LABOR SCENE: ‘Probe mine safety’ urge - Tribune FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1967 unions after disaster Responding promptly to the appeal for the Natal Mine Dis- aster Fund, the Vancouver IWA Local 1-217 this week donated $500 to the fund in aid of the widows and children of the mine explosion victims, Local president Syd Thompson in a telegram to Premier Ben- nett, stressed the fact that Work- mens Compensation Board allow- ances are now totally inadequate to meet other than a bare sub- sistence, and emphasized the need for greatly upped compensation payments. . The IWA spokesman also point- ed out in his wire to the premier that more: than five times the number of workers killed and injured in the Natal blast “are killed each year in the B,C, lumber industry”. Thompson also called upon the government to set up a royal commission inquiry into safety standards as they apply to the mining industry gen- erally. Other trade unions and public bodies in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are also plan- ning donations to the Natal Dis- aster Fund, A wildcat strike for safety underground commenced at Ze- ballos Iron Mines at 6:15 p.m., April 8th, 1967, The miners at Zeballos, all members of the International Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers (Canada), have utterly exhausted their pa- tience with the procrastinations of the B,C, Labor Relations Board, An application for decertifii- eation of the 3-Way Pact unions filed in 1966 has been ignored by the Board, An application for cer- tification by Mine Mill is also pending before the Board, In acertification vote two years ago, the Labor Relations Board destroyed the ballots before they were counted and thwarted the wishes of the men to select the union of their choice. Four separate serious under- . ground accidents, in which four miners, all members of Mine Mill, were badly injured in recent weeks, has the men up in arms, The 3-Way Pact unions have ignored the hazardous conditions - under which the miners workand have done nothing to alleviate them. The 100 men involved are picketing the properties of the company, including the docks, where a Japanese vessel is un- able to take on its cargo of con- centrates, The Mine-Mill dispute at Ze- ballos, currently termed “wild- cat” by the mine operators and the news media, is primarily an effort of the miners to enforce safety regulations, when 4ll other attempts to cut down the rising incidence of mine accidents and injury to miners have produced no results, The Mine- Mill Union had urged upon Labor Minister Peterson to intervene in the dispute, and par- ticularly on the issue of safety hazards, The miners voted unan- imously Monday of this week to continue their work stoppage until some action is taken on the underground safety issue. xk * A referendum ballot of the B,C, membership of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU) has given its Executive Board an 83,6-percent vote of approval for giving the union national jurisdiction. A union press statement this week says: “Now that the neces- sary changes in constitution and dues structure have been ap- proved by referendum vote, the UFAWU can embark on its pre- viously announced campaign to organize fishermen and shore- workers in unorganized East Coast ports, .. Until it wasem- powered. by its membership to extend its jurisdiction from a provincial to a national basis, the union could not send organizers to the Maritimes”. * XK Demanding wage parity with B,C, Hydro rates some 200elec- - & trical workers of the West Koot- enay Power and Light Company went on strike Tuesday of this week when negotiations in the dis- pute failed to reach a settlement, While company personnel took over the generation plants in an attempt to keep them in opera- tion, and announced that despite the strike of electrical workers “there would be no shutdown”, there are already indications that many West Kootenay industries will feel the effects of the strike unless early settlement can be reached, The two major unions in the Kootenays, the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and the Inter- national Woodworkers of Ameri- ca, have already pledged full support to the electrical workers, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Work- ers (IBEW), The regional executive of the IWA have wired Labor Minister Peterson urging the appointment of a mediator or an industrial commissioner to assist in reach- ing a settlement, ILWU to push fight against Vietnam war in U.S. labor The 17th Biennial Convention of the International Longshoremen’s - and Warehousemens’ Union (ILWU) held last week in San Francisco, adopteda policy state- ment on U,S, aggression in Viet- nam, The 315 ILWU delegates, representing more than 60,000 Going to don't wait! “2643 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C. Expo 67? Join a group—have more fun—be with friends—enjoy savings through group travel. Limited seats available, so - (Individual passages also arranged, if preferred) Contact: GLOBE TOURS 253-1221 members, set a high standard for organized labor in North Ameri- ca to aim for in the struggle for peace in Vietnam, and the world. This policy statement which brands the U,S, war in Vietnam as “undeclared, illegal, and the most barbarous war of modern times,” also drew the conclusion “that nothing will force the Ad- ministration to take another look at its actions unless the labor movement moves in the direction of peace, «We believe it is our duty, as an integral part of the labor move- ment, to change the present course of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, which officially supports the Administration in the war. There are, of course, some not- able exceptions where some na- tional union officers have spoken out against the war, despite the pressures to conform, And we pay tribute to those few voices, *Our main role at this point must be to persuade the labor movement to get into the fight for peace ase s”. st NATAL DISASTER. Rescue teams at the mining disaster in Natal I i shown carrying out dead and wounded from the mouth of the mine fl diate aid for destitute families “| ry tH and i P ticised in the labor movement this week. ‘Bombing of civilians deliberate’ — U.S. plo! Cont’d from pg. 1 the innocent people killed, schools and churches destroyed, medical aid stations ruined, These raids continued on small villages, each a repeat of the other, “We had big targets also, La- ter came the towns of Phu Ly, Nam Dinh, Vinh, Thanh Hoa, Thai Binh and Thai Nguyen, Phu Ly on 8 October, 1966 I particu- larly remember as it was the night just before I was shot down, We used essentially the same tactics, with all six F4Bs cir- cling Phu Ly with fragmentation bombs, After one circle we all came down the main street drop- ping 12 napalm bombs in a train, “As the fire blazed we came back in, dumping all 12 of our CBUs filled with 300 bomblets each on the fleeing people, Many women, children and old men surely died there, The hospital, schools and market place were destroyed, All the houses in town were destroyed. *In Nam Dinh it was the resi- dential areas, Surely many inno- cent people were killed. All the U.S. Navy officer Richard Allan Stratton, shot down over North Vietnam on Jan. 5 said recently in a detailed account of his experi- ences, that targets were bombed which had no ‘‘discernable indus- trial significance.” He took part in the December raids on Hanoi. April 14, 1967—PACIFIC T ‘horrible weapons 2% was others were the same 1s68 civilian population, aise learning, medical facl of" market places beiné thei gets. (There follow® "4 gf eight towns, givin the ne” their exact location oon on which each was g “During the briefing ‘us! : at the thought of a ag | ip tion bombs, CBU and wd innocent people. ! wee disobey so I went t0 Ye sions. Some pilots yt) to fly, I remember t fused to fly on tne. got to Vietnam, They Wg! martialed on the sit is charged from the Nev of ) ably, 1 wish I ned ti age. .J am opposed pot of these barbarous wear” pf use of them agai ig? hospitals and childreh rible crime. ft “T would like to 54 a if and motive for writiié 4 ot! ' to you. Ihave rec® ofl, very best treatme? ratié people of the pemoe Ay public of Vietnam. ene per me deeply shamed 9” | cla of my many crim!” te 7 is in this sense letter,” it ( In January Lt. Car sbi Allen Stratton, of MP | ity conderoga, also gay 4s | account of U.S. ait % pine! Vietnam . which COP" gh statements made ot iby Tanner, He said i tl priefing they wer north people themselves (0 i fe?! ! nam) must be m@ vel o pressures and reali f Stratton, December 2, 4” anol i air strikes agaiN®” veah that “anti-persomn : were chosen to ny tio™ damage on the POP mat said the pilots Were =” aie President Johnso? raids on Hanoi. pag’ IBUNE~