Labour Notes Auditors protest contract stalling TORONTO — Federal tax auditors, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, set up picket lines outside Revenue Canada offices in Vanocvuver June 16, joining PSAC members else- where in the country in protesting Treas- ury Board’s continued stalling of contract negotiations. Auditors in Toronto and Montreal had walked out earlier in the week, on June 13. PSAC representative Jack Rudd told reporters that the picket was intended to press Treasury Board “to return to the bargaining table.” In Toronto, following a two-hour mass picket that began at 7:30 a.m., the auditors broke into small groups deployed at all the entrances of two taxation offices to talk to *PSAC members going in to work. Anne Marie Long, president of Local 013 of the Alliance’s Union of Taxation Employees, said wages were the main issue behind the strike action. The auditors’ col- lective agreement expired more than a year ago, on April 20, 1987. Two months ago, they rejected Treas- ury Board’s “final” offer of a 3.4 per cent annual wage hike over a 27-month agree- ment. The union contrasted the offer with the Il per cent wage hike received in November, 1987 by the Treasury Board’s director of negotiations, the 9-14 per cent increases awarded to government execu- tives and deputy ministers, and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s 22 per cent raise. All the increases resulted from recommendations made in a report to Mulroney by an advisory group studying what public service executives should be paid. Long said the picket line was part of the series of job actions the union has been conducting, including a work slowdown. “That’s been a pinch so far and that doesn’t really hurt. Now we’re going to start squeezing,” she said. The federal auditors monitor corporate tax returns to ensure compliance with the Income Tax Act and Regulations. Long said an auditors’ strike would have a sig- nificant impact, including preventing cor- porations from collecting tax credits on research and development and closing down the appeals division, forcing taxpay- ers to take appeals to court. Union officials said that over the next few weeks an escalating program of pro- test action would be developed. HEU signs long term care pacts Members of the Hospital Employees Union last week ratified contracts with 13 private long term care facilities, winding up negotiations that had been in progress for nearly two years. The new pacts will increase pay scales for HEU members anywhere from 11 to 151 per cent and will bring wages and benefits up to the prevailing standard in the health care field. During nearly two years of negotia- tions, the bargaining agent for the employers, Continuing Care Employee Relations Association (CCERA) had demanded the inclusion of an “ability to pay” clause in the collective agreement, prompting the union to take strike votes and ultimately forcing the issue to media- tor Dalton Larson. : The demand was subsequently with- drawn when the provincial government agreed to provide additional funding. Despite the agreement with the HEU, however, four of the facilities, members of the Private Care Association of B.C., are still in dispute with the B.C. Nurses Asso- ciation. In addition, several other long term care facilities have yet to settle with the HEU. “With 13 contracts now ratified, it proves that employers at for-profit facili- ties can afford to pay our members the prevailing standard of wages and benefits, “said HEU secretary-business manager Jack Gerow. “The union will now focus its attention on settling contracts with the remaining facilities which opted not to negotiate with the other 13.” Charges against ARU thrown out A decision by a provincial court judge who ruled Thursday that CP Rail’s attempt to prosecute rail workers for ref- using to cross picket lines was “blatant abuse,” has paved the way for increased picket line solidarity in the railway shop- craft workers’ strike at CP Rail. Judge Selwyn Romilly ruled June 16 that three CP Rail workers, members of the Association of Railway Unions, could not be charged under the federal back-to- work legislation, Bill C-85, for honouring shopcraft workers’ picket lines because the emergency under which the legislation was passed had long passed and the law was no longer in force. And the attempt by CP Rail lawyers 10 prosecute the three under the legislation was “blatant abuse of the criminal pro- cess” since the corporation was attempt — ing to use criminal proceedings to deal with a civil case, the provincial court judge decided. : Although the ruling dealt specifically with only three members of the ARU charged under the legislation, it