| _ BRITISH COLUMBIA

‘Will fight privatization,’ delegates vow

The issue of privatization that has domi-
nated public debate in the province for four
Months took centre stage during the third
day of the B.C. Federation of Labour con-
vention Wednesday as the 970 delegates
voted unanimously to “vigorously oppose”
the government’s sell-off program and to

do whatever we have to do, including job
action and civil disobedience” if the Socreds

force the program through in spite of oppo-
Sition.

-—

Bill 34
‘dangerous
legislation’

_ The provincial government’s pro-
Posed AIDS bill was hit by the com-
munity in a march Saturday and
blasted by the B.C. Federation of
Labour at its convention Tuesday.

Bill 34, the Health Statutes Amend-
ments Act which permits the quaran-
tine of AIDS carriers and allows
government representatives access to
Private medical files was denounced
as a threat to individual liberty, job
security and public health by some
150 marchers.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Fed conven-
tion resolved’ to: go on recofd “as
opposing ‘Bill 34 as a violation of
human rights and a threat to
employment security.” The motion,
introduced by the Transportation
Communications Union, Lodge 1804,
demanded the bill be scrapped.

“This is dangerous legislation, not

\ ”
to any one group but to all of us,
commented Hospital Employees
Union delegate Joyce Dawson.

Marchers on Saturday moved from

_ English Bay to Nelson Park in Van-
couver for a rally where speakers from
the Coalition for Responsible Health
Legislation, AIDS Vancouver and
Persons With AIDS hit the bill for
endangering health care.

AIDS activists point out that the
legislation threatens the success of
programs such as that at St. Pauls,
where every six months some 600 gay
men are tested for the virus, known as
the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

The success of the program
depends on its long-term nature, since
the virus has a lengthy incubation
period. The loss of patient-doctor
confidentiality threatened in the bill
will drive patients underground and
cases will only surface when the car-
rier is near death, activists point out.

Fear of public exposure and possi-
ble loss of employment will also keep
potential AIDS virus carriers from
medical care, they note.

Mass opposition forced the gov-
ernment to amend portions of the bill,
reducing sweeping powers to quaran-
tine against one’s will anyone exposed
to the virus to quarantining those who
spread AIDS “willfully, carelessly or
because of mental incompetence.”

But AIDS activists say the bill
should be scrapped, and New Demo-
cratic MLAs argued that the bill “‘is
still dangerous” in the last allowable

_ debate on the bill Nov. 27.

Protesters also gathered outside a
Social Credit meeting in Vancouver
Wednesday to denounce the bill.

_HARVEY

MACDONALD

More than 35 speakers took the micro-
phone in the debate as the convention
adopted a report prepared by the federa-
tion’s public sector committee and an
accompanying program of opposition to
the government’s privatization program.

The program warned that privatization,
free trade, de-regulation and Bill 19 “are all
part of a common corporate agenda
designed to move income and control of our
economy out of the hands of working peo-
ple and into the hands of corporations.

“Privatization must be understood as a
long-term government policy and must be
combatted forcefully and immediately,” it
stated.

The programs calls for:

@ Development and implementation ofa
co-ordinated media and education cam-
paign,

@ Union membership education cam-
paigns assisted by the federation and the
Canadian Labour Congress;

© Local campaigns against privatization
initiated by local labour councils and
unions in conjunction with community and
consumer groups;

e Federation-sponsored community
meetings.and forums to publicize opposi-
tion to privatization;

© Lobbying of federal and provincial
politicians to put pressure on government to
halt privatization.

The public sector committee’s report also
emphasized the need for unions to “‘put
forward our agenda and our policies by
discussion and demonstration of the value
of public ownership.”

But even with the public campaign, the
program noted, the provincial government
may proceed as it did with Bill 19 and push
through its privatization initiative in the
face of overwhelming opposition.

“Such arrogance would once again gen-
erate confrontation across the province,” it
warned.

“The federation and its affiliates are not
seeking further confrontation. However, if
Premier Vander Zalm is determined to once
again provoke confrontation, we will do
whatever we have to do, including job

_action and other form of civil disobedience,

to prevent privatization if necessary.”

“What we’re talking about with privati-
zation is the government lying to us, mis-
leading us in its effort to re-structure the
economy,” federation secretary Cliff And-
stein in opening the debate on the program.

He cited a speech by Dr. Madsen Pirie,
director of the British Adam Smith Institute
to the National Citizens Coalition in which
the right wing advisor to Margaret Thatcher
suggested that if the government could not
find a buyer for some of its assets, it should
give them away. Pirie also noted that Bri-
tain, having sold off its industries, was Mov-
ing into its utilities and government services.

“What Madsen Pirie is saying is that the
whole public sector has to go, that all public
services have to go, because the market is
supreme. Brother and sisters, we’ve got to
stop them,” he said to applause.

