Sse aieenepate etigs nee em

Construction wotkers set up picket lines out-
side the construction site of a new beer and
wine outlet for Vancouver's Eldorado Hotel
last week, protesting the hotel's decision to go
with a non-union contractor for the project.
Carpenters Local 452 business agent Marty
Smith said this week that the store is being
built by Doyle Madden General Contractors
Ltd., a non-union spinoff from a union con-
tractor, Doyle Construction, which declared _
bankruptcy last year, leaving a number of
debts unpaid, including the union’‘s health and
welfare plan. The union is particularly con-
cerned because the Eldorado Hotel, which is |
patronized by unionists throughout the city,
has previously done its work with union con-
_ tractors. The local was to meet with the owner
late Tuesday, however, and Smith was hope-
_ ful that hotel management could be con-

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

‘Act to block ruling by GATT,
union day of protest demands

The United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union will be shutting down fish
processing plants coastwide March 4 to put
pressure on the federal government to
uphold Canadian sovereignty before the
Geneva-based General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

UFAWU president Jack Nichol told a
press conference Feb. 26 that the day of
protest, coupled with rallies in Steveston,
Vancouver and Prince Rupert, would also
be a send-off for a union lobby to Ottawa.
Some 25 members of the UFAWU and the
Prince Rupert-based Amalgamated Shore-
workers and Clerks will be heading for the
capital March 5 to demand that the federal
government block the final adoption of a
GATT ruling that would force Canada to
scrap long standing regulations that gua-
rantee that sockeye and pink salmon and
roe herring must be processed in Canada
before export.

An estimated 4,000 jobs and much of the
processing section of one of the province’s
key industries hangs on the outcome of the
GATT full council meeting slated for
March 22. And the issue is linked closely to
the Canada-US. free trade deal.

“Our position is that we’re not prepared
to see the fishing industry in B.C. sacrificed
because of a GATT tuling, * Nichol told
reporters.

The coastwide walkout will mark an
intense week of action by the UFAWU
which first launched a protest over the
initial GATT ruling when it was brought
down last November in response to a com-
plaint initiated by several Alaskan fish pro-
cessors three years earlier.

A 40-member rank and file GATT
committee of the union has been to. other
unions as well as municipal councils asking
for support in the campaign to pressure
Ottawa to uphold Canada’s sovereign right
to enact its export regulations and to block
any decision by GATT which abridges that
right — something the U.S. has done on
other occasions.

The day of protest was part of an action
plan drawn up by the union’s GATT com-
mittee which includes the lobby to Ottawa,
rallies in several centres on March 4 and
appeals for further pressure from municipal
councils.

The timing of the GATT decision has
underscored the urgency of the union’s
action. If Canada cannot conclude a bilat-
eral solution with the U.S. by March 8, the
issue will go to the full GATT council
March 22.

Nichol told the press conference that a
possible solution to the dispute lies in nego-
tiating a bilateral arrangement whereby the
U.S. would obtain similar export regula-
tions to protect the American fishing indus-

12 « Pacific Tribune, March 2, 1988

Two rallies are scheduled for the Lower Mainland as UFAWU members shut
down plants, Mar. 4. In Steveston, unionists will gather at the Steveston
Buddhist Church, opposite the Imperial plant, at 17 a.m. In Vancouver,
UFAWU members will gather on Commissioner St. at 11:30 a.m. and march.
to the Maritime Labour Centre, 117 Victoria Dr., for a rally at 12 noon.

try and jobs — the so-called ‘“‘mirror regu-
lation” solution.

“In fact, that was one of the original
alternatives proposed by the U.S. petition-
ers,” he said. “Quite frankly, I think that
would be the more reasonable way to go.”

But even if agreement on that basis can’t
be reached with the U.S., then Canada
should have no hesitation in blocking adop-
tion of the ruling by the full GATT council,
he emphasized. Under GATT rules, any
one country, including the nation against
which a complaint has been made, has the
right to veto a GATT decision.

“Canada is a sovereign state — and we
have the sovereign right to develop regula-
tions to protect our industries and to ensure
that resources are processed in Canada and
to provide jobs for Canadians,” Nichol
said. “* The Law of Sea guarantees rights of
nations to protect their resources. Canada
has right to veto the ruling.”

The U.S. itself has blocked implementa-
tion of GATT rulings which affect its trade
practices, including a GATT decision which
determined that the embargo against Nica-
ragua was a violation of GATT rules.

