ot th I!

LABOR

Locked out employees of Loomis Armored Car maintain picket at Skeena Ave. depot
in Vancouver. The union also plans a demonstration in front of the Royal Bank, West
Georgia and Burrard streets, at noon Friday. The bank is one of Loomis’ biggest
customers.

Loomis cuts aimed
at union-busting

The lockout last month by Loomis
Armored Car of its 89 employees was an
“unconscionable” act that indicates armored
car services in Vancouver are out to bust
their workers’ unions, Colin Kelly has
charged.

“The agenda is very similar to Brinks —
to break the union,” Kelly, president of
Local 1 of the Independent Canadian Tran-
sit Union, said in an interview.

ICTU represents Loomis armored car

inside and outside workers, who were
locked out Aug. 6 during negotiations for a
second contract. The employees had
rejected company demands for a 21-per
cent rollback in wages.

The Loomis lockout paralleled the action
of Brinks armored car company, whose 60
employees have been locked out for 10
months. The members of the Teamsters
Union had also rejected concessions
demands, of some 40 per cent in wages and
benefits.

Since the Loomis lockout the company
has lost virtually all of its commercial
accounts. Corporations such as B.C. Fer-
nes, credit unions, Safeway stores and the
provincial liquor stores have all cancelled
their dealings with Loomis, said Kelly.

But Loomis and Brinks, multinational
corporations with offices in several North
American cities, continue to operate
through business dealings with the major

_ Canadian banks, most notably the Royal
Bank for Loomis and the Bank of Montreal
for Brinks. The former was the subject of a
public meeting last week sponsored by
ICTU and the Southern Africa Action Coa-
lition, which is targetting the Royal for its
loans to South African corporations and
government agencies through its wholly-
owned subsidiary, the Orion Bank in Lon-
don.

The Loomis Courier service, whose
employees are represented by the Canadian
Brotherhood of Railway and Transport
Workers, is not so far affected by the lock-
out.

Kelly said every outstanding issue
between ICTU and Loomis had been

_ Settled during negotiations, which began in
January, except for the concessions demand.
The company had claimed the rollbacks
were necessary because Loomis was losing
business to Brinks and Wells Fargo.

Loomis bases its claim on the lower rates
charged by its two rivals, which pay less

The two-man system has been attacked by
trade unions as being unsafe, a criticism

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 11, 1985

fueled by the recent local shooting death of
a Brinks’ guard.

ICTU had come to the bargaining table
with an offer to change the definition of
Sunday as an overtime day — cancelling
provisions which call for double time for
Sunday work — in light of the increased
number of businesses opening on Sunday,
said Kelly. He noted that overtime accounts
for “15 to 25 per cent” of the company’s
payroll.

But ICTU’s key offer was a plan for an

“efficient” system of truck dispatching
which the union said would save Loomis
significant amounts in overtime pay.

“They rejected our offer, showing they’re
not concerned with a running a viable oper-
ation but are totally concerned with wage
concessions,” Kelly charged.

The ICTU Local 1 president said
Loomis’ claims about losing business to its
rivals’ underbidding are not borne out by
the facts.

He said Loomis accounted for 80 per cent
of the armored car business prior to the
lockout, being a much larger operation than
Brinks — itself losing business because it
employs scab labor — and Wells Fargo, a
recently established operation employing
only 17 workers.

Last year Loomis took $5.1 million out
of operating capital to make several capital
acquisitions, and spent $307,000 opening an
outlet in Prince George, said Kelly. “Eco-
nomic analysts we know tell us that’s the
sign of a very healthy coprration.”

Ironically, when Brinks locked out its
workers last November, claiming the $9-$10
an hour it pays its employees was excessive,
it did so only two months after ICTU won
its first Loomis contract which increaed
wages by an average three per cent and
widened the difference between wages paid
to Loomis and Brinks guards.

“Brinks still demanded deep concessions
— not because they were concerned with a
viable operation but because they wanted to
break the union. That’s what we're facing
with Loomis,” Kelly charged,

Kelly said he did not rule out “collusion”
between the multinational corporations to
bust their employees’ unions (Wells Fargo
workers are unorganized).

