ATLL LL te oon ner } : British Columbia : ne Kitimat teachers | | a — defy IRC order | | E | ect [ O Nn d I d Nn ot Public school teachers in Kitimat took, _ hearing after the council flew up officials to : strike action last Monday against a school _hear the trustees’ case for a back to wot board they say is determined to force a order Wednesday. Despite torrential rail® confrontation under Bill 19, the Industrial | and buffeting winds, some 90-95 teache® Relations Act. took part, Sullivan reported. | At press time Thursday the Industrial Teachers chanted “negotiate, negotialt by the Globe and Mail, Southam, and Relations Council had issued a back to outside the council hearing and heard at Thomson newspapers, by CBC radio work order on the grounds that the job _ address from BCTF first vice-president K until immediately before the election, action by the Kitimat Teachers Association Novakowsky. : and by the major TV networks also until was illegal because the strike vote had been Even with the large membership tumoa near the election; a pro free trade bias by conducted without IRC supervision. picket lines were maintained at the dist I. the editors of the same newspapers and The Kitimat union was the first to strike nine schools, Sullivan said. The local Al the programmers of the same TV net- against what the B.C. Teachers Federation about 130 full-time teachers and 35 subs works; frequent right wing polling tech- sees as an orchestrated province wide _ tutes. = od niques designed to form public opinion; attempt to use Bill 19 to hammer.teachers at The association, like all BCTF | an massive and expensive political propa- the bargaining table. observes the B.C. Federation of Labo Al ganda blitzes by the Conservatives, busi- Only two local associations havereached —_ boycott of IRC functions. Local represen” ness organizations, and pro-American settlements, while 71 are still in negotiations tives were not present at the hearing, whic | organizations; questionable practices of that began in early September. George in “kangaroo court fashion, s eA i voter registration and the disallowance North of the BCTF’s bargaining division approved the board’s petition, Sulli of certain unregistered citizens to vote; said it was significant that the districts where _ said. ie and so on. settlements have been achieved are those But at a packed meeting that evening © The Conservatives have a mandate for where no outside negotiators have been _association’s members decided to maintal? nothing — especially something as dan- gerous as free trade. It will take more than “healing wounds” from a “humbler” Mulroney to restore our sovereignty and employed. picket lines, he related. : A As with several other boards, Kitimat “They voted to stay the course. We're® | to bring social and economic security to Canadians. The election is over, but will concern about free trade and Canada’s sover- eignty disappear? There are some that would have us believe it will. “Conservative majority; voters back free trade deal,” exclaims front page headlines in the Globe and Mail. Yet how is this possible when the Conserva- tives received only 43 per cent of the popular vote and a majority, by defini- tion, is over 50 per cent? Our political system is flawed in many areas, not the least in the area of alloca- tion of seats according to the people’s electoral preferences. How can the Conservatives be justi- fied in receiving 58 per cent of the seats in the Commons with only 43 per cent of the popular vote? Also, how is it that the Liberals are only allocated 27 per cent of the seats with 32 per cent of the vote and the New Democrats 15 per cent of seats with 20 per cent of the vote? Let’s acknowledge, as we must, that free trade was the main issue in this elec- tion and examine the popular votes of : the three main parties across Canada, one riding at a time. i If we compare the anti-free trade votes of the Liberals and New Democrats to the pro-free trade votes of the Conserva- tives, and then decide the winner of each t seat on the basis of combined popular ie support for the strongest of the two main Opposition parties versus popular sup- port for the Conservatives, we will be amazed to find the Conservatives with only 87 seats, the Liberals with a whop- ping 146, and the New Democrats with 62 — hardly a Conservative majority! Alternately, using the system of representation in proportion to popular vote — a much superior system to ours and used in numerous Western countries — we would again find a minority government situation with the Conserva- tives having 127 seats, the Liberals 94, and the New Democrats 59. Minority parties would also have a chance at representation. Aside from our flawed system of representation, there are other numerous factors that worked in the Conservative’s favour: the Conservative strategy of not talking about the real implications for ordinary people of free trade; limited government distribution of the text of the free trade agreement to the people; a media blackout of major and popular, . national anti-free trade movements such as Citizens Concerned About Free Trade trustees have conducted negotiations _ strike fora fair settlement and we’re stayine through a lawyer from Campney and _ out to get that.” eA Murphy, the law firm retained by the B.C. The teachers are enjoying “fantastl’ School Trustees Association. A pattern of — community support, said Sullivan. It range low wage increases, stalled progress on from