wees

Sharp conflict seen
in Burnaby tax fight

Labor economist Dave Fair- Most important to Monday’s
ey’s challenge against the prop- _ hearing was the process. The oil
erty taxes of the three giant oil companies’ tactic was to try and
companies in Burnaby, Shell force Fairey to submit his evi-
Oil, Gulf Oil and Chevron, dence while presenting none of
passed through the first stageof their own, a ploy which seem-
the B.C. Assessment Author- ingly had the support. of the
ity’s court of revision this week. chairman of the court.

Saas :
oe ie sain uhh However Fairey pointed out

the oil companies gave any evi- : Hee
dence to the Serene saat that the oil companies’ appeals
were first on the list and should

the three hour hearing was
sharply contested be heard before his. That point
I cea erm was won after a heated ex-

eters me: oa change, only to Bae oe oil
lenge higher companies then, one an-
Ssores ai other, submit no evidence.

Next Fairey attempted to be-
gin his evidence by calling a rep-
resentative of Gulf as a witness.
When Lakes refused to appear
as a witness, Fairey asked
Holmes to use his power as
chairman to summons a witness
from Gulf. But Holmes ruled
that he had no authority to sum-
mons Gulf, even after Fairey
read from the Assessment Act a
section which clearly stated he
had the authority. :

Unable to get any informa-
tion from the assessor or the oil
companies, Fairey rested his
case without revealing any of his
evidence. ’

The procedural wrangling
demonstrated again the open
bias of the court of revision,
composed of Holmes and two
others, both involved in the real
estate industry, against a third
party. citizen intervention.

“The burden of proof is on
you,” Holmes kept repeating in
answer to each request put to
him by Fairey. It was clear that
the court would do nothing to
help bring out the relevant facts
in the case.

With the experience of last
year’s case at the board of ap-
peal, and with wide community
support in a broader case
against all three oil companies,
Fairey’s challenge this year is
more formidable. The compan-
ies can be expected to respond
with equal force, and the result-
ing conflict was well evidenced

company properties in Burnaby
is a follow up to last year’s chal-
lenge against Shell Oil’s proper-
ty. Fairey lost the case against
Shell at the board of appeal, but
has since applied to the B.C. Su-
preme Court for an order over-
turning the decision.

Monday’s appearance before
the court of revision was only a
preliminary hearing before the
real contest begins at the board
of appeal. It nevertheless. drew
the customary battery of cor-
porate lawyers to watch the pro-
ceedings. Chief spokesman for
the oil companies was lawyer
John Lakes, representing both
Gulf and Shell. Lakes is an al-
derman in North Vancouver

The tense atmosphere at the
court of revision was broken
several times by sharp confron-
tations between Fairey and
Lakes, and between Fairey and
the chairman of the court, real
estate appraiser G. G. Holmes.

In addition to Fairey’s ap-
peals, the oil companies also
had filed appeals on each of its
properties, including several un-
challenged by Fairey. Lakes
later explained that it is a matter
of course for the oil companies
to file ‘‘protective appeals’”’ on
the assessments for all of its

properties.

Monday at the court of revision.

LOWER MAINLAND

COPE, Harcourt get passes

Continued from page 1
Vancouver city council Feb. 17 in
an attempt to put additional press-
ure on the city to come out for a re-
sumption in negotiations. The
picketing action forced the cancel-
lation of the meeting, and it was re-
scheduled for Thursday by Har-
court.

COPE aldermen Yorke and
Eriksen lobbied Harcourt to have
the Thursday meeting switched to
the Plaza 500 Hotel across the
street from city hall to respect the
picket line, and, with Harcourt un-
der considerable pressure for his
action in crossing the line, a room
was booked at the hotel for the
council meeting.

However hours before the coun-
cil meeting it was pointed out that a
24 hour notice or a unanimous vote
of council was needed to change the
venue of a meeting. Yorke contact-
ed union officials and the unions
subsequently lifted the picket line
on the understanding that Yorke
and Eriksen would move to have

the meeting moved to the hotel,
and to have council agree to a spe-
cial meeting that afternoon with the
strikers;

When council opened its meet-
ing in a committee room, Yorke
amended a motion to adjourn into
the main council chamber, to in-.
stead move across the street in re-
spect of the picket line. That mo-
tion failed with only Harcourt join-
ing Yorke and Eriksen — Harry
Rankin was in court.

