LABOR

POSTAL WORKERS

Evert Hoogers, Vancouver local president
of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers,

3,000jobs. CUPWis urging ajob creation
program, reduced working time with no

| tracting out of jobs, an end to the practice
of favoring large-volume mailers over
Soren eran eat

Vancouver and District Labor Council
president Frank Kennedy has been going to
B.C. Federation of Labor conventions for
some 20 years, helping shape the policies
that have made the federation known as one
of the most progressive and militant in
North America.

But the current leadership “‘isn’t carrying
those policies out” and “isn’t developing
action in consultation with affiliates,” he
said — and that’s why his name will be
going on the ballot for president when the
federation’s biennial elections are held Nov.
30 during the convention.

Kennedy, the president of the VDLC for
the last four years |
and secretary-trea-
surer of the Cana- }
dian area of the
International Long-
shoremen’s and Ware-
housemen’s Union
(ILWU) since 1969,
anounced his inten-
tion to run against
incumbent federation &
president Art Kube
at the labor council
meeting Oct. 2.

Several unions — the United Fishermen,
Telecommunications Workers, Carpenters,
Paperworkers, Marineworkers, Longshore-
men and others — have been pressing for a
change in leadership for some weeks and
most were expected to endorse Kennedy
over the next few weeks.

The 11,000-member TWU has already
thrown its support behind him as has the
Pacific Coast Maritime Council, represent-
ing the marine unions.

No other candidates have yet been nomi-

FRANK
KENNEDY

benefits cut, an end to layoffs and con- |

nated to run with Kennedy although it 1s
possible the same unions backing his chal-
lenge will contest some other officers’
positions.

But even a change in the presidency
would have a significant effect on the direc-
tion of the leadership which currently is
“not mobilizing the affiliates” and is “put-
ting too many actions on hold,” Kennedy
said in an interview.

“There’s too much decision-making left
to the top,” he added, “and too many of
those decisions are made in the backrooms.”

He cited as an example the conference of
unions May 16 called by the federation to
spell out labor’s response to Bill 18, the
amendments to the Labor Code. The meet-
ing was virtually unanimous in stating that
the program laid out by the officers was far
too mild but the decision to develop a
stronger program was left in the hands of
the officers.

And nothing came of it, Kennedy said.

“The leadership needs to develop action
in consultation with the affiliates — and
that means going out to unions and finding
out what they’re prepared to do,” he said.

He added that developing action “doesn’t
mean going hell-bent to organize a general
strike. But there’s a hell of a lot we can do
between a general strike and what the lead-
ership is doing now.”

He emphasized that the federation has
developed “books full of policy over the
years — and they’re good progressive
policies.

“But what’s needed is the will of the lead-
ership to carry them out.”

That will also mean a more independent
role for the federation whose current leaders
have tended to echo the position of the

A cross-Canada solidarity tour in aid

of Britain’s striking coal miners is being
organized by the Alberta Federation of
‘Labor together with District 18 of the
United Mine Workers of America, and
the United Steelworkers local represent-
ing the coal miners at Grande Cache,
Alta.

AFL president Dave Werlin announ-
ced last week that the federation had
received confirmation from Britain’s
National Union of Mineworkers, that
NUM president Arthur Scargill had
authorized the visit to Canada of coal
miner Eric Clark and his wife, to bring
the story of the miners’ six-month battle
for a decent life and a secure future, to
Canadian workers.

Clark is the organizer for the Scottish
section of the NUM.

The Clarks are expected to arrive in
Edmonton, Oct. 23 and the details of
their itinerary while in Canada will be
released the following day.

Following a tour of Alberta, the

AFL sponsors tour of British miners

Clarks will travel to this province and a
major public meeting is expected for Oct.
30 although the date and location were
not confirmed at press time. The tour
here is jointly sponsored by the B.C.
Federation of Labor and the Vancouver
and District Labor Council.

Werlin said in an interview that Cana-
dian workers “feel a high degree of solid- ©
arity with the British miners and theirs is
a struggle than can and must be won.

“Workers here are faced every day by
the constant attack of Tory governments -
right across the country and in Ottawa
itself, and the fight of the British miners
should be of deep concern to all of us.

Earlier this month, Steve Shukla, a
representative of the Armthorpe Branch
of the NUM, will be in B.C. as part of a
tour that has taken him to several centres
in both the U.S. and Canada.

