Major attack against labor
launched by B.C. Socreds |

British Columbia's Social Cre-
dit government was first among
provinces to freeze the wages of
its 200,000 ic service work-
ers. Here, 8.C. Communist lead-
er Maurice Rush exposes the

attack as a green
light also for private sector
monopolies. In the fightback
against this government/em-
ployer gang-up can be seen the
basis for unity of workers
country-wide who face similar at-
tacks on wages and living stan-

dards.

The Social Credit government in B.C.
has launched a major offensive against
social services, living standards and
trade union rights which is unparalleled
in the history of this Pacific Coast
province.

Plans for the offensive were worked
out in close coordination with big busi-
ness represented by the Employers
Council of B.C. The strategy and timing
of the offensive was approved by the
Socred cabinet at a semi-secret meeting
at the Schooner Cove luxury resort on
Vancouver Island four months ago.

The aim of the Socred-big business of-
fensive is to use the present economic
crisis and mass unemployment to drive
down the level of all social services in
B.C. which have taken years to achieve;
and to sharply reduce wage standards of
B.C. workers won through years of mili-
tant struggle by the trade unions. ,

As the offensive unfolds it becomes
increasingly clear that the Socred-
monopoly attack has four major thrusts:
1) to sharply increase the charges and
‘fees to the public for all social and public
services; 2) to carry through major cut-
backs of all social and public services; 3)
to freeze the wages of all public
employees and to roll them back where
possible; 4) to mount pressure on work-
ers in the private sector to hold down
wage increases and to compel unions to
accept wage cuts in one form or another
on the false argument that that’s the only
way to protect their jobs in the face of
growing mass unemployment.

In recent months the government has
imposed over 130 boosts in fees and
charges fo the public including higher
medicare premiums, nursing home fees,
ambulance service charges,. car insur-
ance rates, bus and transit fares, natural

gas and hydro rates, liquor, tobacco and -

gas prices, day care rates. And these are
by no means at an end. B.C. Hydro an-
nounced a few days ago that hydro rates
will go up 91% by 1984.

There are indications that additional
hikes are being planned by the Socred
government. The various rate hikes put
into effect by the beginning of April have
been estimated to exceed $500-million,
which works out to an average increase
for every B.C. family of about $750 for
the year. Taken together with higher
costs imposed by the last federal budget,
the high rate of inflation and high interest
rates, the staggering level of unemploy-
ment in the province, which stands of-
ficially at 150,000 but is more than
200,000 when hidden jobless are taken
into account, has left the public shaken
by the government-monopoly offensive.

Double-barrelled Restraint

Accompanying the sharp boost in
charges and fees for public services has
been an unprecedented cutback in all
essential social services. On February 18
Premier Bill Bennett went on television
and announced his double-barrelled re-
straint program. All government and
public services were to have their

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 11, 1982—Page 8 : is

-News Analysis
Maurice Rush

budgets drastically cut, and limited to a
maximum increase of 12% for the coming
year, which is below what the rate of
inflation has been. At the same time he
announced a wage restraint program
aimed at freezing the wages of 200,000
public employees.

Although all social services in the pro-
vince are hit by the Socred government’s
right-wing restraint policy, most drasti-
cally affected have been the municipali-
ties, education, and the health and hos-
pital system. Every municipality has
been forced to cut back on services,
hundreds of civic workers face layoffs as
programs are either eliminated or cut
back to meet the imposed restriction
from Victoria.

The effect on B.C.’s educational sys-

' tem has been devastating. According to

the B.C. Teachers Federation the
equivalent of 614 full-time teaching posi-
tions and 125 non-teaching positions
have been cut, another 80 proposed hir-
ings have been scrapped, many class-
rooms are being shut and 14 schools are
to close. Many school districts have had
to cut out long-established programs for
children. The cutbacks in education have
aroused widespread protests from
teachers, school trustees and others con-
cerned with safeguarding B.C.’s educa-
tional system. ;

Most devastating has been the
government’s attack on health services
and hospitals. The Socred cabinet
arbitrarily decided to limit grant in-
creases to hospitals for the coming year
to 7.69% and to order hospitals to cover
deficits from last year’s operations out of
this year’s budget without any help from
Victoria. The increase’ in grants is far
below the rate of inflation, which in B.C.
in 1981-82 ran at around 14%. The result
has been that every hospital in the prov-
ince is in crisis.

Hospitals Cut Back

The B.C. Health Association said re-
cently that budget restraints have al-
ready caused 2,018 layoffs and staff
reductions while 1,114 hospital beds
have been closed. And more are likely to
follow. Many hospitals have announced
the closing down of emergency wards,

and others have cut back or eliminated _

elective surgery. Twelve thousand
people now waiting for serious opera-
tions will have unlimited waits and it is
anticipated that many will die before they
get to the operating table. The situation
was summed up by the B.C. Medical
Association: president Dr. Ray March
when he described the situation as
“‘dangerous”’ and said that people will
die as a result of the hospital cutbacks.

A central feature of the Socred-
monopoly offensive is the attempt to put
the blame for layoffs or cutbacks in es-
sential social services on public
employees. Premier Bennett and the
Socred cabinet have taken the position
that the 200,000 public employees should
pay for the government’s restraint pro-
gram by accepting lower wages. It is
attempting to blame the public service
unions for any cutbacks in services or
layoffs and has devised the wage res-
traint program to impose low settlements
on the workers and to make them the
scapegoat for the government's vicious
restraint program.

