Constable on unemployment

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These are two of the many works put out by.Toronto labor cartoonist Mike Constable whose trenchant
wit and simple graphics have put his work in much demand. He has appeared in such diverse journals as
the Financial Post and UE News and is a major contributor to the Toronto-based Union Art Service.

Company pushing hard line

Hutcheon report outlined

One of our Pacific Tribune
readers, an old trade union pal,
sent me a copy of the report of
Justice H. E. Hutcheon in con-
nection with the dispute between
the B.C. Telephone Company and
the Telecommunications Workers
Union.

Along with the report he enclosed
a note, which said, among other
things: ‘‘What do you think the
union should do in these cir-
cumstances? Should they accept
the report?”

The answer to that question is
very simple: It is a question the
union must deal with, through
those channels of -collective
bargaining which are still open to
them.

However, it is significant that as
I write these lines, one week after
the release of the Hutcheon report,
the union and the company are still
locked in negotiations for a set-
tlement on the basis of that report.
“My reading of the situation is
that the company is in no hurry to
settle. It wants to drive a hard
bargain, which means it would like
to settle for less than the Hutcheon
report, at least in my opinion.

Hutcheon recommended that the
parties accept the earlier report of
Dr. Noel Hall (which the company
rejected) except for a few changes.

The position of the the union
before Hutcheon was that when
work ceased on November 24, 1977
no issues remained to be
negotiated and that the Hall report,
although not fully satisfactory, was
fair to both parties and was suf-
ficient for the purposes of a
collective agreement to run to
December 31, 1977.

The position of the company was
that there were 10 issues of varying
importance which had to be
resolved before a_ collective
agreement could be signed, of

' which four had been the subject of

recommendations, in the Hall
report.

The main recommendation of the
Hutcheon report deals with the
issue of contracting out, the most
contentious issue. Dr. Hall had
recommended that the article on
this subject in the collective
agreement remain unchanged and
that a joint committee should study
the issue and the related problems
of technological change over a
period of 12 to.18 months. The union
agreed, but not the company.

On this issue Hutcheon recom-
mended:

e The company shall not con-
tract out work regularly per-
formed by classifications in the
agreement without prior approval
of the joint standing committee on

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 3, 1978—Page 8

contracting out and technological
change or the approval of the
chairman of the committee.

The committee is to be made up
of four representatives from each
side and a chairman. If the two
sides cannot agree on a chairman,
then either side may apply to the
chief justice of the B.C. Supreme
Court to appoint a person.

The chairman is to have the
power to call meetings of the
committee and to decide whether
or not any issue before the com-

mittee shall be dealt with by that —

body. Once an issue is accepted for
consideration by the committee
and that body is unable to arrive at
an agreement acceptable to the

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

parties within the time limit set by
the chairman, then the chairman
may remove the matter from the
committee and render a decision
forthwith based upon the terms of
the collective agreement. The
decisions of the chairman would be
final and binding on all parties.

Hutcheon also recommends that
in reaching its decisions, the
committee shall have regard to the
“efficiency of the operations, the
availability of equipment and
machinery necessary to do the
work and the skills and manpower
in the company, with the objective
that, except in ‘unusual cir-
cumstances, the work normally
done by classifications set out in
the agreement will continue to be
performed by those classifi-
cations.”

He further recommends that
there will be no contracting out of
work normally done by members
of the union if that would cause any
employee to be laid off, unless
there is no employee capable of
doing the work.

Akey recommendation is that no
regular employee on
November 15, 1977 and no regular
employee hired thereafter and
attaining two years of service,
would lose his or her job as a result
of technological change. That is an
improvement over the: original
company offer.

Whereas Hall recommended a
one-year agreement, Hutcheon
recommends a two-year

agreement to run to December 31,

1978, with an increase of 32 cents
per hour in 1978, a figure estimated

staff-

to be within the four per cent
guideline of the Anti-Inflation
Board. :
Other recommendations by
Hutcheon include the following:
e The group insurance plan now

administered by the company to be

opened to regular part-time em-
ployees with the union to be given

six months to decide whether to

assume full control of the plan,
including the cost of ad-
ministration;

@A suggestion to ‘extend the
collective agreement to the end of
1979. The third year would bring a
wage increase of six per cent, plus
improvements in benefits which, I
am told, would bring the total
value of the package to ap-
proximately 11.5 per cent for the
year;

e Rejection of the company’s de-
mand that the 1,000 employees of a
subsidiary company, Canadian
Telephone and Supplies, be treated
as a separate unit for collective
bargaining purposes;

e Rejection of the company’s de-
mand for a management rights
clause in the collective agreement.
Such a clause normally gives
management almost unlimited
rights except where restricted by
the collective agreement.

It is my guess that the company
believes it is in a strong position
because its 2,000 supervisors have
managed to keep the system
functioning (more or less!) and

because of the sweeping court in-

junctions against the Tele-
communications Union, supporting
unions and the B.C. Federation of
Labor.

Company strategists are
gambling on the fact that while
there is the possibility that the
federal government may step in to
impose the Hutcheon report as a
settlement if the parties fail to
agree, it is inno hurry to do so. The
cabinet will not complain if the
company is able to win a few more
concessions before signing on the
dotted line. .

