LARS ie

their demands for a first contract.

the bargaining unit went on strike Jan.
transportation for several Lower Mainland

issues are employer demands
contract and the refusal to agree to an adequate medical plan.

School bus drivers seek first contract

With the street sign forming an appropriate backdrop, members of the
Railway and Transport Workers af a8 tee! ee 4 line outside Kenmar’s Vancouver bus yard to back

urrently the lowest paid unionized bus drivers in the province —
the base rate is $7.50 per hour for Vancouver drivers, $6.50 for those in Surrey — the 53 maribes of
26 against the company, which supplies school bus
school boards. CBRT representative Al Craig said that

the union is prepared to accept the wage package which Id
over three years, but key strike issues are e7 pine igs bbl up to $12.50 an hour

dispatchers and laborers from the

r exclusion of mechanics,

Public sector held critical

By FRED WILSON

These are difficult times for
public sector workers. Ask
members of the Canadian Union
of Public Employees what they
think of the six-and-five wage con-
trol program and they will stare
back in disbelief that the question
could be so out of date. Six and five
was last summer; the standard of-
fer from employers in 1983 is zero.

About 15,000 municipal
workers in the Greater Vancouver
Regional District went back to the
bargaining table two weeks ago,
two years after the commencement
of the bitter three-month strike of
1981. Just how much the economic
climate has changed in the interval

: ANALYSIS

is shown by the reversal of tactics at
the bargaining table.

In 1981 10 CUPE locals and the
Vancouver Municipal and
Regional Employees Union
(VMREVU) were demanding move-
ment on the central issue’ of
equalization of base rates, an im-
portant step towards the achieve-
ment of equal pay for work of
equal value, but were stonewalled
by the intransigent position of the
GVRD labor relations committee
and its bargaining department

’ headed by Graham Leslie. The

unions also had to contend with the
interference from the Employers
Council of B.C. which openly call-
ed on the GVRD not to bend on the
equal pay issue. :

Sensing that the GVRD was not
prepared to move in negotiations,
the unions demanded the right to
bargain directly with municipal
councils, which were considered to
be less inclined to force a lengthy
strike rather than set a precident for
equal pay. The GVRD rejected any
notion of separate negotiations,

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claiming that the union would
whipsaw one municipal employer
against another.

When the CUPE-VMREU
joint negotiating committee arriv-
ed at the table this month they were
more than a little surprised to hear
Leslie announce that the GVRD
would only bargain with individual
local unions and would not
recognize the joint negotiating
committee. The GVRD wanted to
begin bargaining with CUPE
members in Burnaby, where the
council has already tentatively
budgeted for a zero wage increase,
and then bargain with other locals.

Graham Leslie now thinks that
he can whipsaw the unions.

Suggest to a public sector worker
the often repeated myth that reduc-
ed income is the trade-off for job
security at a time of mass
unemployment, and the stare of
disbelief may turn to an angry
glare.

The provincial government has
already declared that it intends to
reduce its work force by 25 percent
over two years — some 10,000
jobs. Taking their cue from Ben-
nett, two Lower Mainland
municipalities have in recent weeks
voted to contract out municipal
garbage collection. This week
Richmond council voted to put its
collection services to private
tender, resulting in the loss of 32
jobs, and two weeks ago North
Vancouver city handed over its gar-
bage collection to Smithrite, forc-
ing the layoff of eight workers.

The decision in North Van-
couver demonstrated the character
of the problem. CUPE Local 389
was finished before it began
negotiations with the city in an ef-
fort to save the jobs. Faced with
demands from the city that costs be
reduced, the union agree to two-
man, instead of a three-man gar-
bage collection crew. Then, under
further employer pressure, the
union “‘reluctantly agreed’’ to ac-
cept a collection bonus system even
though it- meant speed-up.

When the contracting out pro-
posal went to council, the city
engineer reported that ‘‘with a fully

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 28, 1983—Page 12

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cooperative union’’ the city could 1%
bid on the job at $325,000, very £%

close to Smithrite’s bid of
$312,000. However because the
union was ‘‘reluctant,’’ the
engineer recommended going to
Smithrite.

In short, the union accepted
every employer demand and still
was shafted. In retrospect, it is clear
that the city was determined from
the beginning to privatize the gar-
bage service on the basis of owner-
operated trucks and increased pro-
ductivity. It is the same theory that
Bennett and the Socreds want to
apply to provincial services.
Ultimately the consumer will pay
more for inferior services.

Local 389 is now expecting a bid
to contract out the garbage collec-
tion in North Vancouver district,
where it will likely face a scenario
similar to that which occurred in
the city.

The issue, clearly, is much larger
than the economics of a particular
municipai service. The move
towards contracting out and Ben-
nett’s plan to privatize provincial
services are part of an overall attack
on the public sector.