high school students and their pare™ working conditions, and a refusal to taking coffee and baking to picket lines; implement items teachers enjoyed whenthe — donations of photocopying and fax ma School Act governed teachers,hasemerged _ ines, and meeting hall space, from from contract talks across the province. unions. He cited the support of the if Now unionized and governed by the dian Association of Smelter and | Industrial Relations Act, B.C. teachers are Workers, the Firefighters, and acadé going for advances in the areas such as__ workers from Northwest College. | classroom preparation time and noon-hour Sillivan isaaitheeoard Ge “completél) pea ats ih eioe unrepresentative of the community.” "| Such ‘has been the case in Kitimat, where rently only four of the seven seats are 00% talks broke down and teachers set up picket inesafh ae ik ‘ch pied, while three remain unfilled since the Mes alter conducting a strike vote without trustees moved out of the district after IRC supervision, in line with the labour | : st r ivic election last year. . boycott of the council. GS) TOGRIURLY. y : = ae ing Association president Rick Sullivan said North said 13 school districts are | the board has twice refused offersof media- 2°&80tators supplied by Campo | tion, when the association proposed using a Murphy, the BCSTA law firm, whl : tia’ local labour relations firm, and again last other districts have hired’ outside nea week when high profile mediator Vince !S- In all cases, talks are draggin8 — Ready was available. questions such as wages, working con! ee But the board rejected the offers, saying tions and recognition of the BCTF in CO" the teachers must first drop their picket lines "Ve 48reements. and return to work, he said. “They’re only interested in using Bill 19 as a club to force us back,” Sullivan charged. Teachers demonstrated outside an IRC Don Nordin Gabriola Island 57% no vote Fifty-seven per cent of Canadians say, “Thank God for Ian Waddell and those other MPs who share his mandate.” The only two provinces that carried free trade were Quebec and Alberta. For decades Alberta has been controlled by U.S. oil mandarins and Quebec has been trying to secede from Canada. Ian Waddell is the rare MP who understands the impli- cations of free trade combined with the significance of Meech Lake. Within days of the election we hear of companies either relocating for the lower costs of labour in the United States or going of business because they are unable to compete: Gillette, 590 workers; Jarman Shoe Factory in Lachine, Que., 53 workers; a Victoria poultry plant, number of employees unknown; two eastern paint companies, number of employees unknown. Brian Mulroney has promised that corporations will “help out” men and women and their children to ensure they survive the “limited” negative results of free trade. Has history ever seen a corpo- ration who put someone else’s fired employees before their own profits? There is no comfort in saying, “I told you so.” ni Settlements were achieved early whet . outsiders were not involved, he noted. Fo #\ St. John settled last summer and Coquitla® also has a collective agreement satisfac?” to both parties. More from the Trib { Kc rene Rade Readers know what goes into the Tribune. What we want to know is, what do they get out of it? Constance Fogal Vancouver te . ace We've been thinking a lot a lately / : about the paper’s contents: are news : More effort in civic race ee i) : . zi 9 | The results of the municipal elections _ based their campaign on showmanship Sse oe a the ee of the , in Kamloops is enough to make one _ and all the public exposure that money a urage readers, or put people : throw up if one happens to besomewhat —_can buy. That sort of thing i left in the political spectrum. However, it would be wrong to credit We’v : : | ae : e had cose ce | One may speculate as to what pos- the right-wing victory to financial super- creative Pe = SEN ie ao ee ee Ban § sessed the voters to elect Phil Gaglardi, : iority alone. They have also got help most recently in a well-attended melee “ater eae i. ve at tal political has-been with a shady past an from the left who have forgotten the in Kamloops. We want more such i tg t us know. nd while you ede , his “gang of four” to council. But one importance of municipal politics. Unor- nput. introduce a friend to the paper du thing is certain and that is in the next two years, we will see a further turn to the right in municipal politics that has already given the average Kamloopsian high taxes, poor services, loss of jobs, irresponsible municipal spending and generally a pain in the ass. Backed by developers, the right-wing election machine called “Action 88” was well-financed. Lacking substance they ganized, they have nothing to offer as alternative to the right-wing agenda. Until we start serious work in our com- munities based on class analysis so that people will understand the issues, we will face many more defeats and disap- pointments. Jim Biro Kamloops 2 e Pacific Tribune, December 5, 1988 Ask us to your community, or drop us a line. We want to make B.C.’s only labour weekly more relevant in the fight for jobs, peace, and labour and community rights. And we think doing so during the Tribune is the best way to finish off the year, and begin the new one. 300 new subs needed the drive, which ends in February. . | Remember, an introductory sub of six | months for only $6 is available. e More readers getting more out of th