Election of president
tied up with policy
direction of B.C. Fed

The B.C. Federation of Labor officers
were expected to meet this week to make a
firm recommendation on the person to fill
the position of president, left vacant by the
death of Jim Kinnaird Feb. 19. A final deci-
sion will be made when the full executive
council meets in mid-June.

But it may still be some time before the
direction the federation will take under its
new leadership will be clearly determined.

Although it has been three months since
Kinnaird’s death, not until now has there
been any specific timetable set to appoint a
new president nor have there been any clear-
cut candidates. The indecision is partly
because of the considerable stature that Kin-

naird had in the trade union movement and -

partly because of the provincial election
campaign which intervened.

A meeting of the federation’s executive
council in April put off the decision on a new
leader until after the provincial election.

The name of Gerry Stoney, regional
secretary-treasurer of the International
Woodworkers and provincial president of
the NDP, had been touted as a possible can-
didate who had the backing of the two
largest federation affiliates, the IWA and the
B.C. Government Employees Union.

But Stoney’s candidacy was.tied to the
fortunes of the NDP in the election and to
the election strategy adopted by the federa-

Kube, Steelworkers representative Monty’
Alton and Kramer himself, have been
unable to secure enough support among af-
filiates.

Widely expected to get the officers’ en-
dorsement for the president’s position,
is seventh vice-president Leif Hansen, a
representative of the Meatcutters, now part
of the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union.

Appointed to the seventh vice-president’s
spot in February, 1982, and acclaimed in the
1982 officers’ elections, Hansen has had lit-
tle public profile either as a representative of
the federation or the UFCW.

Hansen did declare himself to be a can-
didate earlier this month but so far unstated
is his position on the future policy direction
of the federation. :

In fact, much of the discussion over the
leadership has so far focussed on which can-
didates would not be acceptable to a majori-
ty of affiliates. And the debate over the
policy direction will likely only begin with
the appointment of a new president.

Whatever the timing, the future of the
federation’s policy should be a matter for
urgent debate.

The prospect of another term for the
Social Credit government has raised the im-
mediate questions: how will the trade union

ANALYSIS

tion, of maintaining a low profile while
donating heavily to the NDP and urging
union members to vote for the party.

That election strategy goes back to the
NDP government’s defeat in 1975, a defeat
which some unionists blamed on the public,
political role of the federation, under the
leadership of Len Guy and George
Johnston, in campaigning on labor and
other issues. Since that time, Stoney and

others, anticipating the re-election of an |

NDP government, have sought to move the
federation closer to the NDP leadership and
have sought to diminish a direct role by the
federation in independent labor political ac-
tion in favor of increased emphasis on sup-
port for the NDP.

But the re-election of the Socreds May 5
threw into serious doubt the “‘lie low and
vote NDP”’ strategy adopted by the trade
union movement. It led many unionists to
wonder about the effectiveness of a policy
which submerged issues critical to the future
of the labor movement in the interests of
avoiding election controversy.

Federation secretary-treasurer Mike
Kramer himself acknowledged following the
election that labor ‘‘could have raised more
issues in the campaign.”

The outcome also left the door virtually
closed on Stoney’s leadership bid, at least for
the immediate future.

Although sources indicate that there is still
support among some larger affiliates for the
TWA secretary, he has little backing amonga
number of smaller but important affiliates.

Similarly, some other contenders closely
associated with Stoney’s policies, including
Canadian Labor congress representative Art

movement deal with the labor code changes
currently under diseussion by the new
government? How will it counter the
bargaining table offensive being mounted by
the employers in the mining and forest in-
dustries?

A continuation of the approach that has
prevailed over the last year or more — of
avoiding a fight with government over key
trade union issues, keeping the labor move-
‘ment out of the political arena except as a
source of votes for the NDP — could have
disastrous consequences given the Socreds’
renewed mandate.

Certainly, that approach has already been
widely questioned by unionists but is hasn’t
been discarded.

The call sent out by the federation leader-
ship for the unemployment conference next

“month offers no program for organizing or

mobilizing the jobless, focussing instead on
the next federal election and on self-help
programs for the unemployed centres.

But there is mounting pressure for a
change in direction, indicated by the many
calls that have been made by labor councils
for the federation to convene a delegated
conference immediately of affiliates to
discuss a co-ordinated approach to bargain-
ing.

The Vancouver and District Labor Coun-
cil last week also called on the federation to
“‘endorse a labor fightback approach to the
struggles facing working people in 1983.”’

That fightback approach may also be up
for debate when the executive council meets
June 14 to make the decision on a new presi-
dent.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 27, 1983—Page 12

LABOR

‘Get

local at the Cominco lead zinc smelter at
Trail has delivered strike notice to the
company which, said Local 480 president
Ken Georgetti, ‘‘will become effective the
moment the mediator books out of the
dispute.”’

