i.

Delegates to the annual meeting of the Vancouver Tenants’ Council,
held last Sunday, heard Bruce Yorke (above, speaking) and alderman:

Harry Rankin review the tenants’

campaign over the last year and

outline proposals for 1975. Members were urged to participate in the
B.C. Tenant’’ Organization conference slated for February 157 pom.

at the Plaza 500 Hotel in Vancouver.

Anti-inflation plan

mapped by

A five point program to fight
inflation, headed by a demand for
an immediate 20% reduction in
personal income tax, was
unanimously adopted by delegates
to the Vancouver and District
Labor Council Tuesday night and
signaled labor’s response to a total
lack of government action on the
issue.

The program was embodied in
an executive resolution to be
forwarded to the CLC and included
the personal income tax cut, a eall
for a massive housing program,
mortgage money at 6%, a freeze on
the prices of all gas and oil
products, and federal and
provincial government policies
“that will make food available to

_the consumer at the lowest possible
price.”

“There are rumors that the top
labor leaders in the CLC are to
meet with the federal cabinet to
advise them of our thinking in
developing a program,” council
president. Syd .Thompson said,

“But that is not good enough. It’s

up to the entire labor movement to
hammer out a proper program.

“What we are looking at is the

onslaught of a depression,” added
Carpenter’s . delegate Lorne
Robson, ‘‘not with a reduction in
wages as in the thirties, but with
inflation producing the same ef-
fect.’’ Robson said that carpenters’
in Alberta have been met with a
“no increase’ employer stand in

negotiations. ‘“‘That is the same as |
a 12% reduction in wages,”’ he said..

« Recalling past VLC decisions to set
up unemployed groups, Robson
said that the present situation

- demanded action ‘“‘more stenuous

than resolutions.” He urged the
council to ‘‘start to move in that
direction’”’ and called on the IWA to
lead the way in mobilizing the
unemployed.

The VLC executive received a
vote of confidence from delegates
as all incumbent members were
returned in the council’s annual
election. The only new member to:
the executive was Dave Werlin,
CUPE 004 delegate, who was ac-.
claimed to the post of public
relations committee chairman,
replacing Jack Phillips who had
retired from trade union work to
‘take the post of provincial
organizer for the Communist:

~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE-FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1975—Page 12

city labor

Party. Council president Syd
Thompson and secretary treasurer
Jack Lawrence, along with all
other executive members, were
also acclaimed. °

Elsewhere in the meeting car-:
penters delegate Lorne Robson
charged that the Employers
Council has stepped into the
disputes at the Sandman hotel and
Parkland apartments construction
sites. The building trades council
has received ‘‘cease and desist”’
orders at both non-union sites in
their attempts to organize. Robson
reported that both of the con-.
tractors which he described as
“small gypo  outfits’’ were
represented by the big law firm of
Russell and Dumollin — lawyers
for CLRA — at the appeal
hearings. He said that the union
had evidence that the employers
council is “‘paying the shot.”

One man at the Sandman site has
been fired for holding union
membership, Robson said, and a
grievance has been put before the
labor board.-

“That hotel won’t be completed

- non-union,” Robson warned, “We

don’t want a knock down fight but
we won't stand by and allow it to go’
up and labor’s conditions beaten
down. We will use every

reasonable method available but if

it has to be the hard way — it will.’’.
Delegates gave a standing:
ovation to three guests from

‘Vietnam, representatives of the

neutralist “third force’’ in South
Vietnam. The three, Long, Lapp
and Lanh thanked the delegates for
their warm reception.

,

AR.

DAVE WERLIN

_ By JACK PHILLIPS

More than 1,250,000 Canadian
workers will be in collective
bargaining in 1975. Wages, cost-of-
living clauses and job security are
emerging as major goals.

In nearly every case, unions will
be pressing for one-year
agreements, since no one knows
how much the cost of living will
increase. Many of the unions that
signed for two and three years in
1973 were forced to strike after one
year as inflation took more from
their members’ pay cheques than
they gained in wage increases.

In the first eight months of last
year, 7.3 million man days were
lost through strikes, as compared
with four million for the whole of
1973, according to the federal
department of labor.

Rising prices have created a
militancy unmatched since the
post-war strikes of 1946. So-called
illegal strikes — strikes during the.
life of the collective agreement —
increased sharply during 1974, in
most cases around the issue of a
wage reopener to compensate for
the rise in the cost of living. The
majority of these strikes ended
with a gain for the workers. Some;
employers voluntarily increased
wages or provided a bonus against
the increased cost of living, rather.
than face a strike.

Two things stand out when we
break down the bargaining picture
for 1975. First, 71 per cent of the
total union membership in Canada
is going into collective bargaining:
Second, more than 56 per cent of
those involved are employed by
federal, provincial and municipal
governments and by hospitals,
school boards and other public
agencies. The national total in
these fields is 675,000. Among the
major groups in the public sector
will be Air Canada, with some
10,000 machinists and attendants
seeking new contracts in April and
June. Some of the larger groups in
the private sector will be:

@ Pulp and paper, with 40,000:
workers,

e Forest industries, with 49,500
workers,

© Mining and metal, with 52,000
workers,

© Textile industry, with 43,000
workers.