But the transit union’s harshest words are
reserved for Loomis’ and Brinks’ bank cus-
tomers.

“Loomis wouldn’t be able to function if
the banks weren’t in collusion with the
company and keeping it running. The big
money is with the bank accounts and if they
had an ounce of community responsibility,
we wouldn’t have this sitation.”

Members of four postal unions
launched a publicity campaign Sept. 5
charging that postal service to the public
has suffered as a direct result of staff and
service cuts in the post office and urging
people to write MPs demanding that bet-
ter service be a priority for post office
management.

The campaign was initiated jointly by
the Canadian Union of Postal Workers,
the Letter Carriers Union of Canada, the
Canadian Postmasters and Assistants
Association and the Union of Postal
Communication Employees, affiliated to
the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

“Management’s obsession to make
the post office financially self-sufficient
has resulted in staff cutbacks. . .technol-
ogy is being used only to benefit big
business, door-to-door delivery is being
denied to many households in new sub-
divisions, wicket services have been cut
back and rural route delivery on Satur-
days has been eliminated — all in viola-
tion of the Canada Post mandate which

Members of the Hospital Employees
Union began an “unstrike” at Van-
couver Lodge Sept. 5 to back their
demand for a first collective agreement
from VS Services Ltd., a contract agency
of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Like the transit workers unstrike last
year, the action by HEU members is
intended to highlight the issue while
maintaining services. Vancouver Lodge
is the facility operated by the Cancer
Society to provide meals and accommo-
dation to outpatients receiving treatment
at the A. Maxwell Evans cancer clinic.

Certified more than three years ago,
the HEU workers, who work in the kit-
chen, bargained unsuccessfully with the
Cancer Society for nine months in 1982
before voting for strike action.

Immediately after serving strike notice,
however all six workers were fired by the
Cancer Society which then contracted
the service out to a Toronto-based com-
pany, VS Services Ltd.

After a protest was launched, VS Ser-
vices was forced to re-hire the six. “But

The B.C. Government Employees

government to enact legislation protect-
ing government employees from repri-
sals for exposing government wrong-
doing.

Proposing that it be called the Public
Protection Act, BCGEU president John
Shields said it should be similar to legisla-
tion proposed by the Saskatchewan
Government Employees and that already

Make service a priority,
unions tell post office

HEU ‘unstrike’ launched

Public Protection Act urged

Union has called on the provincial *

was to maintain, improve and expand
postal services,” a statement issued by
the four unions said.

And the new post office review com-
mittee set up by the Tory government to
investigate the post office mandate “‘is
intended to lay the groundwork for de-
regulation and privatization,” they
warned.

At least one government member,
Peace River Tory MP Albert Cooper,
has openly spoken of government plans
to privatize some post office services,
including box pickup. -

But those measures won’t improve
services — they will only result “in a
higher cost to the public and a further
delcine in services, particularly to new
growth areas,” the four unions charged.

A leaflet campaign begun last week
calls on people to write their MPs ‘“tand
demand that the government maintain
the current mandate for Canada Post
and make better service to the public a
priority.”

two years later |
we are still no |
closer to a collec-
tive agreement,”
said HEU secre- | 7
tary-business | -
manager Jack
Gerow.

| “We are not
1 advocating ceas- |
ing services to}
people who have | -
cancer,” he said.

JACK GEROW

“We are merely saying that of the mil-
lions of dollars collected in the name of
cancer research and treatment, some of it
must go to pay fair wages to these six
employees who help to look after cancer
victims

The kitchen workers, who earn an
average of $6.50 an hour, are seeking
parity with food service workers at the
Maxwell Evans clinic whose rates are
from $500 to $800 a month more.

in place in Michigan called the “Whistle
Blowers” Protection Act.

“Provincial government employees
are extremely vulnerable to disciplinary
action, threats against their job security
and intimidation if they speak out and
reveal knowledge of wrong-doing on the
part of the employer,” he said, adding
that there should be legal protection for
those “who have the courage to
expose...wrong-doing that is clearly

against the public intrest.” _— 3

__ IRIBUNE

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