SOS » E \ GCE 6 a8 \S S winging with Trudeau B.C. Fed parley marks big step ahead for all labor The 14th annual convention of the B.C. Federation of Labor (BCFL) wound up its sessions last week with the re-election of all Executive officers, five by acclamation and only two, that of 3rd vice-president Len Guy and BCFL secretary Ray Haynes contested. Both won handily by substantial majorities, Haynes defeating runner-up E.P. Neale, Van- couver Labor Council secretary, by 262 to Neale’s 174, and Guy with 262 votes to runner-up Ron Gomez with 166. Throughout the 5-day con- vention the sharp criticism by many union delegates of execu- tive conduct of BCFL affairs had that body ‘‘running scared’ as such situations are described, with tensions only relaxing when the election tally was in. Early in the convention the delegate body’s rejection of the Com- mittee of Officers’ Report also added to the brass hensions. However, it must be said that on the whole, this year’s BCFL convention chalked up some very great advances, and which will mark considerable progress and labor unity in the months ahead. Some very excellent reports were given the BCFL delegate body by committees charged with the task of special assign- ments. In this regard perhaps the report of the BCFL on Natural Resources, and especially the section in this extensive report dealing with Is B.C. forest industry entitled to so much social assistance? The report on Natural Resources presénted to last week's. meeting of the B.C. Federation of Labor recieved the loudest ovation from delegates, reflecting the seriousness with which labor in B.C. is coming to consider this problem. Covering many of B.C.’s major industries , here are some of the pertinent excerpts from that report: “Labor cannot repeat too often the financial return to the people of B.C. from their publicly owned forests is completely inadequate. The forests of B.C. should be the main source of revenue in our province to help pay for our schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, and the social welfare of our people and the forest’s own perpetuation. “Labor must contend that, under the’* stumpage and appraisals policies of the department of Lands, Forests andWater Resources, the government of B.C., the forest industry is a subsidized and kept industry living on_ social assistance of a puplicly owne forest. : “Net financial return to the province and people.of B.C. from primary production of their fantastically valuable forest inheritance based on the last fiscal year from the B.C. forest Service Report shows that net revenue from the forests of B.C. -» PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER.14, 1969—PA net revenue to MacMillan & Bloedel was $38,799,000; Crown Zellerback’s revenue was $12,776,000. “Labor has no desire to see the industry stripped of its ability to make a reasonable profit, but are they entitled to so much social assistance? . . . Labor does desire that the industry pay a reasonable price for the raw material (timber) it obtains from the publicly owned forests OF >B:G- “Average loss of forest cover each year in the last 10 years to logging and burning and not being planted -- 405,6660 acres for a backlog of 4,056,600 acres. Unless nature does a much better job of reforestation , our - children will inherit barren hills, brush-covered mountain tops and valleys choked with brush and weed trees. . . Labor must convince the people that B.C. does not have perpetual yield forests. The people have been given a snow job. “Production per man(in the forest industry) has nearly doubled in the last 10 years - in 1959, 14,700 men cut an average of 5.3 acres; in 1968, 14,300 men cut an average of 8.2 acres per man. With employment falling and production increasing in this primary industry, how can any - government justify exporting of logs and jobs?”’ Commenting on the situation in the mining industry, the Natural Resources Report says: “B.C.’s second industry, an industry of non-renewable resources, an industry which helped to give B.C. a roller- coaster type of economy of booms and busts . . . which left us with a heritage of ghost towns, worthless share certifi- cates with which to paper our walls, slag heaps, holes in the ground, creek and river beds torn asunder, and gravel from spawning beds left in heaps and hollows, flowing residue from- smelter and tailing ponds to pollute our streams and lakes and rivers, limbs silicosis and death. “All in all a progressive industry. Well things are better now; they’ve gotten rid of team and shovel , and the man with pick and shovel is a thing of the past. They. prospect with a bulldozer stripping thousands of acres of mountainside looking for minerals