LABOR Five printing craft unions. launched strike action against Pacific Press, publish- ers of the Vancouver Sun and Province just before midnight Mar. 28 to back demands for wage increases from the Southam- “owned company. The five — the Vancouver Typogra- phical Union, the Vancouver Mailers Union, the Graphic Arts International Union, Printing Pressmen and the Retail, Wholesale Drivers — have all been backed by strike votes in the area of 90 per cent. The sixth and largest union at PP, the 950-member Vancouver-New Westmin- ster Guild, is currently awaiting a meeting with a mediator but is honoring craft picket lines, The guild, traditionally a member of the a rift with the council last month when it opted for mediation despite a council request not to. It was subsequently expelled from the council, paving the way for the other crafts to go on strike. However, Guild administrative officer Roy Tubbs said that mediation talks, set __ to begin Apr. 9 with a meeting between the joint council with the other crafts, opened’ cover only items peculiar to the Guild, including provisions for expedited arbitra- tions and the status of temporary and part-time employees. Wages will not be discussed with the _ Pacific Press trades Strike against wage freeze demand PICKETS OUTSIDE PACIFIC PRESS. . .the first strike since 1978. Guild and mediator John Chapelas, will . mediator, he said. At the first and only bargaining session, Pacific Press negotiator George Town- send tabled a demand that the unions accept a first year wage freeze and no change tothe collective agreement. Trades detail Expo It there are any problems or delays with Expo 86, they will be entirely the fault of the - provincial government which has sought to. “impose its own ideology on the project,” — Building Trades Council president Roy Gautier charged last week. He emphasized that the Building Trades and the Expo 86 committee would have long ago reached.agreement to complete the work on the site but Bennett’s insistence that the project be an “open site”, with non-union contractors, turned it into a major dispute. Despite that, Gautier told the Tribune Mar. 30, the Building Trades have offered to allow their members to work alongside non-union workers at Expo 86 — but only if those non-union workers are paid the Same wages as union tradesmen. The Trades position was laid out in response to Bennett’s 20-minute television address Mar. 29 in which the premier reiterated the threat that Expo would be cancelled if no agreement was reached to accommodate his demand that the site be open to non-union contractors. ‘He told television viewers that $114 mil- lion in Expo 86 contracts due to be let had been frozen and would remain so for 10 days, as cabinet awaited a recommendation from Expo 86 chairman Jim Pattison — with whom the Building Trades had been - negotiating — as to whether the transpor- tation exposition should be cancelled. Bennett reitered the pre-condition imposed : in those talks — that the site be open — insisting there “will be no employment dis- crimination in B.C. based on union or non-union status.” “If the premier wants equity, the way to _ get it is for everybody to work at union rates,” Gautier said. : “That way there.is equal opportunity — the non-union contractor bids on the same basis as the union.”: Pulp unions conduct vote ; Continued from page 1 signs from “locked out” to “on strike”. The - two unions called the strike in order to give their members an opportunity to vote ona return to work. “Because of the treachery on the part of this government, we’re not going to tell our workers to go back to work,” said PPWC wage caucus chairman Stan Shewaga. Union locals throughout the province were conducting votes at Tribune press time with strong indications that union members would vote to remain on strike. PACIFIC _ Whatever course the members take, the legislation has determined that there will be compulsion. Even with the mediator, there is no free bargaining because the unions can’t take strike action as their end position. “This bill ends collective bargaining in the pulp and paper industry and is com- pletely unacceptable to us,” said B.C. Fed secretary Kramer. He called on the government to “stay.on the sidelines” and allow a freely-negotiated settlement to be reached. ~ - Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 eS > AGRE SOG: ALOR ae lh @. See oe be pr ei e 90 $0.29:"9 409 ee) Uh oR See Mare etee-e eee eee eee eee es er ey Ce er ey 86 stand Gautier said that the agreement offered Expo 86 would also involve a no-strike, no-lockout pledge by the Trades and an agreement to lay aside the unions’ non- affiliation clauses during construction of the fair. The wage deal would stipulate that any non-union worker employed on the site be