The notice follows the resounding
strike vote registered last week by local
members who voted 94 percent in favor
of strike action to back their demands.
The vote was also an echo of an earlier
vote in February when the local voted 96
percent to reject Cominco’s bid for con-
tract concessions, including elimination
of a scheduled Apr. 30 COLA increase
and the elimination of the clause itself.

“The company had better get off its
concessions kick,’’ Georgetti said Tues-
day, adding that the company attitude
“hasn’t changed a bit’’ since the strike
vote was taken.

“We're still trying to reach a settlement
— we’ve been striving to do that all
along,”’ he said.

The six-month strike-lockout at the
Mission branch of the Fraser Valley
Credit Union ended Wednesday with the
return to work of nine employees and a
first contract that union negotiator Larry
Widen called a ‘‘major victory’’.

The nine women bank workers in a 7-2
vote Monday ratified the agreement
which provides an average 27 per cent
wage hike and a closed shop, and which
resolved several key grievances concern-
ing promotions and transfers.

Larry Widen, regional representative
of the Canadian Labor Congress and
negotiator for the Union of Bank
Employees Local 2100, said it was ‘‘a
shame employees had to go through a six-
month strike’’ and that ‘‘thousands of
dollars were wasted’’ by the original,
anti-union board of directors ina fruitless
effort to thwart the union.

The agreement, hammered out during
intense negotiations between the UBE
and credit union trustee and ad-
ministrator John Charlesworth, May
16-19, is retroactive to January, 1982 and
expires Dec. 31, 1983. Key features in-
clude: -

e A union shop. All non-
management employees at the Mission
branch are to be union members;

@ Theright of employees to stay at the
Mission branch, ending the system of ar-
bitrary transfer which would have soon
‘ended union representation at the
branch;

@ Anend to the merit pay system. It
has been replaced by an automatic pay
hike every six months for each job
. classification within a 30-month period; -

Unemployment
for Penticton

The B.C. Federation of Labor’s
unemployment committee has called a
federation conference on unemployment
for Penticton for the weekend of June 25
and 26.

It is expected to bring together
unemployment action centre co-

off concessions kick’
Steel local tells Cominco

Steelworkers Local 480, the largest

Bank workers ratify contract
at credit union in Mission

ordinators from around the province —

“But the company has got to changeils
position,”’ he emphasized. _

Georgetti said that the union would be
meeting for the first time Friday with
mediator Richard Longpre, who was-
called in by the company last week. |

He added that Cominco should not
look to recent concessions at Cominco’s _
Pine Point, Northwest Territories, leat
zinc mine as any indication of a change!
mood. Miners thee accepted a 10 percent ||
pay cut and a COLA freeze in return for }
the re-opening of the mine, closed since ©
January. a

“The guys there got blackmailed —
they got an ultimatum that the mine”
would be closed virtually permanently if 3
they didn’t take concessions,”’’ said |
Georgetti. |

“But it hasn’thad any effect on Trail,
he emphasized, ‘‘Our members are stilt ©
really strong.

‘And if Trail goes down, Cominco
won’t have any place to process its ore.

@ Separate rates of pay for each job
classification. Prior to the contract, threé
positions at the Fraser Valley Credit
Union — receptionist, teller, and
member services — all paid the samé;
even though a move from, for instances |
receptionist to teller was considered 4
promotion. Additionally, when workers |
are promoted from one classification tO |
the next highest, they do so at arate which }
involves no cut in salary; 4

@ Adequate job posting. A chief com:
plaint from the employees concerned in- |
adequate notice of job openings. Addi-
tionally, classifications now involve trial
periods of between 60 to 120 days, and an”
employee who fails to make the grade 15
demoted, not fired as was previously thé
case. j
All employees also moved one step uP |)
in the new, six-step pay scale system,
upon returning to work, said Widen. |

Widen noted that the strike-lockout
situation would have continued much |
longer, were it not for the intervention of
some 400 credit union shareholders band-
ed together as the Save Our Credit Union
committee.

The shareholders, led by former union —
organizer Wally Ross, turfed out the
nine-member board of directors at the
annual general meeting Apr. 28, and
elected a new board, following the |
lockout of the striking employees Apr. |
25.

A court order subsequently abolished |
both boards and appointed Charlesworth
as trustee and administrator. New elec-
tions for board of directors have yet to be
held.

conference set
June 25, 26 |

together with officers from labor councils
and B.C. Fed representatives.

On the agenda is the federation’s
unemployment program and the conti-
nuing activities of the action centres.

There are 30 centres around the pro
vince, 19 of which are run directly by
labor councils.

seen at seat ammaaeiete emcee