BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver's fair wage policy is on the
chopping block unless trade unionists can
force the city’s new right-wing council to
change its mind, the Vancouver and District
Labor Council has warned.

VDLC secretary-treasurer Frank Ken-
nedy reported Mayor Gordon Campbell, at
a meeting with trade union representatives
Jan. 6, rejected a call for the fair wage issue
to be aired at public hearings and told the
unionists the matter would be debated at a
future council meeting.

Council will debate the issue Feb. 3, and
in preparation, the labor council has called
a meeting of all interested parties for Jan.
22.

The 18-month old policy stipulates that
contractors awarded city construction pro-
jects pay their workers the equivalent of
wages and benefits paid to the city’s unio-
nized, part-time workforce. But at its first
business meeting Dec. 6, the new council,
dominated by members of the civic Non-
Partisan Association, opted not to imple-
ment the policy on a project to upgrade a
police substation.

The move was not unexpected of the
right-wing group which took eight of coun-
cil’s seats — including the mayor’s chair —
in the civic election last November. In the
former council, controlled by labor-backed
aldermen and the mayor, Campbell and
other NPA aldermen consistently. voted
against including the fair wage in tender
documents.

Council’s fair wage policy has been the ,
target of an intense lobbying campaign by

contractors, including several anti-union,
right-to-work firms which succeeded in
obtaining a B.C. Supreme Court ruling
overturning what was. then a fair wage

bylaw. Council got around the ruling by -

implementing the policy in a vote every time
a project came up for tender;

The bylaw was adopted by council at the

urging of Building Trades unions which
pointed out the increasing number of non-
union firms were reaping added profits by
paying their workers substandard- wages
while putting in bids which were only
slightly lower than unionized contractors.

The bylaw passed through several stages
of discussion in council committee and full
meetings at which pro and con arguments
were heard before adoption. And that pro-
cess should be followed before any changes
are enacted, trade unionists asserted.

Council’s action in voting to change the
policy without any public discussion
brought an angry response from Carpenters
Provincial Council president Bill Zander,
who called it “total contempt for the demo-
cratic process and the incomes of workers.”

Zander, along with B.C: Building Trades
Council president Roy Gautier, B.C. Fed-
eration of Labor secretary Cliff Andstein
and VDLC secretary Frank Kennedy, met
with Campbell Jan. 6 to urge a full public
meeting on in the. issue. But the mayor

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 14, 1987

Unions rally
to defend
Vancouver's

_ fair wage

refused, saying the issue would be dealt with -
at a regular council meeting.

“We are not satisfied with this process at
all,” Kennedy said later.

“Tf city council wants to review the policy
they should leave the existing policy in place
while the review is underway. And they
should solicit input from the people affected
and the public,” he said.

Gautier said that since the fair wage
policy — which sets wages at city union
rates which are approximately 16 per cent
less than Building Trades rates — was
enacted, awards to unionized and non-
unionized firms have been split approxi-
mately equally.

“As for the question of the cost to the
taxpayer — the city’s bureaucrats can’t say
what the cost factor has been. How can they
claim abolishing the fair wage will realize
any savings?” he asked.

ROY GAUTIER

He was referring to an unreleased report
from the city manager Fritz Bowers which
urges council to drop the policy — which
would involve firing the fair wage officers
and disbanding the office — but which
provides no cost analysis of the policy.

“What happens when the fair wage is
abolished is that we’ll return to the days
when non-nunion contractors could bid just
a little bit lower than a union firm, win the
contract and then skim the cream off the
top while paying their workers substandard
wages,” he charged.

The labor council has called a public
meeting on the fair wage policy in prepara-
tion for the Feb. 3 city council meeting. It’s
set for Thursday, Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m. at the
Iron Workers Hall, 2415 Columbia St. in
Vancouver.

FRANK KENNEDY

BILL ZANDER

By STEVE GIDORA
In the analysis ,

of the outgoing
campaign commit-
tee for the Surrey
Coalition of Pro-
gressive Electors
(SCOPE), our f
labor-backed civic |

alliance surpassed
the objective we
-set for 1986.

It was evident

~ last - September GIROBA

that the then upcoming provincial elec-
tion would eclipse the importance of
Surrey’s municipal election. The Oct. 22
election interfered with the mobilization
of organized labor support and hindered
the involvement of many other potential
supporters. ete

In real terms, the voter turnout — the
percentage of registered and unregistered
voters — materialized at only 10 per
cent. But SCOPE candidates increased
their share of that vote.

In assessing Surrey’s civic elections,
one must consider that the main business
occupying municipal council’s time is
land development. In Surrey, with its
vast land tracts, are many large lan-
downers; absentee landlords, and land
assembly and construction interests.

These forces benefit from a low voter
turnout since, in such a climate, their
sphere of influence — combined with

~ that of the well-heeled big business polit-
ical parties —can have a maximum
effect on the election results.

Given that, it is quite an achievement
that the partial slate of three SCOPE
candidates, with a bare-bones budget,
were able to realize the following percen-
tages of the popular vote: Linda Mar-
cotte (school board), 30 per cent; Steve
Gidora (council), 20 per cent; Terry
Lawrence (council), 17 per cent.

It should also be noted that Gidora
was elected in the Bridgeview poll and
was first runner-up in the Surrey Memor-
ial Hospital poll. ;

SCOPE ran five candidates short of

- the required eight for a full slate (four for
school board, and four aldermanic). A
full slate of candidates representing the
broadest possible spectrum of the labor
and progressive movements could have
elected representatives to council that
would have directed development in the
interests of the community, and not
those of profit-orientated developers.

i. a

MARCOTTE LAWRENCE

and school trustees that would have been
leaders in the fight against education
cutbacks.

In short, because Surrey has never had
a broad centre-left coalition, municipal:

SCOPE calls for unity to win
in Surrey’s municipal election

council has been dominated by a centre-
right group for the past 10 years.

Genuine centre and left forces in our
community have some important deci-
sions to make between now and the
November, 1987 election. Those who
support the status quo must question the
validity of a continued pro-developer
majority on council.

More important, the large number of
uncommitted centre and left forces must
get involved in the municipal scene. And
a key goal of whatever coalition that
emerges must be the election of a pro-
gressive majority to council and school
board.

While commitment to federal and
provincial politics must never be ignored,
the possiblity of changing the political
climate on those fronts through the elec-
tion of progressive majorities munici-
pally should not be overlooked. Failure
to unite the broadest sections of the
centre-left forces to put the needs of the
community first will guarantee the con-
tinuation of the right wing on council

- and school board.

At present SCOPE is an ad hoc collec-
tion of organizations and individuals.
But it will be constituted as a civic
alliance at a special organizing meeting
Jane 292s

The first order of business will be the
election of an interim steering commit-
tee. The agenda will also be open to any
submissions that individuals and organi-
zations may wish ‘to contribute.

~The meeting, beginning at 8 p.m., is at
the Unwin Hall, 6945 - 134th St.; Surrey.

Hite

eisai