LABOR

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LRB rules onad boycott

The B.C. Labor Relations Board Friday
dismissed an application by Famous Play-
ers to have an ad boycott by newspaper
unions declared an illegal strike but left the
door open for both the theatre chain and
Pacific Press to launch further action under
the Labor Code.

The case was a particularly crucial one
for the trade union movement since it rested
on the new definition of a strike contained
in the May 16 Labor Code amendments
and because it threw into question the legal-
ity of “hot” declarations issued by the B.C.
Federation of Labor.

But the board sidestepped both issues, at
least for the moment.

In its decision brought down Nov. 2, a
three-member LRB panel headed by vice-
chair Shona Moore ruled that the refusal to
handle advertising copy from Famous
Players was based on the collective agree-
ment between the newspaper unions and
Pacific Press, publisher of the Vancouver
Sun and Province. Because of that, the panel
stated Famous Players was a third party
and therefore “has no standing to appear
for a determination that the activities
of...unions at Pacific Press constitute a
strike against Pacific Press.”

The Newspaper Guild and the Joint
Council of Newspaper Unions, which com-
prises print and distribution unions at
Pacific Press, refused to handle any advertis-
ing copy from Famous Players after the
B.C. Fed declared the theatre chain “hot”
because of its use of scabs to replace locked-
out members of the Theatre Employees
Union.

Famous Players applied to the LRB Oct.
19 to have the ad boycott declared an illegal
strike under Section 79 of the Labor Code.
The U.S.-owned theatre chain also argued
in its application to the board that by refus-
ing to handle the ad copy, the newspaper
unions had extended the dispute to another
location — Pacific Press — thus violating
restrictions on secondary picketing.

Because of the importance of the issue,
both the Employers Council (now known at
the Business Council of B.C.) and the B.C.
Federation of Labor were invited by the
LRB to intervene, although only the B.C.
Fed actually appeared.

But the board panel declined to judge the
issue on its merits, ruling only on what they
called the “threshold issue” of whether or
not Famous Players had standing to make
the application under Section 79. The sec-
tion, which outlaws strikes and lockouts
during the term of a contract, refers specifi-
cally to “parties to a collective agreement.”

“In our view,” the board panel stated,
“there are significant labor relations reasons
why standing to bring complaints under
Section 79 ought to be restricted to the par-

TEU PICKETS...Famous Players case
against ad boycott dismissed by LRB.

ties to this labor relations relationship with
the result that only an employer or a trade
union certified to represent employees of
that employer may complain of the strike or
lockout of the other. ..

“To allow a stranger to a collective bar-
gainins relationship to complain that cer-
tain conduct of another’s employees
constitutes a strike against that other
employer will have a very real and imme-
diate impact on the labor relations relation-
ship btween that other employer and its
employees,” the board stated. “To allow a
third party, not directly interested in the
private employment relationship to seek the
kind of relief sought here by Famous Play-

ers would have the effect of allowing a third
party to improperly insert itself into the
private labor relations relationship between
another employer and its employees’ trade
union...”

But the LRB panel clearly left the door
open for Pacific Press to make its own appli-
cation to the LRB to have the ad boycott
declared illegal. “Part of Pacific Press’
response, if it considers its employees con-
duct illegal, may include seeking relief pur-
suant to Section 79,” it stated.

Pacific Press has not yet indicated
whether it will go to the board itself
although, ina letter to employees, president
Bill Wheatley cited financial losses as a
result of the ad boycott.

The board also pointed out that Famous
Players could go an alternate route, stating:
“Its (Famous Players’) avenue for relief
from the effect of the unfair declaration
seem to be found in Section 90 of the
Code. .

Section 90 pics the LRB discretionary
powers to declare a collective agreement or

certain sections either null and void for all ©

purposes or unenforceable in certain cir-
cumstances if they “substantially affect
trade and commerce: .

Famous Players had originally applied

“under Section 90 at the same time as its

aplication for an illegal strike declaration
but decided later to separate the two appli-
cations when the LRB, at the urging of the
Newspaper Guild, ordered the theatre chain
to produce financial documents.

That application was adjourned but “the
board will proceed to adjudicate (it) on
further application by Famous Players,”
the panel stated.

