° Reading out the legislative resolutions were Local 2171’s Bob Freer (r.) and Local 1-85’s Jack
McLeman seen here with National Fifth V.P. Wilf McIntyre.

B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair told delegates that labour has to continue to

counter the anti-union propaganda of the B.C. Business Summit.

Workers agenda needed says Sinclair

B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sin-
clair, in his first appearance at an I.W.A. con-
vention, said that the labour movement has to
continue to put the workers’ agenda out front to
counter the anti-union propaganda of the B.C.
Business Summit. ik

Under Sinclairs leadership the Fed and its
affiliates went out to communities around the
province to give input to the Business Summit
when it went on its road show in the spring and
early summer of 2000. r .

He said that part of the Summit’s agenda is
to gut the Labour Code and lower the minimum

wage.

Boeing, lowering the minimum wage as an
answer to the economic problems facing this
province!” he said. putnE a billion and a half
out of social services — and in which communi-
ties are we going to close down which hospi-

tals?...” 2
He ‘said that because B.C. Fed affiliates, like

A. attended the B.C. Summit events,
the TWA ica often reported the labour side ofissues.

In a letter that a co-chairperson of the Busi-
ness Summit wrote to his colleagues, it was
written that labour was successful getting its
message out.

He wrote that the business sector is “only
faint interest in attending these meetings and
those that do attend are reluctant to get up and
speak. This support is in stark contrast to the
coordinated and vocal presence of the organized
labour movement under the guidance of the
B.C. Federation of Labour.”

At a meeting in Williams Lake, Local 1-425’s
Terry Tate challenged the business sector.

0 are you?,” said Tate. “Which one of you
business people are in favour of having scabs in
Williams Lake?”

According to Sinclair, Tate turned around
and asked the crowd: “Anybody in this audience
want scabs?” After hearing no response Tate
said “I rest my case” and wi d out.

Sinclair said the province has heard what the
business sector wants so the Fed held 14 weeks
of meetings in 120 work sites and went to 15

high schools. It went to chambers of commerce
and sib couneils for input.

It asked the central B.C. Chamber of Com-
merce if it supports cutting out the union move-
ment’s rights to organize.

“Do you (the chamber of commerce) want peo-
ple making $20 an hour or people making $10?
Do you want people to retire with a pension or
without a pension? Because 80 or 90 percent of
union members retire with pensions and 30 per-
cent of non-union members retire with pen-
sions.”

Sinclair said the Fed found out that the pub-
lic wants health public services like clean water
and clear air. And they want police and fire
departments that show up on time.

‘It’s about an education system where every
working person’s kid has a chance, regardless of
what their parents do, to get to university and
get an education so they can get ahead in this
society.”

He said the Fed also found out that the public
wants a quality hear care system with equal
access for all.

“So we've got to protect those public services.
We’ve got to keep them going,” said Brother
Sinclair. “We’ve got to make sure that they’re
done properly and people are paid fairly to do it
because the other part of the payroll that comes
into a lot of these communities, besides the
resource sector, and in many communities that
means the forestry sector, it’s the pubic sector
that makes for healthy communities.

During the Fed’s travels it heard a lot about
keeping jobs in B.C. communities, said Sinclair,
adding “that mean we’ve got to keep the wood
here.”

“It’s not complicated, is it? No trees, no jobs.
So we have to continue to have the right to cut
the trees but also the right to process it in
British Columbian, and that means we have to
be tough on that issue,” he said.

Sinclair said there are “growing forces” to
change log export laws.

“And I’ll tell you the first thing that happens,
because I come from the fishing industry —
another resource industry that’s had tough
times, is as soon as you can export the fish they
come to the bargaining table, they pound on the
table and they say you have two choices.”

He said the employer will threaten with
exporting the raw resource or importing lower
working conditions.

“When you talk about competing in this
provinces with the world, we compete because
of our resources,” added Sinclair. “If we give up
the right to process them then we won’t be com-
peting. And it’s not a bogeyman nightmare that
won’t happen.”

“So when it comes to the basic fight in this
province, if we want to have jobs, we’ve got to
have resources, and we've got to have rules that
make sure that timber is tied to those mills,
those plants and those communities where
those jobs are going to be for our young people,”
he added.

TTI ol

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2000/25