—”

Labour

Bill 19, privatization plan

main challen

Continued from page 1

forest industry which also won protection
against contracting-out. The fishing indus-
try won a short, but spirited strike and con-
struction unions scored wage increases that
are good news for workers in that belea-
guered sector. Member of the Canadian
Union of Public Employees got their best
wage increases in almost a decade.

All of this was technically illegal, as the
B.C. Federation of Labour boycott of the
Industrial Relations Council held firm.
Rather than risk an escalation of disputes
into a province wide political confrontation,
employers chose not to make the IRC the
issue. Record private sector profits were
also a factor here, and employers were wil-
ling to purchase labour peace.

At the beginning of the summer there was
a widely held perspective that even if some
in the leadership of the labour movement
would rather avoid a showdown with the
Socreds, the fact of Bill 19 and the privatiza-
tion program would bring about that con-
frontation regardless.

In retrospect, that perspective was
incomplete, for it failed to fully comprehend
the sophisticated and united tactics of the
employers and the government. Big busi-
ness and the Socreds decided early on that
they would avoid a political fight so that
their neo-conservative agenda would not be
threatened. This was most dramatically
shown by the BCGEU going out on a tech-
nically illegal strike and the government not
uttering a word about it.

The employers provided the opportunity
for the large unions to uphold the boycott
without consequences, but it was a different
situation that many smaller unions faced.
Some of them in disputes that were not
likely to become major political issues, did
become victims of Bill 19.

The Citation Cabinet strike is a case in
point where the anti-union employer has
used an IRC ruling as pretext for firing the
entire work force. The situation was com-
plicated by the refusal of the courts to
enforce the IRC ruling, but the outlook for
the Citation workers who remain on the
picket line remains grim.

The boycott of the IRC, especially by
workers like those at Citation Cabinets,
nevertheless was a high level of political
struggle against the government. The
labour movement demonstrated its con-
tempt for Bill 19 and showed that it was
ready to face the consequences.

The fight against privatization also
scored its early successes. Most notable was
the well organized round of public meetings
on privatization and free trade organized by
the B.C. Federation of Labour in about 17
B.C. communities.

Labour and community organizations
formed coalitions throughout the province
to Oppose privatization, particularly in Vic-
toria and the Lower Mainland.

The Vancouver and District Labour
Council initiated the Vancouver Council for
Public Services conducted a very successful
information campaign with over 100,000
effective brochures distributed.

A Surrey Council of Public Services has

Nicaraguan union
rep here Oct. 11

Judith Silva, a representative of Nicara-
gua’s main trade union centre, the Sandi-
nista Workers’ Central (CST) will be the
special guest at a reception for trade unio-
nists organized by the Trade Union Group,
for Oct. 11, 6:30 t0 8:30 p.m. at the Maritime
Labour Centre, 111 Victoria Drive in Van-
couver.

12-« Pacific Tribune, October 3, 1988

es for labour

“Most of the major unions have contracts
but Bill 19 remains as a weapon for the
government and the employer to break
strikes and prevent union organization.”

RADOSEVIC
held public meetings and conducted a

media campaign. And in Coquitlam, the
Association of Coquitlam Electors (ACE)
took the lead in establishing a District 43
(named after the school district) Council on
Public Services. The coalition of commun-
ity and labour groups divided the district
into four sections and distributed literature
on privatization and free trade to every door
in each section, followed by public meetings
with labour and community speakers.

The campaigns against privatization
ensured that as Vander Zalm plummeted in

the opinion polls through the spring and .

summer, so too did public support for pri-
vatization. The labour movement and its
community allies have been winning the
battle for public opinion.

But the expectation that the boycott and
co-ordinated bargaining would be used to
challenge and defeat Bill 19 and privatiza-
tion as the next stage of struggle following
the general strike, proved to be far from
reality. There may be a tendency to point
the finger at the B.C. Fed officers for not
organizing the challenge, but the federa-
tion’s role was largely determined by the
mandate given it by the major affiliates. The
real conclusion is that the leadership of
B.C.’s major unions remains tied to busi-
ness unionism. Their priority was economic
gains, and they were unwilling to couple the
battle for contracts to a political struggle
against the Socred’s right wing agenda.

Most of the major unions now have con-
tracts, but Bill 19 remains intact and a pow-
erful weapon for the government and
employers to break strikes, bust unions and
prevent union organization. The privatiza-
tion program to cut 10,000 people from
government service and ultimately to gut
the public sector is also proceeding.

The job security provisions negotiated by
the BCGEU are about the best that could
have been expected without a strike on that
issue. The negotiated agreement on job

_ security basically enshrines the Verrin deci-

sion, a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that rec-
ognizes privatization as a form of contracting-
out and which gives government workers
the right to use their seniority to bid for
other jobs in the public service rather than
being privatized. There is also a provision
for a worker to retain seniority in the event
that a private employer loses the govern-
ment contract or defaults.

