Much publicity has been
given to the serious divisions
within the British Columbia
Ferry and Marine Workers Un-
ion, which represents some
2,700 unlicensed and licensed
personnel employed by the B.C.
Ferry Corporation.

Shirley Mathieson, the new
president of the union, was vir-
tually unknown to the general
public when she was first elected
to that post in July, 1977. With-
in a few months of her election
by convention delegates, the
caucus to which she belonged
began to fall apart.

Mathieson and newly ap-
pointed business agent Matt
Brown, who had been elected
first vice-president on the Math-
ieson slate, began to have ser-
ious differences over policy.
The unity created to sweep out
the old guard was not based on
the kind of a program necessary
to maintain a united front after
the election. Now, it is widely
said, and reported in the press,
Mathieson and Brown are fight-
ing for control of the union.

After her election to the pres-
idency, Mathieson, a former
ramp attendant at the Tsawwas-
sen terminal, soon became
headline news. It was under her
leadership, and with the full
backing of the B.C. Federation
of Labor, that the union tied up
the entire ferry fleet for a solid
week, in defiance of a provin-
cial government order to stay on
the job, thus demonstrating
their determination to obtain a
freely peanaeeee collective

es agreement
acaay 2a dk ARC

Today, at 30 years of et aan
is a member of the executive
eouncil of the B.C. Federation
of Labor and is the most promi-
nent woman labor leader in the
province. According to all ac-
counts, she is fighting the
toughest -battle of her labor
career.

Mathieson supporters claim
that Matt Brown wants to gain

control of the union while main-
taining her as a figurehead.

Brown supporters, on the
other hand, are quoted in the
press as accusing Mathieson of
being devious, of providing
poor leadership and of favoring
the minority of licensed officers
in the union, as opposed to the
majority of unlicensed person-
nel.

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

Four locals which take in
some 350 officers, are repre-

_sented on the central executive

by the four local chairpersons.
On the other hand four locals
which take in some 1,500 unli-
censed personnel are also repre-

_sented on the executive by four

chairpersons. Brown supporters
claim this gives the licensed of-
ficers a disproportionate voting
strength on the executive which
Mathieson uses for her own
purposes. The executive is made
up of six table officers elected
by convention held every two
years and 16 chairpersons from

the locals as elected at local
meetings.
Mathieson supporters

counter the allegation that they
favor the officers by labelling
their critics as ‘‘dissident union
members who would sooner
shut down the ferry system than

discuss. problems in a civilized |

manner.”’

On_December 18, a meeting
of the executive expelled Robin
Holmgren, chairperson of the
Swartz Bay local for unlicensed
personnel, from the executive,
to which he had been elected by
his membership.

In a letter to Holmgren dated
Dec. 11 Mathieson said that
Holmgren “‘participated in the

Japan dock bid would
export Canadian jobs

The B.C. Federation of
Labor and the B.C. and Yukon
Building Trades Council have
condemned as “‘totally insane”’
the federal government’s plans
to consider a Japanese bid to
build a floating dry dock for
Vancouver when a competing
Canadian bid would mean hun-
dreds of new jobs both in con-
struction and fabrication.

A decision is to be made by
the government next week on
two bids for the dock, estimated
to cost in the neighborhood of
$50 million of which some $29
million is to come from the
federal government.

The government has already
favored the slightly cheaper
Japanese bid entered by the
huge multinational Mitsubishi
Corporation for an all-steel dry
dock which would be floated
from Japan.

The Canadian bid, entered by
the Dwidag Canada Ltd., is for
a concrete and steel dock which
is somewhat more costly but
which would generate directly

some 500 jobs as well as spur
employment in~ several
fabricated industries.

“It is inconceivable that ina
time of major economic dif-
ficulty that a government .
would let a major project and
an estimated one-quarter of a
million man-days of productive
labor, slip through its fingers,”’

Building Trades Council presi-.

dent said last month.

He said that the council was
demanding that the federal
government ‘“‘take a prompt
and responsible second look at
this matter’’ adding that ‘‘too
many Canadian jobs and
dollars for our economy are at
stake to have this matter brush-
ed under the carpet.’’

Gautier’s comments were
echoed by B.C. Federation of
Labor president Jim Kinaird
~who said last week:
not tolerate the government

spending Canadian tax dollars -

to create jobs in Japan when so
many Canadians are out of
work.”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 11, 1980— Page 8

“We will

organization of an unauthoriz-
ed strike’ in violation of the
“fagreed strike procedure’’
which had been laid down in a
union meeting Aug. 20.

The letter concluded with the
following: ‘‘It has been re-
quested that you be removed as
chairman of Local 2.”’

According to my sources, the
motion to remove Holmgren
from the executive was moved
and seconded by the chairper-
sons of two locals representing
officers and was carried 12 to
six. An earlier motion to table
the issue was defeated 10 to
nine.

It should be noted that the
union officers adopted a tactic

of controlled, rotating strikes,

most likely in consultation with
the officers of the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor, in order to re-
duce the inconvenience to the
public and, as they saw it, to
lessen the danger of a return to
work order under the Essential
Services Disputes Act. |

A few days before his re-
moval from the executive, the

‘Nanaimo Free Press reported

that a membership meeting of
Holmgren’s local had been
highly critical of ‘the central
leadership for its conduct of ne-
gotiations. That same report
claimed that a petition had been
circulated at the meeting calling
for a special convention ‘‘to
return the vote to the member-
ship.”’

