Friday, May 14, 1982

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AOS var.44. no. 20

Vancouver|
_ presses
demand

for wards
— page 2 —

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DR. GALINA SAVELYEVA

— page I! —

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ermine.

TRIBUNE PHOTO —DAN KEETON

In a united demand for the repeal of all anti-abortion laws, about 800 women’s rights activists, trade un-
ionists and supporters took to the streets in Vancouver Saturday. Ata rally afterwards they contributed
$1,600 to fight a challenge to women’s limited access to legal abortion granted to anti-abortionist Jo-

| seph Borowski by a Supreme Court ruling. An estimated 100 people also marched in Victoria the same

day, where Burnaby MP Svend Robinson, the federal NDP’s justice critic, warned of the danger to wo-

men’s rights presented by Borowski’s challenge (story page 2).

Bennett wage
cut warnings
‘hypocritical’

The threat by premier Ben-
nett Monday that if public sec-
tor employees’ wage settlements
are not low enough to prevent
reductions in service, he may
impose legislation to cut them
still further, is the most con-
temptible and hypocritical pro-
nouncement yet in a long record
of Social Credit hypocrisy.

Bennett stated during debate
on the government’s wage con-
trol legislation that unions
should see that their agreements
“do not create the loss of a
single job in this province or a
single program.”

ESITORIAL

the level of inflation and far, far
less than the 64 percent average
increase in medicare premiums
imposed by the Socred govern-
ment over the past year alone.

The cuts have everything to
do with the government's “‘cor-
porations first’’ priorities by
which Victoria squanders public
funds for subsidies for the ex-
port of Northeast coal and cost-
ly monuments at B.C. Place —
while public services go begging,
schools and hospitals are closed
and hundreds of workers are
put out of a job.

But Bennett’s statements are

Coming only days after gov-
ernment budget-slashing has re-
sulted in severe reductions in
hospital beds and health care
staff, the cynical statement must
have been greeted with disbelief
by all those who read it.

In only a few days, the budget
restrictions have created a hem-
orrhage of health care services
across the province which, if not
stemmed, could well be terminal
for the standard of care that
working people have fought so
hard to achieve.

What have those cuts to do
with workers’ wage settle-
ments?

Nothing.

The hospital cuts, like the re-
ductions in other services across
the province have everything to
do with direct government ac-
tion — by premier Bennett and
his Social Credit cabinet. The
cuts were forced by the Socred
health minister because hospital
budgets were held to only a 7.6
percent increase — far less than

more than just words spoken in
political duplicity; they are a
warning and a threat.

Bennett is telling the prov-
ince’s public sector workers that
it is they who must make all the
sacrifices to maintain services
while the government — armed
with increasingly dictatorial
powers embodied in its new leg-
islation — will tighten the bud-
get screws ever harder.

It is they who must bear all
the burden for the government's
mismanagement and wrong-
headed priorities.

Bennett’s threat is one that
cannot go unchallenged by the
labor movement of this prov-
ince.

The issue is a critical one; at
stake is whether the government
will succeed both in slashing the
level and quality of services and
in passing the blame — and the
cost — on the public sector
workers who, like all working
people, are the victims of mon-

See EDITORIAL page 12

North Vancouver district gressive Electors has served notice

As figures on hospital cuts
around the province pile up, al-
dermen in two municipalities
have taken steps to commit their
councils to action against staff
and service reductions in local
hospitals.

On the initiative of alderman
Ernie Crist the council voted to
join the LGH board and medical
staff and ‘‘express to health min-
ister Jim Nielsen and to our local
MLAs (our) grave concern for the
health care of (North Vancouver)
residents, and request that the
minister restore the $4 million
grant reduction.’’ The motion
noted that there are 1,700 people
waiting for surgery in an area that
‘thas far fewer beds per capita
than the provincial average.”’

council voted unanimously Mon-
day to voice its protest over cuts
of 55 beds and 144 staff positions
at Lions Gate hospital in the wake
of a $4 million shortfall in provin-
cial funding this year. Outside the
council chambers a small group
of citizens demonstrated in oppo-
sition to the cuts.

Alderman Jim Ball, who is the
council’s representative on the
LGH board, said council support
was necessary to aid the board’s
own strong protest. ‘‘The board
has been bashing hell out of Vic-
toria over this but the provincial

_ government has remained ada-

mant,’’ he said.
In Vancouver alderman Bruce
Yorke of the Committee of Pro-

of two motions to go before
council next week.

One motion calls on the council
to express its opposition to the
cuts affecting services at Vancou-
ver and provincial hospitals gen-
erally. It notes “‘that a significant
number of beds and facilities in
Vancouver hospitals will not be
utilized, thus endangering the
lives of some of our citizens.

“The matter of public health is
the last place that should be sub-
ject to cutbacks; therefore be it re-
solved that Vancouver city coun-
cil go on record as opposed to the
cutbacks and urge the provincial
government to restore full service
to all hospitals in Vancouver and

See ACTION page 2

NORTH VANCOUVER

TRIBUNE PHOTO— DAN KEETON

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