Wednesday, January 8, 1992 - North Shore News - 3

Freighter crew
strikes over poor

work conditions
Ship idled along NV waterfront

A REPRESENTATIVE of the American firm that owns a
cargo vessel currently behind picket lines in the Port of
Vancouver was expected to arrive in Vancouver Tuesday

NEWS photo Terry Poters

THE LIBERAIAN-registered African Fern cargo ship is behind picket lines after its 15-member Filipino
crew went on strike Sunday to protest wages and working conditions. The vessel had been docked
at Neptune Bulk Terminals in North Vancouver to unload a cargo of grain pellets.

Handsworth track funds OK’¢

$95,000 approved in principle for renovations

NORTH VANCOUVER District Council has approv-
ed in principle the expenditure of $95,000 towards the
renovation and upgrading of the Handsworth com-

munity running track.

The move follows a Dec. 16
delegation to district council
that included West Van-
couver-Capilano MLA Jeremy
Dalton.

Actual allocation of the
funds for the track has been
referred by council to its 1992
budget deliberations.

North Vancouver School
District 44 applied fast year to
the provincial education
ministry for funding to resur-
face the track, but was told
that the public use of the facil-
ity could be reflected in cost-
sharing between the school
board, North Vancouver
District and various irack user
groups.

A committee of the Hand.
sworth Secondary School
Association is now hoping to
raise:

@ $360,000 from the ministry;
@ $150,000 from a GO B.C.

By Martin Millerchip
Contributing Writer

grant;

@ 345,000 from
fundraising;
@and $95,000 from North
Vancouver District. °

Appearing on behalf of the
Community Track and Field
Committee, Kitty Castle said,
“The completed track and field
facility would be a significant
asset to our community and
would support a wide variety
of users, including youth,
adults and the physically and
mentally challenged.

“There would be oppor-
tunities for school, individual
and club activities and the fa-
cility could be used, as before,
for local competitions.”’

Castle sold council that the
present track was built in 1971

community

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL

and is now in extremely poor
condition with wear, cracking
and drainage problems.

Notices around the track ad-
vise that it be used ‘‘at your
own risk.”’ .

B.C. Athletics, the provincial
track and field governing body,
has refused to sanction meets
at the track since 1980; school
use of the track was curtailed
in 1990 on the advice of the
Sport Medicine Council of
B.C., with the result that
senior meets now take place in
West Vancouver and elemen-
tary meets are often forced to
take place on gravel.

Castle's committee has the
support of many athletes and
parents.

According to the committee:
“This facility would help to
promote a healthier communi-
ty, not only for the young
athletes in our schools, but also
for our adult population and
handicapped athletes.”’

afternoon to negotiate a settlement to the labor dispute.

The 16-member Filipino crew
of the African Fern, a Liberian-
registered cargo ship owned by
Florida-based Seaboard Ship
Management and Co., set up a
picket line around the vessel on
Sunday as it was docked at Nep-
tune Bulk Terminals on the North
Vancouver waterfront.

The vessel has since been moved
to a vacant dock at Ballantyne
terminal on the port's south side
to cease disruption of Neptune's
operations. While the crew have
strung picket signs on the ship,
they remained aboard the vessel to
press time Tuesday.

The vessel was at Neptune to
unload grain pellets and was
three-quarters unloaded before
the picket line was set up.

Members of the International
Longshoremen’s Union then ref-
used to cross the picket line and
stopped unloading the vessel.

The crew of the African Fern
say they are unhappy with their
wages and working conditions and
want a collective agreement nego-
tiaied between the company and
the International Transport
Workers Federation (ITWF).

Gerry McCullough, spokesman
for seamen's section Local 400 of
the Canadian Brotherhood of
Raiiway Transport and General

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

Workers, a Vancouver-based af-
filiate of the ITWF, said most of
the 16-member crew are making
between $250 and $350 a month.

‘‘The main issue in the dispute
is the low wages and the long
hours. A number of them have
been working 12-hour days for
the past 10 months,”’ said Mc-
Cullough. ‘‘They have been work-
ing under unssfe working condi-
tions and have been forced to
sleep on dirty linen.”’

He added that he tried to nego-
tizte a settlement on behalf of the
stiiking seamen on Sunday “but
did not get anywhere.”

McCullough said that he ex-
pected to resume negotiations
Tuesday with the firm’s Florida
representative,

“*The standard ITWF wage that
I would negotiate is $850 US a
month, plus $10 overtime. At this
point we don’t know what will
happen. The company might ap-
ply for an injunction,’’ said Mc-
Cullough.

Peter Bernard, Seaboard’s Van-
couver lawyer, did not return
News phone calls Monday and
Tuesday.

NV City supports spraying
to halt gypsy moth spread

A $5.5-million program to
spray a biological insecticide
over areas of the North
Shore to stop the spread of
Asian gypsy moths was
given North Vancouver City
Council support Monday.

By Pamela Lang
Contributing Writer

Agriculture Canada will receive
a city letter endorsing the spraying
plan, which has yet to have its
funding approved.

Although the federal agency
suggested that the municipality
might be able to offer some fi-
nancial support, council will only
endorse the plan along with
revamping their pesticide notifica-
tion bylaw to accommodate
wide-spread aerial spraying.

As reported in previous News
stories, gypsy moths, an interna-
tional pest, have been found every
year on the Nerth Shore since a
single male moth was found in the
British Properties in 1988.

Agriculture Canada officials
have said that the biodegradable
“*bacterial control agent’’ Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) will be used in
the spraying program, but the
substance is still legally a
pesticide, and, according to city
administrator Gerry Brewer, the
city’s guidelines for notifying city
residents must be followed.

He said, however, that the cur-
rent requirement that notices be
posted on all affected properties
would be ‘‘ludicrous”’ in this case.

Brewer pointed out in a Dec. 31
report to council that ‘there will
be a series of public meetings
scheduled by Agriculture Canada
to discuss the spraying program
with North Shore residents.

The federal department also

NORTH VANCOUVER
CITY COUNCIL

plans a public information media
campaign, he said.

Agriculture Canada’s entire ac-
uon plan consists of:

@ finding and destroying moth
egg masses this winter;

@ aerial spraying of a four-
kilometre strip around the port
area in the spring;

@ ground spraying
sites in the spring;

® and mass trappings in the area
this summer.

Permission from the
municipalities to be sprayed (Van-
couver, Burnaby and North and
West Vancouver) must be obtain-
ed before the project can go
ahead, Brewer said.

And while not allowing the
program to proceed could result in
the destruction of North Shore
trees and the quarantine of port
exports, Brewer said, ‘‘there ap-
pears to be no adverse public
health implications for residents.””

According to Agriculture
Canada information, the Asian
strain of the gypsy moth, which
arrived in Vancouver last May
aboard freighters from Siberia,
eats ‘‘both deciduous and coni-
ferous trees...a heavy infestation
can completely defoliate trees and
over a few seasons cause tree
death.’’

Gypsy moth quarantines placed
on products shipped through
North Shore and other Van-
couver-area port facilities could
have a serious impact on Van-
couver’s international port trade.

Ald. Stella Jo Dean supported
the spraying program, but said it
was unfortunate that the insec-
ticide could kill the caterpillars of
other area butterflies and moths.

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