The new BCGEU contract provisions
will cause the government organizational
difficulty in carrying through its program,
but their impact shouldn’t be overstated. As
the government jobs are eliminated through
privatization, workers will be using their
seniority to bid on fewer and fewer jobs. At
the end of the day, the public sector will be
smaller and public services will be under-
mined.

The BCGEU collective agreement, in

fact, now recognizes privatization and .
establishes the process for it. At the same

time, the elaborate bumping procedure will

make it difficult to show that the ultimate -

layoffs are the direct result of privatization.

The conclusion offered by the summer of
“88 is that Vander Zalm and the Socreds are
proceeding with their agenda, and that the
labour movement and people’s organiza-
tions have once again been reduced to an
“elect the NDP” strategy.

fe seseeseese===
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g

However, trade unionists and activists in
the people’s movements are not about to
buy the electoral strategy as the only answer
to the Socred agenda. There is enough expe-
rience to know that if the government is
successful in carrying through its programs
between elections, it usually wins. out at
election time as well.

With more than two years remaining
before another provincial election, the
Socreds have a lot in store for the province
before giving the NDP a chance at a possi-
ble victory.

Now is not the time to disband the strike

support committees that have'been readied -

to take on a battle against Bill 19, nor
should the coalitions against privatization
allow their activity to ebb.

On the contrary, now is the time for the
labour movement to re-commit itself to
opposing Bill 19 and to pledge its full
strength to the Citation workers, the White
Spot workers and others that are in conflict
with the employers and the Socreds.

Many important public sector negotia-
tions are still to come, and co-ordination is
required to ensure that as teachers, health
care workers and Crown corporations take
on the Socreds that the labour movement is
prepared for potential action on Bill 19 and
privatization.

It is especially important to strengthen
the Councils of Public Services and other
coalitions against privatization, and to
make renewed commitments to fight each
step. of the privatization program. The
labour movement must make it clear to the
community that it is not retreating into
isolation — already a commonly-held per-
ception.

It must be recognized though that with
the major bargaining of 1988 almost com-
plete that a new stage in the fightback
against the Socreds and the neo-conservative
agenda is ahead. This requires a fresh look
at the strategy of the labour movement, and
the development of a plan for a renewed
fightback in new conditions. Let’s hope that
the coming B.C. Federation of Labour con-
vention can be the forum for developing
that new strategy, rather than a week of
self-congratulatory reports and empty rhe-
toric.

As for the summer of ‘88, it showed once
again that there is a mood to mobilize inde-
pendent labour political action for demo-
cracy and social change — but it is still
seeking the leadership to make it happen.

John Radosevic is business agent for the
United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union
and chair of the B.C. Action Caucus.

FRIBUNE

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186

Name™ 2. 3 eS BS oS

._Mainland or somewhere else.

Use timber

or lose it,
IWA tells ©
companies |

Delegates to the constitutional
convention of the IWA-Canada —
called on the provincial government |
to tell the forest companies: “use it of
lose it.”

A resolution unanimously backed |
by the 200 delegates called on Victoria
to enact legislation that would strip
any forest company of its timber allo- —
cation if it closes a mill in the area. If
the mill is sold, the resolution stated,
the timber allocation should be trans- —
ferred to the new owners on the same
basis — that it be used to sustain a
manufacturing facility.

IWA-Canada members from Port ©
Alberni and Vancouver emphasized —
that the forest giants have repeatedly —
closed ply-
wood plants
and sawmills
while retaining
the rights to
Tree Farm Lic-

7 ences — even
though the ori-
1 ginal legisla-
tion establish-
| ing the TFLs
stipulated that
they should be
used to support wood processing.

“MacMillan Bloedel told us that
TEL 44 in Port Alberni would remain
in the M-B supply even if the com-
pany closed the plywood. plant,”
Local 1-85 delegate Henry Nedergard
told the convention. “They told us
that they would use it in the Lower

ae
EVANS

x

“But we’ve got to tell them what
the local in Chemainus told M-B
there: use it or lose it.”

Local 1-217 president Doug Evans
said that the local union had raised
the demand repeatedly over the years
because “‘Local 1-217 has probably
had more shutdowns than anywhere
else.

‘““We’ve always said that it is the
company’s responsibility to operate 4
manufacturing facility if it is to have a
timber allocation.”

He warned that the local would
probably be facing another shutdown
as Weldwood plans to close its Weld-
wood Kent operation in early October,
cutting 350 workers. F

“But they’ve got a timber supply
— and it should be taken away from
them and given to a company that will
use it and operate a manufacturing
plant,” he said.

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lamenclosing 1yr.$20(10] 2yrs.$350) 3yrs. $500 “Foreign 1 yr. $32 0
Bill me later ~Donation$........

READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOUR ;

is A) ED LC OU OE ae