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—— page 7

Jobless win b

The laid-off employees of
Citation Cabinets who staged a
one-day sit-in at the Unemploy-
ment Insurance Commission of-
fices in downtown Vancouver last
October have finally won the
right to receive UI benefits.

The UIC Board of Referees in
a unanimous decision Dec. 31 re-
jected the commission’s argu-
ment that the more than 100 kit-
chen cabinet makers were
unemployed because of a labor
dispute following a four-month
strike last summer.

But the members of the
Carpenters Local 1928 may still
face opposition from the UIC,
which has not ruled out a further
appeal.

“From the start we said it was
absurd for the UIC to claim our
members were out of work
because of a labor dispute,”’ said
Local 1928 Pat Haggarty, one of
seventy-odd workers involved in
the sit-in.

“Tt would appear to us that (the

{| commission’s) ruling was based

not on economic facts but on a
desire by the UIC to keep as many
people from receiving UI benefits
as possible, regardless of whether
they are entitled to those
benefits,’ he charged. _

The UIC had maintained that

the workers were ineligible fo;

benefits because only a few of the
employees at Citation’s Rich.
mond and Cloverdale plants haq
been called back to work follow.
ing the signing of amemorandum
of agreement which. officially
ended the strike. :

According to UI regulations,
85 percent of aworkforce must be
recalled following 4 labor
dispute, Otherwise, those
workers not recalled are deemeq
to be out of work because of
business Jost during the strike,
and are hence ineligible for
benefits, :

It’s a clause which effectively
penalizes those who use the strike
weapon in labor disputes. But the
regulations also allow the
mitigating circumstances to app-

ly, such as a general downturn in
the economy. In such cases, the
85 percent quota does not apply.

The union successfully argued
that point before the Board of
Referees, Presenting several
witnesses — Union officials and
economists — Who testified that
housing starts, on which the kit-
chen cabinet business largely
depends, had decreased by an
astronomical 84 percent in the last
year.

esenting Local 1928,
Ewen Gaile Gavin also forced
from company officials during
cross-examination the admission
that Citation had laid off its 18
sales staff during the dispute,
which effectively undercut any ef-
forts at successful contract bid-

ding. :
That constituted, in the
referees judgement, an

mo. 63/82
SAROUR RELATIONS BOARD OF BRITISS COMmBTA

TUMBLER RIDGE CONTRACTORS
(GOODBRAKO TOM LED., YELLOWEEAD
EXCAVATIG LID., AMD WILLS ENTERPRISES LTD.)
wand-
CONSTRUCTION LABOUR RELATIONS ASSOCIATION
wand-
PEACE RIVER-LIARD REGIOMAL BOSPITAL DISTRICT
vand-
SCHOOL DISTRICT #59, PEACE RIVER SOUTH
wand-
B.C. AND YUKON BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL AND
17S AFFILIATED UNIONS
DECISION OF THE BOARD
Brian foley, Vice-Chairman
Clare Alcott, Member

John Brown, Member

Local 1928 president Pat Haggarty (in chair) and others at UI sit-in last October.

‘“employer’s decision not to pur-
sue or seek work irrespective of
the delivery date (which) effec-
tively contributed to the slow
start-up (following the strike’s
termination).”’

Other evidence also showed
that Citation’s major competitors
had laid off employees — in one
case, up to one-third of the
workforce — in the past year,
despite some increases in business
due to the Citation strike.

Critics maintain that the UIC’s
intransigence on the issue is part
of a regular practice whereby the
commission denies benefits to as
many unemployed workers as is
possible. UI claims investigators
had several times postponed a
decision on the case, which led to
frustration and the eventual sit-in
at the offices last year.

The members of Local 1928

demanded the commission render

enefits fight

LRB opens

door to
non-union

sector
— page 8 —

a decision on their case im-
mediately. But UI officials
responded with a police enforced
eviction.

Insult was added to injury
when the commission informed
the union the following week that
the workers were ineligible.

“These workers have endured
unnecessary hardship and suffer-
ing all fall and into the winter
because of the UIC adjudicator’s
ridiculous original ruling,’’ said
Haggarty following the union’s
successful appeal.

“In light of the referees
unanimous support of our appeal
it should be obvious to everyone
that the situation should be rec-
tified as quickly as possible.”’

Of the initial 120 Citation
workers laid-off, 107 still remain
on the unemployment rolls. So
far the company has recalled 58

employees.

Controls
target

for Que.
labor

— page 4 —

| Soviet citizens speak for peace

— page 5

|

New ground was broken with
the release Jan. 2 of a state-
ment and report by Roman
Catholic bishops which attack-
ed the capitalist system and call-
ed for new policies to put
Canada’s jobless back to work
and an end to cutbacks in social

Entitled Ethical Reflections
on the Economic Crisis, the
report from the Canadian Con-
ference of Catholic Bishops’
Espiscopal Commission for
Social Affairs was immediately
attacked by business interests,
but praised by Canadian labor
leaders.

Toronto archbishop Emmett
Cardinal Carter, known for his
conservative views, said he had
“serious reservations” about
opinions expressed in the
report, and denied that it was
reflective of the church as a
whole.

But the study was cleared by
the conference’s four-member
executive, and the head of eight-
member social affairs commis-
sion predicted that ‘‘the vast
majority of Canadian bishops
will support us.”’

Containing a five-point pro-
gram for economic recovery
based on the thesis that the 1.5
million unemployment rate and
cuts to social services in favor of
profits are unethical and im-
moral, Ethical Reflections is
probably the strongest-worded
argument for progressive
economic reform ever to come
from Canadian Catholic
Church officials.

Stating that “‘the rights of
workers are more important
than the maximization of pro-
fits,’’ the study states that
‘“unemployment rather than in-
flation should be recognized
asthe number one problem to be
tackled in overcoming the pre-
sent crisis.’’

The report goes on to call for

of wage controls to upper in-
come brackets’ while
See CAPITALISM page 8