until whole mountain. sides look like giant steps going nowhere. When they do-find a major deposit, it’s either an open pit mine and they use up to 200 ton trucks , 25 cubic yard shovels and 5 cubic yard draglines . . . Well, there is one dubious benefit you won’t have to take a trip to the moon : all you'll have to do is follow the . MiningindustryinB.C.” , ¢ appre pollution, was one ofthe finest Part of this report reads: “You worry about inflation, Vietnam, the Manhattan, Nigeria, Russo-Chinese and Mid- East, human rights and racial tension. Let’s look at the whole. picture, and we quote from the Sun of September 13 by P.C. Newman; ‘‘The world is dying. Rivers and lakes are turning into sewers, forests into deserts, dust swirls in grey clouds across the city skylines. At a Unesco sponsored conference last year, 200 experts from 50 countries came up with the unanimous verdict that within 21-years life on our planet will be showing the first signs of succumbing to pollution — the atmosphere will become unbreathable. for men ‘and animals; life will cease in plants will ” rivers and lakes; wither from poison. . . This whole report deals with the devastating effects of pollu- tion on land, air and water, coupled with the equally devast- ating results of monopoly exploi- tation of Canada’s vast natural resources in extensive detail, and urged that ‘‘every delegate here must get involved’ in a -multiplicy of actions to stop the spread of pollution. While many good resolutions from BCFL affiliate unions on Bill 33 came before the conven- tion, BCFL policy of Bill 33 remains largely as before; to ignore Mediation Commission hearings, and to come to the aid of affiliate unions whose col- lective bargaining efforts may come under the threat of mediation commission _ inter- ference. Unions however, as in the case of the Oilworkers, will determine union policies in this regard, rather than the central. body. On Vietnam and the issue of peace generally, the Convention may be said to have registered a big step forward. Many resolu- tions not only supported the cause of peace by demanding all U.S. and allied military forces get out of Vietnam now, but on the position of the AFL-CIO executive council and especially AFL-CIO president George Meany, BCFL secretary Ray Haynes stated, ‘‘he shuddered to think what happened to that one man’’ (George Meany). Haynes said the ‘‘AFL-CIO stands on the right of Barry Goldwater, and is the last bulwark of society holding out”’ for the continuance of U.S. aggression in Vietnam’’. Without that AFL-CIO top leadership support of the Johnson-Nixon warhawks, U.S. troops woul have been gone from Vietnam years ago,” concluded Haynes. — While the newly elected Exec tive Council will ‘‘continue urge the CLC’ on the question ° reaffiliation of the Unite Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU) to membership, it was clear that” they had done very little on this important facet of trade union unity since the last BCFL co™ vention, or even before that. While BCFL president ET. Staley was pressed by sever@ — delegates to outline his stand 0? the question as a member of the CLC Executive Council, Staley > “explanations” did not appea! to be very convincing as fal the delegate body Ww concerned. Nor did CLC Vice-President Joe Morris, who, broué fraternal greeting to the BCFL convention, even mention We UFAWU application ss, reaffiliation or what happene to it despite the fact that trade union unity was strongly empn@” sized in Morris’ address on t Z dangers facing Canadian unio? in the Trudeau austerity program with its ‘‘labor-manab® ment-government” guidelines for an all-Canada wage freeze: Among the many progress!¥? resolutions adopted by the BC body was the unanimous demam for the ‘‘nationalization of CPR,” not only because of } most recent application to Board of Transport Commissitt a curtailment of trans-Canad@ rail services, but because Of } foreign registry (CPR ° Bermuda) which enables it a avoid all payments in taxes Canada, builds its ships in Japa™ and mans them with forelgt crews, thus depriving Canada tax revenues and Canadians ¢ jobs in shipyards and on the bie seas. i On the NDP-union C0” troversy following the August a elections, the Convention als approved a closer relations between the NDP and the Baw trade union movement, the greater concerted action 0? © part of the latter as a guaran” of NDP victory come the nex provincial elections. in In sum, the BCFL Conventle i week-long deliberations W® 4 indicative of more militant re: progressive policies for | months ahead, and especially ig . the year 1970 and the big Jab struggles that loom immediaté y ahead. 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