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LABOR

Non-union contract

Sparks Trades suit

Expo 86 site is once again the scene of a challenge, this time in B.C. Suprem

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e Court, by

the B.C. Building Trades Council over the corporation’s awarding of a contract to a
non-union electrical firm, to work on projects constructed by. union labor.

Faced with yet another slap in the face
with the awarding of a contract to a non-
union electrical firm to perform work on
union job sites at Expo 86, the B.C. and
Yukon Building Trades Council is launch-
ing Supreme Court action to overturn a key
section of the B.C. Labor Code.

Council president Roy Gautier termed
the use of Section 73.1 of the Code to allow
Trojan Electric to install wiring and lighting
throughout the Expo site — including the
sections built by construction union
labor — “the straw that broke the camel’s
back.”

Section 73.1, intro-
duced with a host of
other draconian

“amendments to the
Code by the Socred
provincial govern-
ment last year, de-

nied Building Trades

unions their tradi-

tional right to refuse '

to work alongside ROY
non-union labor. GAUTIER

The section was
imposed in a climate of an intense anti-

spearheaded by J.C. Kerkhoff and Sons,
which succeeded in taking over a formerly
“union job at the Pennyfarthing housing pro-
ject on the north shore of False Creek.
Kerkhoff, which has often declared its
intention to grab more work usually per-
formed by unionized firms, also received
several construction contracts at the Expo
Site.

The disputed section allows the govern-
ment to declare, through cabinet order-in-
council, various aspects of the Expo site as a
“separate economic development.” In the
case of Trojan Electric, the Socred cabinet
declared through Order-in-Council 811 that
the wiring project was a separate develop-
ment.

Legislation defines Expo as several sites,

union drive in-the construction industry, _

rather than as a single job site, thus con-
founding language in Building Trades
unions’ collective agreements which allows
workers to refuse to work alongside non-
union labor. During the phase of Expo con-
struction that legislation has allowed
non-union labor on all pavilions and other
enterprises under Expo’s direct manage-
ment. :

The new order goes one step further,
Gautier points out, by allowing non-union
work on sites belonging to participating
groups, such as provinces, in which the
pavilion owner contracted the union firm to
do the work.

“Now they're imposing that condition on
buildings that the owners have elected to be
built union. As far as the (Building Trades
Council) executive board was concerned, it
was the last straw.”

“As we warned when this section was
proclaimed last year, it has been used by the
provincial cabinet in increasingly more
extreme and ridiculous ways to oblige non-
union contractors,” Gautier charged.

The executive declared that, “rather than
challenge the order-in-council, it was better
to challenge the whole legislation, period,”
said Gautier.

The suit, which names the provincial
attorney-general and the Expo corporation,
seeks to overturn Section 73.1 on the
grounds it conflicts with Section 7 and 15(1)
of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Gautier said a court victory by the Trades
would force the government to take a “dif-
ferent perspective” on future public pro-
jects. And although construction at Expo is
in the finishing stages, the victory “would
impact” there as well, he said.

The case is to be heard in B.C. Supreme
Court Sept. 4, although the attorney-
general had asked for a postponement.

The trades rejected the request because,
“we're not in the business of providing relief
for the government that has hammered us
from every angle,” said Gautier.

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READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR |

~ Pulp mill layoffs |
vindicate report |
on Sunshine Coast

The timing of a report on the Sunshine
Coast’s employment and economic base
couldn’t have been more dramatic.

The report, called A People’s Eco-
nomic Strategy for Jobs, a Future and
Economic Security in the Sunshine Coast,
was released in early June. ;

Produced by the Sunshine Coast
Solidarity Coalition and the Joint Coun-
cil of Local Unions, with the assistance of
the Trade Union Research Bureau, the
report makes a strong case for diversified
industry for the region, along with public
ownership of some key industries by the
regional government.

Earlier this month, Canadian Forest
Products announced the layoff of 98
workers — 70 unionized employees,
and 28 salaried managerial staff — to
take place between September and
December from the Canfor:pulp mill at
Port Mellon.

“Tt’s the biggest blow to this commun-
ity in years,” said highway worker Hans
Penner, a member of the local Solidarity
Coalition in charge of publicizing the
report. >

“Being a one-industry town definitely
works to our disadvantage, and these
layoffs bear that fact out,” echoed coali-
tion chair Rob Bennie.

Canfor is the major industrial employer
in the area, employing — after the
layoffs — some 400 people. Another key
employer is the L and K Lumber com-
pany’s sawmill, currently in receivership.