The union negotiators, I would
guess, are opposed in principle to
government intervention and
would like to negotiate the best
possible package, based on the
Hall and Hutcheon reports, to
place before their membership
before a vote.

Which. way will it go? What will
the union do? We will soon have the
answers to those questions. In the
meantime, I am sure that the
majority of the telephone workers
are solidly behind their negotiating
committee and would publicly
demonstrate this fact if called upon
to do so.

‘panic mongering’

The United Fishermen and
Allied Workers’ annual convention
Monday adopted a report accusing
federal energy minister Alastair
Gillespie of “‘panic mongering’’
and called for the resumption of
the West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry to
determine if an oil port on B.C.’s
coast is needed.

_ Gillespie had stated publicly that
B.C. will soon be reliant on im-
ported oil and then January 25
announced that a new Inquiry into
future Canadian oil needs would be
conducted by the National Energy

Board.

Arnie Thomlinson, the UFAWU’s
co-ordinator of Fishery Opposition
to Tankers and Oil Ports,
described Gillespie’s actions to the
convention as panic mongering”’
and without basis. Thomlinson
pointed out that Gillespie is con-
tradicted by the statements of
William Hopper, head of Petro-
Canada, that Canada is not facing
an oil shortage and has reserves of
oil ten times as great as those
indicated by the NEB.

Although Andrew Thompson said
January 26 that the West Coast Oil
Ports Inquiry should be recon-
vened soon, Thomlinson suggested
-that the NEB hearings will ‘‘up-
stage” Thompson on the crucial
issues of supply and demand.

Had the Thompson Inquiry not
been suspended during phase two,
Thomlinson said, ‘“‘the myth of
impending oil crises generated by
the combined effort of oil com-
panies and the NEB would have
been exploded.”’

Terming the NEB hearings as an
“assembly of experts and
professional spokesmen for parties
with vested interests’”’, he called on
the convention to “‘redouble efforts
to have the full West Coast Oil

Ports Inquiry resumed.” If the -

NEB proceeds with their study,
they should bring their findings as
evidence to the Thompson Inquiry,
he said.

Also on Monday, the UFAWU
convention charged the federal
government with conducting ‘‘a

“union records in 1975 and the)

politically motivated’’ attack of
the union through the Combines
Investigation Act. .

After hearing a comprehensive)
review of the combines in}
vestigation initiated by seizure 0!

subsequent laying of obstructiol
charges against seven unio!
members, delegates unanimously
adopted a resolution terming
investigation ‘‘politically
motivated and unquestionably)
company inspired since it is thé) —
monopolies that will gain the mo
from destruction of the rights
fishermen to bargain collectively. |
“The government’s reply W@)
protests is that the fishing industty
is under investigation and
UFAWU is a segment of the ‘s
dustry,”’ said union president Jack
Nichol, ‘‘But neither Georg?)
Weston nor New England Fis ne :
Company is under investigation.

against the seven union membe. a .
Two members of the unions
defense committee, Jim Rushtol
and Jim Stowe, left this week fol
Ontario and Quebec to rally unio#
and public support for the union.

HYDRO RATES

Continued from pg. 1
announcement by B.C. Hydro of :
higher electricity and gas rates for
Hydro subscribers, he said.

“B.C. Hydro doesn’t require any
public hearings at all to raise
rates,” Rush said. “And Bonnet
didn’t announce what the increase
will be to the bulk users. There iS
every reason to believe that the big :
industrial users got smaller im}
creases than the residenti
users.”’

Rush said that it is time Hydra)
was “cleaned up’ an
“reorganized” to make it
responsive to the public interest. A
plan for reorganizing Hydro
merit special attention when the
Party meets in convention
February 25-26, he said.

/

re

Border talks ‘private’

Continued from pg. 1

ment’s weak position and has
prepared a Canadian claim not
only to maintain its present
boundary, but claiming as well, the
continental shelf off the Gulf of
Alaska. B.C. argued that the
Alaska Panhandle is a ‘special
circumstance”’ and the continental
shelf off its shore is the ‘‘natural
prolongation of the land mass. of
Canada.”

Hewison reported the agueay
~ confidential B.C. position to the
convention because U.S.
negotiators were heard discussing
it openly at cocktail parties in
Washington, D.C. ‘‘Who are they
keeping in the dark: the U.S. or the
Canadian people?’’ he asked
rhetorically. ©

The boundary talks in

‘paign throughout the country to

Washington have now gone “in |
camera”’ with Canadian am-~
bassador Marcel Cadieux holding
private sessions with the America?
side. At stake is the disputed Dixon
Entrance — where large numbers
of salmon pass on the way [0
spawning grounds in Canada —
and other disputed boundaries if
the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the
Beaufort Sea and on the east coast
off Nova Scotia.

The fishermen intend to cam-

alert the public to the impending |
sellout and to pressure Canadial
negotiators back to the position
that the 5440 border is ‘not
negotiable.”’ To back up Canada’s”
position a ‘“‘contingency plan’’ is
needed, the UFAWU said, that will
bring into the bargaining the whole
gamut of Canada-U:S. relations.