The most massive strike
bvement in over 40 years has
eePt Britain in a resounding
uff to the five per cent wage
: idelines of the Labor govern-
nt.
r,\“sbout two million truck drivers,
road workers, public employees,
al workers, newspaper workers
‘d auto workers are engaging in
, ike action and others may follow
~ what could possibly develop into
eneral strike of the 10 million-
ong British Trade Union
~\ngress ene

UK stri

ikes challenging wage curbs

The strike movement has created
a political crisis for Labor prime
minister James Callaghan’s govern-
ment which has refused to budge
from its stand that wage increases
be held to five per cent. Under fire
from the left for its anti-union
position and from the Conservative
Party for its failure to take any
decisive action, the government
narrowly survived a non-confidence
motion in the British parliament
Jan. 16.

The TUC has completely rejected
the five per cent guideline and has

added to its list of demands a 35-
hour work week with no cuts in pay
as one solution to the country’s
massive unemployment crisis.
- Among those on strike are 93,000
truck drivers, members of Britain’s
largest union, the Transport and
General Workers Union. The truck
drivers have rejected a 15 per cent
wage increase and are demanding
22 per cent which would raise wages
to $130 per week. The drivers also
want a 35-hour work week.
Monday, 1.5 million public
workers staged a one-day work

ommunity groups, teachers and
ents in Vancouver are mobiliz-

to confront the Vancouver
\,00! Board Monday, January 29
- Gladstone School and demand
the board withdraw its pro-
m to cut $2.6 million out of the
n seatian budget.

\nitial announcement of the
get cuts evoked a wave of pro-
throughout the city which fore-
the school board to delay any
ision until after hearing
‘resentation from the public at its
uary 29 meeting.

‘This Board has lost the con-
‘ence of the public,’’ Dr. Pauline
nstein declared at a COPE press
ference Thursday at city hall.
einstein charged that the school
rd had ‘‘abrogated democracy”’
ti, making sweeping decisions
Ny thout consultation or representa-
in from the public, and for going
camera’? to make unpopular
isions.
There is absolutely no thought
rding the quality of education
he level of taxation in this deci-
to cut $2.6 million from the
Wi\dget,’’ she said, predicting that
cuts would ‘‘seriously injure the
ality of education”’ while amoun-
to $4 in taxes ‘‘at most”’ for the
erage homeowner.
e COPE spokesperson cited
ments by NPA right wing
stee Peter Westlake in the press
it the about 100 parents and
tauchers that jammed the VSB’s

; \ PEp president Bruce Yorke (left), and education committee spokespersons Dr. Pauline Walriataln and
Tabs “aha blasted the tottering Vancouver school board Tuesday charging that the board has “lost the
‘nfidence of parents, teachers and the public.”

Parents, teachers mobilize
to block school board cuts

finance committee’ meeting the
Tuesday before were a ‘‘mob in-
terfering in the democratic decision
making process.’’ Westlake ob-
viously resented the public pressure
on the board and bitterly remarked,
“The trustees are afraid to talk
about cuts now.”’

That is almost a paranoid state-
ment,’’ Weinstein said, ‘‘The
school board must be open to the

public. If he is so intimidated, we
should welcome his resignation.”
Westlake has repeatedly threatened
to resign if the NPA majority back-
ed off its intention to slash the
budget.

There is no reason for the board
to consider cutting the budget if it
were prepared ‘‘to give leadership’’
in approaching the provincial

See VSB page 2

‘Give jobless same rights
as CPR’, labor tells gov’

Preparations were being finalized
this week in the representative
appeal to the Unemployment In-
surance Commission over its
demand for return of ‘‘overpay-
ments,’’ but unionists in this
province again reiterated their
demand that the UIC write off the
overpayments — or at least allow
the unemployed to defer repayment
just as Canadian Pacific has been
allowed to defer over $558 million
in income taxes.

Representatives from the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers’
Union and the Carpenters were
working on the appeal, in con-
junction with the Vancouver Labor
Council and the B.C. Federation of
Labor. The UIC has demanded the
return of overpayments supposedly

made to claimants when a computer
error increased the unemployment
rate above the official Statistics
Canada — a rate figure widely
regarded as grossly conservative.

