Socred railroading of legislation
sparks demand for stepped-up
action by unions and Coalition —-

By SEAN GRIFFIN

The drive by the Socred government to
hammer its repressive legislation through the
house has given a new urgency to the actions
of the Solidarity Coalition — and will un-
doubtedly prompt some new tactics.

Thousand of the Coalition petitions have
been circulated throughout the trade union
movement and elsewhere and a major blitz
~ across the province was expected to get
underway Sept. 24.

The aim has been to bring the completed
petitions together at the end of the campaign
so that the names can be read into the public
record. A petition with hundreds of
thousands of names, each registering a voice
in opposition to the government legislative
package could effectively counter the
government’s propaganda that it has sup-
port for its attack on rights.

But the petition campaign was conceived
at a time when the government was not mov-
ing on its legislative package. The petition
campaign itself was slated to run for seven
weeks to give the maximum time available to
all the groups affected by the Socred bills.
Now that time is running out.
dicated at the Vancouver and District Labor
Council Sept. 20 when B.C. Federation of
Labor president Art Kube acknowledged
_ that there had been criticism for the apparent
lull in action since the mass rallies in Van-

couver and Victoria.

ee es i that the petition ‘‘is
foremost’? but noted that the campaign
around it “thasn’t had a high profile in the
media.’’ Because of that, he said, the
Solidarity Coalition ‘‘is beginning actions

again.
The first of those, on a regional scale, was
organized in Prince George Sept. 21. And in

the Lower Mainland the Social Credit con-~

vention at the Hotel Vancouver will be the
target of a mass demonstration Oct. 15.
Kube also emphasized that the public sec-
tor committee of the federation had drawn
up a contingency plan in the event that some
of the legislation was passed by the Socreds.
That plan, he said, is similar to the one

adopted by the B.C. Division of the Cana-

dian Union of Public Employees which calls
for escalating job action, beginning with the

local and culminating in a province-wide -

union walkout should any union member be

- victimized by the legislation.

With Bill 3 — the Public Sector Restraint
Act which authorizes massive firings of
public sector workers — now having been
forced past second reading, that plan could
be up for action very quickly.

_ Federation secretary Mike Kramer also
suggested to demonstrators in Prince George
last week that they should ‘“‘save their pen-
nies — the trade union movement may be
looking at a closure movement of its own.

_ “Tf this kind of peaceful protest doesn’t
work, then we’ll be using the more tradi-
tional tools to persuade the boss that what
we need is right and just,’’ he declared.

The derision registered by Bennett and his
cabinet have underscored that point — the
government hasn’t listened and the need for

new forms of protest is becoming more
urgent with every sitting of the legislature.

It is evident from the remarks of Labor
Minister Bob McClelland as well as Bennett
himself that the government consideres that
the Solidarity Coalition’s popularity has
peaked, that it has not attracted the support
of the private sector unions and their
membership and that further job action by
the public sector will not win significant
public support.

That apparently is the reasoning behind
the government’s slowness in introducing
Labor Code amendments. It does not want
to create a new issue that would arouse the
private sector unions — at least not yet.

Similarly, after sitting on Bill 3 and then
amending it slightly, it now wants to rush it
through, presuming that any job action now
by the public sector would be short-lived and
would not be supported by forces outside the
trade union movement.

Only large-scale, concerted action by the
Solidarity Coalition — the whole coalition
— can demonstrate to the government just
how badly it has miscalculated.

Significantly, it was the unprecedentedly
huge rallies — first in Vancouver, then Vic-
toria, then Vancouver again — that initially

ANALYSIS

held up the Socreds’ drive, forcing the
cabinet to put off debate on its legislative
package. :

These rallies made it clear that there was a
powerful movement, drawn from groups
from every section of the population, in-
cluding many Socred supporters, which op-
posed the government’s program.

To be effective in the midst of a govern-
ment drive to force its bills through, the
Coalition will again have to bring all its
forces together — and demonstrate their
unity to the government.

The rally outside the Socred convention
slated for Oct. 15 will certainly be part of
that. But blocking this government will re-
quire more than that — it will require an
escalating campaign of action including job
action.

But it also requires a focal point — and in
that, a mass day of protest across the pro-
vince could be an effective means of organiz-
ing public, demonstrative action by all the

constituent parts of the coalition ona single ~

day and combining that with coordinated
job action by the trade union movement.
A day of protest isn’t a general strike
which implies a continuing and unlimited ac-
tion by workers. But like the Oct. 14, 1976
Day of Protest against wage controls, it is the
kind of mass, general protest that many peo-
ple have been talking about. Organizing it,
however, requires more than repeated hints

~ that such action is being contemplated or

that a general strike “‘is there as the last

~resort.”” It requires a plan, a date, and

organizing from the bottom up to ensure
that everybody in the coalition — above all,
the private sector unions — are convinced
that an action on the scale of a day of protest

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 28, 1983—Page 12

is absolutely necessary to force the govern-
ment to reconsider.

Certainly the government has shown that
it is deaf to the protest and that the ‘‘tradi-
tional tools’? of massive job action by
workers — supported by other groups —
will be needed to lever the statute books
open. :

The government’s hurry with Bill 3, in
particular, has also underscored another
factor in the current political crisis — the
contract bargaining that is now either immi-
nent or in progress for more than 70,000
public sector workers.

