LABOR

‘Act now for labor, |

May Day rally urged

A leading B.C. trade unionist told the
annual May Day rally in Vancouver Satur-
day that Newfoundland’s public employees
have provided a key May Day inspiration
for Canada’s working class.

B.C. Provincial Council of Carpenters
president Bill Zander told some 300 trade
unionists and others who filled the Russian
Hall that the Newfoundland Association of
Provincial Employees and other provincial
unions “showed us that the old ways work,
that the power and magic of a unified trade
union movement is still there if we want to
use it.”

Zander’s praise for the Newfoundland
trade union movement, which wrung a col-
lective agreement with no concessions out
of a hostile Conservative government, high-
lighted themes of trade union unity and
international solidarity marking celebra-
tions of May Day’s 100th anniversay.

The meeting, which passed resolutions
calling on the Canadian government to
enact full sanctions against South Africa
and to condemn the Unites States’ bombing
raid on Libya, collected more than $400 for

B.C. Telephone Company last month
recorded a 108 per cent increase in profits
for the first quarter of 1986 — but the
sharp hike hasn’t deterred the company
ie from continuing its job-cutting centraliza-
4 tion plan for several B.C. centres.

i] And that has drawn anger from Tele-
communications Workers Union president
Bill Clark.

“We find it disgraceful that while their
profits more than double, they disregard the
interests of their workers by cutting back
services in communities like Terrace, Willi-
ams Lake, Nelson and Cranbrook,” Clark
said.

B.C. Tel reported a profit of $28.7 million

double the $13.8 million profit for the same
period of 1985.

this magnitude, they have an even stronger
obligation to improve service and maintain
jobs in communities throughout B.C.,”
Clark said.

But B.C. Tel has so far rejected any such
obligation despite efforts by the TWU and
various coalitions such as the “Keep Jobs in
the Kootenays” Committee which have
pressed the company to maintain services
and jobs in B.C. communities.

Over the past two years, B.C. Tel has
begun closing operations in several smaller
centres, moving instead to centralize in
larger centres, with a consequent loss of
local jobs and customer service.

One of the communities most affected is
Cranbrook which will lose some 60 opera-
tors’ positions if the company is able to
proceed with its plan to close its traffic office
Sept. 30. Last month, the company
announced that operations in Nelson would

for the first quarter of 1986, more than”

“When the company records profits of

the Tools for Peace campaign aiding Nica-
ragua and for Chile’s exiled trade union
central.

B.C. Federation of Labor president Art
Kube said the trade union movement has
“forgotten some simple lessons” learned
since the initial struggle for an eight-hour
day that is marked by the international
workers’ holiday.

“We as a movement must rededicate and
intensify our efforts to shorten the work
week with the same take-home pay. ‘Thirty
for 40’ should not be an empty slogan, but a
meaningful demand which we have to
achieve if we’re to end the unemployment
which has been a misery to so many in this
province,” he said.

Cesar Guisado of Chile’s Central Union
of Workers (CUT) struck an international
note when he said the recent returns to
civilian rule in countries such as Argentina
and Uruguay show that the U.S. Reagan
administration’s grip on Latin America is
slipping.

Noting that Chile’s working class cele-
brated May Day “‘in the streets,” May 1, he

Union hits service cuts
as B.C. Tel profits soar

also close, taking another 11 jobs out of the
local economy.

TWU members are theoretically pro-
tected by their collective agreement from
layoff but because many are unable to
uproot their families in order to accept a
transfer to another location, they are forced
to quit. That, in turn, enables B.C. Tel to cut
staff, a major objective of the centralization
plan.

In addition, the transfer of jobs takes
money out of the local economy — in the
case of Cranbrook, an estimated $2 million
annually — and it is that loss that has been
a primary target of the broad-based cam-
paign initiated by the TWU.

The union has also launched an arbitra-
tion case over the Cranbrook closure. :

TWU staff researcher Sid Schniad said
May 5 that it would likely be heard during
the first week in June.

The union has “a pile of evidence” that
the closure and resulting transfers, in fact,
amount to a layoff, he said. But the com-
pany also recognized that the case is likely
to set a precedent for future closures, and is
bringing in its top executives for what are
expected to be lengthy hearings, he added.

