LABOR

B.C.’s locked out construction
workers won an average com-
pound increase of 23.24 percent
in wages and benefits, and have
broken new ground in the field of
construction safety as a result of a
tentative settlement reached with
construction firms Monday.

The average hourly wage and
benefits package will be increased
by $2, retroactive to May | of this
year, by 50 cents Nov. 1, and by
$1.80 beginning May 1, 1983 ina
two-year tentative agreement
hammered out between the Bar-
gaining Council of the B.C.
Building Trades Unions and the
Construction Labor “Relations
Association.

Members of the 17 unions in
| the Building Trades Council will
be voting on the package until the
Sept. 21 deadline, but at press
time Vancouver-area workers
were expected to return to work
Wednesday or Thursday, while
next Tuesday was fixed at the re-

force.

Both the CLRA and, the
BCBCBTU have recommended
acceptance of the agreement to
their respective members. The

turn date for the rest of the work

CLRA represents 850 contract-
ors, and the Building Trades col-
lectively represents 35,000 con- .
struction workers.

In media interviews Roy Gau-
thier, chief negotiator for the un-
ions has expressed his unhappi-
ness with the settlement, which is
below that achieved recently for
Alberta’s building tradesmen.

“The package does not reflect
what we are entitled to. But in the
face of the economic climate and
pressure from the federal govern-
ment to make the industry fall in
line with government wage re-
straints, the constituent unions
felt it was the best settlement poss-
ible,’ a building trades spokes-
man told the Tribune.

Federal encouragement for
low settlements came chiefly in an
address Treasury Board president
Donald Johnston gave to mem-
bers of the Canadian Construc-
tion Association in Halifax last
July. He told the businessmen, ‘‘I
would hope that your response to
our call for wage restraint will
produce a tougher management
posture.”

But the settlement does contain
some key union victories.

RAY GAUTIER . . . trades recom-
mending acceptance.

The building trades council
succeeded in achieving a $2 wage-
benefit increase retroactive to
May 1, defeating a company de-
mand that only a $1 increase be
retroactive.

The establishment of an in-
dustry safety fund was a key de-
mand arising out of the Bentall
tragedy in which four carpenters
fell to their deaths last year. Un-
der this scheme the construction

Building trades to get 23% hike

firms will pay two cents an hour
per worker into a fund to research
and coordinate construction safe-
ty.

The fund will be administered
under joint trusteeship of the
companies and the unions, which
the building trades spokesman
called ‘‘the one weakness. But it’s
still a very significant step.”

The unions also rejected two
key non-monetary demands from
the CLRA that had figured
strongly in the hold-up of negoti-
ations.

Defeated was a demand that
unions collect, through their ap-
paratus which collects health and
welfare fund payments, four
cents an hour per worker from the
companies to finance CLRA
fights against arbitration settle-
ments. ““They were asking us to
collect money to finance their war
chest,’’ the building trades
spokesman commented.

Also rejected was a CLRA de-
mand to scrap the trades evalua-
tion program, by which the un-
ions jointly examine the value of
each trade in the industry, with
the aim of eliminating wide wage

. disparities.

Gov't strikers may seek Fed support

Continued from page 1

For the BCGEU, it is becoming
apparent that their dispute involves
_ Rot just a battle for a collective:
~ agreement but also a battle against
wage controls if they are to get
_ more than the guideline figure.

_ The government’s intransigence

has also fuelled speculation that the
dispute will figure prominently in
an impending election campaign
that could be announced as early as
next week.

On Wednesday, in a political
echo of his father’s ‘“‘blame-labor’”’
strategy, premier Bennett accused
the union of holding the public

“hostage’’ with its plan for rotating
strikes.

He also maintained the union

was “‘striking against the public.”’
But significantly absent from his
comments this time was any sug-
gestion that BCGEU members did
not fully back their leaders — a
point on which he was resounding-
ly repudiated last month.

In fact, BCGEU members the
Tribune spoke to echoed their
earlier determination and militance
as they signed in for picket duty and
donned placards for the 24-hour
walkout.

Members picketed sites — ex-

cluding ferry terminals — through-
out the province and outside the
courthouse complex. In Vancou-
ver’s Robson Square hundreds of
pickets took up positions.

Joining them in the morning
were members of the bargaining
council of the National Union of
Provincial Government Employ-
ees, representing government em-
ployees organizations across the
country.

Members of the council, which
meets every three months, demon-
strated their solidarity with the
BCGEU strikers, emphasizing to
reporters that the dispute is a criti-

Bennett led premiers’ meet
in calling for more restraints

Continued from page 1
with transit officials and muni-
cipal leaders, announcing that
“the bone and even the muscle”’
of further services would be cut. It
has cut funding completely for
the denticare program.

And finally, at the premiers’
conference, Bennett himself led
the way in demanding even more
stringent controls and new restric-
tions on government spending.
He has also joined the clamor of
right wing voices in demanding
the scrapping of the Foreign In-
vestment Review Agency and ma-
jor changes to the National
Energy Program.

