As the Tribune
Went to press this
Week, our finan-
Cial drive to raise
$65,000 reached
$20,000.

We have only six weeks to raise the remaining $45,000.
And that means raising $7,500 in each of those six
weeks. If you haven’t sent us your donation, please wait
no longer. Help us reach $27,500 by next week.

ST LS LON, LLL, SS OD

y,

a,

We will professionally look after all
your travel needs. We specialize in
tickets, tours, passports, permits
and reservations. Call us today —

for prompt personalized service.

GLOBE TOURS
The complete
travel service

2679 East Hastings St. Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5
Phone 253-1221

« ‘TRIBUNE

FESTIVAL

* “MAY 17, 1880—2 PM—UKRAINIAN H
‘805 E. PENDER, VANCOUVER

) DISPLAY OF WORLD COMMUNIST PRESS
5 PM: LAMB SUPPER — 7:30 PM: SPEAKERS, ENTERTAINMENT

CABARET 9 PM-.12 MIDNIGHT

eo

— s se > + 3
ee

JALL

BE cee meter ers

CRTC urged to reject B.C.
Tel interim rate increase

The International Woodwork-
ers of America, the New Demo-
cratic Party and the Communist
Party are among a number of or-
ganizations which have called on
the Canadian Radio-Television
and Telecommunications Com-
mission to reject the interim rate in-
crease sought by B.C. Telephone.

B.C. Tel applied to the CRTC
March 24 for a two-stage increase
inits rates, to boost them ultimately
by 12.5 percent. The company
wants the first, interim increase to
take effect June 1 and the second
Dec. 17, 1980.

The CRTC is to bring down its

ruling on the interim increase May -

23 — without any prior public
hearings — while the second in-
crease will await the outcome of
public hearings beginning in Octo-
ber.

‘“‘The increase sought by B.C.
Tel is both unnecessary and unjust-
ified,’ Jack Munro, president of
the regional council of the IWA
stated in a letter to CRTC secre-
tary-general J. G. Patenaude. ‘We
are unequivocally opposed to any
rate increase.”

The IWA contended that sub-
scribers ‘‘are being forced to subsi-
dize the shortsightedness of B.C.
Tel’s directors” in key financial de-
cisions.

The union also argued that B.C.
Tel has deliberately over-invested
in such areas as new equipment to
make it appear that profits were
low and thus to make a case for in-
creased rates. But the new equip-
ment did not improve service, it
said.

“We find that service quality has

| notchanged. demonstrably over the.

last two years even though $517
million has been spent during those
same two years,”’ it said.

The NDP caucus also cited B.C.
Tel’s “‘substandard service’’ in its
brief opposing the company’s ap-
plication for the interim increase.

“The company.shows a distress-
ing inability to manage its own af-

fairs efficiently,” the brief added.

The caucus registered particular
opposition to the announced inten-
tion of B.C. Tel to use the proceeds
from the interim increase, if grant-
ed, to pay a dividend on shares,
thus making B.C. Tel shares more
attractive to prospective investors.

“‘We do not believe that the pro-
ceeds of the interim increase should
be used for ‘dividend action’ which
would benefit primarily the 56 per-
cent shareholding of General Tele-
phone in Connecticut,” it said.
‘The dollars are best left in B.C.
and the best way to do that is to
leave them in the pockets of the
subscribers.”’

Communist Party leader Maur-
ice Rush told the CRTC in a letter
April 17 that the rate hike was ““un-
justified in view of the exorbitant
profits this company has made and
the fact that the CRTC only three
months ago was forced to order the
company to return some $7 million
to its customers because of excess
profits resulting from overcharg-
ing : ”

The CP letter was critical of the
CRTC for scheduling no public
hearing on the interim increase and
urged the commission to hold up
any increase “‘until a full hearing
has been. held into the overall rate

‘structure.

“That structure has been the
subject of widespread public criti-
cism,’’ Rush said.

The IWA, the NDP and the CP
will all be intervening in the fall
hearings to oppose the B.C. Tel in-
crease.

Meanwhile, the Telecommuni-
cations Workers Union, which rep-

resents the 10,000 B.C. Tel em-
ployees, called May 2 for the public
‘to become involved in requiring
B.C. Tel to link its rates to the qual-
ity of service.” The TWU will itself
be intervening to insist that rates
are tied to service.

The union issued the call follow-
ing quality of service hearings held
April 29 and 30 in which it was re-
vealed that customer surveys indi-
cating the level of satisfaction with
service were conducted by B.C.
Tel’s parent, General Telephone in
New York.

The survey has fundamental
weaknesses, the TWU said, partic-
ularly in its failure to link questions
to cutbacks in staffing.