On Oct. 3, negotiators begin bargaining
the contract covering more than 35,000 B.C.
Government Employees Union members,
with the government having already
declared that Bill 3 will prevail, along with
wage control legislation. The agreement ex-
pires Oct. 31.

On the same day, contracts covering 1,100
B.C. Buildings Corporation employees and
2,700 B.C. Ferry workers also expire. At the
end of this month, some 6,500 Insurance
Corporation of B.C. workers will be without
a contract. ;

Already without a contract — many for
several months — are 10,000 municipal
employees in the Greater Vancouver
Regional District; 3,000 employees at B.C.
Hydro; 3,500 Greater Vancouver bus
drivers; and 4,500 health technicians.

All of those public employees. could be
subject to the punitive provisions of the
legislation. If fact their bargaining this year
is inseparable from the Solidarity Coalition
campaign because if the legislation passes,
their rights as trade unionists will virtually
cease to exist.

Anew factor is the 86-per-cent strike vote

registered by the IWA — a convincing vote ~

that belies earlier suggestions that wood-
workers ‘‘don’t have the heart to strike.’
The membership in all three wood unions
have now given their leaders a strong strike
mandate. The same is true in the hotel in-
dustry.

Significantly, in both industries major
concessions are being sought by the
employers — the same employers which are
backing the Socreds’ legislation program in
order to create the conditions to make their
concessions stick.

In the public sector, two components of
the BCGEU — the hospital component and
administative services — have also voted 80
Eseee to strike and are in a legal position to

0 SO.

The bargaining lineup and the fact that
several unions could quickly be in a legal
strike position opens up new possibilities for

coordinating bargaining with the larger cam- -

paign of Operation Solidarity.

One public sector union is reportedly con-
sidering strike action this week to dramatize
current bargaining and to protest the layoffs
that have been imposed as a result of the
government’s program. :

The Solidarity Coalition needs to move
quickly to again put the movement it created
into the streets and coordinate its action with
actions at the bargaining table. If it does, it
could dramatically set back the
government’s drive.

It is evident that in forcing legislation
through the House and imposing closure,
the Socreds have estimated that the Solidari-
ty Coalition campaign is declining. But if
anything, the coalition’s strength has

grown, with new groups affiliating in the last _

few days.

The possibilities for stepped-up action are
also greater in the face of the government’s
offensive. The next few weeks are critical.

BCGEU warms |
of walkouts|
over firings

The B.C. Government Employees
Union wound up a two-day bargaining
convention Sunday with a declaration
by president Norman Richards that any } |
government firing of union members | |
after Oct. 31 could spark a full-scale} |

walkout.

“If any worker is fired on Oct. 31, |)
we’ll be walking out,” Richards stated | |
following an in-camera session of the | |
convention, held to discuss bargaining | |
strategies. Oct. 31 is the expiry date of | |
the BCGEU contract and the target date | | _
for the government to axe 2,000 govern: | |

ment employees. =

The BCGEU stand was an echo of || _
the position of the B.C. Federation of |}
Labor’s public sector committee which || _
reportedly has drawn up a contingency | |
plan for escalating job action in the}|
event that any union member is fired aS |}
a result of Bill 3, the Public Sector ||

Restraint Act.

I 3 F a
The BCGEU will be asking itS}
~ members to vote on the ‘‘strike over fir- Lg

ings’’ proposal.

The union did not outline its bargain- | |
ing position, hammered out during the |
in-camera session, but Richards drew ||
the bottom line during his opening ad- ||

dress to the convention.

“We are going to fight for our rights, || _

for the life we have all worked hard for ||
oing |

and even more important, we are g

to fight to win our province back from ||

those who are trying to turn the clock :

back to yesterday in an effort to sell uS })

all down the river,’’ he declared.

“There will be no concessions at the ||

bargaining table.

“There will be no bargaining away of | ‘
our rights under Bills 2 and 3, and we |)
will fight to the last to defend our collec:

tive agreement,”’ he declared.
Richards told delegates that

union ‘thas the only two choices —

fight-or to surrender.
‘We have chosen to fight, to de’

eae

fend

collective bargaining and, if we have t0
strike to do it, then that is a sacrifice W

will all be called upon to make.”’

Delegates endorsed a resolution
ing for a dues increase to fund
union’s defence of its rights, unde!
tack in Bill 3.

The union’s participation in Oper |
tion Solidarity was also emphasized |
during the two-day conventiO® ||
although coordination of strike actio® | |
by Operation Solidarity and gover |
- ment workers was discounted by B.C: |

Federation of Labor president

Kube.
Kube, who addressed delegates
before the bargaining session,

phasized that the Solidarity was still in? ||
rigade, |

position of “‘building the big bri

to pressure the premier to withdraw U® |»

legislation.

“I wish I could tell you to hit the |
bricks on such and such a day,” he said- ;
“But that would be the easy thing ' ||

do.”’

‘ing continuing opposition to the
policies, Kube maintained: ‘‘I
we’re winning.’’ He added that
government would, over the next
weeks, be pressured to withdraw.

That has not been indicated
however, in the actions of the ca! |

which has imposed closure and

all-night sittings to ram its legislatl

through.

call |
fae

just |

:

the |)

Ed

Noting a Vancouver Sun poll sho¥, ||

the |