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Court ‘sending a message’
over labour legislation

Continued from page 1

The Supreme Court justice also refused
an application for an injunction against the
picketing.

“T’m satisfied that this is an improper use
of the Supreme Court...to cause the
Supreme Court to be in effect a rubber
stamp to a decision made by the provincial
tribunal (IRC),” Justice Trainor decided.

The application sought to enforce a July
15 IRC ruling that the strike was illegal
because a collective agreement was in place.
The union, which says the agreement
expired last year, boycotted the hearing in
support of the B.C. Federation of Labou
boycott of Bill 19.

Workers voted last year, under threat of
plant closure, to accept $3-per-hour wage
cuts for two years. But when the company
raised the wages of three employees, and
failed to enter into serious negotiations for a
new agreement, the local struck July 14
after serving a 72-hour strike notice.

The strike vote was conducted without
the IRC, and supervised by a notary public.

B.C. Fed secretary-treasurer Cliff And-

stein said Justice Trainor’s decision means
“the courts are sending a political message
to the government of B.C.

“The courts are sending a signal to the
government over its industrial relations pol-
icies. Workers don’t usually get sympathy
from the courts, especially if the case
involves property rights.

“The legislation is unbalanced” and the
IRC has “no credibility,” Andstein asserted.

The former Labour Relations Board had
the discretionary power to refuse employer
demands for a court order. Under Bill 19
the IRC must do it, he noted.

The ruling shows that courts do respond
to opinion in the community, Andstein
said. :

Rank and file union members are solidly
behind the boycott of Bill 19, he said. “That
is where the strength of this boycott lies.”

The Attorney General’s department has
joined Citation in launching an appeal of
Justice Trainor’s decisions, after failing to
get the justice to change his mind on the
matter, Local 1928’s Streb said.

He said the application for leave to
appeal the injunction will be filed Thursday
in the B.C. Appeals Court. The appeal of
the Section 30 decision is automatically
granted.

Dafoe, a 14-year employee at Citation,
said the union found out in May that the
company had hiked the wages of three
employees sometime last December or Jan-
uary.

Despite her firing, and company threats
to fire all Citation employees, the picket line
is standing firm, she said.

Employees on Monday prevented a
company truck from entering plant grounds
following a three-hour confrontation.

Dafoe praised the participation of other
trade unionists, noting that several were on
the line last week when it was expected that
court orders banning the picket would be
served.

She said: the union had no idea when it
downed tools that its members would be the
focal point of the IRC battle. But if their
action leads to the defeat of the legislation,
“we'll be mighty proud of it.”

BCGEU seeks job protection

The B.C. Government Employees Union
faces a tough week of “‘critical” bargaining
in a bid to protect members’ jobs from
privatization of government services and to
bring one-third of the provincial govern-
ment’s workforce above poverty-level
wages.

The government had been dragging its
heels on negotiations since talks started
June 6, union spokesman Sheila Fruman
said.

Things have improved, but the two sides
are still “very far apart” on the key issues
and if there is no substantial progress by
July 31, “we've told the government we'll be
going to our members for a mandate (strike
vote),” Fruman said.

She said it has only been in the past week
that government negotiator Bob Plecas has
been “finally serious” about negotiations in
which the BCGEU is calling for a 10-per
cent across-the-board wage hike.

Fruman said it appears that the “chaos”
affecting Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s office
has contributed to the government’s new
seriousness. “In previous years, the govern-
ment felt it could get public support for its
hard-line position, but now it looks like
Vander Zalm wants to avoid. any more
fights.”

The union estimates that wages have
fallen some 15 per cent behind comparable
public and private sector rates during the
last decade, and particularly since the Social
Credit government imposed its restraint
program in 1982.

The BCGEU has said wages for some
members have fallen 35 per cent below
comparable jobs in the private sector.

Public sector workers also face a
government that in its last budget placed a
ceiling of 2.8 per cent for public sector wage
hikes. And they bargain under the cloud of
the Industrial Relations Council’ and its
parent legislation, the Industrial Relations
Reform Act (Bill 19). :

Fruman said the union is bargaining over
two key issues: an end to poverty wages for
one-third of its members, and job protec-
tion against privatization.