He is scheduled to address a public
meeting Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m. at Britannia
Auditorium, 1661 Napier Drive in
Vancouver.

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 10, 1984

‘Kennedy bid stresses action

NDP leadership in not taking on the
government directly over its policies.
He said that he considers the policy of

endorsing the NDP to be correct “but that °

doesn’t mean that the labor movement
should have the Same position as the NDP.

“The trade union movement must always

reserve the right to advance its own policies.

More than anything, the labor movement
has to muster all its strength,” he said,
“because there’s no question that the major
employers’ oragnizations are behind the
government in the current attack on the
trade union movement. That means using
“whatever economic power the trade union
movement has” to ‘win agreements and
maintain labor rights, he said.

Ever since he announced his candidacy,
Kennedy said he’s had calls of support from
throughout federation ranks although not
all of them speak for unions who will sup-
port him on the floor.

Art Kube is expected to have the backing
of the big B.C. Fed affiliates including the
IWA, Steelworkers, and B.C. Government
Employees as well as sections of the Cana-
dian Union of Public Employees.

Differences over the Solidarity events
and picketing policy had prompted reports

of a rift between Kube and IWA president _

Jack Munro but it is unlikely that the two
will go into the convention divided, The
BCGEU has also taken exception to some
federation actions but the leaders of the
union are likely to urge that Kube be
supported.

Still, Kennedy said he “has a good
chance” and is confident that he can win a
majority of delegates.

Some local media have begun red-baiting
and he suggested that some in the trade
union movement make seek to turn the

‘election into “left versus right.

“But that’s.a phony issue,” he said. “It’s
not left versus right it’s whether or not there
is a leadership which will work with all the
unions and carry out the federation policy.”

He also emphasized that his candidacy
was announced early so that unionists could
have a change to go over the issues before
electing delegates.

“Once we get on the convention floor, we
can hassle out the differences — but then

we’ve got to unite behind the policy of the _

Fed,” he said.

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completing the job, Expo had to cover —

| tionships between Expo 86 manage-

Expo probe |
demanded

Continued from page 1

at least three to four months after the
Nov. 15 deadline,” Gautier said.

When Building Trades representa-
tives and at least one reporter attemp-
ted to get an explanation Expo
management ‘suddenly took the
position that Kerkhoff had been
granted a four-month extension,” he
said,

The reason given for the extension |
was that the gate had been re-designed J
although Gautier noted that the re- —
design was aJready underway when
the contract was awarded to Kerkhoff. |

He suggested that the contract had |
originally been awarded to Kerkhoff }
‘in haste” in order to bring the issue |
of non-union and union contractors |
on the site “to a head.” Once it real- —
ized Kerkhoff would have trouble

up its poor management practice by —
extending the deadline.

Significantly, although Kerkhoff }
was given an extension of four }
months, union contractors were }
threatened earlier that if projects were
delayed even for a few days they
would risk losing their contract.

Tourism Minister Claude Rich- —
mond also stressed at the time the
Kerkhoff contract was awarded that
schedules were critical, pointing out |
that the “importance of completion
on schedule is: paramount.”

Expo also departed from industry
standards by not calling on unsuccess-
ful bidders to re-submit on the basis of
the re-design.

Expo vice-president of communi- —
cations Jess Ketcheum claimed fol- |
lowing the Trades’ press conference
that contracts are not sent out for —
contractors to re-submit bids unless}
re-design work involves more than 15 J
per cent of the total contract. He also —
claimed that the extension was given —
Kerkhoff because the delay “was not }
Kerkhoff’s fault.” 3

But his comments only deepened }
suspicions of a cover-up since he gave |
no explanation for the fact that Kerk- |
hoff did not include details of sub- —
contractors — and it is the lack ofa —
sub-contractor to: complete the steel
fabriction and erection work that is
responsible for the delay.

Gautier charged that Expo is mak-
ing “highly unusual decisions” with
regard to the non-union contractors.

“Whether this results from political
pressure or from some special rela-

£

ment and some of the non-union ~
contractors, we have no way of know- |
ing,” he aid. a

“But what is clear is that on a —
publicly-financed project such as
Expo 86 growing suspicions about
management practices can only be
put to rest by an independent investi- 3
gation with the power to obtain com- —
plete access to Expo records and to —
report publicly on the corporation’ s
management practices.” j

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186

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