Rather than face the double jeopardy of a northwest gale combined with inadequate safety and rescue
facilities, a combination which has caused five boats to go down with a loss of two lives so far in this year’s
roe herring fishery, the seiner Croatia makes a run for the Nanaimo harbour. In one day last week scores of
vessels headed for shore and three boats ran into serious difficulties within the Georgia Strait, highlighting

the need for expansion of the Canadian coast guard as an independent rescue service.

—Richard Morgan photo

Herring toll brings call

for separate coast guard

The continuing loss of both lives
and vessels from the herring fleet,
has prompted the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers to
call for the conversion of the
Canadian Coast Guard into a
separate service with its own fleet
of all-weather vessels and sup-
porting planes and helicopters ona
round-the-clock basis at strategic
locations along the coast.

The UFAWU demands were
forwarded to federal authorities
following a lengthy meeting of the
union’s herring - negotiating
committee which dealt with the
rising toll of lives and boats in this
spring’s roe herring season.

To date five boats have been lost,
and three men either killed or
missing.

A union statement noted that the
present coast guard service, which
draws on the facilities of several
federal departments, ~- was
established after long cam-
paigning by the UFAWU and other
maritime organizations, but “‘it is
not equal to the task of protecting
vessels over the length of the B.C.
coast.”’

The statement recognized that

STUDENTS

cont'd from pg. 1
only say that the Universities
Council, which administers the
province’s four universities, would
receive roughly the same amount
of money for the 1976 fiscal year as
it did for the 1975 fiscal year.

He said that the distribution of
that money would be at the
discretion of the Council, and it
may mean that NDU would not
receive funding for the upcoming
year.

BCSF representative, Lake
Sagaris, told the March 17 protest
rally that if NDU was allowed to be
phased out it would mean that
education in British Columbia
“‘was no longer a right, but rather,
a privilege.”’ She said that the
closure of Notre Dame would deny
a major region of the province, the
Kootenays, access to a _ post
secondary educational system.
“And they can’t even justify it as
being economical with all of those
expensive facilities sitting empty.”’

Sagaris said that the question of
cutbacks applies to much more
than the closure of Notre Dame,
and warned that the standards of
B.C.’s_ post-secondary education
will suffer unless the educational
system keeps pace with inflation.

special measures taken to protect
the herring fleet this season did
“constitute an improvement”’ but
added that it was ‘‘still far short of
the need.”” The union urged that
available naval vessels be
assigned to patrol duty.

“Tt is not a question of ‘wet
nursing’ the fishing fleet, but
saving men in trouble, whatever
the cause of their difficulties,” the
union said.

The statement also called for the
establishment of a uniform set of
regulations, which could be en-
forced by both the federal tran-
sport department and the Workers’
Compensation Board to overcome
conflicting jurisdictions.

“Fishermen already are vic-
timized by the dispute between
federal and provincial govern-
ments over collective bargaining
jurisdiction, so that they have no
collective bargaining rights until
the courts decide the issue,’’ the
Statement pointed out. “We don’t
want to be victimized by a similar
conflict over safety regulations,”’
the union stressed.

“Uniform regulations must be
established and boats must un-
dergo continuous inspection.”

The union reiterated its call for
immediate action in setting up a
marine college, currently stalled
for further study by the provincial
government. The former NDP
government had planned on
beginning operations of such a
college in April of this year.

“Tt’s an insult to blame fisher-
men for lack of training in
seamanship and then deny them
the facilities which would give
them that training,’ the UFAWU
said. >

The establishment of a marine
college has been a major demand
of the UFAWU for several years,
and the union has been joined in
their call by other ‘maritime
organizations.

The head of the Fisheries Service
marine unit has described the lack
of a marine college in B.C. as
disgraceful. British Columbia is
the only maritime province
without such a college.

Captain Guy Mitchell said that
plans for a marine college have
been in the air for 10 years but are
now in abeyance with the an-
nouncement by education minister
Pat McGeer that alternative
methods of providing marine
training were being studied.

However, the arrival of this

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 19, 1976—Page 12

year’s herring season did not bring
about any major changes in the
government’s readiness to handle
emergencies at sea, but rather,
brought about a resumption of the
UFAWU’s longstanding battle with
government authorities over the
safety issue.

The union has been backed up in
their fight for adequate safety
measures at sea by other maritime
unions, and central labor bodies
such as the Vancouver and District
Labor council, but as yet there has
been no indication from either the
provincial or federal governments
that they are willing to reconsider
their position on the issue of safety
and provide the money and
manpower necessary to make it
the priority which it should be.

In the absence of governmental

action, the union itself is issuing a

number of safety bulletins to its
members which include
suggestions as to how to minimize
the dangers of herring fishing.

cont'd from pg. 1
which has been created by the
large monopolies.

‘We do not intend to pay for the
large corporations,’’ Laberge,
Pepin and Charbonneau declared.
“That is what will be expressed by
workers demonstrating on March
2222

Meanwhile provincial
federations of labor, labor councils
and union locals were making
preparations throughout the
country to ensure the participation
of thousands of workers in what is
expected to be the largest protest
on Parliament Hill for many years.

In this province, the B.C.
Federation of Labor has chartered

a DC-8 jet for the trip and

Federation assistant secretary
Clive Lytle said that all of the 134
seats would be filled by members
of affiliated locals.