In this province, some of the
main contracts expiring in 1975
include the following:

© I.W.A. and pulp and paper
unions, with 51,000 workers.
Contracts are up in June.

e B.C. Roadbuilders and con-
struction unions, with 6,000
workers — February,

e Amalgamated Transit Union
with B.C. Hydro and Pacific Stage.
Lines, with 3,000 workers — July.

© Teamsters, with Transport.
Labor Relations, dairies, road
builders and building supply
companies.

e Federal grain handlers, with
550 workers — November.

o Towboat licensed and
unlicensed workers, with Towboat
Industrial Relations, with 1,700
workers — September.

e B.C. Railway contracts, with
2,200 workers.

CORRECTION

Another printing gremlin slipped
undetected into the copy last week

and inserted an extra number in

the scheduled date for the B.C.
Tenants Organization conference.
The date should have been
February 1, 1975 at the Plaza 500
hotel at 1 p.m. i

Unity, militant stand —
L key in ‘75 negotiations:

e The United Fishermen and
Allied Workers’ agreements for
shore. workers and salmon
fishermen will expire in April.
6,000 workers are involved.

e B.C. government employees,
with 35,000 workers.

o The International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers involving
2,700 generation, transmission and
distribution workers. Agreement
expires March 31. 500 B.C. Hydro
gas workers are also up.

e Supermarkets and the Retail
Clerks Union, with 8,000 workers.

e Major newspapers and the
Council of Printing Unions.

o The bulk of the 15,000 members
of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees employed by
municipalities, school boards and
universities, with most contracts
already expired.

o About 12,000 hospital workers
and 6,000 registered nurses.

e Some 2,000 longshoremen in
B.C. started’ negotiations in 1974
which are yet to be completed. Also
left over from 1974 are the
agreements for telephone workers
and postal workers.

Some 5,000 Greater Vancouver
civic employees~ are currently
deadlocked because of the refusal
of the municipal councils to agree
to a cost-of-living allowance. The
two unions involved have an-
nounced that strike votes will be
taken. Negotiations for municipal
policemen and firemen will be
affected by the outcome of this
dispute. ‘

In 1974, contracts expired for
more than 185,000 B.C. workers.
Preliminary reports from the
provincial department of labor
suggest a similar figure for 1975,
indicating an increase in the
number of one-year agreements.

The major negotiations in B.C.
will be those in the wood, pulp and
paper industry. For the first time
in many years, the I.W.A. and pulp
contracts will expire at the same
time, in June.

Because of depressed market
conditions in lumber, resulting in

some 15,000 woodworkers being

laid off, the multinational cor-
porations who dominate the wood,
pulp and paper industry through
their integrated operations, will
try to get a cheap settlement
despite the huge profits they have
made in the post-war period. There
is no doubt they will try the old
game of playing one section of the
industry against another. With the
pulp section of the industry now in
a better profit position than the

wood products section; this is the.

year for the three unions to forget
past differences and unite in
negotiations.

A recent editorial in the Barker,
published by “Local 1-217 of the

_ the second quarter and the ave’

I.W.A., served notice that the I
is inno mood for a cheap
tlement. ‘‘We may as well let i
known really early that @
unemployment in the forest #
dustry will not distract the .W# —
from. getting a satisfactory $
tlement in next y@
negotiations,” it stated.

The upcoming wage and cont
conference for the B.C. ©
negotiations of the I.W.A.
give aclear indication of the m
of woodworkers. Among the is:
being discussed on many jobs
sizeable wage increase, a 32-
work week, improved pens
with the option of retiring at 60,
severance pay as a cushion aga
future layoffs. Because the
won a reasonably good cos
living allowance last time aro
this is not expected to be a maf!
issue.

The B.C. Federation of La
can play a unifying role %
establishing a coordina
committee of all unions see
new contracts in 1975.

When Greater Vancouver
employees settled for 12% in
first quarter of 1974, along
adjustments for their lower
categories, it was generally
sidered a good settlem
However, inflation rose to 11

wage settlement in the provill
went up to 15.7%. During the thi
quarter,. settlements in Ba:

the period, October 1, 1973 to 0 _
tober 1, 1974, was 16%. a

A year ago, very few collectll
agreements in Canada provided)
cost-of-living allowance. Toe ~
more than 10% of all Canad
workers covered by collect!
agreements enjoy this protecti!

This year, there will agai
strong emphasis on COLA cla
and on substantial wage incr
to allow for an improvement in
standard of living.

~The trade union pressure
increased purchasing power
important part of the over-all
to protect living standards a
the increased cost of living:
militant, united approach to
and contract negotiations is
best answer to those who seek 10
the trade union movement to
incomes policy weighted in favo!
big business. a

Holidays in USSR

Over half the population of
Soviet Union used the service) —
health resorts and var
organized forms of holiday-ma*_
and health treatment pro
under the budget of state s0
insurance.

sacs