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Election ‘a crossroads for Ganada’

— pages 6, 7

CHRIS ALLNUTT

Industry
gets big
tax break,
Says study
by COPE

— page 2 —
a

October 17, 1988

SO

Vol. 51, No. 38
<a>

Countering
the U.S.
media’s

war against

Nicaragua
— page 8 —

|
The Canadian Association of Indus-
trial, Mechanical and Allied Workers
(CAIMAW) was scheduled to appear
before the Industrial Relations Council
Friday, charging that White Spot Res-
taurants is guilty of an unfair labour
practice by closing some of its unionized
outlets during the current strike.
The company, owned by Peter Toigo,
a close associate of Premier Bill Vander

‘Zalm, moved construction crews on to

the restaurant site at Cambie and King
Edward in Vancouver Wednesday and
began boarding up windows.
CAIMAW regional vice-president
Roger Crowther said the union was
“outraged” by the company’s action,
adding that it was clearly intended to

intimidate strikers who have been on the
picket line at 18 restaurants since Aug.
27. The closure was the second carried
out by White Spot, which also shut
down its Georgia and Cardero restau-
rant which had been the site of an out-
break of food poisoning two years ago.

An order halting the closures was
considered unlikely, however, since
Darwin Benson, the IRC commissioner
who has been mediating in the strike,
was widely quoted as saying the com-
pany was within its rights in shutting the
outlets down.

The IRC had already granted an
order to the company ordering CAI-
MAW members from leafletting its 11
non-union restaurants — although

supporters of the union have continued
the campaign.

A central issue in the strike is the
demand by the company to bring all
new employees in at the minimum wage
and freeze them at that rate for three
while reducing the hours of senior
employees.

Crowther charged earlier that White
Spot was “out to break the union.” He
said that Peter Toigo “would like to run
all 29 restaurants non-union.”

The union has also noted that White
Spot probably had plans to close some
of its operations and is using the closures
as a lever in the strike.

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