Faced with sharply rising un-
€mployment in B.C., the Van-
Solver and District Labor Council
-Tuesday night adopted a resolution
urging premier Bill Bennett to
make unemployment the main
Issue at the next session of the
Legislature, due to open Jan. 13.

This action came following
release this week in Ottawa of the
latest Statistics Canada figures
Which showed that the number of
Jobless in B.C. in November rose
by seven thousand, to a total of
88,000. This figure does not take
Into account recent layoffs, and an
additional nine or ten thousand
Jayoffs expected in the forest in-
dustry in December.

_Thelatest unemployment figures
‘Show a rise across Canada from

comme 48
EXD 48
ao

20:

Friday, December 10, 1976

VOL. 38, No. 49

<>

679,000 in October- to 708,000 in
November. Statistics Canada said
it was the worst “‘seasonally-
adjusted”’ unemployment rate for
November since 1960. 2

Despite this bleak jobless pic-
ture, finance minister Donald
MacDonald told a meeting of 10
provincial finance ministers in
Ottawa Tuesday that the long-term
predictions do not .envisage a
significant drop in unemployment
rates, and some provinces will
have unemployment levels ‘‘higher
than we hoped.”

Canada’s finance minister, who
is responsible for setting economic
policies and who introduced the
present anti-inflation program,
told the meeting that Ottawa will
stick to its present policy” that

Jobless rate worst since ‘60

NIGEL MORGAN

unemployment is not the priority
issue. The federal government’s
policy has been deliberately
designed to slow down the economy
and create higher unemployment
as a means of ‘fighting inflation.”

Lashing out at the failure of
Ottawa and Victoria to take action
on the unemployment crisis, B.C.
Communist Party leader Nigel
Morgan, told a meeting of the
party’s provincial executive
Monday night that the party will
undertake a province-wide cam-
paign to demand action from Ot-
tawa and Victoria to create
thousands of new jobs.

After hearing Morgan’s report,
the party executive decided to
address a special letter to the

provincial government outlining a

¢

‘program of action to meet the

unemployment crisis, and will
mount a major drive to make the
demand for jobs a key issue at the
coming provincial session of the
Legislature.

Morgan said the party will seek
united action with the NDP, trade
unions and other groups, to halt the
layoffs. ‘“There is no reason why
the working people should be the
first to get it in the neck when
economic conditions become
tough. They and their families are
not expendable, and we intend to

fight to see to it that layoffs are _
halted and action taken to provide

thousands of new jobs in B.C.”’
Among the demands the B.C.
Communist Party will place before
See JOBS, pg. 12

r

Bo

we

Some 60 trade unionists

_ Imprisonment is the very least
that Chilean refugee Randolpho
Bo MOs can expect if the Canadian
vernment holds firm in its in-
een to réturn him into the hands
€ Chilean military authorities,
: €secretary of the Canadians for
ae racy in Chile said this week.
“ee Radosevic said that Ramos
aS ordered deported either to his
ae Chile or Brazil after he
sun ed Canada illegally last
papier and he has just been
a Used the right to appeal his
portation order. Canadians for
furmecracy in Chile will launch a
el appeal on his behalf,
dosevic said, and the Vancouver
Soup was calling upon justice
Minister Ron Basford to grant
‘amos political asylum in Canada.

amos was a sailor in the

Chilean merchant marine at the

demonstrated outsid
Monday demanding that scheduled hearings
vestigation of the UFAWU be open
eit protest—and the publicity surrounding It—
= the hearings. At right, UFAWU secretary J
wotice of adjournment, posted Wednesday. (See story).

-serving was

e the Citizenship Court
into the Combines

to the public. Two days later,

ack Nichol reads the

time of the 1973 fascist coup, but
deserted the merchant marine
when the ship on which he was

converted into a
to hold ea zn

litical prisoners arrested | y the
Chilean Fathorities. “He said that
he refused to be a jailor for the
fascists and deserted the merchant
marine, which, under Pinochet, is

an extension of the mavy, so

technically heis a naval deserter,”

sevice said.

set eventually made his way to
Vancouver aS @ sailor on a
Brazilian ship, and jumped ship
last June in the hopes of remaining
i nada.
Mater said that Canadians
for Democracy in ; Chile was
launching 4 campaign to win
public support for Ramos and his

See CHILE, pg. 12

prison ship

prompted adjournment

FISh Se

HEARING Ss
COMBINES
: INVESTIGATION

fae te

The Restrictive Trade Practices
Commission this week adjourned
indefinitely the secret proceedings
of its Combines Act investigation
into the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union after
demonstrations by trade unionists
and demands for open hearings
made the investigation an object of
considerable public controversy.

Although presiding com-
missioner Frank Roseman made it
clear that the hearings had not
been cancelled, the adjournment
was nevertheless seen as an in-
dication that the federal depart-
ment of consumer and corporate
affairs, under whose direction the
hearings were called, was sen-
sitive to the publicity and to the
demand voiced throughout the
trade union movement that the
action against the UFAWU_ be
dropped.

AD IJOU R NED
UPS es

The B.C. Federation of Labor
whose secretary, Len Guy, was one
of those ordered to appear before
the Commission last week
demanded that hearings. be. con-
ducted in public pursuant to sec-
tion 27 of the Combines Act.

The Vancouver and District
Labor Council echoed that demand
Tuesday and also called on federal
justice minister Ron Basford to
stop the unwarranted interference
in the affairs of a trade union.

Although scheduled to begin
Monday in Citizenship Court in
Vancouver, the hearings never did
actually get underway but the
actions of the commission over the
course of two days confirmed the
UFAWU charge that the in-
vestigation was being conducted
by ‘“‘star chamber’’ methods.

None of the trade unionists or-
dered to appear before the com-
missioner including UFAWU
secretary Jack Nichol and
president Homer Stevens as well
as Guy, was told of the nature of
any charges against him nor of the
purpose of the hearing.

Unionists pressed the demand
for open hearings to commissioner
Roseman when hearings opened
Monday but were faced with
repeated temporary ad-
journments, a change in venue and
a declaration that the hearings
would not be open although no
reason was given for conducting
the proceedings behind closed
doors.

The Commission sought to force
the issue of private hearings
Tuesday when it moved over to the
smaller offices of the consumer
and corporate affairs department
and barred the doors with
department officials and security
guards but the insistence of the
UFAWU of its right to attend and
the wide publicity given the in-
cident virtually precluded the kind
of secret session that the com-
mission obviously wanted.

Another temporary adjournment
put the hearings over to Wed-
nesday at which time the ad-
journment was made indefinite by
Robert Bertrand, director of in-
vestigations and research for the

See UFAWU pg. 12