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Friday, August 28, 1981

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Vol. 43, No. 31

imi Se oS

CFU rally
August 29

The Canadian Farmworkers
Union will demonstrate for
“equality for farmworkers”’
Aug. 29, 12 noon at Robson
Square in downtown Van-
couver.

Jack Nichol, president of the
United Fishermen and Allied
Workers; Donna Mottershed,
Organizer for the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers; Gordon Mc-
Pherson, president of the Hos-
pital Employees; and a repre-
sentative of the B.C. Federation
of Labor are among the speak-
ers at the rally.

Farmworkers are still denied
Minimum wage and Workers’
Compensation protection and
are among those hit by restric-
tive new UI provisions. In addi-
tion, although the Socred
government promised to in-
clude them in its much-vaunted
Employment Standards Act, is

| has specifically excluded them
(in the Act’s regulations.

E

LEGISLATIVE
DISCRIMINATIO

— page 8 —

Sixty
speakers
oppose
B.C. Place

— page 2 —

Determined teachers pledge
fight on working conditions

B.C. Teachers’ Federation presi-
dent Larry Kuehn declared Tues-
day that teachers will be insisting
that local school boards bargain
with them on all terms and condi-
tions of their work when contract
talks open next month.

“We are no longer willing to bar-
gain only on money matters and
have to beg the boards for im-
provement in the conditions under
which we work and under which
our students learn,”’ he told report-
ers, adding that the objective is to
negotiate agreements on ‘‘all mat-
ters affecting our working lives.”

He warned that teachers are de-
termined to negotiate such agree-
ments this year “‘even if it means
that some of our members have to
take job action to put pressure on
boards.”’

That possibility loomed larger
this week as the B.C. School Trust-
ees Association announced plans
this week to hold a joint seminar at
which boards will be lobbied to
‘head off” any plans for collective
bargaining on teachers’ working
conditions.

Serr

% ditions. Instead, his ministry has

© reportedly called for ‘‘consulta-

2 tion’”’ between boards and teach-

& ers, a proposal that offers little

5 change from the existing system.

« In addition, BCSTA president
Gary Begin has declared his oppo-
sition to bargaining on working

See TEACHERS page 7

SPEECH Mee oe A

Vancouver mayor Michael Harcourt (I) shares a joke with Odessa
mayor Anatoly Malykhin during a reception for the Soviet-delega-
tion Saturday. The three-member delegation wound up their week-

a

long visit to the city with a send off banquet Sunday — and several
proposals for further exchanges between the two sister cities.
(Story page 7.)

Drivers

not happy
with ‘take
back’ pact

Operators and mechanics for
the Metro Transit Operating
Commission were voting at
Tribune press time on a contro-
versial offer that has been given
only a narrow chance of passing
because of its less-than-inflation
wage provisions and its failure to
address any of the longstanding
issues of working conditions.

The latest offer, negotiated af-
ter the members of the Amalga-
mated Transit Union turned back
an MTOC offer of 13.6 percent in
the first year and 12 percent in the
second, adds only 10 cents an

hour to the increase for three
categories.

It sparked prompt reaction Fri-
day when ATU mechanics staged
job action in protest. In retalia-
tion, the MTOC imposed a lock-
out, forcing acomplete shutdown
of almost all of the Lower Main-
land transit system.

MTOC also withdrew the offer
although spokesmen later stated
that the offer would stand if ATU
members accepted it by a sub-
stantial majority.

Despite that carrot, however,
there was strong indication as bal-
loting began, that the vote, if it

endorsed the pact, would do so
only narrowly.

A 10-member committee rep-
resenting the ATU mechanics
called Tuesday for rejection of
the offer.

The same day, a bulletin issued
by the Angus McInnis caucus, a
rank-and-file caucus within the
ATU, urged members to vote
“no,” characterizing the offer as
a “‘take-back contract offer.”’

It noted that the 13.6 and 12
percent increase for operators
and 13.75 percent and 10.75 per-
cent increase over two years for
maintenance employees was ‘‘be-

low this year’s rate of inflation, let
alone next year’s.”

The caucus also cited the re-
gressive changes in the sick leave
plan which would force ATU
members to pay for their own
leave beyond a certain number of
absences per year.

There is widespread dissatis-
faction with the offer because of
the failure to address longstand-
ing problems involving split
shifts, cutbacks in running time
and staff shortages, created by
MTOC’s failure to replace oper-
ators who have quit over poor
working conditions.

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