A signal advance Grape workers victory a grand page in labor unity “Something happened in July in California that marked an end of an inspirational and important chapter in human history and in the development of the working class in this country. “Although there are still holdout ranches, the history has been made; workers in the grape fields of California have been organized. ...”’ So writes the People’s World of San Francisco as it hails the victories of the Farm Workers Union in unionizing fruit and veg- table field workers of Cali. fornia. “The people who have won are the salt of the earth,” says the People’s World. ‘‘They have provided an example of what is possible to win when the people — the black, the brown, the Asian, the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, the men and women who must work with their minds and hands to live — stick together.’ More than three-fourths of all the state’s table grape acreage are now under contract with the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez, union head, reported, and Fresno area growers are expected to sign shortly. : Orange pickers are joining the battle for unionization, and Chavez has advised lettuce growers of the Salinas Valley that he is prepared to show that the UF W Organizing Committee is their workers’ choice. Chavez said that everything’ from barley, potatoes and cotton would be covered by union agreements before long, for there will be no such thing as union and non-union crews on the same ranch. In Vancouver, union label grapes are available at a number of independent and chain food stores. Ask for them. Mass picket of construction and pulp mill workers at Booth Fisheries, Petit de Gras, Nova Scotia, demonstrating in support of United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, following the arrest of striking trawl fishermen, sentenced to prison terms for ‘contempt.’ SPEC brief Cont'd from pg. 2 taining executive powers as severe as those found in the Health Act. There are many small communities in B.C. which are largely dependent on a single large forest industry unit, and if, as seems only rational to contem- plate, it becomes necessary on ecological grounds to put a stop to any such units, a massive social problem will exist for which answers must be developed now. The brief gives some sug- gestions as to how the provincial government and the com- munity at large can become involved in developing answers. ‘‘Where it is clear what the character of the enemy is (i.e. pollution), then the general direc- tion of community effort is plain.”” SPEC sees the anti-pol- lution and environmental control struggle as a war to be fought on all levels and on all fronts. The obvious problems of the forest industry brings to mind that the industry is composed of private firms that contemplate expansion. The brief points out that a large mill produces as much waste material as a city of: 100,000 population. MILL WASTE “Pulp mill waste disposal ranks first as the most serious source of pollution today in the province, followed by pesticides applications, mine-mill waste disposal and domestic waste dis- posal,’’ states a Canadian Fisheries report quoted in the brief. The MacMillan-Bloedel saw- mill at Chemainus, the mills at Crofton, Harmac, Sproat Lake, Alberni, Prince George, Rayonier at Port Alice, the Celgar Mills on Watson Island are cited speci- fically in the brief as major polluters of river, lakes and sea. ' SPEC maintains that use of herbicides to ‘‘produce forests of commercially convenient types’’ is ecological idiocy, and the conception profoundly ignorant. The brief also goes into the air pollution of the forest industrial plants, and other phases of damage to the environ- ment from the same sources. -Part 1 of the submission sums up with the statement that the “‘greater part of decision- making with regard to forest industry has lain in private hands.”’ They quote J.V. Clyne, Mac- Millan-Bloedel head as observ- ing: ‘‘We frequently receive appeals to abandon our logging plans in one wilderness area or another in order to leave its soli- tude undisturbed. . .” SPEC states: ‘‘Apart from the obvious fact that the primary issue in environmental control is not ‘‘solitude’’ but ecological integrity (the plain brutal fact of survival of the species), it is important to note that Mr. Clyne’s reference is to “appeals.”’ In the past that has undoubtedly been the case. ‘“‘Just as certainly if sig- nificant decisions-in so large a matter as the dispositions of industry in the forests of this province are left in private hands, captains of industry like Mr. Clyne will make their deci- sions primarily on the state of the market and the state of the company’s profit and loss state ment.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1 970—PAGE 8 - showed B.C. Tel phone | the Northwood Mill at hike unjustified ““A strong demand for govern- ment takeover of B.C,’s telephone utility is the only answer to Company president J.E. Richardson’s announce- ment that ‘careful consideration is continuing’ on an application ‘for a rate increase’in the near future,’’ Nigel Morgan, Pro- vincial leader of the Communist Party told the Tribune today. “The Company announcement is a feeler by this U.S.