Yorke later moved that council
meet directly with the unions to dis-
cuss the strike, but that motion was
ruled out of order on the basis that
the strike was to be discussed in
camera. However Yorke, Eriksen
and Harcourt all stated to the
strikers who jammed the galleries
that they would meet the unions.

The vote at the in camera session —

failed on a tie, four to four vote.
Harcourt, Yorke, Eriksen and
Harry Rankin, who had by then ar-
rived, voted to meet the unions,
while the NPA and TEAM alder-

Using civic workers

There’s no doubt that the strike
of municipal employees is causing a
lot of problems. Garbage is piling
up, recreation centres are closed,
city hall services have been cut off.
The public is hurting and city
employees are hurting.

The question is: What can be

done to bring the strike to an end? °

To answer that question, we have
to ask another — what brought on
the strike in the first place? Why
wasn’t it settled by negotiation?
Why is the strike being dragged out
now?

The union is asking for a hefty
wage increase, a catch-up increase
to make up for the several years
now that wage increases have been
below the rate of inflation. The
Greater Vancouver Regional Dis-
trict (GVRD) has made an offer of
a modest increase. While the two
sides are still quite far apart, these
differences can be and should be

‘ negotiated. At some point they will

have to be negotiated in any case.
So why not now? The union is ask-

. ing the GVRD to come back to the

bargaining table but the GVRD
takes a negative stand. That’s pro-
longing the strike. But there is more
to the problem than that.

While the GVRD offered a mod-

est wage increase, it at the same

time demanded that municipal em-
ployees take a drastic changein sick
leave benefits and in retirement
pay. The union said this amount-
ed toa wage cut. The GVRD knew
that municipal employees could

not accept these cuts. In putting
forward this provocative demand
the GVRD in fact helped to pro-
voke a strike.

The union is also asking that the
principle of equal pay for equal
work be accepted by the GVRD.
This applies mainly to the vast ma-
jority of clerical workers who are
women and-whose wages are more
than $2 an hour lower than the
wages of outside workers. This is a
clear case of discrimination against
women. There is no logical reason
why the base starting rate for cleri-
cal workers should not be the same
as the base starting rate for outside

Ost trade unionists have long known that employers can quickly get
the justice they want from police while workers just get the conse-
quences. But the bizarre events that Teamsters member Mike Gillan
went through two weeks ago had more than trade unionists shaking
Not surprisingly, the case involves, once again, the Stacy’s Furniture
clan — in this instance, owner Arnold Silber’s son Stewart. According
to Mike, he met Silber at Vancouver’s Granville Island public market
where the two had a “verbal exchange that lasted about one minute.”
Silber suggested that the closure of Stacy’s Vancouver store would
mean that the Teamsters strike would be over; Mike reminded him
that, on the contrary, the strike was with Stacy’s warehouse in Rich-
mond and the Teamsters weren’t about to give it up. Somehow, Silber
construed this as a threat and began calling in an agitated voice, for
assistance. Passersby, seeing nothing happening, ignored him. And
Mike left, slightly amazed with Silber’s bizarre behavior.

But it didn’t end there. =

The following day — in fact, only 16 hours later — the Richmond
RCMP drove up to the Stacy’s picket line in Richmond to pick Mike
up. Not till he was taken to a gas station in South Vancouver where a
Vancouver police paddy wagon was waiting for him, did he hear what
the charge was. He was to be charged with common assault — stem-
ming from the ‘‘incident”’ in the Granville market the day before.

He was taken to the police station and booked, all within less than 18
hours of that incident. Even the Vancouver chief of police was amazed
at how quickly the whole process, from the charge being laid to the ar-
rest, was carried out. In fact, it was doneso quickly that there apparent-
ly wasn’t even an arrest warrant in Richmond; the police there had
simply acted on the request from Vancouver police. .

There was more, too. At the bail hearing, Mike was faced with the
condition of bail that he say away from the Stacy’s picket line — a con-
dition which his lawyer was successful in having removed. But when he

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

was interviewed by police, Mike also saw a file on himself. Among the
papers it contained were several photos of himself on the picket line.

