offer a deal,” says McMurray. “So while the.
union is trying to get a certification, they’re
signing an agreement.”

The Building Trades have recently
stepped up their campaign against the two
groups, challenging them wherever possible
and waging a public campaign to expose
their tactics. The Carpenters, together with
the BCYT, have gone after the GWU and
the CIS & IWU in a leaflet which shows a
rat on the front cover with a red cancel bar
through it. Local 452 has also raised the
issue in the Straight Talk bulletins.

But organizing today also means winning
workers to the whole idea of unionism,
Robson emphasizes. Many of those work-
ing on the non-union jobs “are kids in run-
ning shoes doing the bull work” who have
never had contact with the trade union
movement. And many others, particularly
those who have been union members, “have
been divorced from the union process for a
long time.”

During the boom years, many projects

were certified on the basis of contractors
offering voluntary recognition and agreeing
to pay rates according to the standard trade
agreement, he says. “And many times we
assumed that because we had union cards
for the guys on the job, we also had their
votes — but we didn’t.”
’ As a result, when mass unemployment
hit the industry after 1982, “people were
scared — they didn’t know what to do,”
Robson notes. ““We’ve met people on the
job who’ve told us that they were forced on
to welfare — and some of them blamed the
union.”

He emphasizes that a big part of the
organizing job is winning back those dis-
affected members, many of whom are
working in the non-union sector.

“We know we have to win them —
because we’re only there for half an hour
but they’re there all day, every day,” Norris
says.

The advocacy work done by the Carpen-
ters during the lean years — helping both
members and non-members with UI and
welfare cases and helping non-union
workers win claims for unpaid wages and
overtime — is now paying off as workers
remember the past favours. Roger notes
that over the last 10 years, the Carpenters
has won $700,000 in back wages for non-
union workers.

rr coral at

ANOTH

“T had one guy pop up and say that the
union got him five grand in back wages
when he was working on the Expo site,”
Norris says. “And that’s when we turned
the corner with that crew.”

So far, there haven’t been too many
corners turned, although Norris notes that
the drive is gathering momentum. Local
1251 has succeeded in signing one contrac-
tor and there has been a slow but growing
trickle of cards signed.

Even the early morning distribution of
Straight Talk, the newsy and popularly
written mimeo bulletin which is now into its
fourth issue, has seen a change. Where
workers were a first reluctant even to walk
past the organizers, Norris notes, now they
take it readily, read it and even talk about in
follow-up meetings in the lunch shack.

Some of those who join do so to take
advantage of the jobs that have become
available from the local’s dispatch board.
But Norris and Robson are trying to con-
vince workers who sign up to stay on the job
and continue the organizing work. And
some are doing that.

“We haven’t got people to the point of
taking action, “ Norris emphasizes. ““We’re
still signing up individual members, not yet
a majority.”

It also means a lot of 16. and 18-hour days
that begin at 5:30 a.m and end at 10 and 11
p.m. after union meetings — often without
really tangible results.

“Sometimes it seems like we’re going
nowhere,” says Norris, “but then a whole
bunch of guys will come through the door
to sign up.

“It’s going to take time — but we’re
building a base in the industry.”

Carpenters Local 452 organizers Carey Robson (I) and Peter Norris, with copies

iii

(above left) of their organizating bulletin Straight Talk.

| MAY DAY
GREETINGS

from the
membership of
-PPWG Local#10
Kamloops, B.C.

MAY DAY GREETINGS

103rd YEAR CELEBRATION
UNITED WE STAND!

Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1004

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SSS
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(eR
MAY DAY GREETINGS

To our members, friends
and supporters in the
labour movement on the
103rd anniversary of

>)

May Day.

Canadian Smelter Workers (C.A.S.A.W. Local 1)
Kitimat, B.C./Yellowknife, N.W.T.

In celebration
of the working people of this country
whose labour builds our future.

In memoriam
for those who struggled before us,
whose labour built our foundation.

Pacific Tribune, May 1, 1989 e 9