Davis To Face Criticism Of Plan at UFAWU Meet
TlieTiTherman
Vol. XXXIV, No. 4
Vancouver, B.C.
February 26, 1971
Heward White in Peninsula Voice
"Now I know all you chaps have been wondering about my next phase . . ."
N.S. Gov't Introduces Bill To Give Fishermen Rights
HALIFAX — A bill introduced in the Nova Scotia legislature by labor minister Len Pace on February 23 will give bargaining rights to fishermen throughout the province if it becomes law.
According to Nova Scotia press reports, the proposed legislation would apply to both inshore and deepsea fishermen.
Pace, who became labor minister following the upset Liberal victory in last October's provincial election, promised last December that the legislation would be brought forward at this session of the house.
The right of fishermen to collective bargaining and representation by the union of their choice was a key issue in last year's strike by UFAWU members in the Canso Strait area.
Introduction of the bill this week is seen as a tribute to the fishermen who stood firm for seven months in the bitter dispute with two foreign owned fishing companies.
A provincial government spokesman was quoted as saying there is still a dispute over jurisdiction for deepsea fishermen, and the legislation could still be challenged by the federal government or the fishing companies.
Wharfage Fees Appeal Issued
In their dispute with the federal government over wharfage fees, fishermen and boat owners at Campbell River are appealing to all boat owners who have received wharfage bills from Denis Shipping Ltd. to withhold payment while the dispute is before the courts.
Denis Shipping Ltd. is the company to which the government has leased the right to administer the wharf in what fishermen and others contend is the most inequitable contract of its kind. (See letter on page 6.)
The dispute is being taken before the courts in the form of summonses served on a number of boat owners for non-payment of wharfage fees.
Aim of the bill is to "stabilize labor relations in the fishing industry" and provide "hopefully viable unions," the spokesman said.
If it becomes law, the bill will have far reaching consequences for fishermen throughout the
province, the big majority of whom remain unorganized.
One beneficiary, ironically, could be the Food and Allied Workers division of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union, now engaged in a raid against locals of both the UFAWU and the Canadian Seafood Workers Union, a Canadian Labor Congress affiliate.
The CSWU this month placed the issue of the food workers' raid before the CLC, which is supposed to curb raids by one affiliate against another.
Direct involvement of Father George Arsenault, parish priest at Petit de Grat, in the food workers' raid against the UFAWU has been protested by Jim Tester, president of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Local 598 at Sudbury, in a letter to Bishop William E. Power.
"I can understand why, in their greed, such unions as the Amalgamated Meat Cutters would make a sweetheart deal with Booth Fisheries and thus stab the UFAWU in the back," Tester wrote. "But I cannot understand why, in the name of decency and morality, Father Arsenault's hand should be the one to grasp the dagger."
But Minister Allowing Scant Discussion Time
Cannery shutdowns, cutbacks and reduction in company rental boats particularly affecting Natives and in the salmon packer fleet, and the closely related issue of federal fisheries minister Jack Davis' boat licensing scheme, will be among major topics for discussion at the 26th annual convention of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers, opening in Vancouver this Saturday, February 27.
Davis will address the convention at 10 a.m. on March 1 but it appears that delegates will have little opportunity to question him about the controversial licensing plan. The minister already has made it known he will be taking a 12:45 p.m. flight from Vancouver.
Davis gave his scheduled appearance at the convention as a reason for not attending last month's mass meeting of fishermen at Vancouver. The meeting called on him to scrap the licensing plan in its entirety.
Other guest speakers at the convention will include Derrick
Mallard, executive director of Society for Pollution and Environmental Control, Jack Phillips, Canadian Union of Public Employees national representative, Rev. Ron Parsons, the Nova Scotia Anglican minister who took a courageous stand in support of UFAWU fishermen during last year's bitter strike in the Canso Strait area, and Guy Williams, president of the Native Brotherhood of B.C.
Pacific regional fisheries director W. R. (Rod) Hourston will
See UFAWU — Page 11
Davis Issues Another Press Release' Edict
Members of the UFAWU general executive board and standing committee on fisheries, meeting in Vancouver this week, condemned federal fisheries minister Jack Davis for issuing another edict on boat licensing without giving fishermen an opportunity to express their views and criticisms to him directly.
Davis is scheduled to address the UFAWU convention in Van couver on March 1. Last month he declined to attend fishermen's meetings called to discuss his licensing plan but left the impression that he would listen at the convention to their views on higher licence fees and "quality control standards."
On February 18, however, Davis issued a press release "reaffirming" that Class A licence fees will double this year and that "minimum standards (will) apply to vessels to ensure quality control of salmon."
The press release also announced that Indian boat owners will have a choice of staying in the licensing plan's buy-back program or purchasing a special $10 "Indian licence" which in effect allows retention of Class A status, with the
See PRESS — Page 9
UFAWU	
Meeting Notices	
on Page 3	
UFAWU Hits Intervention
In a telegram this week to provincial labor minister Leslie Peterson, the UFAWU registered its strong opposition to the Socred government's "unwarranted intervention" in the current dispute between the Teamsters Union and trucking companies.
Charging that "back-to-work orders and compulsory arbitration are not acceptable alternatives to free collective bargaining," the union said the government's action "reflects its pro-employer bias and aggravates the already critical state of labor relations in British Columbia."
• Speaking for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union at the Peace Arch rally to protest the proposed Pacific coast oil tanker route was general organizer Mrs. Mickey Beagle.
GREETINGS, UFAWU CONVENTION DELEGATES