Earlier, B.C. Tel unilaterally cancelled
weekend shifts for Cranbrook operators as
part of its counter-offensive against the
community campaign. In response, union
members continued to work the shifts they
had been assigned to previously, charging
that the company’s unilateral change vio-
lated the agreement.

However, the Canada Labor Relations
Board upheld B.C. Tel’s position May 2,
ruling that the unionists’ action constituted
an illegal strike.

said the continued weakening of the ranks
of the Pinochet junta ruling Chile and a
desire even among right-wing forces in the
South American nation for a “gradual”
return to democracy point the way to a
democratic unity among anti-Pinochet for-
ces. :

Zander in his speech reported the
recently concluded Canadian Labor Con-
gress convention voted to reject the federal
government’s free trade scheme and to tell
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that “Can-
ada is not for sale.”

The Carpenters president also warned
that with regressive changes to the provin-
ce’s Labor Relations Board and non-union
economic free zones, it was clear that “the
Bennett government is out to de-unionize
the province.

“That means we can’t sit idly by and wait

BILL ZANDER. . .Socreds out to de-unionize province.

: in in 28 days, we must take the

. . . We
for a provincial election to save US.

now,” he advised.

B.C. Communist Party leader
Rush said the lessons of May Day 4
capitalism never gives up and willal
seeking to take away our rights,”
“the most powerful weapon we ha
solidarity and unity of working pe

Ina letter read by Margaret Birté
MP Margaret Mitchell of Vancouv”
stated: ‘““We must never give up UR
achieved disarmament and peace.

Pointing to the upcoming provin®
civic elections, Vancouver
Davies of the Committee of Pr
Electors predicted 1986 “will ¢
unprecedented year of political inv°
in this province — and I want us
back in 1987 and say, ‘We did it’

)
4

Building Trades Council president
Roy Gautier told unemployed Building
Trades workers May 5 that the unions’
bargaining committee would be going
back into talks with Construction Labor
Relations (CLRA) this week “with an
important message — there will be no
cuts and no rollbacks.

“That will be
repeated to them
again. Either they
review their posi-
tion and sweep
the cuts they’ve
demanded right
off the table or
— if they want to
play hardball —
then we’ve got
the strike vote,” ROY GAUTIER
he told a meeting
in the Ironworkers Hall.

Gautier was reporting on negotiations
toa public meeting called by the Dandel-
ions, a group of jobless Building Trades
workers who have followed the lead of

- their counterparts in Alberta in organiz-
ing the unemployed.

The group has already staged demon-
strations at- regional Unemployment
Insurance Commission offices and non-
union contractors’ job sites and voted
Monday to picket the offices of CLRA in
New Westminster May 9 to back the
Building Trades’ bargaining council’s
stand in negotiations.
| Gautier told the meeting “it won’t be
very many days” before a decisive point
is reached in negotiations, possibly this
week.

“Either we will be moving in the direc-
tion of an agreement or there will be a
dispute with a strike or a lockout,” he
said. : :

He added that it was not in the inter-
ests of the Building Trades to have a

Trades reaffirm stand:
‘No cuts, no rollbacks

shutdown, “but if it has to be that
then so be it.
“We're damn well determined
we’re united on that in our barg'
committee. If we can stick togethe
can come out of this with a colle
agreement,” he declared. By
Gautier also dismissed any idea
intervention from the Social —
government through an industrialin4
commissioner, an idea floated by ”
Minister Terry Segarty last week.
Gautier said that the-governme?
made no direct representation *
trades on the appointment of a co”
sioner but noted that the Socreds
been poking around with the id
cause they don’t want anybody
on their parade, with Expo and all
In discussion with the deputy ™
of labor, Gautier said, “we told thet
don’t need it (government interfet
we don’t want it and they’ve no #4
try and get involved.” =
He noted Segarty’s remarks ip
legislature April 17 in which he ©
the employers’ call for greater come
tiveness and suggested that”
should go into negotiations
make the cuts necessary to achiev
competitiveness. ;
_ Because of that bias, Gautier said, y
want to have it very well emphasized
that kind of government interfer®
out.” 3

CLRA picket Ss”

The office of Construction aA
Relations, at 97-6th St., near Roy#!
in New Westminster will be the tat y
a picket line by the Dandelions
The demonstration, intended to PY a
CLRA’s demand for sweeping oP
sions to Building Trades contra®’
been-set for 10 a.m. ;

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MA