Continued from page 1
workforce in a given workplace sign union
cards, a vote for union certification is
automatic. The new bill requires that a
clear majority of workers must have signed
cards. But the Act goes much furhter,
allowing the new board to determine
whether an individual is a union member
without reference to the union’s bylaws
and constitution, and thereby reduce what
might have been a majority in favor of cer-
tification to a minority.

The new Act also removes the right to
certification when a clear majority of
workers have signed cards, requiring a vote
among the workforce no matter what
evidence there is that a majority desire
union membership. In its detailed analysis,
the B.C. Federation of Labor shows how it
can take up to six months to conduct a
vote, with ample time for the employer to
intervene and use that time to intimidate
workers into changing their minds about
union membership.

With the proposed regulations, the LRB
will no longer be able to grant automatic
certification if it is found that the employer
tried to intimidate workers into reconsider-
ing their union membership, thus allowing
wholesale violations of the principle of
freedom of association.

The new Act also attacks certification
drives by removing the board’s power to
include an employer in a multi-employer
bargaining unit. That decision is left to the

employer. The new regulation strikes hard
at the building trades unions, which have
been able to organize non-union workers in
workplaces designated as ‘‘common
sites.”’

@ Decertifications. ‘‘While access to
union representation is made more dif-
ficult, the process to allow cancellation of
certification is streamlined,’’ notes the
B.C. Fed analysis of the proposed Code.

There will be nothing preventing
employers from intimidating or otherwise
instigating a move to decertify a local if the
revamped Act becomes law. The LRB will
no longer have the power to refuse a decer-
tification application even if it is proven
that the application is employer-inspired.

Even more draconian is the new provi-
sion allowing the board to suspend
bargaining and collective agreement rights
if a business changes hands or the employer
has financial difficulties. Under an ‘‘ex-
emption order’’ the board can cancel col-
lective agreements, leaving unionized
employees less protected than are
unorganized workers under the Employ-
ment Standards Act.

The proposed Code also tampers with
voting rights. An employee who has been
laid off before a certification vote takes
place (and the Act gives ample leeway for
employers to change conditions in the
workplace through transferring and
layoffs during the vote) is ineligible to vote.
But for decertification, an employee who

New Act enshrines employers’ privileges

has been laid off before the vote is eligible
to vote, providing that person has not
found permanent employment elsewhere.;

@ Work stoppages and picketing. The
new Act gives the provincial cabinet sweep-
ing new powers, enabling it to declare any
worksite an ‘‘economic development pro-
ject.”” On such “‘projects,”’ all work stop-
pages, for whatever reasons — for in-
stance, health and safety, or, in the case of
the building trades, the right not to work
alongside non-union labor — are pro*
hibited.

That regulation, as the Building
Trades Council points out, introduces
the right-to-work concept into the con-
struction industry. It is easy to see that
if this becomes law, it will be the thin edge
of the wedge and the concept will be ap-
plied to other industries.

The new Act also replaces the Essential
Services Disputes Act, incorporating its
provisions so that any work site in the pro-
vince can be, at cabinet descretion, con-
sidered essential and any work stoppage
prohibited.

The LRB will not be able to authorize
picketing at a site so designed. Picketing
may also be limited at ‘‘common sites’’ at
the discretion of the board.

Both picketing and work stoppages can
also be disallowed by the board if any party
— for instance, the employer — claims that
such activity is in violation of the Code,
even before a final decision has been

rendered on that case. The B.C. Fed’s”
analysis points out that the provision may
have been. specifically designed to make
political rallies (such as the huge protests at
the legislature and in Empire Stadium) ik
legal. :
@ Confidentiality and Union Rights
The risk to one’s jobin signing a union card —
will be greatly increased under new regula- |
tions which may allow both parties — the
employer as well as the union — access to
the reports of board officers, which would.
include employees’ names.

Another section of the new Act allows
the LRB to investigate the internal affairs |
of unions, applying not only to union hir- |
ing halls, but also cases where union securi- |
ty clauses require union membership. | |

@ Jurisdiction. The proposed amend- | |
ments will open up LRB decisions to | |
judicial review, meaning any decision of
the board may be brought before th
Supreme Court. Those who would defy
unjust prohibitions of their right to strike.
picket, and so on, face heavy fines for
violating board orders.

@ Management Rights. The new Act ~
would squelch hard-earned rights whereb
workers have been able to negotiate provi- |
sions governing layoffs, technoligical |
change, reorganization of the workplace, |
and so on, replacing these with entrenched |
employer rights. Any disputes arising from | :
ambiguous areas in a collective agreement |
will be resolved in favor of the employer. —

‘Private sector unions must join coalitions’

By LORNE ROBSON

There should be no illusions about the
significance of the Labor Code Amendment
Act leaked to Operation Solidarity and
made. public last week. The sum and
_ substance of the legislation would introduce
a version of right to work legislation in B.C.
_ The cynicism of the Socreds knows no ~-
bounds. McClelland has protested that the
leaked Act is only a draft — draft 34, in fact
_ —and will not necessarily be introduced in
_ its present form. After all, 33 previous drafts
_ have been rejected, he said. Who is he kid-
ding? The fact that this legislation is draft 34

in Campbell River.

Internal divisions within the Building
Trades unions, the split between the Building
Trades and the Canadian Labor Congress
and the impact of the recession created a

. Situation in which the building trades have

been unable to defend their ground against

the non-union drive. It is the same situation

which the labor code amendments are aim-
ed at exploiting further, to prepare the

ground for a complete victory by Kerkhof

and Co.

