LABOR Spokesmen for B.C.’s public sector unions reacted diplomati- : cally to the election last week at the a Social Credit party convention of ‘fee Bill Vander Zalm as party leader and hence premier of the province. While holding back on dire pre- who drew the most pre-Solidarity FF aS ae ide SCP a 5 = e ae outrage for his draconian measures fee ee in several ministerial portfolios, ioe representatives of the B.C. Govern- ment Employees Union, the B.C. Nurses Union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the B.C. Federation of Labor pledged to oa protect union rights against any se further government attacks on a. labor. a 4 f a 4 : president John Shields urged the 1 : = premier-elect to become directly CPU’s 60,000 members. es indicated a fair success. office,” Buchanan said. { ) a dictions: of life under a premier - Ina statement July 31 BCGEU , National union president Jim Buchanan told the Tribune Tuesday that preliminary estimates show the post card campaign has produced a response in the area of “30 to 50 per cent,” which Buchanan said “The only problem we’ve had in tabulating the results is that some people have made a mistake and have mailed the cards directly to the prime minister. They’re supposed to mail them in to the national Success for the campaign is particularly crucial for British Columbia, where recent protectionist mea- sures taken by the United States have resulted in damaging tariffs on Canadian shake and shingle exports, causing layoffs and mill closures. involved in talks around the nine- month old dispute with the provin- cial government. Saying it is time to “end confrontation” in B.C. industrial relations, Shields said his union is still fighting for a contract with no concessions and wage hikes in each year of the agree- ment. The BCGEU suspended its rotating strike action until after the election of a new Socred leader on July 4, after Premier Bill Bennett had threatened to legislate union members back to work. Vander Zalm when elected threatened to make illegal strikes in “essential services,” without defin- ing the term. “T don’t know how free collec- tive bargaining can continue to exist if he (Vander Zalm) carries ‘End confrontation: BCGEU out an extreme interpretation of that term,” said Mike Dumler, president of CUPE’s B.C. division. Pat Van Horne of the B.C. Nurses Union, which is in a- months-old dispute with the pro- vince’s hospitals’ stance of no wage hikes and working conditions improvements, said the union “will do everything it can to prevent” wholesale banning of public sector strikes. B.C. Fed president Art Kube said the federation and its affiliates have long-standing policies on: maintaining essential services dur- ing strikes and said it will back any affiliate or non-affiliate under attack because of government “infringement” on their right to strike. CPU hits free trade talks Citing the threat to at least 18,000 paperworkers jobs, the Canadian Paperworkers Union has launched a post card campaign aimed at pressuring the federal government to cancel all further free trade talks. The campaign, which parallels a general anti-free trade effort by the Canadian Labor Congress, has seen the distribution of the specialized post cards to the That has led some union members in the forest industry to conclude that tariff-free trade is good for the industry. But that’s faulty logic, argues CPU staff representative in B.C.,.Brian Payne. “The fact is that free trade will have a drastic effect on the Canadian forest industry,” said Payne. He said the unused capacity of the paper industry in the United States matches in size the entire Canadian industry involved in the manufacture of box board, container board and fine paper products. The union, along with the Canadian Labor Con- gress, argues that individual issues of U.S.-Canada trade should be discussed at the next round of talks on the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT), said Buchanan. Copies of the post card were mailed to individual locals of the CPU in June. Additionally, the June edition of the CPU Journal included two copies each of the card, “so that members could get their friends and neighbors to sign one,” said Payne. For Tribune readers the cards can be mailed, postage-free, directly to Prime Minister Brian Mulro- ney, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0A2. Sir: NO TO FREE TRADE You have no mandate to negotiate away our way of life. You have no mandate to negotiate away the jobs of 1,000,000 Canadian workers. | demand that you withdraw from talks on Free Trade and fulfill your promise for jobs, jobs, jobs. Signature (name — please print) City Province CANADIAN PAPERWORKERS UNION SYNDICAT CANADIEN DES TRAVAILLEURS DU PAPIER Postal Code Eas FACSIMILE OF CPU POSTCARD ... ed 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 6, 1986 threat to 18,00 jobs cited. FIRIBONE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 125. Phone 251-1186 eevee reese eee er eer eerre see Postal Code ; lamenclosing 1yr.