LABOR -——

If the provincial government is successful
in imposing legislation on construction
workers at Expo 86, it will have repercus-
sions all across the province and even across
Canada, Vancouver alderman Bruce Yorke
warned several hundred Building Trades
workers at a rally outside B.C. Place sta-
dium Apr. 18.

And the answer to that legislation, Yorke
and Carpenters Provincial Council secre-
tary Lorne Robson agreed, “should be
unity and total mobilization — of the kind
the labor movement showed last fall.”

Called by unemployed Building Trades
workers, the noon-hour rally levelled pro-
test at the provincial government for its
threatened legislation declaring “martial
law for labor” on the Expo construction site
and for the government’s support of non-

- union contractors like J.C. Kerkhoff and
Sons. 5

The rally also coincided with plans by
Kerhoff to bring non-union workers in
from Alberta — hired by a non-union Cal-
gary sub-contractor for Kerkhoff, Rego
Forming Ltd. — to begin structural work
on the contentious Harbor Cove condomi-
nium site at False Creek.

But it was the impending legislation and
the need for the labor movement to wage a
vigorous campaign against it that was the
clear message from the platform.

“We're here to voice our inalterable

' Opposition to government intervention with
legislation that would deny us our rights,”
Diana Kilmury, a Teamster unemployed
for nearly two years, told demonstrators.

_ She charged that the legislation conte-
plated by Bennett was “right-to-work legis-
lation pure and simple.”

out the framework for its legislation —
announced by Bennett during a televised
news conference Apr. 13 — during the
Easter break. It was widely expected to be
introduced into the legislature May 1.

Kilmury told the rally that the govern-
ment’s plant were part of “a legislative
campaign in this province to deny workers’
rights.”

B.C. Federation of Labor vice-president
Norman Richards echoed Kilmury’s warn-
ing that the government legislation was
“attacking rights that we thought were won
long ago.”

But the government’s attack can be
beaten,” he emphasized, “if we stick
together.”

Richards, the president of the B.C.
Government Employees Union, told the
rally that the BCGEU would support fully
any action taken by the B.C. Federation of
Labor in support of the Building Trades at
Expo.

And the federation and the Building
Trades should begin immediately to work
out a plan of action and bring together all
the unions affected by the impending Expo

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 25, 1984 .

Renew Solidarity, rally urged

The Social Credit cabinet was to work ~

IN VES ¢ CONDITIONS
CCONSIRUCTION WORKERS

SAAR ARI

LORNE ROBSON...crisis over Expo nothing but a pretext for Bennett to introduce

legislation.
legislation, said Carpenters secretary Lorne
Robson. —

Robson charged that the crisis over Expo
was deliberately contrived by Bennett to
provide the pretext for legislation to be
brought down against the labor movement.

The Building Trades had already made
significant compromises, with their agree-
ment to work alongside non-union workers
if union-scale rates were paid to everyone
and with their no-strike pledge, he said.

In contrast, the contractors, represented
by Construction Labor Relations Associa-
tion (CLRA) were not prepared to
renounce a lockout, he emphasized. CLRA
had stated during negotiations with the
Trades that if a general lockout were
declared, the Expo site would be included:

In fact, the legislation has been consi-
dered by the government for some time, as
part of its assault on union rights.

Citing the confidential Draft 34 of
amendments to the Labor Code leaked last.
summer, he warned: “That’s the kind of
legislation we can expect the Socreds to
bring in.”

The draft included a provision allowing
the government to designate economic
development zones which would be exempt
from the Labor Code and subject to what-
ever laws the government decides to
impose.

Robson pointed to a job action taken by
Building Trades workers during construc-
tion of the B.C. Place stadium to highlight
the impact that Bennett’s contemplated law
would have on workers’ rights.

Workers staged a two-week strike during
construction to demand the removal of soil
from the site that had been contaminated by

the highly toxic and carcinogenic com-
pound PCB. The contamination came from
‘the dip tanks for a sawmill that had for-
merly occupied the site.

“Our people were going home from here
sick every day,” Robson said. “So we
walked out and forced the contractors to
remove the soil and also forced them to set
up a safety committee.” .

That safety committee became a model
for the industry resulting in such employer
savings on compensation premiums that
the Employers Council called the commit-
tee in to discuss how similar agencies could
be set up on other sites, Robson

“emphasized. :

“That job. action wouldn’t be allowed
under the legislation that Bennett is going to
bring in,” he warned. “The government
wants to force us to work whatever the
conditions.”

“But we won’t work under martial law,”
Robson declared.

The Carpenters secretary emphasized
that the labor movement needs to wage a

major fight against any proposed legislation ~

and urged the federation and the Trades to
begin to mobilize immediately.

“T1_ast fall we were in a position where the
labor movement was calling for a- general
strike and the membership was prepared to

go,” he said. ““We need to work towards _

that again.” $ :
Yorke also noted that the site of the rally
was the starting point last October for the

huge 60,000-strong demonstration against °

the Socred budget. “It’s time we took to the
streets again,” he said. “The fightback has
to begin now — and Solidarity has to be
revived.”

ACF al Notes
Pulp contract
rejection seen

Pulp workers across the province
were widely expected to reject the inal
offer put to them by the Pulp and Pa
Industrial Relations Bureau — an
which, with the companies able to fall ]
back on a government-imposed ©
tract was little changed from the ©
turned down weeks before. =
The results of the vote among 13,
members of the Pulp, Paper
Woodworkers of Canada and the
adian Paperworkers Union were t0®
announced following the final day
voting Apr. 25.
Pulp union leaders recommene
rejection and initial results from $0
locals appeared to be backing up
recommendation. 2
The Socred government put throu,
Bill 18 earlier this month providing 10h}
the unprecedented government imposk |
tion of a collective agreement if negous
tions failed to reach a settlement. -
With the prospect of governm!
compulsion to settle the contract ¢
pute, the companies had little incent!
to make any concessions.

May Day even
Under the banner “unity will wi
the Vancouver Trade Union May D:
Committee May Day march 8
underway at 12 noon at Vancouvel
Clark Park at 14th and Commercial on
Saturday May 5. Z
Marchers will proceed down C
mercial Drive to Grandview Park,
south of Britannia, where the rally
scheduled for 2 p.m. Speakers inclu!
representatives from the B.C. Fede!
tion of Labor, the New Democra
Party and the Communist Party.
Earlier, on May Day itself, May
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
president Jean-Claude Parrot will be
speaking to a May Day dinner at the
Ukrainian Hall, 805 East Pender, at 6
p.m. ;
Parrot was part of a trade union fact
finding mission to Chile to monitor thi
March day of protest when thousands
of Chileans demonstrated in the streets |_
against the fascist junta. '
Tickets for the dinner are $8 or >
unemployed. For reservations phon
736-7678.

Ont