One of the most important developments
in response to the release of the labor code
amendments was the resolution of the

coalition will be launching a mass petitio?
campaign. il be launching a mass pti
itis made to beas publicas possible and ifit!
brought onto job sites and directly 4
workers. It should be conceived of as an!
formation and mobilization campaign, 4
well as making a statement to the goverl
ment. Union locals and entire unions shou#’ }
challenge each other to see which can sign UP |
their entire membership spouses ai |
families on the petition first.

Along side the petition campaign 0'
more direct forms of action are going to ¥
needed. Operation Solidarity intends
hound Socred cabinet ministers where

LORNE ROBSON... amendments
pose new challenge for solidarity coali-
tion.

workers to vote will be used by sawmills and
plants all over B.C. to blackmail desperate
workers: decertify and take a cut in pay and
get your job back.

However, there is good reason that the
building trades have been singled out as the
focus of the attack on the private sector
unions. The fact is that even the present
Labor Code has been unfair to building
trades unions and in the context of the cur-
rent recession, right to work contractors
have been making major inroads into B.C.’s
construction industry.

Although only 10 percent of the unionized
workers in B.C., the building trades have
been a decisive component which have led in
the fight for wages and conditions and which
have been part of the militant backbone of
the whole labor movement. If the trades
could be broken, it would fundamentally
shift the balance of power to the employers.

With mass unemployment continuing in
the construction industry (current

indicates how refined it is, and McClelland
himself has said that the amendments to the
code will be introduced in this session of the

The Socred’s version of right to work
would be introduced through the declaration
of so-called ‘‘economic development pro-
jects’’ in which strikes and picketing would
be outlawed regardless of the terms of collec-
tive agreements. Non-union labor would be
brought on to a construction site and there

- wouldn’t be a damn thing that the unions.
could do to protect their collective agree-
ment.

In addition, the inclusion of Essential Ser-
vices legislation in the Code for the first time
gives the cabinet power to declare any pro-
ject or industry “‘essential’’ to the economic
welfare of the province and to use that to
outlaw strikes. In 1972 W. A. C. Bennett
declared all school construction essential
and attempted to outlaw strikes, at the same
time as he attempted to take bargaining
rights away from teachers, and that provok-
ed a confrontation which put B.C. into tur-
moil until Bennett was defeated.

they travel. It’s time for private sector unio®
to join the campaign more actively and ke
the protest boiling. New ideas and new 4
tions will be needed.

The building trades unions have a special
contribution to make to the fightback.
best way to make sure that the Labor C0?
Amendment Act never sees legislati™
daylight is to stop the drive of the Kerkh
and the right to work contractors now, 4%
prevent them from making excess profits
the backs of a pool of cheap labor. :

There is no doubt that taking on the
to work crowd in the present atmosphel®
could get messy. That just makes it all 0%
more important for the building trades 4
the private sector unions to be actively
volved in the Solidarity coalitions.

The trade union movement can’t win this :
fight by itself, nor can it win if a large ae
the public harbors anti-union sentiments
spirited fight to maintain union ne and
the living standards of workers that has
support of community groups can only ‘a
restore to the labor movement the popul#

Operation Solidarity unions to re-affirm the
principle of an injury to one is an injury to
all, both with regard to the present 26 bills
and any future anti-labor legislation.

That same challenge must now be brought
before the whole Solidarity coalition, to in-
clude the proposed changes to the Labor
Code in the package that all members of the
coalition are pledged to fight until all is
withdraw, or until a commitment is received
that these ‘Labor Code amendments will not
be introduced.

The private sector unions now have to join
with Operation Solidarity and the Solidarity
coalitions in force, and ensure that all coali-
tion partners understand the stakes involved
in stopping the drive to undermine. the
organized labor movement in this province.

The active involvement of the private sec-
tor, in fact, is the most important next stage
in the fightback. A second round of mass
demonstrations or a provincial day of pro-
test to escalate mass action against the
government can only be successful with the
addition of new forces from the private sec-
tor. :

The building trades will be the front line of
this attempt to cripple decisively the trade
union movement in B.C., but the attack is
aimed as well at the whole private sector.
High technology and communications in-
dustries will likely be declared economic
development projects and non-union. The
forest industry could be declared essential to
the economic welfare of the province.

The bulk of the amendments actually are
aimed at making it more difficult to obtain
a certification, mostly by removing restric-
tions on employer influence. While making
it almost impossible for unions to organize
construction sites, it will also be devastating
for organizational drives in the fishing in-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 26, 1983—Page 8

unemployment in the Carpenters’ Union is
at 60 per cent) the employers have launched a
major drive to capture the small amount of
work available for the non-union sector.

At Tumbler Ridge in the heart of the
North East Coal project, which undoubted-
ly would have been declared a so-called
economic development project had the
legislation been in place, tradesmen have
been working non-union of $6 per hour,
working overtime at time and a half, living in
tents and using the bush for toilets.

The notorious right-to-work contractor
Kerkhof Construction was awarded the first
non-union contract on a major provincial
government project with the $12 million
Kamloops courthouse project. Kerkhof is
now low bidder on the Vancouver General
Hospital extension, and on the new armory

It could take some weeks before it is possi-
ble to escalate the mass struggle by larger
demonstrations than in the first round.-In
the interim, Operation Songenty and the

leadership it once enjoyed and which it ag
must exercise if the Socred attack is t0
defeated.

Lorne Robson is secretary-treasv
of the Provincial SUE of Carpente

PACIFIC

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