:

Council wages
- discriminatory
says McKnight

PORT ALBERNI — Alder-
man George McKnight has call-
ed on the provincial government
to amend. the municipal act to
allow for compensation for
elected officials for lost wages
because of attendance at city
council and committee meetings.

McKnight, an IWA member
and shift worker at the Mac-
Millan Bloedel mill, received the
backing of the Port Alberni
Jabor council January 10 for his
proposal and annouced that he

~ would also call on Alberni city
council to join in asking the pro-
vince for the change.

The present system which
allows wage workers leave for
official business, but without
pay, McKnight said, “‘is
discriminatory in the extreme
because it effectively denies
wage workers the right to par-
ticipate in municipal councils. It
is an example of the way in
which the political system is

McKnight estimated that a

A PROVINCIAL NOTES

sawmill worker such as himself
would have to be off the job
about 16 hours a week while on
afternoon shift and about four
hours a week while on day shift.
At $9.22 per hour, the pay loss
amounts to $4,790 — $500 more
than the total indemnity paid to
aldermen by the municipality.
McKnight ‘has devised a
system to compensate wage
workers for lost wages, which he
said, would be safeguarded from
abuse by compensating only for
“‘genuine loss of wages’. The
proposal would require elected
officials to file with the ad-
ministration details of their
employment, showing it to be
the principal source of income.
Each separate leave of absence
would then be detailed, signed
by the employer and submitted
to the municipality for re-
imbursement. The proviso
would be that the elected
member could not be re-
imbursed for more hours than
actually on leave from the job,
and that the re-imbursement
would be at the regular rate of
pay for the employee, up to a
maximum of the hourly rate of
pay paid by the municipality to

GEORGE MCKNIGHT

its highest paid regular
employee.
Provincial finance minister

Evan Wolfe announced two
weeks ago that the Socreds
would bring in guidelines for
salaries of municipal council
members. ‘‘These guidelines .
should take into account the
plight of wage workers who
must work to earn a living and
are effectively barred from
holding public. office because
they can’t afford it,’ McKnight
said.

Food prices

keep rising

VICTORIA — Wage
demands of thousands of B.C.
workers entering negotiations
can only be strengthened by
statistics released January 19 by
the B.C. ministry of agriculture
showing food prices in B.C. 10
percent higher than one year
before, and 21 percent higher
than two years before.

But most shocking was the
sharp increase in the price of
fresh vegetables in B.C. in
December and January. The cost
of fresh vegetables rose 27.8 per-
cent in the four week period en-
ding January 13.

CUPE settlement
breaks five percent
Socred guideline

PORT ALBERNI. — Non
teaching school board em- ~-
ployees, members of the CUPE
Local 727, have won an im-
portant contract settlement
busting through the five percent

ceiling on municipal Prides sh
which have been seen as a wage
guideline on municipal and
school board employees im-
posed by the provincial
government.

After serving strike notice
January 3, CUPE won it§
§3ttl3m3nt $n7$r6 13, averting
what seemed to be a certain
strike, which many observers
expected would become the first
test of Section 11 of the essential
services act.

The settlement gives CUPE
members a 16 percent increase
over two years and will phase in
increases until next November 1
when the base rate will reach
$8.08 per hour, just eight cents
shy of the base rate for the
International Woodworkers of
America. CUPE had demanded
parity with the IWA, a demand
achieved earlier by civic em-
ployees.

The new contract will also
provide a dental plan, first ever
for the school board workers,
with the employer paying 75
percent of costs, and a long term
disability plan with costs evenly

split between workers and the:
employer.

\ loaded against working people.”
\

Introducing the 1979

NORMAN BETHUNE
MARXIST FORUM

a series of 4 public forums featuring:

3 “Quebec and the Levesque referendum”

with
SAM WALSH

president, Communist
Party of Quebec

SUN. FEB. 4 —2 p.m.
LANGARA COLLEGE
100 W. 49th Ave.
VANCOUVER

NORTH THEATRE

“Economic Growth of Socialist World”
with Dr. Emil Bjarnason
Director, Trade Union Research Bureau
SUNDAY, FEB. 11, 8 p.m. \
Britannia Library
1661 Napier St., Vancouver

“New Perspectives for Organized Labor”
BS with Jack Phillips

labor secretary, Communist Party . .

Strike movement
paralyzes Britain

Continued from pg. 1

National Union of Public Em-
ployees have established strike
funds amounting to $6 million. The
200,000-member postal workers
union is also demanding a 24.4 per
cent wage increase, and the
powerful miners’ union and the
union of electrical power workers,
both in the public sector, are also
preparing large wage.demands.
The British trade unions have
been inspired by the nine-week
strike victory of workers at British
Ford which resulted in a 16 per cent
pay increase. Callaghan sought to

>

enforce the wage freeze, with an

attempt to impose sanctions on™
Ford for allowing the increases but

his sanctions policy was defeated in

Parliament.

The impact of the strikes was
added to Tuesday when the country
was blanketed with a snow blizzard
that all but paralyzed the section of
the economy still at work. The
Labor cabinet was meeting Wed-
nesday to consider declaring a
national emergency as a pretext to
use the army to move goods in the
place of truck drivers and railroad
workers.

\

ii ;

tl

+

_ A VERY SPECIAL ,
CONCERT FOR <

CLASSIFIED
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COMING EVENTS

FEB.3 Saturday, Feb. 3, Banquet
and Dance, Russian People’s
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Banquet at 6:30. Dance 9 to
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Everyone welcome.

FEB. 11 — Trekking in Nepal with

Harry Rankin, Sunday,

February 11, Langara

College, 100 W. 49 Ave.,

Vancouver

(please note time). Slides and
commentary by Harry.
Admission $2. Progeeds to
Committee of Progressive
Electors, (COPE).

11 — Russian Concert,
Sunday, February 11,
Russian Peoples Home, 600
Campbell Ave., 2 PM.
Everyone welcome.

24 — Meet the ARIS
VELOUHIOTIS CLUB for
an evening of Greek food
and entertainment. At the
Ukrainian Hall, Vancouver,
watch for more information.

BU P ONA

FEB.

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254-5836 and 277-3352.

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tH “State of the B.C. Economy” es ae 2 a 4
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; Trade Union Economist 4 ; 254-3430 i

SUNDAY, FEB. 25,8 p.m. : = eee ‘|

; Brittania Library pone aes UKRAINIAN CANADIAN i
i All forums sponsored by Greater Vancouver Region, Communist Party. Each ; TOMMY HAWKEN : ‘s ae <= = tong i
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; Sa eS ct ome si lle GUEST SPEAKER: BY | Hear |
. SUNDAY, FEB. 11 — 7:30 p.m. LOUIS FELDHAMMER SN Sa m |
8 Room 406 — Douglas College Canadian Peace Congress SNS '
7 . 9260 - 140th St., Surrey ist Wa Ish i
: Bee gs = es SUNDAY, JAN. 28—2p.m. N | FEB. 8, 8 P.M. |
a SUNDAY, FEB. 18 — 7:30 p.m. Plaza 500 Ballroom 4 |
in al Dominion Room
of Room 406 — Douglas College 12th Ave. and Cambie St. Vancouver DOMINION
h “Economic Growth of Socialist World” FR. EE AD MIS SIO. Wl
we with Dr. Emil Bjarnason ? HOTEL
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Room 406 — Douglas College y ; s e

‘Sponsored by the South Fraser Regional tek pariah Party. Admission free. yj Sponsored by B.C. Peace Council Victoria

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 26, 1979—Page 7