MRF x & hoppers Drug franchises used as anti-union ploy By SEAN GRIFFIN Shon employees at nine me. Drug Marts in the i, Mainland have been on peas now for more than four Bias ee and still the company act used to bargain. Nor, in mihi it made any contact a € Retail Clerks Union. mick Koffler Stores Ltd., Bere Controls the drug chain Bees to what the iunion tying £00n squad tactics’, a nto break the strike cee the use of guard dogs tion a guards. The intimi- ey st pereen aimed particu- and ranville store. el 8es. of ai ; common assault Be eainst Robert Tulley whose Bis ee bit one of the strikers hon ye 2 result in a convic- . ae ly was remanded ae Repcencial court and a ad not been heard at Me of writing. PHONY FRANCHISING jae drug chain employees — Se aney clerks and er Cists — are Seeking a a ctutact with increased ated sees benefits to bring ently ee to the rates pres- eoiitiar ng Paid employees in able jobs elsewhere. at little in an pany has stopped Union or an attempt to thwart : a ; tive bargaining on and collec- Ne of the j, efectiy the least dramatic but reaking Methods of union- ae tee by the company At Was 1a € franchising policy. the THe ea at the time of atgaining Be acation for ts . ~~ Retail Clerks applied to Picketers at the 13th . the Labor Relations Board in March 1972 for certification in 39 stores on the basis of having a 50% majority throughout the chain. Within a week, Kofflers sold 27 of the stores to individual ‘“‘associates’’— ina paper trans- action that gave managers nominal ownership but left the control of the store still in the hands of the parent company. According to minutes of a meeting held between company representatives. MacDonald and Bjarnason and so-called “associates”, the franchising was based on an agreement that the ‘‘associate’’ put no money down and any losses except for fraud would be the responsi- bility of the company, not the “associate” In this case the ‘‘associate’’ referred to is the franchised owner, usually the pharmacist in charge of the store. Retail Clerks secretary- treasurer Brian Denton re- ported that pharmacists had allegedly been approached by the company and told that if they didn’t agree to take over the store they would lose their jobs. “We had pharmacists phoning the union asking how they could get out of it, Denton said. “They said they wanted nothing to do with it, they were in favor of the union.”’ Denton also pointed out that the ‘‘stores were franchised so quickly’’ that the company didn’t have time to put the name of the manager on the incorpora- tion papers, that the address of the store was used instead. Subsequent to the franchis- ing, the company attacked the VANCOUVER PERETZ SCHOOL 6184 Ash St. = Presents the Live Musical Comedy . KING OF THE SCHNORRERS By Ted Roter from Israel Zangwill’s Book Directed by Alex Kliner SATURD ry AY patch 3] SUNDAY Admission $2.50 Pril 7 ae } 8:30 p.m. Students & $1.50 pri S‘nr. Citiz. Shee = Tickets at Co-Op Bookstore or 261-6163 ‘ ANNUAL BOOK SALE STOREWIDE — 20% to 80% FRIDAY, MARCH 23rd to SATURDAY, MARCH 31st 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. PEOPLE'S CO-OPERATIVE BOOK STORE 341 West Pender Street Vancouver 3 — 685-5836 union certification in Supreme Courton the basis that the stores could no longer be considered a chain. The court ruled that the certification was no _ longer valid. “There’s no doubt that we could have appealed the ruling,’ Denton said, ‘‘but we would have been in court until late 1974.” Accordingly, the union began organizing on a store-by-store - basis. Even then it had to face attempts by individual fran- chise managers to stack the bargaining unit by hiring wives and sisters. In addition the company has been playing up the fact that it is a Canadian company, as if that justified its vicious anti- union campaign against workers seeking decent wages and working conditions. If anything it reveals the reaction- ary purposes for which Cana- dianism can be used. At its February 20 meeting, the Vancouver and District Labor Council adopted a motion calling for the Legislative com- mittee of the council to investi- gate the franchising of Shoppers. COM Ketfler Stores Limited, o selection DD you KNOW ‘ei THAT KOFFLER STORES LTD. (the SHOPPERS DRUG MART people) Tie Shoppers, Ore Mer] eoreept. wat wanted) developed end Zerpeneed ame ato ce 7 We ore note division or 0 subsidiary of eny ether ¢ er cf Yo provce peed tore Through eur store franchising Al s Dia phere Roeper fet caren adr We are proud of eur Canadian identity and we den't mind saying