A number of speakers from the B.C.
Government Employees Union took the
microphone to highlight the dangers of pri-
vatization in highways maintenance, gov-
ernment labs, liquor stores and the forest
service. They urged the labour movement to
back them in their fight against the sell-off
of government services.

Significantly, all government employees
face the prospect of discipline, including
suspension and dismissal, for speaking out
against privatization under rules of conduct
sent out to each employee last month by the
provincial cabinet.

But several delegates threw the threats
back into the government’s court.

Highways mechanic Brian Taylor told
the convention: “If they want to take puni-
tive action against me, then they’d better do
it right now because I intend to speak up
against privatization.”

Office and Technical Workers Local 378
president Anne Harvey condemned the
government’s proposed sell-off of B.C.
Hydro gas, rail and research division, charg-
ing that the sales had nothing to do with
efficiency and would leave Hydro consu-
mers vulnerable to price hikes and loss of
free services now provided.

“The only ones who would benefit would

be Vander Zalm’s friends,” she said.

“Harvey told delegates: “Public owner-
ship means public control — and that’s

what British Columbians want.”

But unionists should be prepared for a
tough campaign, warned Hospital Empl-
oyees Union president Bill MacDonald, cit-
ing the vested corporate interests in Britain
which pushed privatization in the health

service.

“We've got to go out to our membership
and prepare them for this fight because it
will be a big fight. They (the corporations)
have all the money — all we have is the

heart.”
But it can be won, added BCGEU dele-

gate and highway worker Hans Penner. “If

we work with this program and stay united,
we can stop the steamroller of privatiza-
tion.”

A proposal by the B.C. Government
Employees Union to put in a bid to
take over the entire highways and
bridge maintenance contract under the
government’s privatization program
introduced a note of controversy into
the B.C. Federation of Labour’s cam-
fee against privatization Wednes-

BCGEU president John Shields
declared the union’s plans in a surprise
announcement to the federation’s con-
vention in Vancouver as delegates were
debating a program of opposition to
the government’s sell-off program.

He told delegates that the union had
wrestled with the issue until midnight
the previous night, seeking to find a
way Out of what he called the “excru-
ciating dilemma” faced by highways
workers who have been forced by
Impending privatization to take the
choice of bidding on individual main-
tenance contracts or running the risk of
losing their jobs to private contractors.

“We've seen workers who have
talked about taking out their life sav-
ings in order to survive,” he said. “It’s
an excruciating dilemma — one we
will not tolerate.”

As a result, he told the convention,

the union decided to enter a bid to
acquire the entire highways and bridge
maintenance contract.
_ "We want to ensure that the public
interest of British Columbians is main-
tained — and if the government is not
Prepared to look after the public inter-
est, then somebody has to,” he said.

_ He added that, if it successful in get-
tng the contract, the union would run
it as a non-profit operation. “And we
Intend to hold it in trust against the day
When the government comes to its
senses and acquires back the public
interest.”

He also announced union plans to
establish a “blue ribbon business advi-
SOry committee” to assist the union in
Preparing a bid.

Shields’ unexpected announcement,
made on a point of privilege at noon
Wednesday, drew an_ enthusiastic
response from BCGEU delegates,
many of whom faced the prospect of
losing their jobs under privatization.

GEU opens controversy
with bid on highways

But for many other unionists, the an-
nouncement was immediately contro-
versial, particularly since it was made in
the midst of a key convention debate on
the fightback against privatization.

Shields had prefaced the announce-
ment with the statement that the union
remains “‘unalterably opposed to pri
vatization.” But the proposal could not

, help but dissi-
pate the mom-
entum of the
‘debate and the
campaign itself.
It also introduc-
ed a point of
division in a
convention that
had otherwise
been demonstr-
ably united.

Although
many unions were still considering the
implications of the BCGEU decision at
Tribune press time, some unions cau-
cuses, in both the public and the private
sector, had reportedly already indicated
their rejection of the proposal. At the
same time, however, they reiterated
their support of the federation’s cam-
paign against privatization.

Concern was also raised on the con-
vention floor as debate resumed,
although delegates were at pains not to
voice criticism of the BCGEU.

HEU delegate Janet Fairbanks told
the convention that she realized that the
government employees’ proposal was
“only a stopgap measure . .. and I real-
ize the pressure that they’re under.

“But we don’t want to have to buy
our hospitals,” she said. “We need
more public ownership, not less.”

Carpenters delegate Bill Zander said
that he could “not help but be con-
cerned with the momentous decision
that’s been announced here today.

“I hope the contracts are long term
because if they’re not, I'd be worried
about their being low-bid away some
time down the road,” he said.

He added that the Building Trades
“haven’t been able to buy their way out
of the problems with the non-union
sector with their pension funds.”

SHIELDS

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 2, 1987 e 3

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