$16() 2yrs. $280] 6mo. $100) Foreign 1 yr. $25 7 Bill me later 4 Donation$ '/\ READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR ? Labor in action George Hewison All-out support for Gainers strike The political face of Alberta is rapidly changing. The day , the oil-produced boom and the burgeoning Heritage Fun’ long gone. They’ ve been replaced by depression in town and count not to mention deficit provincial budgets and the attack on” working class. Under similar situations when the bottom drops out so rapid! i , the reaction can spell a resurgence of the right. Alberta, Wy , has spawned Social Credit and Jim Keegstra, could have logit been assumed to follow this path. j Instead, Albertans shifted left and elected a large conting® New Democrats and resurrected the Liberal Party. : The answer to why the ultra-right fared so badly and the™, inherited the fall out from disaffection with the Tories, may, accounted for in large part to the heightened role of the Wo class and to independent political action by its organized the trade unions. Labor in Alberta followed the lead of Solidarity in B.C» brought into being a broad citizens’ coalition which voc® public opposition to the Tories. Lately there have been few struggles taking place in Al which have not involved the input of the Labor movement the Alberta Federation of Labor’s leadership. Thus when Peter Pocklington decided to take on the wor xe i, his Gainers plant in Edmonton, he took on more than the WO?” in his particular operation. Dubensky’s Whitewash He took on an aroused and united trade union membé! along with many new-found allies. Even when the courts if! vened on Pocklington’s side, followed by police violenc€ harassment, supporters surged on to picket lines to demons" solidarity with the Gainers workers. F After two months on the picket line, Don Getty’s new i government hoping to diffuse the situation, and get off the P “of tical hook for their archaic and anti-labor laws appointe¢ ° porate friend Al Dubensky to concoct a whitewash of Poe ton’s attack. On July 26, 95 per cent of the Gainers workers, _ same number as had voted to strike, rejected the terms 9 Dubensky report. Any hope Pocklington, Getty, or Dubensky may havé ©) boured that the United Food and Commercial Workers memb ship would split, vanished with that impressive vote. wt In addition, more than 5,000 Boycott Gainers lawn signs a already popped up on Edmonton lawns; with an additional 5s in production; and the boycott campaign is spreading to oe Y and other Alberta centres. | UFCW Canadian Director Frank Benn has sent out a spy appeal to the trade union movement for support, while ” f president Dave Werlin has followed this with an appeal to Alb 0 affiliates for one dollar per member for the growing num0® strikes in Alberta whether it be at Gainers, Suncor or Zel™ a where the workers have been on strike since April 10. Following these and earlier appeals by Canadian Labor of gress president Shirley Carr, financial support has start ‘ come in from all across the country, with the Canadian Unidl, Public Employees, the Canadian Auto Workers, the Nation r Union of Provincial Government Employees, B.C.’s Tele munications Workers Union and Local 1005 United Steel™ kers leading the way with substantial donations. Plans are now under way for strikers to fan out aca country spreading the message of the boycott and appealif® d funds, worker to worker. oo! Strike pay alone, is costing the UFCW more than $160, week, so financial support is critically needed. The $140 the)" every week is barely enough to cover the immediate bills off of the strikers, many of whom are dipping into rapidly d : ing savings, and the children must return to school. sf Nevertheless the strikers are enthusiastic for their caus® ct for their union. A trip to the picket line and the honking ? horns in support of the strike confirms that Gainers worké on the winning track. rable Sooner or later, Pocklington will return to the bargaining to settle with the strikers. That settlement will be a defeal’ Pocklington and his neo-conservative friends. fi Now is the time to crank up all-out support for the Galt workers. This is no ordinary strike, because Alberta’s movement is now in the lead halting the busting of unl throughout Canada. a