Holmgren’s removal and the
resignation from the executive
of Steve Lomax, chairperson of
Local 3 (Tsawwassen ‘unlicensed
personnel) on the grounds that
he didn’t have the support of
the executive and couldn’t work
with Mathieson, weakened anti-
Mathieson forces at the execu-
tive level.

While there is no specific pro- ~

vision in the constitution for the

removal of elected chairpersons’

from the central executive by
the executive itself, the execu-
tive acted under general provi-
sions which name that body as
the highest authority between
conventions. Technically, a
local deprived of its representa-
tion in this fashion has no re-
course other than to elect a new
chairperson. I say technically,
because a local could protest,
move a motion of confidence in
its chairperson and demand that
he or she be seated.

Behind the move against
Holmgren is the allegation that
he was one of the organizers of
the unauthorized strikes at De-
parture Bay terminal and the
Horseshoe Bay terminal. An-
other member, Bob Peacock,
was fired as a result of those ac-
tions by the membership and his
case is before the Labor Rela-
tions Board.

Joanna Piros, reporting over
CKVU TV Dec. 4, made these
comments:

“If he (Peacock) had n no part
in the walkout, the firing was
unjustified. But the corporation
is not the only one who wants
him fired. In her testimony,
Mathieson stated she’d made a
deal of sorts following the Sept.
6 strike. Because of her knowl-
edge of Peacock, she assumed
he’d organized the walkout and
traded his firing for lifting of

suspensions against 29 workers
who walked the picket line.”’

According to union bulletin
number 26, the Dec. 18 execu-
tive meeting voted 16 to one to
request the Canadian Labor
Congress to nante an ad-
ministrator to run the affairs of
the union. The following
grounds were advanced in sup-
port of the request:

1) The union executive can-
not function and is incapable of
or unwilling to make decisions.

2) The executive cannot ef-
fectively represent the interests
of the membership. -

The application to the CLC
requested that the administra-
tion should last until the execu-
tive of the local is capable of
running its own affairs. It also
asked that the president, table
officers and executive be allow-
ed to continue with their normal
duties, subject to approval by
the administrator. Where the
executive cannot agree on a
course of action, the decision of
the administrator is to be final
and binding. However we may
evaluate this request, and no
matter which side we may be in-
clined to favor, it is obviously a
sign of weakness on the part of
Mathieson. As the senior offi-

cer, she was unable to cope with _

an internal situation without
outside help.
On Dec. -20, Dennis McDer-

mott, president of the CLC, ap-

pointed the CLC’s western re--

gional director of organization,
Bill Smalley, to administer the
affairs of the union.

As I see it, there is a direct

- connection between the request

for an administrator and a peti-
tion which is being circulated
among the members calling for
a special convention. According
to the constitution, a special
convention shall be called by the.
president when a petition bear-
ing the signatures of 30 percent-
.of the membership is presented,
provided 90 days prior notice of
date, time and place, and the

_ purpose of such a meeting, is

given to the executive. Accord-
ing to my information, the peti-
tion lacked only 100 signatures
to reach the required 30 per cent

figure when the CLC was re--

quested to appoint an adminis-
trator.

It is unfortunate, in my opin-
ion, that a group in opposition
to Mathieson chose to have

their petition drawn up by a-

lawyer. It is a long and very dull
document, and the average per-
son would have difficulty in ful-
ly understanding it.

Be that as it may, it calls for
ending the terms of office for
the present officers and the
adoption of constitutional
changes to provide for the elec-

RAbUNE

the face of such a membership

Tough choices face ferry workersi

tion of officers by referend
vote of the membership, rat
than by convention delegate
The next regular conventio:
would normally be held in 1981
at which time scheduled elec
tions would take place.

Naturally, Mathieson and he
groups did not take kindly to
petition calling upon them, in”
effect, to cut their own throats.
Tactically, it would have bee!
wiser to have circulated a simpl
petition calling for a specia
convention to review the serious —
differences in the union, with 4
view to restoring ufiity on th
basis of the needs of the me
bership, at least in my opinion
There is no guarantee that th
officers would have agreed t
such a proposition with the ré
quired number of signatures. —
However, it would have bee
more difficult for them to just
ify a request for trusteeship 10

demand.
Ferry workers are employed —
by a provincial crown corpora-—
tion and have many unresolved
job grievances. Their wage in
creases are lagging behind price ~
increases and every time they
negotiate with the B.C. Ferr
Corporation, a creature of th
Socred government, they ar
faced with the threat of a strike-
breaking order under the Essen-
tial Services Disputes Act. In
this situation, all active mem
bers should fight for unity
around constructive, militant
policies and for close unity with
the trade union movement as a
whole. : ;
_ That’s the kind of unity that
won the day in 1977 and that
lesson should not be forgotten.
If Smalley can use his appoint-
ment to lay the basis for restor-
ing such unity, he can serve a
useful purpose, but if he tries to”
do a hatchet job for Mathieson —
or anyone else in the union, he
will aggravate the problenr
rather than contribute to a solu-
tion. a
Jack Munro, head of the larg-
est union in the province, the —
International Woodworkers
and an officer of both the B.C. —
Federation of Labor and the —
CLC, did not help with his’
statement which was reported in
the Vancouver Sun Dec. 1.
He commended Mathieson
for her courage in standing up
to ‘‘the obstructionists who
stopped her functioning as pres- —
ident.’’ Such statements can on-
ly lead to the belief on the part
of many members of the Ferry
Workers that Smalley has been
appointed to do a job for one
faction and not to meet and dea]
impartially with all groups in a
sincere attempt to lay the basis
for healing the split.

_ Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,

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