LETTERS to the EDITOR
Native Indians Had Better Idea
Editor, The Fisherman:
Before the advent of our so-called society, there was an unwritten law among most of the Indian tribes that anyone found guilty of polluting fresh water streams was decapitated.
If this law were in effect today, I'm afraid that the executioner would have a lot of overtime work.
After reading the minutes of the Advisory Planning Committee held in Richmond on August 13, I wonder whether perhaps we ought to campaign for such a law.
Some of the first heads that would fly would probably be those of our fisheries department officials who are passively going along with Richmond Municipal Council to dump several million gallons of raw sewage daily into the Fraser River. I have for some time had qualms about the ineffective way our fisheries are being administered, but now I am sure that a good shakeup of our fisheries department would do no harm.
Ken Jackson, representing the fisheries department at that meeting, made the following statement: "The outfall pipe will have to extend far enough out into the river so the effluent is taken down the main channel of the river and does not form in eddies around islands or in the sloughs."
He reported that his department has taken a float test, unfortunately not at a correct tide or wind condition, to determine that this sewage will flow out the main channel. He stated that no harm to adult fish would result from the effluent.
Mr. Jackson also disagreed with statements made by UFAWU acting president T. (Buck) Suzuki that high fall tides would back the river and the sewage several miles upstream.
Please take note, all you fishermen, of the brilliant scientific remarks he made on this point: "The fresh water in the river moves downstream and the sewage is as light as the fresh water and will float up and move with the fresh water downstream." (He deserves a university degree for such scientific discovery.)
Further on, in answer to a question put to him by Mr. Twiss, if any tests had been done by the department to find out what harm chemicals do to water, Mr. Jackson stated that he had not been instructed to carry out any such tests.
He admitted that they did not even take a float test during various conditions; they never even tested for effects on water by chemicals. And yet he is willing to give assurance that no harm will come to adult fish having to wallow in it. That is the very kind of scientific advice that closed 23 out of the 25 beaches to the public in the Victoria area.
There is only one way to keep our fresh water clean, and that
is not to dump any pollutants into it. Proper treatment plants are a must and finances should not be an object.
It is just a matter which should be negotiated between all levels of government as to each one's share of responsibility. Provincial health minister Ralph Loffmark has made his position very clear, for which I admire him and I hope that he is sincere enough about it to rebuff any pressure groups.
So instead of the municipal councils expending all that effort in an attempt to circumvent Mr. Loffmark's ruling, they, along with other affected groups, should be working out the financial details with the senior gover.nments to get started on proper treatment plants immediately.
Such treatment plants will be a must by law within five years, so why the big rush to beat the deadline just to pollute our rivers? The very thought of it verges on insanity.
NICK A. SPILCHEN Ladner, B.C.
Pepsi .Schweppes No Longer Union
Editor, The Fisherman:
Recently the Pepsi Cola Company ceased operations in the Greater Vancouver area and subsequently gave a franchise to bottle and distribute Pepsi Cola and Schweppes products in this area to Seven Up Vancouver Ltd., through a subsidiary of that firm called Marpatt Beverages.
All bottling is done at the Seven Up plant, which put all of the former Pepsi bottling employees in the ranks of the unemployed.
A number of Seven Up drivers were put on the staff of Marpatt Beverages and a petition was circulated for the drivers to sign, calling for decertification of our Local. In some cases pressure was exerted to get some men to sign the petition.
As a result of this petition the Labor Relations Board decertified us on the grounds that the employer (Pepsi Cola) was no longer the employer of the employees. No consideration was given to a vote, even though we requested it, on the grounds that it was a sale of part of the business, as the trucks and vending equipment were purchased by Marpatt Beverages.
We therefore have no alternative but to advise you that Pepsi Cola, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew and all Schweppes products are now not only non-union, but distributed by a very anti-union company.
A number of the former Pepsi drivers who did not wish to work for a non-union company have gone to work for Stubby Products. This company is also under new management which is prepared to spend the necessary money to provide the ser-
• The Fisherman welcomes letters to the editor but asks only that they he as short as possible, be signed by the writer, and carry the address of the sender. We reserve the right to cut letters to meet space requirements. We will withhold from publication the name of any letter writer upon request. Write often, write topically, but write briefly.
vice and equipment required to do a proper job in the area.
