ait

‘BUDGET,
RESTRAINT

Wolfe edict ‘deprives
civic voters of rights’

Continued from page 1
CP leader Rush said in a sharp
statement.
Rush said that it was “no. acci-

_ dent’’ that Section 11 of the Essen-

~ tial Services Disputes Act was pass-
ed the day after the budget cuts
were announced. ‘‘When the AIB
was phased out, premier Bennett
said that the provincial government
would adopt legislation to impose a
wage freeze on unions, especially in
the public sector. He is now living
up to his promise, because, in ef-
fect, they have imposed a wage
freeze of five percent on- civic
workers.”

The erosion of municipal
autonomy in the restriction of their
budgets is perhaps the most far
reaching implication in the govern-
ment’s action, he said, as it would
disenfranchise municipal electors
by depriving the representatives
they elect the right to run their own

financial matters. This is part of the
Socred drive to centralize power in’
the hands of the provincial cabinet
and deprive local government:
bodies of any real power or say in
running their own affairs.””

The silence of the NDP is par-
ticularly conspicuous, Rush said,
‘‘One wonders where Dave Barrett
and the NDP are these days. There
is a strange silence on this latest
anti-municipal edict, on the pro-
clamation of Section 11, and the
threatened takeover of MacMillan
Bloedel by Canadian Pacific. Out-
side of some MLA’s talking around
these issues, there has been no for-
thright statement of NDP policy.”

“The most important need now is
for the widest public fightback
against right wing Socred policies.
Unity and action now could seal the
fate of the Bill Bennett government
just as it did to that of Bennett the
elder in 1972.”

Bennett postures, CPI
renews bid for MacBlo

- Canadian Pacific Investments
served notice this week that it
would continue its attempt to
capture majority ownership of
MacMillan Bloedel and that it
would send its president Ian Sin-
clair back to B.C. for more talks
with the B.C. government.

Sinclair will be in Vancouver
Friday for an emergency meeting of
the MacMillan Bloedel board, of
which he is also a member, called to
consider the CPI takeover bid.

Premier Bennett continued to
posture this week as the defender of
the provincial interest, but refused
to deny that a secret deal had been
made with CPI and MacMillan
Bloedel which would involve in-
_vestment by the government in
MacMillan Bloedel. The premier
refused to clarify the position of the
government on the grounds. it
would create ‘‘speculation on the
stock market.’’

The government’s secrecy in the

matter was blasted this week by
Communist Party leader Maurice
Rush who demanded that Bennett °
make public the full details of his
closed door meetings with the heads
of CPI, MacMillan Bloedel and
Domtar.

“This secrecy on the future of a
company which holds a major part
of B.C. public forest lands is doing
a disservice to the public,’? Rush
said. ‘“‘There must be no secret
deals cooked up between the Socred
government, MacBlo and CPI
which would foist greater
monopoly control on the forest
industry.”’

The CP leader restated his
party’s demands that the govern-
ment cancel all forest licenses in the
event of a change in the corporate
structure of MacMillan Bloedel,
and that a special session of the
legislature be called to consider the
nationalization of the giant forest~
company.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 12, 1979—Page 8

gram

is very concerned about it.

have

Gov't cutbacks show nee?
for action by Fed, CUPE }

The B.C. Division of the Cana-

dian Union of Public Employees |

held a special, delegated conference
on Saturday, January 6 to discuss
the implications for CUPE of the
recent amendment to the Essential
Services Disputes Act.

A five-point program was en-
dorsed, as follows:

@ Support to the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor program, adopted at
a staff conference on the previous
day. Full participation in the nine
public rallies to be held in different
cities in the period January
23-March 8.

@ Condemnation of the Socred
government and reiteration of sup-
port to the New Democratic Party
“*as the legislative arm of labor.’’

@ Appointment by all CUPE
district councils of committees to
work with labor councils in organiz-
ing the nine rallies.

@ Full financial support to the
Federation in its campaign.

@ Endorsement of the principle
that in the event of any local union
coming into conflict with the Essen-
tial Services Dispute Act, ‘‘that
local will not take any unilateral ac-
tion or any action without prior
consultation and approval of the
B.C. Division and their officers, the
officers of the B.C. Federation of
Labor, and the approval of the na-

tional officers of the Canadian

Union of Public Employees.”’

The CUPE conference took place
three days after the release of a
statement by Evan Wolfe, provin-
cial minister of finance, announcing
severe limitations on expenditures
by municipalities and school
boards... As the bulk of CUPE’s
25,000 members in B.C. are
employed by municipalities and
school boards, the restrictions will,
in effect, amount to wage controls
for CUPE. For example, no
municipal budget is to be increased
by more than five percent. With in-
flation running at about nine per-
cent, this could mean cutbacks in
services and layoffs for municipal
employees, in addition to wage con-
trols.

Cliff MacKay, writing in the
Courier January 4, made this pro-
jection. ‘‘If he is pushed to the wail,
I would guess that Mr. Volrich
(mayor of Vancouver) is prepared
to tell the unions that wage in-
creases imperilling his tax ceiling
(4.5 percent) will have to be com-
pensated by firings for the stark
sake of economy.’’

It should be noted in this connec-
tion that Volrich in his inaugural
address indicated that he planned a
reduction in the rate of business
tax. This means that he hopes for
wage increases below the increase in
the cost of living for civic
employees, with possible reductions
in staff, while the business interests
enjoy a tax cut.

