ITORI

Let’s not forget
the Socred record

», ILL VANDER ZALM'S history. He has

) resigned as Premier of B.C. in total and utter
~, disgrace. Caught in his own web of lies and

/ deceit, Vander Zalm is no longer in power.
— His unquestionable conflict of interest in
the sale of Fantasy Garden World to Asian investors,
has brought the Socred party to an all-time low.

But just because Bill Vander Zalm is out doesn’t
mean our problems are over with. Since October of 1986
the Socreds have operated under a series of scandals.

During their time in office, ten Socred cabinet min-
isters have resigned either in shame or in
disagreement with Vander Zalm.

The Socred Party has gone through three Ministers
of Labour in the past four and a half years as each
minister has been frustrated to the point where they
have been hamstrung by Vander Zalm.

IWA - CANADA members should not forget that it
was the Socred government that only 4 years ago
introduced Bill 19 — The Industrial Relations Act
which replaced the province’s Labour Code. The intro-
duction of Bill 19 helped cause the B.C. Fed to go out
on a province-wide walkout in political protest. The
Socred government through the attorney-general
charged labour leaders with“seditious activity” for
co-ordinating the protest. The charges were dismissed.

Subsequently Bill 19 was condemned by the United
Nations International Labour Organization as in
direct violation of “free collective bargaining” rights.

Since 1987 the IWA and other unions have had to
live with the Industrial Relations Act which, among
other things, has allowed employers to interfere with
the union during organizing drives.

And lets not forget that the Socreds have tried to
pick apart the public sector unions through a massive
privatization program which has included the
contracting out of government services, medical ser-
vices and highway maintenance.

Besides the reduction and elimination of services
and public sector jobs, the Vander Zalm government
took on the public sector unions by introducing the
Public Sector Bargaining Disclosure Act (Bill 79) in
the Summer of 1990 which said that the bargaining
positions of union and the public sector employers
must be brought out into the open in a “fishbowl”
way.

That Act which was largely ignored was recently
replaced with the introduction of Bill 82, the Compen-
sation Fairness Act, which is the Socred’s
re-introduction of wage control legislation.

In protest, the B.C. Teacher’s Federation is consid-
ering the cancellation of classes, and job action while
joining the BC. Fed in a program of political action
designed to elect an NDP government.

What is also disturbing about the Social Credit gov-
ernment, in this new post Vander Zalm era, is that it
has refused to bring in a budget for fiscal 1991.

Even though the Minister of Finance promised the
opposition that there would be debate on a budget or
at least an interim supply bill, the legislature was
abrogated nine days before the end of the fiscal bud-
get year.

BC. is now being managed by a series of “special
warrants” whereby over $2 billion of public money is
being spent without any debate or approval from
elected officials.

The Socred Cabinet is in total disarray and is
rocked by internal dissension. Vander Zalm’s succes-
sor, the new Premier Rita Johnston was one of his
most loyal and unquestioning supporters.

So with a change of face, the Socred’s remain under
the control of Vander Zalm’s loyalists.

LUIMBERUORKER

TLE LRT
Official publication of [WA-CANADA

NORMAN GARCIA, JACK MUNRO... President
Editor GERRY STONEY .. 1st Vice-President
NEIL MENARD . . 2nd Vice-President
5th Floor, FERNIE VIALA . . 8rd Vice-President
1285 W. Pender Street ROGER STANYER.. 4th Vice-President
Vancouver, B.C. FRED MIRON... 5th Vice-President

V6E 4B2 TERRY SMITH . . Secretary-Treasurer

BROADWAY GEEOIES PRINTERS LTD.

a

}, VAINDER 1)

YO, BILL,
SOME GUY NAMED
BRIAN WANTS To KNOW
IF YOU HAVE AN EXTRA
SHOVEL HE CAN

\

USE?

WWERID RICE FoR THE LUMBERWORKER

Americans defy FTA in
snubbing panel’s decision

The United States govern-
ment’s recent decision to chal-
lenge a bi-national trade dis-
pute panel’s decision favour-
ing Canadian pork producers
has caught the Mulroney gov-
ernment flat footed.

