BRITISH COLUFABIA

Protest launched over utility hikes

The Vancouver and District Labor Council voted unanimously Tuesday to wire the B.C. Utilities Commission and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecom- munications Commission oppos-

B.C: Tel applied in June for an interim rate to take effect Dec. 7,

_ 1981 and fora further increase May 1, 1982. The interim increase would boost residential rates 15 percent, business phones.20 percent and pay

ing the proposed increases in elec- phonerates 50 percent. The general tricity, natural gas and telephone _ratehike application, effective May service. 1, 1982, calls for increases of 25

The labor council also demand- © Percent for residential, 28-35 per- ed that public hearings into the in- _ Cent for business phones and an in-

creases be held before the two ‘tease to 25 cents for pay phone

regulatory bodies grant any of the “alls.

rate increases. As a result of rate increases Two weeks earlier on July 7, granted just five months ago, B.C.

Vancouver city council voiced its phone subscribers pay far higher

‘TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

4)

The El Salvador folk group Yolocamboito Gesfonning for Sunday’s ‘ally: The group, a are members of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, also appeared at the Vancouver Folk Festival on

the weekend.

‘No to U.S. intervention’

More than -300 people demonstrated at Vancouver’s _ Robson Square’ Sunday against U.S. intervention in El Salvador, joining hundreds of other Cana- dians who staged similar actions in cities across the country.

The demonstration, which coincided with the seven-nation summit at Montebello, Quebec and the counter-conference, the “popular Summit” in Ottawa, _also marked the second anniver- sary of the Sandinista victory in Nicaragua.

In Ottawa, several thousands people demonstrated against U.S. actions in El Salvador and _British..repression. of Northern Ireland as part of the Popular Summit, sponsored by more than ascore of organizations including Oxfam, and several trade union church and peace organizations.

In Vancouver, Maria Sand- born, the representative in Canada for El Salvador’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, told the crowd that the U.S., by its involvement in El Salvador ‘4s an accessory to the murders of 11, people bet- ween the months of January and June of this year.

“The U.S, has tried to present’ the struggle in my country as a struggle between east and west,’’ she said.

“‘But Reagan is oaly. seeking to maintain at gunpoint what he sees as U.S. interests in Central America.””

She warned. that unless ‘‘there

is mass international pressure on

the Reagan government to pre- vent further armed intervention, it could bring full-scale war, a se- cond Vietnam.

“*You should demand that the Canadian government not get in- volved in U.S. plans in El Salvador,’’ she said, urging the federal government to follow the lead of some 50 countries around the world which have extended recognition to the mass-based FDR.

Shaughnessy United Church minister John Hillborn, who went to El Salvador earlier this year to participate in the funeral of four nuns murdered by right- wing death squads, also address-

ed therally, urging participantsto |.

“make your voices heard — so they can be heard at the summit in Ottawa.

The rally was sponsored by the Central America Support Com- mittee and endorsed by dozens of trade unions, church and solidari- ty organizations.

opposition to the increases by both B.C. Hydro and B.C. Telephone and called on the Union of B.C. Municipalities, at-its convention slated for September, to:

@ Oppose the projected rate in- creases by B.C Hydro;

@ Urgethe B.C. Utilities Com- mission to convene public hearings where B.C. Hydro officials can be cross-examined;

@ Make representation to the CRTC todeny the interim and final increases sought by B.C. Tel;

@ Urge the CRTC to order public hearings on the proposed B.C. Tel interim rate increase.

In addition, the city referred to the standing committee on social services, chaired by alderman Harry Rankin, three additional motions, one calling on the city to make representation to the CRTC on the B.C. Tel increase; another instructing the city to set up a three- person committee to appear before the CRTC; and a third instructing the city to call on the federal and provincial government to national- ize’ B.C, Tel.

rates than subscribers in provinces where the: telephone utility is publicly owned. B.C. users now pay $10.40 for a private line com- pared to $6.60 in Calgary, $7 in Regina and $6.46 in Winnipeg.

B.C. Hydro applied June 22 to raise its electrical rates by 9.7 per- cent Aug. 1, 1981 and 9.3, effective April, 1982.

In addition, B.C. Hydro applied to raise natural gas rates by 6.15 percent Aug. 1, 1981 and 5.4 per- cent April, 1982. But since that time, Hydro spokesmen have refused to confirm whether the Aug. 1 increase will be put into ef- fect, in the wake of another huge increase slated to go into effect almost immediately, which is the result of a new schedule of " payments to producers worked out by the provincial government. That increase alone, according to Hydro spokesmen, will boost residential rates by some 34 percent — pushing the average homeowner’s gas heating bill to over $400 from the current $300.

— Unity urged as strike movement grows

To this point, 1981 has been a stormy year on the B.C. labor front and all signs point to more stormy weather.

