“UNJUST, OPPRESS!

ene WIRE TO NIXON. A telegram bearing 2,670 na
of In oa ‘ast Friday calling on him to inaugurate peace In
w ‘ a ina Committee, the wire included the names of near
w dreds of trade unionists, union leaders, professional peopl

FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1973

mes of Vancouver citizens was sent to U.S. President
Vietnam. Collected by the Sign Now for Peace in
ly all city aldermen and the mayor, as wellas
le and nearly all Vancouver MLAs including two

A i eral MLAs, Dave Brousson and Allan Williams. Shown above taking the massive wire into the telegraph

So :
Present but not shown in the photo was

Unit
i ——Shrch.

fice are from left to right: Rev. Purdie of the Anglican Church, Rev. Allan Dixon of the United Church,
€orge Johnston, president of the B.C. Federation of Labor, and June Dunlop, of the sponsoring committee.
Rev. Ed. Nichols, executive-secretary of the Canadian Council,

— Sean Griffin photo

jo, UFAWU PROTESTS

I SEAWO waterfront organizer
a i Boe Hewison was. barred
ae entering the United States
ursday as he was prepar-

ce
if! in t
aust ines board a plane to Seattle

where he é
“ep was to fly to
nell eas Alaska to attend a
‘pull sper of the International
tt \¢ Halibut Commission.
: cel! Xplanations demanded from
: €partment of Immigra-
he Canada revealed only that
anol = S Presumably because of
chat off national affiliation” —
ube! ¢ Baek would not disclose
Fy organizations — and a
ent to Jack Davis merely
. eae peu ia the matter
: e
ae if External Affairs Depeaaceas
7c ol €wison had attended several
; ae Meetings of the Com-
1. Us au ~~ Set up jointly by the
- and Canada in the 1920’s to

ee a tion in:

ae ough
. mon had b

control the halibut fishery —
including a meeting as late as

GEORGE HEWISON

> U.S. bars union organizer

November of last year held in
Seattle.

The Fishermen’s Union views
Hewison’s denial of entry as a
move against B.C. fishermen
who have been quite vocal in
putting forward their reasons for
the recent halibut decline. The
January meeting was to have
discussed a number of crucial
issues on the halibut layup
program.

Demands that further meet-
ings of the Commission be held
in Canada followed the U-S.
Immigration Service action as
it constitutes interference in
Canada’s participation in the
joint Commission.

“Tf the U.S. government
cannot guarantee safe conduct
of our delegates,” the union
said, ‘then the meetings should
be held in Canada.”

15

JOBLESS ACT CHANGES

VE

Scrap UIC amendments
demand trade unions

The proposed changes to the Unemployment Insur-
ance Act introduced in Parliament last Wednesday by
the minority Liberal government came under sharp fire

this week as being ‘‘unjust”’

and ‘‘oppressive’’. Protests

were pouring into Ottawa demanding they be scrapped.

Introduced in the House by
Manpower Minister Robert
Andras, the proposed changesin
the UIC Act would disquality
anyone for benefits who quit a
job, gets fired or refuses to take
another job ‘‘without good
cause.’ The Act would leave it
up to officials of the UIC tomake
the decisions.

This week three major B.C.
unions sent wires to Ottawa
strongly condemning the
proposed changes.

e Representing 175,000 mem-
bers, the B.C. Federation of
Labor, -over the signature of
secretary-treasurer Ray Hay-
nes, sent the following wire to
NDP leader David Lewis,
Donald MacDonald, president of
the Canadian Labor Congress,
and all B.C. MPs.

“Our Federation urges you to

oppose strenuously the many

hasty and ill-considered amend-
ments to the Unemployment
Insurance Act. In addition to
interfering with the _ indi-
vidual’s right to leavean oppres-
sive job, these changes would
work a great hardship on many
workers who are dismissed
without good cause, such as
those dismissed during proba-
tionary periods after they have
been hired.

“No Member of Parliament

Union breakaways harm

labor's cause . . . Pgs. 11-12
*

What B.C.'s Legislature
must do .. . Pg. 12

As the PT went to press the Vietnam
peace agreement and cease fire was
announced in Washington and Hanoi.
Watch next week for full details and
analysis.

can justify support for such retro-
gressive changes.”’

e The 43,000-member Inter-
national Woodworkers of
America sent a telegram to
Andras backing up the BCFL.
“The proposed legislation is
unjust and unwarranted,’” said
Western Regional vice-president
Wyman Trineer in a wire on
behalf of his membership.

The IWA telegram ‘‘protested
in the strongest possible terms
: mandatory __ disqualli-
fication for quitting a job or
being fired.’’ It said the proposed
legislation was no_ sound
principle on which to base job-
less insurance.

“The drain on the unemploy-
ment insurance fund is not be-
cause workes quit their jobs or
got fired; what has drained the
fund’s monies and created the
deficit has been the high rate of
unemployinent.

‘‘We propose that your govern-
ment implement without delay
plans that will provide full
employment, not legislation

that will unjustly penalize the
working people,”’ said the wire.
See UIC CHANGES, pg. 12

we  -  .--_ i _ i i i. eee |