In March the panel found
inaccuracies in Washington’s
International Trade Commis-
sions’ decision that Canadian
pork producers were subsidiz-
ing the industry. As a result,
the ITC reviewed the basis of
its decision and tariffs against
Canadian pork were dropped
and refunds were given to the
Canadian industry.

But special interests in the
US. Congress didn’t like the
decision and put pressure on
U.S. Trade Representative
Carla Hills who then launched
an “extraordinary challenge”
of the binational panel’s rul-
ing.

It stunned Ottawa and was
welcome news to opponents
of the Free Trade Agreement
(FTA) signed in January of
1989.

International Trade Minis-
ter John Crosbie warned the
U.S. in mid-April that the
“extraordinary challenge” will
undermine the FTA and cause
Canada to rethink its posi-
tion in joining the U.S. and
Mexico in the pursuit of a
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA).

Prime Minister Mulroney
told U.S. President George
Bush that the pork appeal
was an “abuse” of the FTA.
In a more feeble manner,
Mulroney also said the U.S.
was abusing the spirit of the
FTA.

Obviously Canada is being
taught a basic lesson that it
will never be safe from politi-
cally motivated interference
in trade matters.

No matter what a bi-natural
panel says, or if “Canada had
won the case fair and square”
as Mulroney said to the House

of Commons, the Americans
simply do as they please.

After the panel’s decision
over 70 members of Congress
lobbied Carla Hills to seek
the appeal. The Bush Admin-
istration knuckled under to
the pressure at the same time
it is seeking Congressional
“fast-track” approval to keep
alive the Uruguay Round of
GATT talks and negotiate a
NAFTA.

John Crosbie said to a New
York business audience that
at home the Canada-U.S. FTA
is already unpopular and the
government might come under
harsher judgment if the dis-

Canada is being
taught a lesson
about so called

Free Trade
Agreements

pute settling mechanism flies
apart.

But on the home front
Crosbie has been extolling the
virtues of the FTA as a suc-
cessful job creator.

Those Canadians who
thought the U.S. would be
fair and impartial under the
FTA are being taught a tough
lesson. In the future we are
faced with the increasing
prospect of U.S. special inter-
est groups using political
pressure to influence deci-
sions on international trade.

The challenge to the pork
ruling is highly reminiscent
of the power politics behind
the 1986 Softwood Lumber
Dispute between the U.S. and
Canada where U.S. lumber
producers got together to
threaten Canadian lumber
production with countervail-
ing duties. The Americans
claimed that we were unfairly
subsidizing Canadian forest

companies with artificially
low stumpage rates.

The Americans were going
to slap us with a 30% tariff on
our exports until the Mul-
roney Government, after much
deliberations put a 15% ex-
port tax (Memorandum of
Understanding) on the ex-
ports as a stop gap measure.

The Mulroney Government,
in the interests of seeking a
trade deal with the U.S.,
enshrined the M.O,U. into the
FTA, which put the industry
into a sinkhole where we are
unable to exercise sovereignty
over the pricing of our re-
sources.

Lumber industry officials
have been looking at the
bi-national dispute panels as
a way of getting out of the
mess we are in,with the
M.O.U. If the “extraordinary
appeal” procedure works
against the Canadian pork
industry, the luraberindustry
hasn’t got much of a chance of
succeeding against present
and future countervail actions
in the future either.

As far as a NAFTA goes
will we be able to call some of
the shots? Derek Burney,
Ambassador to the U.S. says
the FTA won’t be reopened in
negotiation for a North Amer-
ican FTA.

The Americans are talking
different however. Both Carla
Hills, at a congressional sub-
committee hearing in mid-
February, and Deputy U.S.
Trade Representative Julius
Katz at a Senate hearing said
the exact same words that
“both the U.S. and Canada
agree that the trilateral nego-
tiations will give us an oppor-
tunity to improve and expand
the U.S.-Canada Free Trade
Agreement.”

In February,Katz said the
FTA will be “subsumed” in a
trilateral NAFTA to form a
new set of phased in tariff
reductions and, lo and behold,
a new dispute setting mecha-
nism to cover the 3 countries.

4/LUMBERWORKER/MAY, 1991