Earlier in the year we had the Nabob, cement, telephone, and municipal strikes. Now, there are some 60,000 .workers in the forestry industry on strike. In ad- dition, some 3,000 Greater Van- couver hotel workers involved in a strike-lockout have a settlement offer to vote on after three weeks of militant picket line activity and the 2,200 members of the Office and Technical Employees employed by the Insurance Cor- poration of British Columbia continue in their strike-lockout Situation. Negotiations for pro- vincial ferry workers and the bus drivers in Greater Vancouver and Victoria are reaching a critical stage and the workers in both cases appear to be ready for strike unless they get a satisfactory of- fer.

Some 2,200 postal workers are involved in the Canada-wide postal strike. Six hundred electri- cians employed by AEL Microtel areon strike and 300 CBC techni- cians in B.C. are involved in the national strike of radio and televi- sion technicians. :

The first six months of this year recorded 111 work stopages in B.C., affecting 53,776 workers.

By July 18, approximately 1.6

million worker days had been lost through strikes and lockouts.

Many observers are predicting that before the year is over the total number of days lost will sur- pass the 1972 record of 2.1 million worker days.

In 1980, only 500,000 worker days were lost. This year, the working class in B.C. isin amuch mofe militant mood and unions are under heavy pressure from the membership to obtain wage in- creases in line with sharp and con- tinuous price increases. Every day

- brings higher prices for food,

shelter and transportation. In ad- dition, the provincial government is moving to increase the charges for natural gas and electricity and the B.C. Telephone Company is demanding yet another large increase in phone rates.

_ All this has predictably vrought a great upsurge in militancy, particularly among younger workers who are finding it very difficult to manage with

_ extremely high rents and the

astronomical costs of buying a home because of high interest rates. The new militancy has also brought to the fore in anumber of cases the demand for equal pay .for work of equal value, reflec- ting the determination of the ever- increasing number of women in the work force to obtain

* economic and social equality.

According to Statistics Canada, Vancouver consumers paid 14.3 percent more for most goods and services in June of this

year than they did the year before, as compared with a national average of 12.8 percent, and with no relief in sight.

Working people know, through their daily experience, that inflation and rising prices are another form of wage cutting in order to increase the profits of

gotiating a settlement that would set a pattern for all three unions.

However, the big monopoly concerns which dominate the wood, pulp and paper industry dug in and refused to give either of the three union negotiating

ANALYSIS

the big monopolies and financial , interests who dominate the economy. Their trade union

struggles to keep up with rising .

Prices and to gain some measure of improvement in their living standards are dictated by necessi- ty. These struggles will find their culmination in the political strug- gle to curb the power of the monopolies and place them under public ownership and democratic control. -

The key strike at this time is in the forest industry, involving some 60,000 workers who belong to the International Wood- workers of America, the Cana- dian Paperworkers Union and

the Pulp, Paper and Wood--

workers of Canada. Prior to the strike, spokesmen for these un- ions were publicly sniping at each other through the news media. In particular, the leadership of the IWA and the CPU seemed to be competing for the “thonor”’ of ne-

teams a settlement offer they could recommend to their membership.

The membership of the three unions should now demand an end to disunity at the top and call for all-out unity for a good con- tract extending upwards from the grass roots level.

The economists tell us that the .

forest industry, directly and in- directly, generates 40 percent of the annual income in British Col- umbia. That makes the forest strike the most vital trade union and anti-monopoly struggle at this time.

A leaflet put out by the Com- munist Caucus of Woodworkers on Vancouver Island summed it up: Re “Our demand for a decent in- come can be won only if the tradesmen, production workers, members and leaders of the [WA, CPU and PPWC unite in one common front against the bosses. There is no other way.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 24, 1981— Page 3

“The international president of the IWA, Keith Johnston, has sent a letter to the nine unions in the forest industry (U.S.A. and Canada) to discuss the establish- ment of one union in wood.

“He warns that reactionary forces are destroying the social gains made over a number of

‘years, making one union in wood

an immediate necessity. There is no better time to talk unity than when under attack by the enemy, the monopoly barons.

“The first step, and a test for genuine concern, is to unite all forces of the three unions in wood (WA, CPU, PPWC) around common economic demands to win the current strike.”’

Despite the divisions in the trade union movement, for ex- ample, the separation of the building trades unions from the Canadian Labor Congress, all unions should close ranks in sup- port of the IWA, the CPU and the PPWC. A victory in this strike will be a victory for all of organized labor.

The current situation seems to suggest that the forest employers, encouraged by the Employers’ Council of B.C., deliberately pro- voked the strike for their own selfish ends. Now, they will try to settle for little more than their last offer. With unity of the IWA, CPU and PPWC, supported bya united labor movement, a much better settlement could be won.