“‘Without strict regulation based
on information from a more reli-
able source, there is a danger that
increased rates will raise company
profits with no compensating bene-
fit to subscribers.

“At the CRTC fall rate hearings
the TWU will intervene to ensure
that the rate increase question is
tied to an investigation into B.C.
Tel’s customer service. We call on
the public to do the same,”’ it said.

The’ B.€. “branch= of “the
Consumers Association of Canada
is also waging a campaign of oppo-
sition to the rate increases, citing
various areas in which the com-
pany has failed to meet CRTC con-
ditions, set in 1977, that it improve
service.

The CAC conducted its own sur-
vey of telephone subscribers in the
province and found that the major-
ity of them were dissatisfied with
the service.

MAY DAY GREETINGS
TO WORLD LABOR

Veterans of the
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion

( CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

J

COMING EVENTS

MAY 10 — Harry Rankin’s Birthday
party, Saturday, Russian People’s
Hall, 600 Campbell Ave., Van. Din-
ner and dance. Sponsored by
COPE.

MAY 11 — 10 a.m. to ? Celebrate
Mother's Day at our annual pan-
cake breakfast with all the trim-
mings and refreshments at Bev and
Kostyn Gidora’s, 12715-66th Ave.,
Surrey. Proceeds to Surrey Press
Drive.

MAY 17 — First Ever Tribune
Press Festival. Ukrainian Hall and
grounds. Displays, entertainment,
food and speakers, in honor of the
Tribune.

MAY 23 — Third annual dinner at
Pat and Wendy’s, 7 p.m., 3858 Fra-
ser St., Van. $4. Games: Class
Struggle, chess, cribbage, Pro-
_ ceeds to Tribune.

MAY 24 — FRC Cabaret, 600
Campbell Ave., Van. 8 p.m. to 1
p.m. Harry Hoshowski’s Orchestra.
Adm. $5. Snacks served. Come and
have a good time.

Rms. L3 & L4 above the library,
Britannia Centre, 1661 Napier, Van.

On Sun. hear Elias Stavrides on
“‘Ultra-leftism & right
opportunism,” 9-12 p.m., and Fred
Wilson on “Violence and Revolu-
tion,” 1:30 to 5 p.m. Rms. L5 & L6,
beside the library, Britannia Centre.
Registration fee: $3 per day; $5 for
both days. (Lunch included.) If you
wish to. pre-register,
255-9988 or 251-1186. Bring your
friends.

MAY 31 — COPE ELECTION
FUND-RAISING DANCE, 1720
Gravely St., 8 p.m.-1 a.m., $3.50.
Dance to “XL,” sponsored ’ by
Grandview Woodlands COPE.

KAMLOOPS
MAY 31 — Annual pot luck supper
at Babiuk’s, 2305 Bossert. Phone
554-2626. Starts 2 p.m. Hear
Tribune Business Manager Pat
O'Connor. Proceeds to Tribune.

JUNE 7 — HOLD for Westside
Jamboree. Details next week.

JUNE 21 — Tribune Victory ban-
quet. Italian Cultural Centre.

COMMERCIAL

MAY 24 & 25 — YCL Spring
School celebrating Engels’ cen-
terary. On Sat. hear Ben Swankey
on “Canada and the National Ques-
tion,” 9-12 p.m., and Bill Zander on
“Class Alliances in the Anti-
Monopoly Front,’’ 1:30-5 p.m.

NEAR new Sealy Posturepedic
queen sz. box spring only, with
steel frame and headboard. Cost
$350, now $120. 254-9337.

“Your Worship, members of
Council” Highlights of the history

phone

of labor and the left in municipal
politics in the Lower Mainland by
Municipal History Society. Paper
cover, $5; hard cover, $12. People’s
Co-op Books, 353 W. Pender, Van.

NOTICE — Tribune readers in
Burnaby who wish to support the
present Financial Drive: cash, con-
test tickets, banquet tickets —
phone 526-5226.

ELECTRICAL, plumbing, appli-
ance repairs. Don Berg. 255-7287.

ROOF REPAIRS — Reasonable.
New roofs and alum. gutters,
277-1364 or 277-3352.

LEGAL SERVICES

Rankin, Stone, McMurray, Bar-
risters and Solicitors. 500 Ford
Building, 193 East Hastings St.,
Vancouver 682-7471. _

HALLS FOR RENT

RUSSIAN PEOPLE'S HOME —
Available for rentals. For reserva-
tions phone 254-3430. _

WEBSTERS CORNERS HALL —
Available for banquets, meetings,
etc. For rates: Ozzie, 325-4171 or
685-5836.

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CUL-
TURAL CENTRE — 805 East
Pender St., Vancouver. Available
for banquets, weddings, meetings.
Ph. 254-3436.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 9, 1980—Page 11