INGLEW.
West Van

Hooker
horror stor

‘rV etamenarom aemamaamnen inane

nme

D. SCHOOL “SIGNING OVER” ceremony last week when
hool Board transferred the manicipality's original, 53-year-
old high school to West Van council for use as a Recreation Centre
extension. L to r: Frank Kurucz, assistant director of Parks and

plant

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Tel. 985-2131

Classified 986-6222

Recreation, School Board Chairman Audrey Sojonky, YMCA Executive
Director Trueman Hirschfield, Mayor Derrick Humphreys and Barrie
Sutton, president of the North Shore YMCA. See story on page Al6.

(Ellsworth Dickson photo)

"ar

Is productivity put before safety?

By CHRIS LLOYD

Union workers at
North Vancouver's
Hooker Chemical plant
have finally broken
their silence. And the
statement they have
issued as a result of the
controversy surround-
ing the plant reads like
a horror story.

Oil, Chemical and Atomic
Workers Union (OCAWU)
Local 9-697 President Tim
Toth has told the News he

.

3

fears a “Three Mile Island”
situation at Hooker because
of inadequately trained
workers, dangerously
neglected equipment and
poor safety standards.

Other concerns dealt with

in the statement by his union
executive include
inadequate security and a
reluctance on the part of
Hooker management to
implement safety standards
unless the union threatens
job action.

The union feels safety lags
far behind productivity in
Hooker's priority book.

The union local welcomes
the release of the report by
Beak Consultants into the
likelihood of disasters from
the chlorine manufacturing
plant, adding that it had
been unsuccessful in ob-
taining a copy of the report
prior to District Council's
reluctant decision to make
the report public.

The union is critical of the
fact that the report was kept
secret for some 18 months
before its release, although it
stresses it believes the

CONTINUED ON PAGE Al2

%y

"Reaching Every Door on the North $

Youth: was

‘out to get’

officers
By GILL SHAW

Two West Van-
couver Police officers
were cleared of beating
a local boy when
Provincial Court Judge
Kenneth Husband
Friday threw - out
common assault
charges. that had been

Sitting in his home court
in New Westminster, Judge
Husband said he was
satisfied beyond = a
reasonable doubt as to the
innocence of Sergeant Frank
Aikenhead. He = similarly
dismissed the assault charge
against Constable David
Weaving after saying: “I
have reasonable doubt with
respect to the evidence
against Constable Weaving.”

The officers had been
accused of beating Robert
Logan, who was 15 at the
time, in a late-night en-
counter in Ambleside Park.

Logan, admitted during
the trial of the two officers
that he was “out to get

CONTINUED ON PAGE A2

weather
SR Oil

A few morning showers.
Otherwise, clondy with
sunny periods,
Highs about SOF (10C).

THURSDAY:
Mainly cloudy.

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