The Prince George
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MONDAY, JUNE 8,1992
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91 PER CENT OF CPU VOTERS REJECT OFFER
Strike ‘worth it’ to pulp workers
by BILL SEYMOUR Citizen Staff Bruce Fillion had no doubts casting his vote this morning as the city’s third and largest pulp union local voted on a company offer union executives are recommending their members reject.
About 700 members of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, Local 9, started voting this morning at the Royal Canadian Legion on Seventh Avenue. Just the fact that they are voting before a June 15 strike deadline is sending ripples through the community.
Fillion said he voted against the offer and is prepared to go on strike for a better deal.
“It’s worth it,” Fillion said today. “Nobody wants to go on
strike but it’s something you have to do.
“You prove your point and come out ahead.’’
Voting began today at 6:30 a.m. for PPWC members employed at Prince George Pulp, Intercon Pulp and B.C. Chemicals. Results could be known as early as Tuesday.
About 600 members of the Canadian Paperworkers Union, locals 1133 and 603, employed at Northwood Pulp and Timber and Prince George Pulp took similar votes Saturday.
Members of CPU, local 603, voted 91 per cent against the industry’s offer that included a first-year increase of 15 cents an hour, or .75 per cent, and a second-year raise of 85 cents, or 4.2 per cent.
The 55 CPU members of local 1133 from Prince George Pulp were also recommended to reject the offer. Scotty Gibb, president of 1133, said about 65 per cent of the membership voted.
“We got a high rejection,’’ he said Sunday.
Len Shankel, president of PPWC, local 9, said he is recommending his members reject the industry’s offer of a two-year deal that would see small increases in wages and the loss of a annual 24-hour floating statutory holiday.
“The union has given a position not to give up any stat holidays,’’ Shankel said Sunday. “We are not going to give up any stat holidays.’’
The workers have been without
a new contract since September last year. They gave notice April 28 they were cancelling a 10-month extension of their last deal and have been in a legal strike position since May 7.
Many say the offer from the Pulp and Paper Industrial Relations Bureau just isn’t enough. Keyjo Parm, a mill worker since 1977, said he had troubles voting against the offer.
“I think it is totally unacceptable,’’ Parm said today. “I think we are going to get a little better.”
The CPU’s rejection was due to the wage increase as well as the company’s position to drop the floating statutory holiday, said Don Halbert, president of the 550-
strong local 603. The vote came as no surprise.
“The company was trying to take one of our stats away from us and the other (reason) is the ridiculously low offer,” he said.
A rejection could mean B.C.’s
12,000 pulp workers could start giving 72-hour strike notice this week.
“We are waiting for a response from the company between the 9th and the 15th or we are going to prepare to shut the mill dawn 72 hours prior to the 15th,” said Halbert.
Unemployment figures released Friday reflect the impact the contract negotiations have on the community, said Diane Sketchley of the Canada Employment Centre.
The jobless rate increase here in May to 14.2 per cent from 14.1 per cent in April is partly due to the fact the pulp workers are without a contract.
Consumer spending cuts were responsible for about one-fifth of those who applied for Unemployment Insurance benefits in May, said Sketchley.
Earlier last week, David Laval -ley, Bank of Montreal’s vice-president for north central B.C. and the Yukon, said consumer confidence won’t rebound until the contracts are settled.
“People just aren’t buying the larger-ticket items, but once the union contracts are settled money will flow.”
Diamond rush heating up frozen north
by BERTRAND MAROTTE Southam News YELLOWKNIFE — Call it diamond daze.
It’s a rush to claim and explore huge tracts of land in the tundra of the Northwest Territories not seen since the days of the Klondike.
With visions of gem-quality diamonds lighting their way, Canadian and foreign mining companies are falling over themselves to stake out a chunk of land more than five times the size of Prince Edward Island.
Even the company that controls about 80 per cent of the world’s uncut diamond market — South Africa’s De Beers cartel — is sniffing around.
While it’s still too early to tell if enough of a concentration of diamonds will be found to justify the cost of mining the precious stone, Canada’s depressed mining industry needs any boost it can get these days.
And what better way than with tales of rich diamond clusters buried beneath the frozen ground of the north? After all, the base and precious metals business thrives on hype, greed and a dash of legend and magic.
Some of the mining companies involved in the area have already seen their stock skyrocket based on the prospect of establishing North America’s first commercial diamond mine.
“For an area that’s been devastated by slow mining activity in the last few years, this is a good shot in the arm for exploration people,” said a veteran prospector, sitting in the Miner’s Mess cafeteria in downtown Yellowknife, who gave his name as “Rasmussen.”
“Gold is in the ash can,” said Hugh Harbinson, chairman of Toronto-based Queenston Mining Inc. “The market kind of
likes this. Diamonds have always had a romantic, sizzle appeal. This comes along at just the right time.”
Queenston, like scores of other companies, has staked out its turf — about 100,000 acres — in the Lac de Gras area, 320 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.
The diamond fever is based on a 160-tonnc sample taken six months ago at Point Lake by Kelowna, B.C.-based Dia Met Minerals Ltd.
The sample indicated the presence of diamonds in the range of 56 carats per 100 tonnes with about 25 per cent of the stones of gem quality, said Dia Met’s spokesman, Wayne Fipke, 43, a former manager of Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre.