NUM rep
at public
rally Nov. &

British Nat-
ional Union of
Mineworkers
represéntative
Frank Clarke
is slated to
speak at a
public meeting
sponsored by
the Vancouver
and District
Labor Coun-
cil this Thurs-
day, Nov. 8 at FRANK CLARKE
8 p.m. in the Fishermen’s Hall, 138 E._
Cordova.

: Clarke and his wife, Val, a mine
office worker, are meeting with 4
number of unions, including the Uni-
ted Fishermen, Canadian Union of
Public Employees, the Building Trades
and others, outlining the issues in the
seven-month-old NUM strike and
raising funds for the embattled min-
ers. Their six-day visit here is part of @
cross-Canada tour organized by the
Alberta Federation of Labor in con-
junction with the NUM. :

Clarke was scheduled to address a
meeting Nov. 6 of the Vancouver and
District Labor Council which, toot
with the B.C. Federation of Labor, i
hosting the B.C. tour.

a

Lower Mainland unemployed inti

As unemployed statistics showed yet
another increase in the jobless rate — and
many observers predicted the grimmest
winter since the 1930s — 14 unemployed
groups met last week to pool their efforts
and establish the Lower Mainland Coali-
tion of the Unemployed.

The list included Unemployed Action
Centres in Vancouver, Maple Ridge and
Gibsons, several union locals, the Van-
couver and District Labor council’s unem-
ployed committee and union unemployed
committees as well as the Gibsons Food
Bank and the Downtown Eastside Resi-
dents’ Association. Among those who
attended was Building Trades Council pres-
ident Roy Gautier.

Kim Zander, co-ordinator for the Van-
couver Action Centre, which was instru-
mental in setting up the founding meeting,
said that there was ‘“‘a real demand for
action” among the participants, prompted
by the worsening unemployment and 2 the

fact that the unemployed are facing
increased difficulties with unemployment
insurance and welfare.

“All of the groups felt that they had done
about as much as they could within their
own organizations and they needed an
umbrella organiza-
tion to take up
issues for the unem-
ployed,” Zander said.

. The link between
the community
groups and food
banks and. unions
and union unem-
ployed groups is
particularly impor- [7
tant, she said. Other

groups are welcome
as long as they are

KIM ZANDER

prepared to work with the trade union

movement on the issue of unemployment.
The coalition has focused on education

— apprising the unemployed of the
rights — and action with various possib
events, including a jobs lobby to Victol
and a spring conference under consider
tion.

The formation of the Lower Mainlat
coalition follows the establishment of ¢
tions elsewhere in the province, notably ¢
Vancouver Island.

The urgency of the issue has also be
seen in the Food Bank Society which }
been compelled by the continuing
level unemployment to consider more thi
short-term solutions. Food bank lines ha
grown longer with every passing week,
many people dependent on them to a
up for deficiencies in Social Credit 5"
ment assistance programs.

As a result, the society has set up
committees, one of which is to look
longer-term solutions to unemplo
and which will work with the action ¢
in educating the unemployed on their 11g!

_ Britain and the world.

nearly 50 years.

” with police.

a

From the day we were first founded in the midst of Depressi
we've been part of the struggle of working people for jobs, peace : and a better
life. That's mirrored in the pages of the Tribune every week

it has been

~ “hn-fact, erri exe geri eens out Ree
Pleat dyer eee ey
the: burden of the economic-crist: sttrough layotls, Plant paisa aus ental

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Get the truth in your ma Ibox for onl! y

The British miners’ strike — no issue has more dramatically ating ed the
contrast between the Tribune and the daily newspapers. _

From the first days of the strike the commercial media has. talked
“leftist Arthur Scargill”, of how pickets have “‘clashe
stories have probed every division and sensationalized what little they f
~ Yet they never told the story of the towns and villages that would be
the mines were closed, the families that would be forced on to. the dole.

never told how the miners have kept up their fight without str
they never told of the solidarity that has poured i in to the 1 Acca

6 6.6.9.0. 008 0.9 0 9.0 80 © 06 0 8

noe a ee oe ie Ye oe Se a ee ee

A eae tee ee ie Ba ee ee oes Sk a

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12 ¢ PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 7, 1984