We therefore wish to remind you that the only union company involved in bottle and vending sales in this area is Stubby Products Ltd., which sells Two Way, Diet Two Way, Nu Grape, Kickapoo Joy Juice and the following Stubby flavors, ginger ale, orange, root beer, creme soda, pink grapefruit, lemon lime and cola.
Products manufactured by Shasta Beverages for resale in retail stores under the brand name Shasta, are also union, as are all Cragmont products sold in Safeway Stores. White Rock products sold by Super-Valu are produced by a non-union company.
J. BROWN, Secretary, Local 351, Miscellaneous Workers, Wholesale and Retail Delivery Drivers and Helpers Union. Vancouver, B.C.
Alaska Fishermen Being Sold Out
Editor, The Fisherman:
Enjoy your paper and news.
Please renew my subscription for 1969 and the extra $10 is for the Defence Fund.
We are being sold out by the politicians to the Japanese. Dutch Harbor will be their first base. Profit at any price. We are being driven off the North Pacific by the "political pimps."
Regards to all Canadian trade union fishermen. Get into the battle!
TONY NESS
Haines, Alaska.
Regrets Role In Co-op Dispute
Editor, The Fisherman:
I wish to clear myself with the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union as far as my actions were concerned during the dispute in 1967.
I worked behind the picket lines in the Co-op reduction plant until about the end of August at which time I returned to school on a one year's leave of absence.
I have had time to think things over and although I felt I was right at the time and still feel the Union made certain mistakes, I consider I was wrong in crossing a picket line regardless of the reasons and would like to make amends for any difficulties I may have caused by my actions.
JAMES BLYTH Prince Rupert, B.C.
• These photos taken by Neville Shanks, editor-publisher of the North Island Gazette, on a Vancouver Island Helicopters flight to Marble River, show (top left) the falls which present a formidable obstacle to salmon going upstream to spawn. Last month a federal fisheries department crew blasted the section seen at left in the photo to provide an easier approach. Other two photos show (top right) a salmon approaching the falls and (bottom right) leaping to reach the concealed pool above.
HARRY RANKIN
New Face for Old Establishment
ALTHOUGH there are still three months to go, the December 11 civic election campaign is already in high gear.
The Electors Action Movement (TEAM) drew up its election platform last weekend. The NPA, which is closely aligned with TEAM and many of whose leading members belong to TEAM, is currently discussing its future.
A new reform organization, the Committee of Progressive Electors (COPE), composed of ratepayers, tenants, and trade union groups, has entered the field.
How are we to judge all these groups?
I suggest that the yardstick to use is: who is in them, who backs them up, and, most important of all, what is their program?
★ * ★
LET'S LOOK AT THE PRO-
gram just announced by TEAM. Any program to be fairly judged must be viewed against the basic issues facing us in the city. These issues include:
—Keeping down rents and taxes on homes.
—Compelling b i g industrial and commercial properties to pay a fair share of taxes, which they are certainly not doing now. ,
—A large scale low rental public housing program;
—A ward system to guarantee representation of all areas in Council.
—An overall master plan of city development.
—A low fare rapid transit system as an alternative to expen-
sive freeways.
★ * * WHERE DOES TEAM STAND
on these issues?
It says nothing about keeping down taxes on homes or increasing them on big commercial and industrial properties. That's because TEAM's financial backing comes from these wealthy groups.
It has no specific housing program. It refuses to commit itself to a housing program of, say, 2,500 new units a year for the next 10 years.
TEAM supports a ward system, but only in general terms and in such a way that the Establishment will continue to control City Hall.
It wants an overall plan of city development so that land assembly can be carried through for private development. This is another way of saying that it wants Council to expropriate private land in choice areas to be turned over to private promoters for their enrichment.
After all its talk about the need for a new party with a new program, TEAM has come up with very little that is new. When you combine this with the fact that it Has the support of the Establishment and is closely aligned with the NPA, what is really so different about TEAM?
The conclusion is inescapable that TEAM is the party of the big corporations and real estate interests; it is not a true reform party. The ordinary citizen will get no better deal from this group than from the NPA. The new reform look it's putting on is only an effort to win the East End vote, where voters are justifiably suspicious of the Establishment and the neglect they have suffered at its hands all these years.
THE FISHERMAN — SEPTEMBER 13, 1968