It was Fipke’s brother, Charles, a geologist, who found the original site after nine years of persistent hunting for obscure clues and “signatures” left in deposits from ancient glaciers.
The brothers Fipke are now millionaires. At least on paper.
Tiny Dia Met has the backing of a giant — Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd. of Australia — that claims worldwide assets of over $20 billion.
If a decision is made to build a mine, it will cost a minimum of $500 million.
The only other major diamond mines today are in South Africa, Ghana, Siberia and Australia.
For now, Yellowknife businesses and governments are happy to be mining the pockets of the diamond-dazzled.
Since last November, 8.5 million acres of land have been staked, she said. That means millions of dollars pouring into government coffers if the claim-holders want to hang on to their claims over the first two-year phase.
Quilting bee
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Seniors get some help to show off their handmade Prince George quift commemorating Canada’s 125th birthday which is a gift for a group of Manitoba seniors. From left, Myrtle Morrison, Betty Le Ves Conte, Peter Enns, Ray Le Ves Conte, Doris Holzworth and Mary Enns, far right, spent numerous hours producing the gift. Aid. Shirley Gratton, third from right, and Kathy Lloyd, area co-ordinator for Canada 125, attended the unveiling.
SEX CHARGE BAIL HEARING RESUMES
Police feel animosity from scandal
SASKATOON (CP) — A bail hearing resumed this morning for nine people charged with sexually assaulting more than 30 children in Martensville, Sask.
Among those charged are two of the town’s former police chiefs, three suspended police officers and three people who operated an unlicensed babysitting service in the town about 10 kilometres north of Saskatoon.
All the accused spent the weekend in jail, despite defence lawyers’ objections.
On Friday, after hearing five hours of testimony, provincial court Judge Robert Finley adjourned the bail hearing until today
because of “information overload.”
The charges involve children between the ages of three and 12 over a three-year period beginning in 1988. The charges include sexual assault, forcible confinement and weapons counts.
Martensville police Chief Mike Johnston has said the alleged assaults occurred at the home from which the babysitting service operated and at a nearby farmhouse.
Johnston has said he heard rumors linking the alleged abuse to satanic cults, but there’s no evidence so far to support them.
The police investigation is con-
tinuing and more charges arc possible.
So far, charged are Ron Sterling, owner of the babysitting service, his wife, Linda, and son, Travis; Darryl Ford, who was chief of the Martensville force until 1988; Ed Revesz, who succeeded Ford, until Oct. 1991; Warman RCMP officer Darren Sabourin; Martensville police officer James Elstad; Saskatoon Cpl. John Popowich; and a woman who cannot be identified under the Young Offenders Act.
The charges have led to animosity toward police in the area.
“Our guys wil go into a coffee shop and parents will pull their children awav.” a Saskatoon of-
ficer who did not want to be named told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.
“Our guys are walking around with their jaws on the ground,” another RCMP officer told the paper. “People are staring right through you. The guys are really depressed.”
Meanwhile, Rev. Paul Ens of Martensville Alliance Church delivered a message of healing and hope during his Sunday morning service.
“The whole message is the fact that God is the divine healer. The healing process is for the families and God is capable of healing.”
INDEX
Ann Landers . ____8
Bridge.....
Business .... . . . 18
City, B.C. . . . . . .2,3
Classified . . . . 19-23
Comics.....
Commentary . . . . .5
Crossword . . . . . . 20
Editorial .... ____4
Entertainment 16,17
Family..... ____8
Horoscope . . . . . . 22
. . 11
Lotteries ....
Movies.....
National ....
Sports..... 13-15 _
Television . . . . . 21 ^
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Marrying trend ‘all upside down’
WINNIPEG (CP) — Fewer Canadians arc marrying young, staying together or marrying at all and society is changing as a result, say sociologists and demographers.
“Nobody knows what direction it will go,” says Jean Dumas, co-author of Statistics Canada’s report on Marriage and Conjugal Life in Canada.
“It’s all changed in the past 20 years, especially after centuries of stability,” he said. “Now, you start a family first, many later or break up the marriage and start all over again. It’s all upside down.”
While the jury is out on the impact of the growing trend towards common-law relationships, divorce and delayed marriage will have on the next generation, certain problems have emerged.
“For people in single parent families, poverty is an issue,” says Ruth Rachlis, a retired social worker from the University of Manitoba.
Rachlis said women typically bear the brunt of divorce.
In the majority of cases, they’re awarded custody of the children yet often make a fraction of their former spouse’s income, if they can find employment and day care.
She said many live below the poverty line, while dealing with the emotional and financial stress of being the sole income earner and caregiver in the family.
If the woman remarries or lives with a man with his own children, the issue of blended families can be another stress, added Nancy Higgitt, a professor of Family Studies at the University of Manitoba.
“The economics of these families and relationships become enormously complex,” she said. “The stress is enormous.”
As more couples delay marriage, the issue of childlessness and low fertility rates has become a major problem, she said.
“It's an absolute fact that at the rate women are having children (today) we won’t replace the next generation.”
G.N. Ramu, a sociologist at the University of Manitoba, says Canada has gone from a baby boom after 1946 to a baby-bust after 1986.
The average fertility rate in 1985 was just 1.3 children, rising slightly to 1.7 in 1990.
However, in order to even replace the current generation, every woman in Canada would have to bear at least 2.1 children, he said.
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