Van-Ply closure could spark one-day stoppage IWA maps campaign to fight layoffs International Woodworkers of . America local union officers and Camp chairman from all Mac- Millan Bloedel _ operations throughout B.C. met in Vancouver last Monday to map out a strategy to save the jobs of 700 IWA members at Vancouver Plywood. And if the giant forest company §0es ahead with its plan to close pan Rly: S operations this Monday, all 8,500 MacMillan Bloedel em- ployees in B.C. will walk out in protest. From their meeting Monday at IWA headquarters, the wood- workers launched a campaign to pressure premier Bill Bennett to impose a one year moratorium on the shutdown. Plant and camp committees from all over the province will write letters and send wires to Bennett to back up IWA officers when they meet with Bennett next week. Earlier protest from the union forced an agreement between the company and the provincial government to delay a final decision on the plant closure for 30 days. That term expires this Monday. ff IWA regional president Jack Munro reported this week that nearly one month of meetings with the company has produced few results. ‘‘Mac Blo seems to be bound and determined that that Arrogant even to the headquarters when the first shift of telephone workers lined up to return to work at 6 a.m. Monday. The company insisted that employees enter through the * last hour, —Sean Griffin photo B.C. Telephone barred the front doors to its main downtown “executive garage” but after an hour’s delay and some hurried consultation between the company and security officers, the doors were opened an the return to work began, ending the 12-week lockout. Agreement restricts contracting out Lockout ends at B.C. Tel Although last minute Negotiations were necessary to Compel company officials to open the front doors to B.C. Telephone Company buildings, Telecom- Munications Workers Union members were back at their jobs this week — with a full collective agreement. TWU officers had expected their members to be confronted with individual, interim contracts when they reported for work first thing Monday morning but a final back- to work, phased in over three days. out Sunday night enabling a return to work phased in over three days. Following last week’s impasse in Negotiating a return to work, the has announced that its Members would go back without 4 contract. But the signing of the back-to-work contract and the rati- fication of the collective agreement made that un- necessary. agave first shift reported for work at 6 a.m. Monday and, after about an hour’s delay was allowed through the doors. All of the 10,000- ne work force was expected be back by Wednesday. A TWU membership meeting in the PNE Agrodome Sunday registered a 91 percent ratification Vote in favor of the collective 4greement, the terms of which Were laid down by Justice Henry Hutcheon. The clause covering the con- tentious issue of contracting-out, although different from that proposed in the earlier Hall report, is considered of some significance since it establishes the principle that work normally done by em- ployees as provided for in the agreement will continue to be done by them, and that there will be no contracting out if it would result in the termination or layoff of a regular employee. The clause also spells out specific areas which can be con- tracted out without notification while any other contracting out must be submitted for approval to a Joint Standing Committee on Contracting Out and Technological Change. The Committee is to be made up of four representatives each from the union and the company and a chairman who is to be appointed either by mutual agreement of both sides or, failing that, by a chief justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. The three-year contract, which is retroactive to January 1, 1977, also provides for wage increases of 45 cents in the first year, 32 cents in the second year and six percent in the third year. plant is going down,”’ he said. The IWA conference Monday declared that it is time to ‘“‘get tough” with the company and called on the provincial govern- ment to withdraw the company’s timber rights if it persists in closing down the Van-Ply operation. If the company refuses to maintain its operations, the timber should be given to a com- pany that will, the. meeting resolved. The union maintains that Van- Ply, if properly managed, can be an efficient and _ profitable operation, MacMillan Bloedel earned over $35 million in B.C. last year and is investing its wealth in other countries while allowing operations in this province like Van-Ply to run down and even- tually close. If the provincial government see LAYOFFS, pg. 12 Pipeline sellout looms in The long awaited debate on the Alcan pipeline sell out came before Parliament this week and the Conservative Party and Liberal government joined forces in an attempt to ram through approval of the pipeline deal with the United States. The $10 billion pipeline project to supply American evergy needs will, if built, effectively give up Canadian sovereignty over large sections of the north and tie Canada more closely to a ‘con- tinental energy. policy. In spite of pledges from the federal government that native land claims would be settled before the pipeline construction begun, no land claim has been concluded with the Council of Yukon Indians. The only opposition to the pipeline sell out was that put up by the NDP caucus which demanded guarantees of the government that Canadian industry would supply the pipe for the project. NDP energy critic Tommy Douglas, however, did declare his opposition to the pipeline project as a whole. He charged that the benefits claimed by the Liberal government are, by now, almost irrélevant: The recent discovery of 15 trillion cubic feet of new gas in Alberta, negates any Canadian need for the pipeline, he said. In anticipation of the pipeline debate in Parliament, the Com- munist Party last December called on the full NDP caucus to join with Douglas in opposing the pipeline and if necessary to filibuster the Bill. “The NDP should stand by its convention decision which clearly called for settling the land claims of the Native peoples before proceeding with the pipeline,’’ the CP. stated. Students boycott Soweto classes Ten of thousands of black students in South Africa boycotted classes to protest Bantu education as the new school year began. (The seasons are inverted in South Africa; there it is approximately mid-summer). Students in Soweto, the huge black township outside Johan- nesburg, burned their applications last week in protest against the restrictive Bantu education, At- tendance was so low on opening day that officials were able to open only 13 of the 40 schools. Armed police patrolled the schools although no arrests were reported. Unity between the teachers and the students has also been high, and teachers themselves boycotted three of the 13 schools that were opened. Last month, the 22,000-member African Teachers Association reaffirmed its opposition to Bantu education and called for free and compulsory education for all African youth between the ages of six and 16. - Under South Africa’s Bantu Education Act, education is strictly segregated. White students in both primary and secondary forms are provided with free textbooks and stationary and education is free and compulsory. It is neither free nor compulsory for. Africans, and students in secondary schools must pay for their books. ‘ According to UN statistics, the government so South Africa spends ten times as much on the education of a white child as on a black child. Ottawa The party asserted that there would be few economic benefits for Canadian workers from the pipeline and that U.S. and Japanese corporations would benefit most. It also predicted that the Canadian government would end up partially financing the pipeline, even though there would be no benefits for Canada. ‘‘Talk about a sellout,”’ it declared in a statement. Last. week..the Vancouver and District Labor Council secretary Paddy Neale announced that representatives of the Council of Yukon Indians, the Dene and Inuit will be in the Lower Mainland March 6-10 to explain the issues surrounding the land claims. Hugh McCullum of Project North will travel with the Native represen- tatives. A spokesman of the Council of Yukon Indians is scheduled to address the Vancouver Labor Council on March 7. INSIDE ‘PANAMA: An with Carlos Ortiz, of the Panamanian People’s Party interview on the eve of the ratification vote on the Canal Treaty, page 6, 7. e FOREIGN CONTROL: Despite the front put up by the Foreign Investment Review Agency, U.S. control of our economy is increasing, page 10. @ LABOR: Jack Phillips takes issue with an article by poli- tical science professor Walter Young reprinted by the Wes- tern Canadian Lumber Wor- ker, page 12.