But so far, Nichol said, there appears to
be little will on the part of the Tory govern-
ment to take a stand at GATT, a point
underscored this week by the announce-
ment that Ottawa will not oppose another
GATT decision — prompted by a com-
plaint from the European Economic
Community. — disallowing higher price
markups for imported wine and beer. That
ruling, which also comes up for a final rul-
ing March 22, could affect thousands of
jobs in the Canadian brewing and wine
industries.

“That’s why we’ve got to keep the pres-
sure up,” Nichol warned.

Giving an added urgency to the union’s
campaign is the link between the GATT
decision and the proposed Canada-U.S.
free trade pact. Canadian negotiators
initially sought to resolve the dispute in the
free trade talks but were unable to get the
U.S. to negotiate away the preliminary rul-
ing it had won at GATT.

And under the terms of the free trade
deal — and ifand when it becomes effective —
all GATT decisions will be binding on both
countries.

Nichol outlined to reporters the threat
posed by elimination of the export regula-
tions to the fishing industry, which, he said,

has a payroll of $100-$150 million annually, -

2
©
3
©

and employs 7,500 people at the peak of the
season.

“If regulations are scrapped, existing
companies or any others that wanted to get
into the business could ship any quantity of
fish, in any condition, to plants in Pacific
Rim countries where wages are a fraction of
what they are here,” he said.

“We could see U.S. buyers coming into
Canadian waters to buy fish and taking it to
the U.S. for processing. And we could see
Canadian processors relocating in the
Birt

He said that fish companies had already
indicated that they had “very attractive
offers,” including free land and tax breaks,
to relocate in the U.S. At the same time,
Ocean Fish and Canadian Fishing Com-
pany have put cannery expansion plans for
Prince Rupert on hold pending the outcome
of the GATT ruling.

For the moment, however, the compan-
ies support the demand fora solution to the
GATT dispute — a demand that is going
to resound both in this province and
Ottawa when the union stages its actions
March 4 and 5.

“We want to give a message to Ottawa
that there is a deep concern by the people
here — that as Canadians we’re not going
to tolerate our industry and our jobs being
put on the sacrificial block of free trade,”
Nichol declared.

He warned that the day of protest would
be “a harbinger of what we can expect will
happen in the future” if a solution that
allows Canada to keep its ious regula-
tions is not found.

“There’s no way we’re going to take this
lying down,” he said.

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TRIBUNE

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Oye e © 0 @ 04s te be ee 6 6 0 8 6 oe

Guild wins
Flyer firm
agreement

The Vancouver and New West- —
minster Newspaper Guild — Local ~

115 of The Newspaper Guild — has
signed a significant first contract for
its 30 newest members after almost
one year of organizing and bargain-
ing.

Employees at Flyer Force, a distri-
bution firm that delivers advertising
inserts to homes that do not subscribe
to Vancouver’s two dailies, ratified
the one-year agreement retroactive to
Jan. 1, 1988, marking the first time a
low-wage distribution firm in B.C.
has taken the union route.

The pact raises wages a minimum
of 50 cents an hour and provides for
benefits such as sick leave, holidays
and vacations, premium overtime
pay, maternity and bereavement
leave, and mileage allowances for the
Southam spin-off company’s six full-
time and 24 part-time employees.

The Vancouver Sun and The Pro-
vince are owned by Southam Inc.

Local 115 president Mike Bocking
said the contract “‘has some good lan-
guage fora first-year agreement.” But
he predicted hard bargaining when
the pact expires at the end of the year.

“We’re really looking forward to
going back to the bargaining table,
where we'll be insisting on- much
greater improvements to wages and
benefits,” he said.

Bocking said the Guild hopes to
form acommon bargaining front with
the Mailers Union, which represents
other Flyer Force employees.

Despite the employers’ stalling

attempts and the impediments of the.

Social Credit government’s anti-
labour legislation, Flyer Force empl-
oyees approved membership in the
Guild by 89 per cent ina vote last fall.

The Guild initially filed an applica-
tion with the old Labour Relations
Board.for successor rights to repres-
ent the Flyer Force employees, who
perform work similar to that done by
employees at Pacific Press, publisher
of Vancouver’s dailies.

The application was dropped when
the Socred government rehashed
labour legislation to favour employers
with Bill 19, the Industrial Relations
Reform Act, and created the Indus-
trial Relations Council.

An application for certification of
the Flyer Force employers, made after
the B.C. Federation of Labour
exempted new certifications from its
boycott of the IRC, was opposed by
Southam. But the company lost that
case, and two subsequent appeals.

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