All told, states People’s Economic
Strategy, logging and related work
accounts for 72 per cent of resource
extraction industries in the Sunshine
Coast, and 84 per cent of the manufac-
turing endeavors. The forest industry
supplies 22 per cent of all jobs in the
Sunshine Coast, and directly affects
another 43 per cent of the jobs.

Coupled with four years of provincial
government restraint, which has deci-
mated public services — notably the
B.C. Ferries, the area’s second major
employer — the downturn in the forest
industry shows ‘that reliance of any
region on one industry must end, the
Solidarity report argues. _

Canfor gave a broad hint that layoffs
were forthcoming more than one year
ago, when mill manager Harry Cargo
told the Gibsons and District Chamber
of Commerce the company was devleop-
ing a “capital intensive” plant. “We need
more tons per day with fewer people
producing it, or lots more pulp with the
same people if we are to be competitive,”
he told the businessmen.

When the Canfor layoffs were
announced, mill spokesmen cited “‘inter-
national competition” and losses for the
year ending June 30, 1985, of $25.2 mil-
lion. Cargo, in an interview with the
Coast News, also admitted sales had

increased by 12 per cent, following five —

years of modernization at a cost of more
than $100 million.

But there will be no more money for
capital expenditures, he said, rejecting
suggestions that the company construct
a paper mill on the site.

Such suggestions are contained in the
People’s Economic Strategy, which also
touches on the subject of Canfor’s
“losses.”

“..-Canfor is able to trade its $187.5
million in so-called accumulated ‘tax
losses’ ...with a profitable oil and gas
company in return for a temporary inter-
est in oil and gas properties, so that Can-
for can increase its revenue by $38.5

million, and the oil and gas company can ~
use Canfor’s losses to significantly reduce
its corporate tax payable,” the report
states, adding, “If you are big business in —
Canada, you win even when you lose!”
In making several recommendations
— summarized in a leaflet distributed to
area unions, community groups, native
bands and others — the report stresses
the role of local governments and com-
munity groups in setting up and control-
ling a proposed greatly diversified
economic base for the Sunshine Coast. |
The report calls on the regional district
to develop a “comprehensive economic ~
employment program,” to pressure —
senior government and the forest giants
to “take economic actions consistent —
with the needs and strategies of the |
regional district,’ to initiate major }
employment programs in forestry, fisher- ]

ies enhancement and municipal services, }

and to establish a regional district devel-

opment corporation.

The People’s Economic Strategy urges |
the district board to launch a major |
forest enhancement program, including }
tree planting, thinning, weeding and fer- —
tilizing, and to pressure the federal —
government to start a program of stream
rehabilitation and salmon enhancement. —

For local processing, the report urges |.
an end to raw log exports from B.C., |

noting that if L and K’s allowable cut }

were processed locally, 415 jobs would

result. It also calls on Canfor to build a | —
paper mill at Port Mellon, as well asa |

waste wood chipping operation.

The report asks the regional district to}
ensure a local operator befoundtorunL |
and K, with diversified operations. Fail- —

ing that, the district should be prepared |
to establish a public corporation to run ]
the mill under municipal control, the |
report states. |

On public utilities and social services, }
the report urges: |

@ The Sunshine Coast municipalities |
to join with other communities demand- |

ing senior government assistance to ]

review municipal infrastructure;
@ The restoration of ferry services, }
severely cut in the restraint years, “to |
pre-1976 levels;” |
e An end to the “restraint” program }
and restoration of social services; |
© The regional district to lead a local |
campaign demanding GAIN rates be }
raised to the poverty level. |
The Solidarity report also proposes a}

host of local government initiatives in }
tourism and social services, including the ],

establishment of a local post-secondary |
institution of applied sciences and tech- —
nology, and local public review boards
requiring employers to register and jus- —
tify layoffs before they occur. |

Not surprisingly, the report’s recom- |
mendations, particularly those regarding |

the key role of the regional district board, |

drew opposition from certain reaction- |
ary quarters. The board itself protested a _
recent letter in the local press from Sun- |
shine Coast Tourism Association presi- }
dent Richard Tomkies, who called the —
report, “A classic example of the inane |
leading the needy and all the unwary to |
perdition.” ,

The board, which has praised the |
report for its “constructive” approach,
will be petitioned formally to adopt the —
recommendations in the near future, said |
Penner.

“It’s crucial to get the local govern-
ment on the side of working people,” he
said. a