‘Give peace priority, journalist urges

— page 10

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Labor Code amendments
would ‘de-uni

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Wednesday, May 16, 1984

Newsstand Price 40: Vol. 47, No. 19
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Bill 28:
The labor
movement's
on the line

__ By GEORGE HEWISON

Bill 28, the Labor Code Amendment
Act, represents the most vicious attack
on the labor movement in decades.

The intended effect of the bill is to
transform B.C. from a province which is
more than 40 per cent unionized to one
in which unions are either crippled or
nonexistent. Authors of the draft legisla-
tion also hope to head off any possibility
of the trade union movement again
becoming the centre of the fightback
against Socred and corporate policies
with their amendment which would ban
political strikes.

The crippling aspects of Bill 28 can be
summarized as follows: it will be easier
for employers to be union-free. That is
the purpose of the change to certification
and ecertification procedures, to the
restrictions on secondary-picketing, the
banning of political strikes and the
designation of economic development
zones,

Yet despite the seriousness of the
Socred-Fraser Institute attack, the lead-

ership of the B.C. Federation of Labor
has been foundering.

It would appear that the lack of

resolve Stems from either an over-
estimation of the strength of the
government and employers, a_pre-
occupation with other activities, a paral-
ysis due to a lack of unity, perhaps an
inability to lead in a time of crisis or
possibly a combination of all of those
factors.
In any event, as I see it some leaders
have been running hard to re-establish a
“social contract,” a contract which the
employers tolerate in good times to tone
down workers’ legitimate demands but
tear asunder the moment it interferes
with the profit sheet. They have also been
endeavoring to confine the fightback to
an electoral timetable three years hence
(by which time much damage will be
done and an electoral victory may -be
impossible) and fear mass extra-parlia-
mentary movements of the people com-
mitted to challenging the real power in
this province — big business.

See REPEAT page 3

Faced with a company offer that promises no protection against massive layoffs due to
technological change, members of the Vancouver-New Westminster Newspaper Guild
maintained picket lines around the Pacific Press building this week. Guild members,
which includes employees in the circulation, advertising and editorial departments of
the Sun and Province newspapers, rejected the company’s latest position although the
five craft unions of the Joint Council had earlier settled for a three-year contract with
wage hikes of five, five and seven per cent. But new advances in computer technology
threaten to displace dozens of Guild members, who are seeking clauses stipulating a
single seniority system in the office, health and safety provisions .nd language guaran-

- teeing job retraining. At press time, negotiations had broken /¢ and a 24-hour news

blackout was imposed. See story page 12.

ON

¢

SR ERNEST SR A Rb ES BEI ed

onize B.C.’

Operation
Solidarity
meeting set

The B.C. Federation of Labor declared
May 9 that it “rejected out-right” the pro-
posed changes to the Labor Code and
announced that a conference of all unions in
the province would be called for May 16 to
map a strategy against the restrictive anti-
labor bill.

And several labor leaders have already
urged the mobilization of Solidarity II anda
campaign of economic action to fight the
legislation.

The federation’s declaration, followed
closely by a statement from the B.C. and
Yukon Building Trades Council, was the
swift reaction to the introduction the pre-
vious day of the Socreds’ Bill 28, the Labor
Code Amendment Act. The bill, which is
the most sweeping and ominous measure
yet in the government’s campaign to strip
the labor movement of its right to organize,
strike and picket,
was tabled in the
legislature by
Labor Minister
Bob McClelland,
May 8.

Although the
federation put off
any action to
oppose the legis-
lation until after
the May 16 meet-
ing, a number of JACK GEROW
labor leaders,
including several federation vice-presidents,
met May 9 and undertook to send a delega-
tion to Victoria.

Some 24 trade union leaders, including
federation secretary-treasurer Mike Kramer
who was asked to join the delegation, met in
Victoria with the NDP caucus May 10 to
press for a co-ordinated campaign to fight
the anti-labor bill.

Following the meeting, several unionists
indicated that they will be pressing for mil-
itant action at the May 16 meeting which
will be held under the auspices of Operation
Solidarity.

Hospital Employees Union secretary-
business manager Jack Gerow told repor-
ters in Victoria that the Labor Code
amendments were “the last act’ by the
Socreds in its double-cross on the Kelowna
accord which was supposed to have set up a
process of consultation.

“The trade union movement isn’t going
to sit back and allow the rights we fought

See BILL 28 page 12