LABOR

1985 TREK
TO OTTAWA

Fifty years ago, Bob Jackson (I),
along with hundreds of other single
unemployed, clambered aboard a
CPR freight to join the historic On-
to-Ottawa Trek. Now, 50 years
later, Jackson and his son Larry (r) an
unemployed electrician, will be part
of the 1985 trek to Ottawa to put
the demand once again before a
Tory government for work and
wages. The 11-member delegation,
which heads off June 5 for Calgary,
Regina and then Ottawa, was intro-
duced to a 50th anniversary banquet
Saturday at the Ukrainian Hall —
headquarters of Division three of the
relief camp strikers in 1935 — where
an overflow audience heard speeches
from both Jacksons, B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor first vice-president Art
Gruntman and Communist Party
leader Maurice Rush. The 1985
trekkers still face silence from Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney who has
yet to acknowledge any of the sev-
eral requests from the On-to-Ottawa
Trek Committee for a meeting .

Bargaining co-ordination among British
Columbia’s public sector unions is still lar-
gely at the discussion stage even though
contracts for nearly 100,000 workers expire
this year — and public sector employers
are already co-ordinating their strategy.

Public sector bargaining was one of the
Key issues on the table at the second annual
general meeting of Operation Solidarity in
Delta June 1-2 as some 150 delegates dis-

| End restraint.
| urge Trades

Emphasizing that private sector job
creation “will follow the economic
stimulus provided by job creation in
the public sector” the B.C. and Yukon
Building Trades Council called on the
Social Credit government to “‘lift the
restraint program and permit a signif-
icant increase in employment in
health, education and social services.”

The council made the demand ina
brief to cabinet May 30 which warned
that immediate economic prospects
were “dismal,” primarily as a result of
the government’s restraint program
which has drastically reduced pur-
chasing power.

“The first essential for economic
recovery is the immediate creation of
jobs in large numbers,” the brief
stated, urging substantial financial
assistance to provide social housing
and “direct job creation through
financial assistance to municipalities
for socially desirable community con-
struction projects.”

The council also contrasted the
government’s call for co-operation
with its record in attacking trade
union rights, particularly those of
Building Trades workers.

“Instead of continuing to wage
wars on trade unions and the rights of
union members, we suggest that you
show good faith by restoring rights
which have been taken away and offer
co-operation on a real and meaning-
ful basis to the trade union movement
in tackling the province’s economic
problems,” the council said.

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 5, 1985

cussed the continuing layoffs and curbs on
bargaining imposed by the Compensation
Stabilization Program (CSP) and Socred
government legislation.

A report prepared by the public sector
committee warned delegates: “‘The critical
conditions for public sector workers and
their unions continued throughout the past
year.’’ The committee is made up of public
sector unions affiliated to the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor as well as non-affiliates
including the Hospital Employees Union
and the B.C. Teachers Federation.

Citing the survey issued last year by CSP
commissioner Ed Peck, the report noted
that 20,000 public sector workers had
already lost their jobs and the layoffs have
continued in the months since.

As for bargaining, the report stated, “the
wage control program has effectively
stopped public sector unions from bargain-
ing wages and benefits for their members,
producing a continuing drop in their stand-
ard of living.”

That has been compounded by the pas-
sage of Bill 32 which “dealt the final blow to
free collective bargaining in the public sec-

- tor...allowing the CSP commissioner to

arbitrarily impose the terms of a contract.”

Not mentioned in the report was the bar-
gaining lineup for the remainder of this year
which will see unions representing some
100,000 public sector workers go to the

‘table to face the CSP wage controls.

Included are contracts covering 36,800
B.C. Government Employees’ Union mem-
bers, up Oct. 31; covering 8,500 civic
workers, members of the Canadian Union
of Public Employees; 2,700 members of the
Vancouver Municipal and Regional Emp-
loyees Union; 3,000 CUPE school board
employees and 31,000 B.C. teachers, all up
Dec. 31.

Still in bargaining are some 14,000 regis-
tered nurses, members of the B.C. Nurses
Union, who have been without a contract
since Mar. 31.

The concentration of contract bargaining
this year — at a time of mounting opposi-
tion to the government's restraint program
— has highlighted the need for co-
ordinated bargaining and a political cam-
paign to demand an end to restraint.

For the moment, however, the public sec-
tor committee agreed to hold regular meet-
ings and to continue the development of
co-ordinated bargaining in the public sector
through conferences among unions in var-
ious sectors and those bargaining with a

common employer. The plan suggested the
possibility of regional bargaining conferen-
ces organized with approval of the B.C. Fed.

On government restraint, the program
calls for the “development of a program of
opposition to the permanent selective wage
control,” although the form that program
would take is not spelled out. It also called
for participation in the “political action
programs of Operation Soldiarity.”

Although it was eventually adopted by
the meeting, the committee’s program did
come under some criticism. HEU secretary-
business manager Jack Gerow told dele-
gates that the report lacked any plan to call
emergency meetings of public sector unions
in the event of lockouts or other actions by
employers.

He also noted that despite the boycott of
the CSP called by the trade union move-
ment at the time of the establishment of the
program it has been ineffective because
there has not been a co-ordinated effort to
make the boycott stick.

The committee’s restrained report reflec-
ted the mood throughout most of the two-
day meeting which was called up to do little
more than reaffirm the mandate of Opera-
tion Soldiarity — with a _ scaled-down
budget.

Over the past several weeks, the response
to events by the B.C. Federation of Labor
leadership has been increasingly muted,
apparently in an effort to avoid any con-
frontation in what most expect is a pre-
election period. NDP leader Bob Skelly
affirmed that in an address to delegates
Sunday, calling on them to be ready for a

vote in the spring of 1986, probably in April |
just before Expo gets underway. ‘

But putting aside co-ordinated bargain- —
ing action and an organized fight against
wage controls could have serious conse-
quences, CUPE delegate Diane Jolly —
warned. 3

Citing an upcoming conference called by —
public employers, she told delegates:
“Obviously the employers are organized —
and we’d better be ready to get organized —
too.”

The conference she noted is slated for
June 13-14 and is entitled “The Mastery of
Productivity.” It has been called by the Pub-
lic Employers of B.C., a creation of the old
Employers’ Council, now the Business
Council of B.C.

Subtitled “The Transformation of Labor —
Relations in B.C. — who will make it —
happen?” the conference will be addressed
by three guest speakers: James Selman,
president of Transformational Technolo-
gies, a consultant to several U.S. govern-
ment agencies and corporations; Alan
Viani, the director of research for the Amer-
ican Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employess Union in New York,
who negotiated a joint union-management
productivity program; and Dr. Marta
Mooney, a member of the White House
Council on Productivity.

Significantly, Dr. Mooney is to lecture on
the question of “job security as a-_productiv-
ity incentive following downsizing in an
organization.”

Jolly called on Operation Solidarity to —
mount a demonstration at the time the con-
ference is held.

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
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