But unionists have demanded
that the commission write off the
overpayments, pointing out that
provisions for such action exists in
the Act where it can be shown that
repayment would cause undue
hardship.

UFAWU welfare director Bert
Ogden also pointed ouf in a letter to
the Vancouver Labor Council,
which called last week for the UIC
to write off the overpayments, that
at the same time the federal govern-
ment is seeking to recover the
money from the unemployed, it has

See UIC pg. 8

stoppage in protest of the
guidelines, following similar action
by 200,000 railroad workers.

In addition, 9,000 members of
the National Union of Journalists
are in the fifth week of their strike
against provincial newspapers and
2,000 workers at the Imperial Metal
factory in Leeds are also striking.
About 1,500 Rolls Royce workers
have voted to continue their strike
which began Nov. 17; and 26,000
locomotive drivers have also gone
out, demanding a 10 per cent wage
hike.

Picket set
to protest

Combines

hearings

A mass picket by trade unionists
protesting the re-opened Combines
investigation into the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers’
Union is expected to greet officials
of the Restrictive Trade Practices’
Commission when they arrive at the

- Hotel Vancouver Monday to begin

the in-camera hearings.

Pickets have been urged to turn
out for the demonstration in sup-
port of the UFAWU on January 29
at 8:30 a.m. outside the Hotel Van-
couver. The hearings, under the
direction of acting Commission
chairman L. A. Couture, are
scheduled to open at’9 a.m.

Former B.C. Federation” of
Labor secretary-treasurer Len Guy
has also been ordered to appear
before the hearings in addition to
the UFAWU’s Jack Nichol, George
Hewison and Homer Stevens. Guy
was also under orders to appear in
the previous round of hearings
scheduled for December, 1976
before they were adjourned in-
definitely following wide protest.

The four unionists will be appear-
ing at Monday’s hearings but the
UFAWU is still pondering legal ac-
tion in a bid to stop the hearings,
considered throughout the labor
movement to be an attack on the
fishermen’s union.

President Jack Nichol said last
week following a meeting of the
union’s general executive board
that the UFAWU was exploring the
possibility of seeking a writ under
Section 4 of the Act, the section
which ostensibly exempts fish price
agreements from the provisions of
the Act.

That section was inserted two
decades ago following an earlier
Combines attack on the UFAWU
which ended when the fish com-
panies faced the prospect of having
to open their books before the hear-
ings. But the Combines branch has
contended that the section does not
apply in the specific case of the in-
quiry involving the UFAWU.

The union may also seek redress
through the Canadian Bill of Rights
on the basis that a person can refuse
to testify if the evidence might be
self-incriminating.

groups likely to take action next as
they have formulated demands for

Teachers appear to be one of the

a 30 per cent wage increase. Here,

as in the other disputes, the govern-
ment has intervened with its in-
credible five per cent guideline and
is pressuring school authorities not
‘to exceed it.

J public employees, in-
cluding the 970,000 member
General and Municipal Workers
Union and the

Other

See STRIKE pg. 7

@ FILMS: The best of the
films produced by the
Cuban Film Institute come
to Vancouver for the first |

time in a week-long
festival put on by Pacific
Cinematheque. The details
are on page 6.

@ LABOR: Its author sees it

as an embarrassment to
the Socred government,
but the bargaining
strategy outlined by
BCGEU secretary John
Fryer would mean accom-
modation to essential ser-

vices legislation, page 8 :
y page ae |

| @ YEAR OF THE CHILD:
/ Romesh Chandra, presi-
dent of the World Peace

Council opens Interna-
tional Year of the Chiid
with a plea that children
never again become the
victims of war, page 4.

| @ SOLIDARITY: Although

¥

‘

Cue Saar is Nes SIE

its own Revolution is
only 20 years old, Cuba
has already made a con-
tribution to the economic
growth of the developing
countries in Africa, page
5.

alae ae ee

670,000-member

J

—