it. A Canade. . This sign appeared in all Shoppers Drug Mart stores when strike action was taken by the Retail Clerks Union. It flaunts Canadian identity as if that made legitimate the company’s attack on the striking employees. Trail mayor, environmentalists throw weight behind Land Act While the protesters against the proposed Land Commission Act filed home after having failed to rouse the numbers of people that they boasted they would, Mayor F.E. DeVito of Trail challenged the position taken by the Union of B.C. Muni- cipalities and advised Premier Barrett of his support for the Act. The UBCM had made a sub- mission to the Cabinet express- ing concern that the legislation would interfere with, and under- mine the authority of city coun- cils and regional districts with regard to land control and pri- vate property. i “T have long been concerned about the inability of the re- gional boards in this part of the province to come to grips with either zoning problems or deal- ing with large land owners as far as future use of land is con- cerned,” DeVito said. “The prov- ince has had to step in.” ; “Those persons who have vested interest in speculating from land are taking advantage of the present confusion to distort the reality of land use and its future in this province and I only wish that the government could take steps to stop profit- eering by those who control great areas of land,’ he de- clared. ‘‘Very few people inland development have expressed any concern about the effects of land costs on low income and working people.” Three environmental organi- ‘zations — Vancouver Natural History Society, Canadian Society of Environmental Biolo- gists, B.C. Chapter, and the BAC. Environmental Council — issued a statement last week charging that ‘‘there have been irrespon- sible statements and outright misrepresentations’’ concern ing the Land Commission Act (Bill 42) and _ out- lining the facts in the con- trovery. The arable and potentially arable land in British Columbia comprises only 2.8% of the prov- ince’s total land, the statement notes. It also points out that 195,000 acres of arable land were lost in British Columbia over the last 20 years including 57,000 acres of prime land in the Fraser Valley and 65,000 acres on Van- couver Island. “The idea of enacting legis- lation to preserve agricultural land is not anewone,’ the state- ment says, ‘‘as similar legis- lation exists in New Zealand, Holland, Scotland, England and Sweden.” “Tt has been stated that nine other provinces are taking action to protect their dimin- ishing farmland.” InPrince Edward Island, Que- bec and Saskatchewan, govern- ments are buying up agricul- turallandand recreational land. The Ontario government re- cently issued stop orders on development in some townships and has frozen commercial development on the Niagara Escarpment. But B.C.’s pro- posed legislation is the most comprehensive and far-reach ing. The three environmental groups state that ‘“‘we cannot con- tinue to count on surplus food from California which is losing ENGT4 « PACIFIG TRIBUNE its farmland even faster than British Columbia.” ‘“‘Bill 42 is not an expropria- tion statute and does not give the _ government the right or power to expropriate an individual’s land by compulsory process. It does provide for an appeal to the court on question of law.” Bill 42 as now drafted, con- tains some deficiencies but the intent of the bill is clear and deserves support from the peo- ple of British Columbia, the statement declares. ° The statement is signed by Dr. Vernon Brink, Vancouver Na- tural History Society, Ross Peterson, B.C. Chapter, Cana- dian Society of Environmental Biologists and Helen Boyce, B.C. Environmental Council. Elsewhere, the executive of the Nanaimo Liberal Associa- tion endorsed the Land Commis- sion Act Monday and rebuked. Liberal leader David Anderson ae his stand in opposition to the Ce The action of the executive served as a reminder to Ander- son that the B.C. Liberal party was on record at its 1971 conven- tion as having supported a’ policy of preserving fertilefarm areas at all costs. The statement concluded that the principle of Bill 42 was worthy of support and urged the B.C. Liberal leader to ‘‘contri- bute to its improvements andits public acceptance.”’ Earlier, Mayor van der Zalm of Surrey, a one-time candidate for the provincial Liberal party leadership, gave his support to the Act, stating that it was Liberal policy to promote such legislation. —FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1973—PAGE 3 7 AA- <2