In addition to the 10-per-cent hike, the
union is asking for wage increases of
between four and 17 per cent through a
reorganization of the hundreds of job classi-

8 e Pacific Tribune, July 27, 1988

JOHN SHIELDS ... BCGEU president charges government is seeking wage roll-
back.

fications now in existence. It averages out to
6.7 per cent, she said.

Job security is also key in this round of
talks. The BCGEU charges that the
government has violated the provisions
governing contracting-out of work, which
has resulted in layoffs affecting at least 2,000
jobs, Fruman said.

She charged that the government has
abused the 59-day limit on contracted work
by laying off non-union contracted workers
for one day, and then rehiring them, or by
changing project classification numbers.

The union probably has the best con-
tracting out protection language in Canada,
Fruman said, and that becomes important
in protecting members’ jobs in the face of
privatization. :

Article 24 of the collective agreement
stipulates that members’ jobs are protected
in services which the government needs,
whether or not it owns them. For example,
the privatization of the highways mainte-
nance department, a service the government
still requires even if the work is performed
by private companies, means government
workers formerly employed in highways
maintenance must be offered other work.
The clause does not apply to cases such as
the recent privatization of B.C. Steamship
Lines.

ie |
I

“Essentially, these negotiations will be
aimed at strengthening the enforcement
mechanism of that article,’ Fruman said.

Government negotiators last week de-
manded an increased work week above the
standard 35 hours, which BCGEU presi-
dent John Shields termed ‘“‘a provocative
act” that would mean in effect an eight-per-
cent wage rollback.

Fruman said recent public opinion sam-
plings and newspaper editorials show that a
majority of the public believe BCGEU
members’ wages are too low, and that most
British Columbians oppose the govern-
ment’s privatization program.

—

Labour Notes |

Gn

Rail workers
get security

OTTAWA — Tom Hodges, ge
eral chairman of the 14,000-membet
United Transportation Union, call
a federal arbitrator’s decision ensur
ing no workers will lose jobs if f
companies drop cabooses “a major
victory.” Dalton Larson’s ruling giv
3,500 UTU members now working 08
cabooses job security, better safety |
and working conditions, and comr
pensation.

If cabooses are dropped, Larso#
ruled July 19, the rail companies W
have to provide cooking, running
water and toilet facilities in thé
engines. Furthermore, workers gal?
the right to negotiate with manag®
ment to share savings made by scul
tling cabooses, which CN and C
have tried to do since 1984. There W!
also be a no-layoff clause inserted
the contract.

Labour backs
Bell strikers

OTTAWA — Nearly 250 people
joined striking Bell workers on thé
picketline in front of the Bell Canada
building here July 19 in a solidarity
action called by the Ottawa and Dis
trict Labour Council. Among t0P
labour officials joining Fred Pomeroy
president of the CWC which repres:
ents the 19,500 Bell employees, wet
Public Service Alliance of Canada
president Daryl Bean; ODLC sect
tary John Baglow; and Dick Merciel |
of the Canadian Labour Congress:
Mercier called on Bell to “get back t0
the negotiating table, and bargain 4
decent and equitable contract.” He
also said that Bell might have to De |
nationalized ‘“‘to turn it into a gO!
corporate citizen.”

NABET urges -
CFTO boycott

TORONTO — NABET, the unio?
representing workers at CFTO
(Channel 9) locked out for almost tw?
months by Baton Broadcasting, is cal
ling on viewers to boycott the station:
NABET regional director Brian LoW
told the Tribune that the station's
CTV network owners are showing 1°
interest in returning to the negotiating
table, so the union is looking for broa
public support.

“CFTO calls itself the ‘family st@”
tion’, but it’s turned on its own family
of workers, some who’ve been thel®
for 25 years, and their families,” said
Low. A noon-hour solidarity picket 4!
the CFTO building July 20 drew 2
people from NABET locals in thé
area.

4

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