortures to which the 12 have been
subjected and for their release.

Alderman Harry Rankin had
earlier addressed the council
meeting urging delegates to take
action in their unions on behalf of
the 12 who are now before the
courts in Pretoria.

The Pretoria 12 — eleven men
and one woman — have been on
trial since May 11, charged under
the notorious Terrorism Act with
having assisted the underground
organization of the African
National Congress. The maximum
penalty on conviction is death.

EDITORIAL

When prime minister Pierre
Trudeau travels to Washington,
D.C. Thursday to meet US.
president Jimmy Carter he is
expected to sign an agreement
approving the Alcan gas pipeline

“If he does, it will be one of the

darkest days in Canada’s history.

Before leaving for Washington,
the federal cabinet is expected to
give its approval to the terms of an
agreement reached last Friday
between Canada’s chief negotiator
Allan MacEachen and U.S. energy
secretary James. Schlesinger.
According to press reports (the
actual details have been kept
secret) Canada retreated on each
of the major points of negotiation.

When Trudeau went before
Parliament to seek approval in
principle of the Alcan pipeline, two
of the major conditions he lay down
before Canada would approve the
line were that the pipeline be
shifted eastward to Dawson to
provide for a future link-up with
MacKenzie Valley gas; and that
the U.S. agree to a $200 million
Heritage Fund.

Even with these concessions the
pipeline constituted a gross
betrayal of Canada’s national

interests, But it now appears that.

federal government negotiators
have agreed to forego both the
Dawson diversion and the Heritage
Fund in return for a compromise

more favorable to the U.S.

Is it any wonder that Friday
night’s news reports quoted an
unnamed federal cabinet minister
as expressing concern that
“Canadians will now charge the
government with selling out to the
UG 22270

In a letter to B:C. Communist
Party chairman and Tribune
editor Maurice Rush, dated August
24, Allan MacEachen, then acting
prime minister and subsequently
chief negotiator, said: ‘‘There is a
point beyond which it will not be in
Canada’s interest to proceed with a
northern pipeline.”’

The Tribune maintains that the
pipeline was not in Canada’s in-
terest to begin with. The latest
retreat underscores the fact that

the pipeline is a bad deal for
Canada. Canada should pull out of
the Alcan deal.

In the same letter quoted above,
MacEachen said: ‘‘The govern-
ment has undertaken, should a
pipeline be proceeded with, to
introduce legislation in Parliament
in order that Canadians, through
their elected representatives, will
have an opportunity to express
their views on the nature of the
agreed project.”

Canadians should demand that
prime minister Trudeau not sign
the agreement with the U.S. on the
Alcan pipeline. If he does, they
should demand of their MPs that
they reject the sellout agreement
when it comes before Parliament.

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