What is particularly revealing is the contrast with Mike’s experience
with the police and that of his father who was beaten up and had hot

_ water thrown on him on the Stacy’s picket line some months ago.

When he called the police, they first interviewed his alleged assailants
and then checked with him. When he tried to lay charges, he was told
that there were no witnesses and his story couldn’t be substantiated.

The ironic footnote is that Stewart Silber himself faces two charges
of assault, one against a striker and the other against a BCTV camera
crew. In the latter, the details were recorded by photographer Josh Ber-
son whose picture of the incident appeared in the Tribune last
November.

* * * * *

e had a sad note this week from Agnes Jackson, telling us that

Agnes Savage of Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island, passed away
Feb. 11, felled by a heart attack which had struck her a month earlier.
She was 71.

Both Agnes and her husband Bob (‘‘Doc’”’”) — he was one of the
eight who travelled to Ottawa in 1935 to bring the demands of the un-
employed trekkers to prime minister R. B. Bennett — have been long
time supporters of the Tribune.

Over the years, she had won some local renown as an artist and one
of the best known of her works was a pencil sketch of socialist and
Communist leader and writer Ol’ Bill Bennett. The sketch is now in the
possession of former Tribune editor Tom McEwen.

Our condolences to Bob and his family.

men, and independent Don Bell-
amy voted against.
In the heated debate Harcourt

\
aes

\
i

was forced to split with May —

Brown, the mayor’s handpicked
representative on the GVRD labor
committee and an anti-union hawk
in the dispute. Brown reportedly
launched a strident personal attack
on Yorke for his role in seeking a
accommodation with the unions
and demanded that council reject
the proposal to meet directly with
‘the unions.

Although the vote failed, Hat-
court, the COPE aldermen and

deputy city manager Ken Dobell
did meet with VMREU representa-
tives George Kowbel and Rick
Gates, CUPE negotiator Don Cott
and B.C. Federation of Labor leg-
islative director David Rice.

The union spokesmen stress
that their counter offer was a basis
for negotiations and received 4
commitment from Harcourt and
COPE that they would press for 4
resumption in negotiations.

as pawns

workers. I, and my COPE colleag-
ues on city council, Bruce Eriksen
and Bruce Yorke, believe that the
GVRD should accept the concept
of equal pay for work of equal val-
ue in principle. How it will be im-
plemented is a matter for negotia-
tion, but the principle must be ac-
cepted. g
But behind the whole strike 1s
something else revealed in an edi-
torial in The Province dated ‘‘The

Wage Parade” on Feb. 18. The big

employers of this province are deé-

termined that the wages of public |
employees must be kept below

those of employees in the private
sector. This helps the big corpora-
tions out in two ways. One is that it
helps to keep down wages (and
keep up profits) in the private sec-
tor. The other is that when wages iN,
the public sector are low, there is 2
constant drain of skilled people
from the public to the private sec-

tor. We-train them, they get them

— for free. It costs money to train
the employees. If we paid the same —
rate of wages as the private sector, .
we would have much less of a turn-
over and besides that we could of-
fer better services to the public.

The politicians who run the
GVRD have accepted the concept
that wages in the public sector must
be kept below those in the private
sector. That’s why they refuse to sit
down and negotiate a realistic end
to this strike. The GVRD politi-
cians are trying to turn taxpayers
against the union by saying that a
wage increase will cause an increas¢
in taxes. The fact is that every ex-
penditure of the city affects taxes.

Why don’t municipal politicians
tell taxpayers how much an in-
crease there will be in taxes because —
of the $8 million that Vancouver ci-
ty council voted as a subsidy to the
Trade and Convention Centre? Or —
how much of an increase in taxes —
there will be because it agreed that
the Trade and Convention Centre
should be exempt from paying any
taxes?

For all of the above reasons 1 |

think Vancouver city council
should tell the GVRD to end its un-
realistic stance, get back to the bar-

gaining table and negotiate an end

to this strike. The GVRD has no
right to use public employees and
public services just as pawns in their
efforts to help big private employ-
ers by keeping wages in the public ©
sector lower than those in the pri-
vate sector.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 27, 1981—Page 2 “

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