Of course, that two-fold policy
— the starving of social services
coupled with legislation to open
the door to foreign investment —
has always been a favorite of the
Socreds. But now premier Ben-
nett sees the current economic cli-

mate as one in which sucha policy.

can flourish.
Worse, he sees in the economic

situation an opportunity to gain a

new mandate — a mandate for

even tougher policies of Reagan-
omics. For him and his cabinet,
the key is to convince everyone
that tough economic times re-
quire policies of restraint. And
they will try to sell their budget
cuts and wage controls as “‘lead-
ership that the times demand.”’

For the labor movement, it
would be disastrous if Bennett
were to be successful.

It will take the full resources of
that labor movement and the po-
litical opposition to the Socreds to
demonstrate to the people of this
province that the phony ‘‘re-
straint’? program is wrong,
wrong, wrong.

Unpopular though the actions
of Social Credit ministers have
been, it would be foolish to be-
lieve that their record will hang
them. And it will not be enough to
suggest that in these tough times,
some restraint is necessary, while
protesting that the Socreds are
imposing it too harshly or ine-
quitably. The very notion of ‘‘re-
straint”’ is wrong.

Observers need look no further

the Socred-style ‘‘restraint.”’

than the U.S. to see the drastic)
consequences of wholesale bud
get cutting. Reagan, too, won
mandate based on balancing the}
budget but left such economic).
carnage in the wake of that policy;
that the possible repercussions in}
the upcoming congressional elec-
tions compelled him to alter,
course.
Yet the course pursued by the
Bennett government threatens t
follow the same road to diva |
There is an alternative policy: i
involves deficit financing to pro;
vide funds to stimulate the econ;
omy; action to restore funding to
hospitals, schools and health care
programs; a government housin
construction program and mor
— all coupled with repudiation o

But that policy needs to be ad-
vanced, vigorously promoted and
wide support won forit. Itneeds 4
concerted campaign by the entire
labor movement.

And that will be the same whe
ther the writ is dropped on Mon
day or six months from now.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 3, 1982—Page 8

cal one for the campaign against
wage controls.

Wage controls have clearly been
an underlying issue in the BCGEU
dispute, but the battle to defeat
them has not yet been in the
forefront in the BCGEU strike.

Nor has the B.C. Federation of
Labor, which has a strong conven-
tion mandate to fight wage controls
and which could play a key coor-
dinating role in the dispute, had a
very high profile so far.

But all that could change if the
government makes no move, dem-
onstrating clearly its now-apparent
intention to impose. the federal
wage guidelines on union mem-

‘bers.

In an interview with the Tribune
Wednesday, Fryer noted that the
trade union movement’s campaign
against wage controls ‘“‘is not the
number one issue — that is still to
get a new contract for members.”’

But he emphasized that discus-
sions had taken place with B.C.
Fed president Jim Kinnaird add-

ing, ‘It’s a question of the right to”

bring that strategy (the full support
of Federation affiliates) into
place.”

“We started out saying that it’s
our problem and we’ll deal with it
ourselves,”’ Fryer said, “‘but since
the provincial government appears
to be using us as a political football,
it may become necessary to call in
our brothers and sisters from the
rest of the organized ie: union
movement.”’

Jobless

establish
program

By DAVID LANE
Unemployment insurance
benefits for all of Canada’s job
less, increased welfare pay
ments, and a massive job cr
tion program were the majo

themes of a conference of thf —

unemployed in Nanaimo |

weekend, endorsed by area | :

bor councils.
The conference, organized by.

the Port Alberni Organizatio# |

of Unemployed Workers an
the Campbell River Committ

of the Unemployed, brought top ~
gether about 60 delegates repre —
senting those organizations and
groups formed recently in Vid :

toria and Nanaimo.

They hammered out a joint 7 3
program of unity focusing o# |

five key demands:
@ An overhauling of Unen}
ployment Insurance and welfar

welfare benefits and UIC ben

fits extended over the duratio'

of the unemployment period;
@ Adequate shelter for all

programs, including i ba

with legislation to prevent for@

closures and evictions;

@ Anendtoboth the federd |
and provincial restraint pro a

grams;

@ Legislation reducing t
work day to six from eight ho
with no loss in pay;

@ All-out support for a uni
ed labor fightback against co
cessions and wage controls.

The drive for collective actio# ~

of the unemployed has receiv:
new impetus from increasi
layoffs, particularly in the fore:
industry, hitting most Vanco
ver Island communities. Ke

note speaker Bill Zander, pres 4

dent of the Provincial Coun

of Carpenters, said unemplo j

naimo and 90 percent in Port a

Alberni.
And, he noted,

omy there is an attack on organ

ized labor. There won’t be anf |
change until people get togethef

in a unified fightback campai:
of both organized labor and th
unemployed.”’

Both the Campbell River an:
Port Alberni unemployed o
ganizations, with the backing 0

their respective labor councils, —

continue to mobilize the jobles
in their communities throu
leafleting UIC offices, provi
ing advocacy services for UI
and welfare problems andr
ing ‘‘soup kitchens.’’ The N
naimo labor council has give
its support to the recently fo
ed organization in that co
munity.

RIBUN

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Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

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