paid the applicable trade rate based on the current contract between the Building | Trades and Construction Labor Relations Association. A joint committee would be set up to enforce wage payment. The offer by the Trades puts the onus for a settlement on the premier and the non- union sector — although it’s unlikely that any non-union contractors would want to bid on that basis, since the only bidding edge they have is their low wage scale. “The only advantage they have (over the union firms) is their cheap wages,” Gautier said. ““They have nothing else to offer.” It is also unlikely that there will be any } _more than a very small group — Kerkhoff | prominent among them — who will even be eligible to bid under the stringent pre-- qualification procedures contractors must follow if they want Expo 86 contracts. They must establish qualifications based on past performance, financial responsib- lity, their labor relations record and other criteria before being allowed to bid. The latest furore, particularly since it came after the Pennyfarthing dispute, .has underscored the government’s ideological position and its apparent desire, along with a handful of anti-union contractors, to — make. the Expo site a focal point of the “right-to-work” issue. © It had been widely speculated that ‘the - government would bring in legislation to restrict Building Trades rights on any Expo © - work, | Asked if Bennett’s address and the 10- day ultimatum could still be the prelude to © legislation against the Building Trades, Gautier agreed that it could. He added that Bennett would face con- | siderable difficulty in cancelling Expo 86 because of the $100 million already spent on the project and the federal government’s substantial committment to the $250 mil- lion Canada Place development being built for the fair. ~ tather than face a court order compell- Tire store picketed | PRINCE GEORGE — Some supporters of the Retail Clerk’s Union” marched on the local Canadian Tire 7 store here Saturday, underscoring #19 — hot edict B.C. labor has declared on the national corporation. om Trade unionists and others march from the College of New Calendoniatq ~ the store, where a picket line was set UP4” successfully diverting most of MQ” store’s trade, reported John Hearn 0} the Hospital Employees Union. 3 “Canadian Tire is trying to break th¢” union, it’s as simple as that,” Heé who is also chair of the combined loca Operation Solidarity Coalition, told the Tribune. The coalition and the Prince ie George and District Labor Council 07 sponsored the rally. : The store’s workforce — the firs unionized unit of the Canadian T! ’ Corporation in B.C. — have been 09 strike since December, following tit company’s refusal to sign a first agree ment with the newly-certified local. 1n¢ corporation has refused to recog® union security, such as automatic dueq” checkoff, as part of an agreement. } The Prince George outlet has beef attempting to operate with non-uniol labor since then, while the B.C. Fed tion slapped a “hot” edict against th me corporation, urging its affiliates anq friends not to patronize Canadian Tig — products and services. F “This whole affair is bankrolled by (Canadian Tire’s) head office, makenq — mistake about it. If this were simply 4 case of the local store’s profits vers the trade union, it would have bee over a long time ago,” said Hearn. - Hearn said the “vast majority” of store’s customers respected the line while only about 50-60 cars crossed. | — Some drove through the crowd, hit} ~ ting a few pickets and causing alterca tions which led to six arrests, all of the picketers: “It was rather onesided jus tice,” Hearn commented. The dispute is currently unde mediation. WCB axes| regulations| Following up on last year’s interven- tion by Socred Labor Minister Bob McClelland, the directors of th Workers Compensation Board Mar. officially droppéd the province’s fi laborers from WCB health and safe regulations. The move drew an angry response from the B.C. Federation of Labor. The decision, which reverses a rulin of the board made Sept. 2], 1982, cam one day before the federation’s chal lenge in Supreme Court to a decision t drop farmworkers from the rolls afte McClelland intervened last spring, j before the provincial election. “Clearly, the board chose to pass a _hew regulation exempting farmworkers ing it to enforce its own decision o September, 1982,” charged B.C. Fi secretary-treasurer Mike Kramer. That earlier decision came in the middle of extensive hearings on pesti. cide poisonings and other factors relat. ing to farm safety, and ran counter t the recommendations of several grou including the B.C. Medical Association. But the minutes make only a curso reference to new regulations, and d not specify when these would come int effect.