The guidelines announced by
Evan Wolfe also call for restrictions
on school board expenditures. For
example: ‘‘Municipal councils will
be requested to meet with local
school boards to work out a pro-
to minimize local school
district taxes.’’ An indication of
what this means is spelled out in the
following instruction: ‘‘Present
pupil/teacher ratios shall be con-
sidered as a floor with every effort
being made to improve productivi-
ty.”” This means more pupils per
teacher, followed by layoffs from
the teaching staff as well as the non-
teaching staff who belong to CUPE
and, in a few cases, other unions.

While the five-point program
adopted by CUPE makes no men-
tion of this so-called austerity pro-
gram, there is no doubt that CUPE
Its
spokesmen, along with spokesmen
for the B.C. Federation of Labor,
pointed out that public

employees in y C. are now "oil
off than they were under the federal
anti-inflation guidelines. On the
one hand, the government places a
ceiling on wage increases. On the
other hand; the government gives
itself the power, in effect, to pre-
vent any strike in the public service,
or to break a strike.

As reported in a recent pamphlet
published by CUPE, some 15,000
of its 25,000 members in B.C. have
already begun contract negotia-
tions: They are municipal, school
board, library board, university and
other public employees.

According to the pamphlet,
prices went up 28.4 percent during
the three years of AIB wage con-
trols. During the same period,
wages for CUPE members
employed by municipalities and
school boards in Greater Vancouver
increased by only 17.6 percent.
“Our purchasing power is 10.8 per-
cent less than it was in 1975,”’ the
union emphasized.

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

With the new amendment to the
Essential Services Disputes Act
directed mainly at CUPE, it is in-
teresting to study some of the pro-
jections made in the pamphlet refer-
red to above.

e A laborer employed by a
Greater Vancouver municipality or
school board now earns $6.76 per
hour, as compared with $7.78 for a
provincial government laborer.

e@ Aclerk steno employed by the
municipality of Vancouver earns 23
per cent less than a counterpart in
the provincial service.

e A B.C. Hydro laborer now
earns 23.4 per cent more than a
municipal or school board laborer.

@ Whereas the IWA base rate
was 39 cents an hour more than the
base labor rate for CUPE in 1975
(when wage controls were
imposed), the gap has now increas-
ed to $1.41 per hour.

@ The construction rate for a
laborer is now $4.02 an hour above
the CUPE laborer.

In view of these facts, the CUPE
demand of a wage increase of one
dollar an hour is a very modest one.
However, it is the intention of the
provincial government to hold
down any increase to less than one-
third of that amount and to en-
courage municipalities and school
boards to compensate themselves
for wage increases by laying off
staff.

Indications of what is in store for
CUPE members (and members of

- other unions involved) are reflected

in recent developments. The muni-
cipality of Richmond has laid off 50
“‘permanent’’ employees indefinite-
ly. These are outside workers, who,
if they were employed and went on
strike, would be considered ‘‘essen-
tial’’ workers subject to a back-to-
work order under the government

legislation. The city of New J
minster has placed a freeze on
hirings and layoffs are anticip
The district of Maple Ridg
nounced 30 layoffs last week.
there is the threat of layoffs im
couver by mayor Volrich, rel
to earlier.

While we can understand
strong feeling of the leadersht
CUPE and the B.C. Federatié

‘Labor to go all out to ensutt U

defeat of the Socreds in thet.‘
provincial election, we must a
the program adopted to date
far enough to make that poss. c
Frankly, we don’t think soy ; 3
leadership given to date leavest. “
to be desired. a
For example, if the rumor & 4
provincial election. will be hel S
April or May is correct, does It |
follow that the whole labor 7 \
ment should be rallied to sup? >
CUPE in its exercise of the right
free collective bargaining? HES
B.C. Federation of Labot 2
cooperation with CUPE lea
mobilized all of its affiliates iff
port of CUPE, the _ provi
cabinet would find it polill
dangerous to invoke the Ess
Services Disputes Act; it is no
enough for CUPE leaders
“take it nice and easy until we
an NDP government.’’ That!
result in grossly sub-standard
agreements, with no guarantet
Socred defeat at the polls. ©
would fall further behind 4
would take many years to cat) =

It must be said that we have!
see a forthright statement 0
NDP leader in B.C., Dave Bal
that if his party were elect
form the next provincial go!
ment, the Essential Services
putes Act would be repealed)
public employees suffer no r@
tions in collective bargainily
compared with private St
employees. Further, up to they
of writing we had seen no state
by the leader of the NDP coné
ing the recently imposed fin
restrictions on municipal
school boards. 4

We have said it before and¥ 4
it again: The trade union mové
should advance its own demal
a situation like this and creat
widest possible unity in actid
defeat the anti-labor and uné
cratic moves by the Socreds. ]
nine public rallies are reduced!
more than a call to elect the NL
the next provincial election, f
greatly reduce the effectivené
the fight-back and lessen
chances to defeat the Socreds.

The situation calls for a cd
together of all labor, demot
and left forces.who are oppo
the regressive policies of thi
creds, including trade uf)
teachers, municipal .and oS
board spokesmen, the unempl@
the underprivileged and ¢
vantaged — a coming togetht
protest and struggle. If we
back to 1972, we will recall th
was precisely such a convelg
that played a major role in bri
down the Socred government.

g

8

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