Some CUPE members are open-
ly critical of CUPE’s B.C. Division
which has been preoccupied with
protecting its perceived jurisdiction
against the Hospital Employees
Union instead of working towards
a coalition of public sector unions
to begin a co-ordinated fight back.
The B.C. Federation of Labor,
pressured by the BCGEU also re-
jected the idea of a public sector
coalition at its last annual conven-
tion.

But the need for a co-ordinated
response from public sector unions
to the attack on incomes and job
security will only grow more
urgent. -Privatization has to be
made as unacceptable in B.C. as
right-to-work legislation has
become, that is, a politically
untenable option because the
whole labor movement would react
immediately, angrily and forceful-
ly.

The ability of the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor and the public sector
unions to fight back in 1983 will be
the dominant factor in shaping the
fortunes of the whole labor move-
ment this year. From Dec. 31, 1982
to Nov. 30, 1983, some 300,000
workers will enter negotiations.
The largest group by far, 43.3 per-
cent of the total, will be public sec-
tor workers. It includes 15,000
Lower Mainland municipal
workers, 32,000 teachers and
school board employees, 2,700
nurses, 3,000 transit workers, 7,500
B.C. Hydro workers, 2,700 Ferry
workers, 2,200 ICBC workers and
35,000 B.C. government
employees.

These public sector workers are
both the weakness and the strength
of organized labor this year. Much
will depend on the leadership and
strategy that develops.

ee A a eS

Canadian Brotherhood of - Rp

Medical benefits —
withheld 2 months —

Continued from page 1

answer,’’ explained Linda in an
interview. She had written ‘‘yes”’
to the question, ‘‘are you ready,
willing and able to work?”

When she was told there would
be a six to eight week waiting
period she applied for welfare and
received $87.50, to cover the last
half of December. By Dec. 29 she
had received no money from the
commission, but upon checking
was told her claim was ‘‘OK’’.

That day she also received a
further $175 from MHR, plus a
$200 rent voucher granted after
she secured the necessary eviction
notice from her landlord. Her
rent is $250 a month.

But by Jan. 14 she had still not
received any cheques from UI —
“T was actually living on friends’
money, if you can imagine that’’
— so following the action centre’s
advice, she went to the commis-
sion in person. It was then that
she found out about the incor-
rectly completed cards.

**So I filled out new cards, in
person, and then they told me
about the (required) doctor’s
form. I told them I’d already
given them one, but they said,

‘No, he has to fill out this special

form’. I took it tomy doctor, who
had never heard of this form, but
he filled it out anyway.

“I finally got my first cheque
yesterday (Jan. 20) — so ap-
parently they processed my claim
based on the original cards,’’ she
said.

- The cut-off point for Linda’s
claim is Dec. 25, despite her doc-
tor’s testimony that she is
medically unableto work until the
end of January. She is appealing
the decision: ‘‘I think it’s
pathetic.”

‘People are told they don’t
qualify for UI, but they do,”’ said
Zander. :

“‘We have people coming in
now that were rejected almost one
year ago — people who were cut
off without any reason. They are
usually frustrated by the office
hassle, or some cases, they’re
scared to make waves.”’

A far more severe case is the
suicide call. The centre usually
refers these to a crisis centre, but
they received one “‘that we
couldn’t reroute.”

It was from a young woman, a

hairdresser by profession, who
“had been living on potatoes for
the past two weeks,” said Zander.
The 25-year-old was receiving the
usual GAINrate of $375 monthly.
After $300 was deducted for rent,
and $60 for bills, she was left with
$15 for food, clothing and
transportation.

“‘She wasn’t eating right, but
her doctor told her she was
depressed because of the bad
weather, and gave her nerve pills.
A welfare worker advised her to
find a man to support her,”’
Zander reported.

“She figured it was no longer
worth it for the human race to
keep her alive.”’

A call to the MHR office from
the centre secured the woman a
$50 per month “‘crisis grant’’ and
“now she has meat in her meals,
for the first time in a long time,”’
said Zander.

The woman has indicated she
will come to the centre and
volunteer her services, said.
Zander. ‘‘She feels better now,
enough so that she’s willing to
fight for other things.”

The action centre is quickly
becoming ‘‘swamped’”’ with
work, said Zander. Behind her,
the volunteer staff of four
answered phones and filled in
forms in a makeshift office on the
stage of the auditorium in the
Fishermen’s Hall. :

Volunteers have already gone
through a one-day seminar which
provided a crash course in handl-
ing the intricacies of the welfare
and UI bureaucracies. But the
centre would like to expand its ac-
tivities to include public meetings,
leaflet distribution, writing briefs
to city council, lobbying, film
showings and seminars. The list
goes on, but to do all these things,
the centre needs more volunteers,
Zander stressed.

During this week and next,
volunteers will be busy leafleting
UI centre, welfare offices,
breadlines and campuses to get
the area’s jobless out to the Feb. 7
demonstration. At the UIC office:
downtown, demonstrators will
present officials with demands
for benefits to cover the full
period of unemployment, an end
to layoffs of UI workers, and no
further delays in claims process-
ing.

Bas 5