Activity has been particularly
brisk in Ontario where many union
locals will be able to use buses or
trains to make the trip to Ottawa.

Numerous meetings have been
held throughout the province in
recent weeks outlining the op-
position to the wage control and
organizing for the demonstration.

In Metro Toronto where the labor

council has the greatest number of
affiliates, 25 buses have _ beel
chartered and locals have cont
mitted members to fill them.
Willy Majesky, projects director
of the council also noted that 4
delegation from the Ontari0
Secondary Teachers Associatiol
would be participating in the
demonstration together with the
labor council. A
Labor councils in a number @
smaller centres including).
Brampton, Peterborough,
Hamilton and Sudbury were als0
arranging buses for the demol
stration. In many locals, collectiot
lists were being circulated among
those not intending to take part t0
help defray the cost of bus charters
and other travel arrangements.
The United Auto Workers has)
also arranged for a special train t0
take demonstrators to Ottawa
which will leave Windsor the day
before the rally and pick up pal
ticipants along the way. UAW rep
resentative Frank Fairchild said
the capacity of the train was 1,10)
and he expected an _ overfloy
crowd. Another 250 or 300 membels
of the union were also expected

come from Quebec. j
—

Strike wave presses
Juan Carlos’ regime

The leader of the outlawed
Spanish Workers Commissions told
a Paris meeting last week that the
Spanish workers’ offensive against
the regime of Juan Carlos is
gaining in scope and intensity with
each passing day.

Marcelino Camacho, who was
just recently released from a
Spanish prison for the second time,
said that hundreds of thousands of
Spanish workers.are off the job in
illegal strikes which interweave
both economic and_ political
demands such as a general am-
nesty for all political prisoners and
the granting of normal political
and trade union freedoms.

cont'd from pg. 7
necessary concessions to certain
big corporations, together with its
attack on the working people and
their fundamental right to free
collective bargaining, that put big
business back in the saddle.

“While labor and democratic
circles were divided, forces of the
right united to recapture power.
That’s the lesson of last Decem-
ber’s provincial election. That is
what has to be changed.

“The dissatisfaction with Socred
policies is giving rise to a demand
for change. But it is not enough to
wish that the Socreds be defeated
in the coming byelection.

“Tt will require correct tactics,
and the development of democratic
unity in action around policies that
will unite working people and the
middle class in sufficient numbers
and with the determination to
reverse the right trend.

“Working people, pensioners,
ratepayers, students, professional
and small business people;
teachers, nurses, hospital workers,
many doctors, and government
employees want a halt to the
Socred cutbacks, escalating
charges and taxes, massive
resource giveaways and con-
cessions to big business.

“The Communist Party is
prepared to join with all

democratic forces including the
trade union movement and: the
NDP in order to curb the power of
the monopolies and place them
under public ownership and
democratic control; launch a
sharp attack on unemployment
and monopoly-rigged prices;
protect the unfettered rights of all
working people to organize and
bargain; launch a_ massive
program of low-rent, low-cost
housing, institute tax reforms, and
provide adequate grants for B.C.’s
educational, health needs and
municipal aid.

‘‘These are the basic issues in the
coming byelection. The Com-
munist Party will fight to centre
attnetion on these issues, to
develop a powerful mass
movement on the basis of an anti-
monopoly program, and struggle
to go over to the offensive — an
offensive strong enough to bring a
halt to the Socred’s reactionary
policies.

“The Vancouver East byelec-
tion, can, and must become the
springboard for an all-out offensive
by the labor and democratic

movements to fight back against
the right, and start this province on
a progressive course.

“Social Credit must be given a
resounding defeat.”

Camacho said that when 16,000
construction workers in the nor

thern Spanish city of Zaragoza)

the total number of strikers
300,000.

Coupled with the massive strike
movements have come numerol
demands that the Juan Carldé
regime, supposedly a liberal
regime which would democrati#
Spain, resign.

One prominent Spanish social
democrat, Enrique Tierno, told #
Madrid press conference last eek
that the only way to end the coll
frontations would be the “con
stitution of a government ©
national coalition with all til
political forces, including th®
Communists, contributing to 4
search for a solution.” 4 |

went on strike March 12, it posi

Camacho said that even thoug!
certain people within the ranks
the Spanish right-wing have ad’
vocated such a solution, the ‘peat
offensive of the Spanish workers ®
meeting with stiff resistance fro!
adherents of the old Fran¢!
regime. They are putting obstaclé
in the way of even a_ sl0 4
liberalization of the regime a!
trying to preserve everythill
possible from the Franco era.

“The police are no longer ig
using clubs and tear gas. La
week alone, seven people wert
killed by police gunfire, 150 w
wounded, and large numbers w
thrown in prison,” he said bl
noted that large numbers of
military were in support of ¢
struggles of the Spanish worke®

In a show of strength within ¢
borders of Spain, the Worké
Commissions have released
names of 100 of its leaders. The 104
who face severe penalties {
admitting to their position :
leadership in the outlaw®
organizations, signed a manifes’
appealing for public support ¥,
their struggle for democrat!
freedoms and trade union 4?
political rights. The decision
make public the names is seen ae
direct challenge to: the Spani§
government government whi
has tried for years to crush !
Commissions.

—  - =e

S—ey PaO KH

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