last p,;
titration’ Saw two large union rallies to condemn compulsory

ork sto and to Urge negotiations for settlement of B.C.’s two major
iho rallieg ee Photo above shows some of the 1,000 civic workers

Sdiation at city hall carrying placards reading “Independent
“timated gon... Atbitration No.”’ Photo below shows some ©
00 construction workers demonstrating at the Pacific Centre

Org]
and +S nd Granville demanding lifting of the lockout on schools
Pitals, —Carey Robson photos

FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1972

Car owners face insurance gouge —See pg. 12

Tribune

Se 15°
REJECT COMPULSORY ARBITRATION

Labor says no to

5
aa

VOL. 33, No. 22

Chabot ultimatum

British Columbia labor sent its message loud and clear to the Socred government
and the big employers this week that they will not submit to compulsory arbitration.

Instead, the unions involved in
major disputes and the B.C.
Federation of Labor have
demanded a return to
responsible collective bar-
gaining and settlement of the
disputes through direct negotia-
tions.

Speaking at a rally of about
1,000 civic workers last Friday at
City Hall, Ray Haynes, B.C.
Federation of Labor secretary,
charged that employers “are
dragging their feet and stalling
in negotiations in the hope that
enough public inconvenience can
be caused to justify government
intervention to enforce
settlements favorable to the
employers.”

Haynes said this was shown by
“the reluctance of the Municipal
Labor Relations Bureau to
bargain realistically, by Forest
Industrial Relations’s reluctance
to make any concrete offer to the
IWA and by the employers
declaring lockouts in the
construction industry and in the
propane industry.

‘In each and every case the
employers concerned are
obviously hoping that, by causing
sufficient public inconvenience,
they can provide the excuse for
the intervention of the Mediation
Commission and a government
enforced binding settlement.”

Pledging full support of the
B.C. Federation of Labor to the
fight against compulsory
arbitration, Haynes said the
employers ‘“‘strategy is going to
fail.’’ He said the only solution to
the current disputes “‘is
meaningful and_ realistic
collective bargaining.”

On Monday the B.C.-Yukon
Building Trades Council
executive reaffirmed its policy
of refusing to accept binding
arbitration. :

At public rallies held by the
construction unions since the
lockout began they have taken
the stand that they will not go to
the Mediation Commission and

will not submit to compulsory
arbitration.

This stand was reaffirmed by
about 800 building trades
workers last Friday who staged
a demonstration at the Pacific
Centre in downtown Vancouver
carrying placards urging an end
to the lockout and return to
collective bargaining. Other
signs carried by the construction
workers rejected Labor Minister
Chabot’s proposal for arbitration
of the dispute.

Tuesday afternoon Chabot flew
to the Interior to meet with the
B.C. cabinet to ‘‘review’’ the
labor situation in the province.

As the PT went to press the
Building Trades Council and
B.C. Federation of Labor con-
demned Labor Minister
Chabot’s ultimatum threaten-
ing construction unions with
Section 18 of Bill 33 and compul-
sory arbitration. Also at press
time civic unions were meeting
to consider the latest offer.

Highway workers down tools
to protest Socred wage freeze

Symptomatic of the depth of
dissatisfaction with Premier
Bennett’s 6.5 percent wage
freeze on the part of working
people in the province was the
one-day walkout of some 600
provincial highways employees
on Tuesday of this week.

They are among 13,500 B.C.
Government Employees Union
members who were eligible to
vote in the wage-ratification
survey held this month. The vote
showed that the overwhelming
majority of government
employees reject the 6.5 percent
increase they received on April
1, and want the whole thing

otiated.
re nighway employees voted 84
ercent in favor of rejection.
John Fryer, general secretary of
the union, said Tuesday the
walkout demonstrated the
overwhelming rejection of the
6.5 percent increase, and is a
clear indication that growing

unrest among other public
employees has spread to
provincial employees.

He pointed out other public
employee groups have some
measure of collective bargaining
rights while provincial workers
in B.C. have none at all — no
contract, no union security and
no right to conciliation or
arbitration to settle disputes.

““BCGEU surveys show that

provincial employees earn 11
percent less on the average than
their counterparts in other
government services and 20
percent less than workers in
industry, Fryer pointed out.

He said the union had sought
pay increases averaging 11
percent for provincial employees
in wage talks with Civil Service
Commission this year. But, he

See WAGE FREEZE, pg. 12

Summit hailed

— See pg. 5, 6,

Communists meet

— See pg. 5, 7