FROM PAGE 5

Bill Goodacre is retiring as head of the Terrace unemployment action centre, but will retain his membership in Local 2924 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The local, of which he is president, repres- ents B.C.’s paid action centre co-ordinators.

Goodacre reports that the Kitimat, Ter- Tace and District Labor Council and the Terrace Anti-Poverty Group are keeping

the centre going on a day-to-day basis, but

hopes to have something more secure in the way of funding by the fall. The need for the Terrace centre has never been greater, he Says. The area suffers “chronic” unem- Ployment in excess of 30 per cent, the result of federal cutbacks in the northern city, a 80vernment centre.

Goodacre has been compiling a list of the centres hoping to remain open. He is also Working on a scheme to provide long-term funding for the centres.

“We had hoped to get something together by the end of June. But with the fight against Bills 19 and 20 taking up every- One’s time, we know it’s going to take long that that,” he relates.

The long term goal involves setting up four regional “societies” to administer fund- Ing for the centres in the north, the Okana- 8an and the Kootenays, and on Yancouver Island. That doesn’t include the Lower Mainland since it has the bulk of the trade Union membership, the large Vancouver and New Westminster labor councils and their centres, and the Building Trades centre in Burnaby.

Goodacre stresses that the main source of continued funding should be trade unions. For the time being the centres are seek-

Aubrey Burton Bill Bennett Burnaby Campbell River Comox Valley Correspondence Coquitlam

Effie Jones Fishermen Fort Lang Fraser V Kamloops

NO TO BILLS 19 AND 20!

Vancouver Unemployment Action Centre co-ordinator Mike Watrin speaks out against Bill 19 at special labor council meeting. Behind him is centre secretary- treasurer Garry Colley.

ing federal government job development funding to train advocates. There are also charities and church groups, but basically,

we like to stick with the trade unions

because they aren’t inclined to pressure us to refrain from political controversies,” he explains.

Goodacre worries that without adequate funding, “the educational and related work

are things we’re going to have problems maintaining.”

Is there a political role for the centres?

“Well, there’s not much use in having them if they’re not going to be speaking out on the issues as they come through the door. I sometimes find it frustrating that the energy level among the poor is so low. That’s why it’s important that we have ade-

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Centres seek secure funding

quate funding for the educational and polit- ical activities.”

Based on Goodacre’s information, the following centres are planning to stay in business: Prince Rupert, Prince George, Terrace, Kelowna (incorporated into the food bank), Castlegar/Trail, Gibsons (for the Sunshine Coast), the Burnaby centre run by the Building Trades unions, New Westminster, Duncan, Port Alberni (run by the Organization of Unemployed Workers) and Powell River.

It’s “touch and go” for the centre in Pen- ticton, while Williams Lake “looks promis- ing,” Goodacre reports. Closed are the cen- tresin Barriere, Nanaimo and Salmon Arm.

While not financed by a trade union per se, the Unemployed Teachers Action Centre — funded entirely by the B.C. Teachers Federation — performs a similar role to the labor council centres and is still in business, co-ordinator Mel Lehan reports.

Founded in March, 1983, the centre has become known recently for finding hun- dreds of jobs for B.C.’s jobless teachers and education school graduates south of the border. Lehan, who predicts severe teacher shortages for the province in the future, said the departure of B.C.-trained teachers to California, Texas and other U.S. states is a statement about Social Credit restraint pol- icies.

Socred policies are still a threat, says Lehan. “Bill 20 (the proposed Teaching Profession Act) can destroy the centre because it can destroy the BCTF.”

The centre will be involved in the fight against Bill 20. ““Whether or not a teacher is unemployed, he or she is still a teacher, and wants the right to include the issues of pov- erty and racism in the curriculum.”

Surrey Trail/Castlegar Vancouver East Vernon

Victoria Westside

White Rock

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 29, 1987 e 23