-con- trolled monopoly, whose rates are already 50 to 100 percent higher than the charges of government, or city-owned telephone systems in the prairie provinces,’’ Morgan charged. “‘Richardson’s admission of ‘higher net profits’ and that the Company -‘‘anticipates a modest increase in earning’ exposes their intention to gouge their 1,063,025 subscribers for whatever the traffic will bear. Public ownership is the only answer. Take the profit out, and rates of this essential utility could be substantially reduced’’. “Their Annual Report shows gross revenues increased from $75.9 to $84.4 million, and while it operating costs (salaries, equipment, wages, etc.) up 12.3 percent, interest allowances and other deduc- tions jumped 16.6 percent,’’ he pointed out. ‘‘However that’s only part of the story, because B.C. Tel can’t afford to show a profit that would create diffi- culties for the Board of Trans- port Commissioners in justi- fying the outrageous tariffs it permits. EQUAL RIGHTS Cont'd from P. 1 Fisheries get as little as $4.00 a day. Compare those rates with those of their UFAWU brothers on the Pacific Coast — at least 25 to 50 percent higher. It is evident why Maritime fishermen are fighting with such determina- tion for Union ‘rights. And it is obvious why companies — their governments, ‘“‘labour’’ depart- ments, police and courts, press and radio have been marshalled to block unionization, and deny UFAWU recognition and rights long since granted and written into law for other workers every where. Injunctions, courts and the RCMP have been used to OUTLAW ALL PICKETING. Forty-five citizens have been charged with criminal contempt for peacefully picketing in defiance of the abrogation of their basic democratic rights. One union member has been given a nine-month jail term to serve as a ‘‘deterrent to others.” Seven were given thirty- day sentences; and six, twenty days. Thirty-one more are still facing court sentences. Strategy of the companies is to starve out the fishermen of Canso, Mulgrave and Petit du Gras; and with the assistance of the government, RCMP and courts to intimidate the fishermen, who are waging a couragéous and determined struggle for their rights, into deserting their union and returning to work.on the companies arbitrary and dictatorial terms. But, the fishermen, their wives and families, the Canadian Seafood Workers Union in the plants and the citizens of Canso, Mulgrave and Petit du Gras will not be intimidated. In spite of the odds, they are fighting back — writing another heroic chapter in the struggle of Canadian labour for a union. Consolidated Foods, with assets totalling $365 million and net profits of $87 million, through its subsidiary Booth Fisheries has been granted annually two million dollars of public funds by the Federal Government as a subsidy to build trawlers. And Acadia, which has been sub-. sidized by over $342 million for trawlers has received a $9 million loan from the Nova Scotia government. Instead of permitting the Federal and Nova Scotia Liberal governments to continue “liberally’’ dipping into taxpayers money for these for- eign-controlled companies, the demand must be raised for the nationalization of these monopolies, for firm and immed- iate government action to put an end to foreign exploitation, to utilize Canadian fishery resources for the people’s benefit, and to reactivate the Maritime economy by providing a decent standard of living for this vital industry. Rank and file trade unionists throughout the Maritimes have risen to support of the Nova Scotia fishermen. Farmers, on the urging of the National Farm Union, have donated generously of fruit and vegetables, butter and eggs. Moral, financial and political support is being rallied across the country. But much more needs to be done! Nova Scotia fishermen are engaged in a crucial struggle against an 18th century type of feudal dictatorship. Their problems underscore the complete inade- quacy of Canadian and Nova Scotian ‘‘labour’’ legislation. Nova Scotia fishermen have demonstrated they will no longer accept slave labour conditions. They are fighting for their rights, and the rights of unorganized workers all across the whole breadth of Canada. Union locals, labour councils, federations, and the CLC and ~ CNTU, as well as all democratic Canadians from coast to coast should rally to their support. Demand of Ottawa and the Nova Scotia government that fishermen be given the rights enjoyed by other workers. Insist that labour laws be amended. to - end the situation which the com- panies are using to refuse collec- tive bargaining. : Let us see that everything possible is done to see these cour- ageous working people are not starved out. Every dollar counts in this kind of a struggle, every resolution, every expression of solidarity helps in the battle against such odds. Nerve gas boosts U.K. © nervousness WASHINGTON— While Penta- gon circles wrestled with the mounting domestic opposition to the transport of deadly nerve gas by rail across Southern states, the State Department was faced with a foreign objec tion. The gas is to be buried next week, according to present Army plans, in 16,000 feet of water some 250 miles out in the Atlantic. The 418 vaults of the deadly posion are to be hauled by rail from Anniston, Ala. arsenal to a port city where it is to be loaded aboard a ship for ocean burial. A number of congressmen have registered protests and Mayor Ronnie Thompson, of Macon, Georgia, has threatened . to stop the train at the city line. He has announced that he will seek a Federal court injunction to block the shipment. Meanwhile, Washington has received news that the British are very unhappy about the ocean disposal plans. Some British scientists argue that ocean currents will inevitably bring poisonous - substances to the shores of Europe as well as adversely affecting marine life. From London, British sources reported that public officials 10 Bermuda and the Bahamas were alarmed at the disposal plans. Residents of the two British islands are concerned that the Gulf Stream will carry the poisonous wastes to their shores.