Was” expected to affect the other cases as well. In all, 16 members of the ARU were — charged in March with refusing to CrOSS — picket lines put up at the Port Coquitlam rail yards by striking shopcraft workers. The case was particularly significant since CP Rail decided to use its own lawy- ers to conduct the prosecution. The multinational corporation Was attempting to use Bill C-85, the Mainte- nance of Railway Operations Act which was passed last summer to force striking ARU members back on the job, to disc pline workers for respecting shoperaft workers’ picket lines. an Shopcraft workers began rotating strike _ action against CP Rail March 16 and fol- lowed it up with a full-scale strike at the Port Coquitlam yard in April. But the impending prosecution and the threat Of further charges under Bill C-85 had made it difficult for ARU members to respect picket lines. 1. Rail workers demonstrate April under Bill C-85. wee 14 in support of 16 ARU members charged iim Agains » z = Employers ‘have Bill 19 and they’re using it Continued from page 1 “They know what it means for us to go on strike — that the orders are all ready at the courthouse — and they’re arrogant about that.” Haynes emphasized that the union would be continuing to keep up the pressure for a settlement, including a publicity campaign now getting underway. “But if that pressure fails, we'll be out on strike,” he said. Georgetti emphasized that the federation was also “looking for a fair settlement. “However, we will not hesitate to provide these 200 BCNU members with the support it will take to convince their employers that negotiating is the most prudent road for them to take,” he said. If the nurses do walk out, it will be the first confrontation with the anti-labour leg- islation since the strike by the 1WA-Canada at North Mitchell Lumber last fall and pos- sibly a harbinger of the disputes to come in this summer’s heavy round of bargaining. At issue for the nurses is the effort by the employers to take away many existing benefits which the BCNU has negotiated in past years and to impose an inferior collec- tive agreement. The 14 facilities (a 15th facility, Simp- son’s Private Hospital in Langley, is also: . 20 .e.Pacific. Tubune, June 22,1988 - - involved in the dispute although BCNU members have not yet taken a strike vote) are all private, for-profit hospitals and are all members of Pri-Care. But they, in turn, contracted with Continuing Care Employee Relations Association (CCERA), another long-term care hospital employers group, to conduct their collective bargaining for them. As a result, “every time we went to the bargaining table, we knew CCERA had another agenda,” Haynes noted. Haynes explained that the BCNU cur- rently has members in long term care covered under two agreements: the general hospitals agreement, negotiated with Hos- pital Labour Relations Association(HLRA), covering some 2,100 nurses at long term and extended care hospitals; and another with CCERA facilities which covers only some 200 nurses, and which, because it is more recent, has slightly inferior wages and conditions. Initially, the union sought to negotiate a unique contract with Pri-Care, but the hegotiators “were adamant that wouldn’t happen,” said Haynes. Instead, he said, “they have pushed the CCERA agreement.” But even at that, they want to delete the existing pension plan, he added. The union is pressing for the HLRA agreement as the basis for a new contract — but without having to give up some benefits which they now have which are superior to the HLRA pact. Among those is a provision that graduate. nurses who have accreditation from another coun- try but have not yet been certified in this province will still be paid the full rate. That provision is of particular impor- tance because many of nurses working in long term care hospitals have been trained and certified in the Philippines. arp ee ee eee eae TRIBUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. VSK 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 Name 0 elie: 6 06.0 0.9 106 6 0 0 6 0 v0 6.6 6 .e i .oe ed Postal Code lamenclosing 1yr.$200 2yrs.$350) 3yrs. $5000 Foreign 1 yr. $320 Bill me later 0 Donation$........ A leaflet distributed by nurses calls on employers “to recognize the wages and working conditions that other nurses have as an industry standard in B.C. — without taking away what’s been negotiated in the past.” Haynes said that the union had some discussions with employers on maintaining - essential services in the event of strike action. But notwithstanding the dispute over the validity of the strike notice, agree- ment on service levels had only been reached at a few of the facilities, he said. Co ee