Left gains changing Mexican politics

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FMIBUNE

challenging) BGGEU urges solid
Pinochet's | mandate for strike |

plebiscite |

as govt breaks off

Members of the B.C. Government
Employees Union moved into the second
week of strike balloting this week as the
union went out to its 30,000 members seek-
ing a strong mandate to back demands for
catch-up wage increases and increased job
security.

The strike vote was launched Aug. 10
following a series of more than 40 meetings
around the province where BCGEU
members urged the leadership to get a strike
mandate. Voting is to continue at union
polling stations until Aug. 31 and the vote
results are expected to be announced Sept. a
2.

“Our members in every region of the
province have told us that if the government
is not prepared to treat them fairly, then
they are prepared to strike,” BCGEU presi-
dent John Shields said in a statement Aug.
oF

In line with the B.C. Federation of
Labour’s boycott of the Industrial Rela-
tions Council, the strike vote is being con-
ducted without IRC supervision.

Shields said the decision to move to a
strike vote was taken following a break-
down of talks July 28.

Bob Plecas, chief negotiator for the
Social Credit government, tabled an offer
which combined wage increases of four,
four and five percent over three years witha
demand for concessions on the key issue of
contracting-out. Government negotiators
then refused to conduct further talks until
after the contract expired July 31.

“This proposal is an insult to the 30,000
government workers who deserve a fair set-
tlement,”’ Shields told Plecas. “This does
not in any way address their key concerns.”

The BCGEU has proposed a new,
reduced wage classification system together
with a 17 per cent wage increase in a one-
year agreement to bring union members up

see BCGEU page 8

aE

August 17, 1988
50°

Vol. 51, No. 30

— page 3 —

EDUARDO CONTRERES

- VOTER RIgeT="
CAMPAIGN. H

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Volunteers Margaret Black (I) and Chris Moseley set up shop at Nanaimo and Hastings on Vancouver's east side Tuesday as
the COPE voter registration drive continues in high gear before the Aug. 21 deadline. In the 10 days since voters’ lists
became available, COPE has reached 5,600 households — it hopes to push that number to 10,000 by Sunday — and has
actually registered 1,100 people. But organizer Sue Harris warns that they are finding one-third of those they reach are not
on the voters list and many are unaware that the NPA cancelled the door-to-door enumeration. COPE has called on the city
to move immediately to hire more registrars to ensure that the more than 100,000 unregistered but eligible voters get on

the list for the Nov. 19 election.

—

; Military spending making peace a key election issue

Canadian peace activists reacted angrily
to the announcement earlier this month
that the Tory government will spend $750
million to acquire 12 minehunter ships for
the Canadian navy.

The minehunter purchase is the second
major military spending announcement in
less than a week. A few days earlier, in
Calgary, Defence Minister Perrin Beatty
unveiled a $420-million plan to buy 820
northern-terrain, all-weather vehicles.

“These latest purchases, coupled with
the $12-billion nuclear submarine pro-
gram shows how out of step the Mulroney

government is with the majority of Cana-
dian people,” Sheena Lambert, campaign
co-ordinator for the Canadian Peace
Pledge Campaign, told the Tribune.

“The Canadian government and the
military are operating in some kind of
World War Two scenario,” Lambert said.
“What they haven’t realized is that the
current nuclear weapons reality in the
world has made these purchases not only
obsolete but also very dangerous.”

Just as the minehunter and all-terrain
vehicle purchases were being announced,
the Canadian military announced that it is

seeking at least another $2 billion for a
new tank program. The new tank, still to
be designed, is intended to replace the 128
Leopard-1 battle tanks now in service,
most of them with Canada’s NATO con-
tingent in West Germany.

When the Leopard tanks rolled of the
assembly line in 1978 at the cost of $187
million, they were called the “tank to take
us into the next century.” Now military
planners are calling the Leopard totally
inadequate in meeting Canada’s commit-
ment in Europe.

Even though the new tanks could bring

the Tory government’s military expendi-
tures over the next 15 years close to the
$200-billion mark, up from the $183 bil-
lion originally forecast in the white paper,
military spokespersons are confident the
plan will receive the go-ahead from the
federal cabinet. British, West German,
French and American manufacturers are
expected to compete for the lucrative pro-
ject.

“Challenge and Commitment,” the
Tories white paper on defence released in

see TORY page 3

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