EDITORIAL Defending labor rights _ If it was not already clear two weeks ago, the ultimate purpose of Premier Bill Bennett’s blatant manipulation of the events surrounding Expo 86 has now been sharply focused. He never intended to cancel Expo; his warning of Mar. 29 and Expo 86 chariman Jim Patti- son’s contrived recommendation for cancellation had one objective — to create a climate in which legislative compulsion would find public acceptance. If the Build- ing Trades would not bow to the government’s terms that Expo construction would be open to’ non-union companies like Kerkhoff paying scab wages, then the legislative axe would be prepared against them. That axe is now hanging over the Building Trades, threatening to remove the non-affiliation clauses from their collective agreements and cut deep into long- standing rights of union security. Like the legislation against the pulp workers which preceded it by only a few weeks, Bennett’s new legisla- tion would be precedent-setting in imposing punitive conditions on the trade union movement. And as the pulp legislation paid dividends to the pulp multi- nationals, its beneficiaries would be the contractors, non-union as well as union. The government legislative offensive of the last two weeks is not just a reaction to recent events although they may have provided pretext. It is part of the Socreds’ planned attack on long standing union rights and conditions, inspired by the Fraser Institute and urged on by the Employers’ Council. There can be little doubt, either, that the long- announced amendments to the Labor Code will not be far behind. One of them may well be changes to give legal sanction to union construction firms setting up non-union arms. In the context of the current construc- tion talks and the possibility of an industry-wide lock- out, such legislative changes would have ominous consequences for the Building Trades. Nor can the trade union movement draw any com- fort from the consultative process involving the five member advisory committee now supposedly studying Labor Code amendments. The new human rights and tenancy bill just introduced demonstrate the contempt in which the government holds any meaningful consultation. © For the labor movement, the pattern that is being set is Clear. It is not just legislation for the pulp workers to contend with, or threatened legislation that the Building Trades must respond to — it is a legislative attack levelled at trade unionism itself, particularly at trade unionism in the construction industry. It is legislation aimed at imposing Bennett’s “new reality” on working people, a “reality” which includes lower wages and longer unemployment lines. There have already been voices raised in the trade union movement urging a renewed — and massive + mobilization of Operation Solidarity to answer the government’s attack. Now the B.C. Federation of Labor and the Building Trades leadership needs to act on that swiftly with a conference of all unions to map a program of action. Should recognize PLO The Senate foreign affairs committee should be con- gratulated for standing its ground in its right to call witnesses relevant to its work. Such was the case when it heard Palestine Liberation Organization spokesman Zehdi Terzi, Apr. 5, as part of a two-year study on Canada’s relations with the Middle East. The position expressed by Terzi was not a departure from long-standing Palestinian demands, nor should the position be controversial. He appealed for putting an end to the suffering of almost five million human beings — Palestinian Arabs — by creating a Palesti- nian state on the West Bank and giving Palestinians the option of taking back their homes and lands lost in 1948, or being compensated. He said, quite factually, that Israel’s right to exist is linked to the Palestinians’ right to exist. He said he recognized Israel’s boundaries prior to the 1967 war. The Senate Committee was not breaking entirely new ground. New Democrat Pauline Jewett noted that some of its members had interviewed PLO spokes- persons in the Middle East. And the man before the committee in Ottawa is already recognized.at the Uni- ted Nations where he is the permanent representative of the PLO. But the outbursts against inviting Terzi, the attempts to derail the committee’s work, and the uncalled for interference by the Israeli ambassador in his public statement, require a proper response. Those who pretend that inviting Terzi to testify indi- cates the Canadian government’s recognition of the PLO are peddling a propaganda line. Canada should recognize the PLO and stepped up pressure should be put on it to do so. It is not enough to depend on the Senate committee’s long awaited report to sway the government in that direction. oe oes die [OO NEWS ITEM: Severa/ hundred FB/ agents trained in espionage detection have been assigned to the Soviet Olympic team. Profiteer of the week Grafton Group Ltd., Toronto, retails clothing and footweal; through Woolco, Elks, Maher, etc., is into home furnishings 2” real estate. Maybe such things cost a lot, but it’s good for Grafton. After-tax profit, $18,155,000 for year ended Jan. 31, up from $10,763,000 a year before. — TRIBUNE | Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Graphics — ANGELA KENYON Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada — $14 one year; $8 six months Foreign — $20 one year; Second class mail registration number 1560 ometimes handouts to government friends — the one government ser- vice that has been expanded by Bennett — can prove to be too embarrassing even for the usually unabashed Socreds. Readers may recall a Tribune story ear- lier this year about several private consul- for his newly-purchased Beautiful B.C. magazine. .. People and Issues Tuesday and Wednesday lectures are at First United Church. All begin at 7:30 p.m. There is also an all-day session on May * * * 5 on technology, including discussions on union-busting and the fallacy of high-tech prosperity, as well as a graduation benefit dance May 12. More information is avail- tants who were hired by the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing to review minis- try files, work normally performed by members of the B.C. Government Employees Union. The union charged that it was “pork barrel politics” since one of those hired was a former Gold Commissioner. What was particularly raw about the arrangement was the obvious government handout to the private sector — they were paid $290 a day, nearly twice the employees’ rate, but were less than half as productive. Well, according to a release issued ear- lier this month by the BCGEU, the consul- tants have now had their contracts terminated. That’s a good start — now if the government can be compelled to stop its handout to the banks for the B.C. Rail debt; to the new owners of Pacific Coach Lines who now feel they have a licence to raise fares and cut staff; to the Jim Patti- son interests which got freebie publicity nd while we’re on the subject of Jim Pattison, it’s significant that the man who will be selling his new acquisition, Beautiful B.C. to the world, is the same man who company, Mainland Magazines, peddles pornographic magazines. It’s a fit- ting comment on B.C. free enterprise. * * * ne of the many responses to the Socreds privatization and restraint, is the Budget University, organized by Women Against the Budget, and offering a varied series of lectures, panel discussions and seminars on the budget, “the myth- ology of the New Right”, political organiz- ing, technology and the province’s education system. The “courses” actually began Mar. 28 but each is self-contained and will con- tinue on Monday Apr. 16, with a work- shop on getting the message to the media; on Apr. 17, 24 and May | with lectures on privatization, services for single mothers and volunteering; on Apr. 18, 25, May 2 WOMEN AGAINST THE BUDGET Presents The Opening Semester (Spring 1984) of THE BUDGET UNIVERSITY and 9, with discussions on the Fraser [nsti- tute, a program for the women’s move- ment, analysis of the Solidarity events and strategies for the women’s movement. The Monday sessions are at Little Mountain Neighborhood House and the able from the Lower Mainland Solidarity Coalition at 879-6884. * * * e had a sad note this week from Dusty Greenwell, telling us that Joe Laskovich, one of the former Nanaimo miners whom we had interviewed for the May Day, 1982 story on the Mine Workers Union of Canada underground organizing campaign in the 1930s, was killed in a car accident. Laskovich was one of several group leaders in the clandestine organizing cam- paign which led ultimately to the historic certification of the United Mine Workers at the Nanaimo mines. It was Laskovich’s MWUC card, generously donated to the Tribune as a historic document, that was reproduced to accompany the story. Apparently he was returning to his home in South Wellington from Nanaimo on Monday, Apr. 9 when another car broadsided his. A funeral was to be held Saturday, Apr. 14. 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 18, 1984