Bennett’s February 18 announcement
of the wage restraint program provided
for a maximum wage increase set at 10%
this year, with certain factors producing
an actual range of between 8% and 14%.
But when the government’s wage res-

traint legislation was tabled in the legis-
lature it contained no figures. The legisla-
tion, which is one of the most undemo-

cratic and anti-labor pieces of legislation ~

to come before any provincial legislature
in recent years, gives the cabinet full
powers to determine any wage settle-
ment, to change any terms of the settle-
ment, and sets up a commissioner who
has arbitrary powers, including the pow-
ers of a Supreme Court judge, whose
decision cannot be appealed.

When the legislation came before the
legislature Premier Bennett further com-
pounded the government’s attack on
labor when he said there is no floor to any
settlement, that workers may even have
to settle for 5%, or take wage cuts. He
further indicated that if extra legislation
is needed he would call the House into
session to impose it, and that the
government will reserve the right to even
alter arbitration awards downward. In
other words, workers who go to arbitra-
tion cannot change an award, but their
employer, in this case the government,
can change it as it wishes. Altogether, the
wage restraint legislation and announced
government policy constitutes a flagrant
attack on collective bargaining and on
the whole trade union movement.

‘Alongside this government attack on
public service employees has been the
offensive launched by the big mono-
polies in the private sector. The
Employers’ Council of B.C. are involved
in a major conspiracy against organized
labor and are deliberately compounding

the already bad unemployment picture’

with threats of more layoffs if workers
don’t make concessions to the
employers and give up some of their
Wages to maintain profits. Blackmail
against the unions is the order of the day
as major employer groups threaten
workers to take less wages or face loss of
their jobs.

A few weeks ago the U:S.-owned B.C.
Telephone Company, which made
nearly $80-million profit last year, asked
each of its 12,000 employees to give the
company one day’s pay or work one day
free to make B.C. Tel shares more attrac-
tive on the market. The workers told the
company where they could go, but it
demonstrates the arrogant attitude of the
big employers in their drive against the
major unions in the province.

In the forest industry the employers
presented a united front to the unions
demanding they forego for six months
the 13% wage increase due in June which
they won in last year’s strike. They
warned the forest unions that
unemployment will double if they don’t
give in to these demands. Although the
International Woodworkers of America
and the other forest unions have rejected
the demand, the pressure is continuing,
aided by a favorable media which is try-
ing to stir up the public against the
unions, and where they can, the workers
against their union. |

Needs Mass Involvement

A fightback against the Socred-big
business offensive is beginning to take
shape. United front bodies have been set
up by organizations affected by the
school and hospital cutbacks. But what
has so far been lacking in mounting an
effective fightback to force the Socred
government to retreat and to defeat the
monopoly drive against living standards,
is the mass involvement of the trade
union movement. é

United action by the B.C. Federation
of Labor and public sector unions —
teachers, nurses, hospital workers, and
all groups opposed to the cutbacks, could
compel the government to withdraw its
restraint program and change its

RUSH: Price hikes, wage freezes and@
backs meted out in new budget as pi"
soar. i

of millions of dollars on mega prove
and over one billion dollars to subs!
the export of coal from northeast B.C:
Japan, public funds should be used!

fluence of the right-wing New Dé
cratic Party leadership and =,

: e
porters in the mass labor movemé

who do not want a major fightback.
NDP leadership are still wedded t0 ber
strategy which lost them the Kamlo0h i
by-election, and that is; don’t make#
waves, don’t give them any issues, # 4D
them enough rope and they’ Il hang thet au
selves. - /

ips)

But there is growing pressure WI
the ranks of the labor movement ©
manding action for jobs and a
against the education, civic and hosp!
cutbacks. One sign of this is the ©
ference on unemployment called by fe
B.C. Federation of Labor in Victoria) A
June 6-7. Although it is being limit h
200 delegates in the hope of avoid U
mass demonstration in Victoria, it ne i g
theless demonstrates that the forces” W
side the trade union movement who wi
to mount a stronger fightback, and W) »
believe the unions cannot take |
Socred-big business offensive !¥!
down;are making themselves felt.

The Communist Party in B.C. has
led for unity of people at every lever
fight back against the offensive. It ®).
called on the trade union movemetl |
reject wage concessions and_ ‘|
popularized its jobs program wid
through leaflets, speaking tours, cn
has called for unity of labor and all th al
who oppose the Socred government 5”)
tack on social services, and has UIP
them to join in a mass public campé i,
especially around the hospital is
which is felt most widely by the se |
public and on which the Socred gov
ment is most vulnerable. ath

In 1972 the B.C. Federation of off
joined with the Teachers Federatio®® |
other organizations in a mass polit,
campaign against the attempt bY
W.A.C. Bennett government to cut,
on education. The campaign, whet
volved mass rallies around the prov” of
a massive publicity campaign, petting
and postcards, forced the S0%,
government to retreat, and shortly é
NY

led to the defeat of the Socred g0M
ment and election of the first pl

i

ii
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government. A similar united mass
ical campaign is needed now to CO %,
the Socred government to abando? ,
restraint and cutback program. ae |
fightback can win and ultimately ! 4
the defeat of the Bill Bennett gover™
when and if it gets up enough co
call a provincial election.

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