Unions unite to meet attack

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES DEMAND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING . . . See below

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FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1972

By NIGEL MORGAN, B.C. Leader, Communist Party.
The Socred government is moving headlong towards destroying democracy in B.C.
and imposing rule by Cabinet decree on the people of the province. That is the
meaning of many of the Bills brought down at the current session of the Legislature.

Another big step towards
government by Cabinet decree,
and the imposition of wage and
salary controls, was taken by the
Bennett administration last
week just as delegates were
assembling to unite to fight Bill

3.
Two new Acts— Bills 37 and 49
— which were introduced in the

Legislature—extend the ‘‘wage-

freeze’. already clamped on
thousands of B.C. nurses and
hospital workers, 23,000 teachers
and additional school board
employees, to another section of
government employees; and
provide for the gerrymandering
of social welfare allowances.
The dangerous and anti-demo-
cratic character of the Socred

Ae

m:
mo front among public
devele i British Columbia
Dublie aa at a Meeting of 15
lst We nployee organizations
C EWR Called by the
: Teas Federation to
°islatur 3, : Bill before the
Bains : restric
the ty ane Tights of ee
Of uni ane Concluded on a note
tion op 1OUNd the central ques-
rights enol €ctive bargaining
A Steer, Public employees.
Wag appoi ng committee of six
for 3 d -Waaeas With a provision
organi, 1onal members from
Consus OMS which, after

berg S, Wish
, t

athe th Roninidenc” mem-
Cfeng, lective Bar aini
at the Bnittes at
: Publi¢ ga Ing to put into action
thd to pPaign to defeat Bill
lrea ave it withdrawn.

' ae rallies in
hey € province,
eld in { . Mass rally to be

arden Building on

the PNE grounds in Vancouver,
Thursday, March 9, at 8 p.m.

A lobby to Victoria was
discussed by the meeting and
will likely be the next step in the
public campaign decided upon
by the meeting of public
employees.

It was generally agreed at that
meeting that the main thrust in
the fight against this threat to
the collective bargaining rights
of teachers must be to defeat Bill
3 before it becomes law.

If it is adopted by the Legis-
lature, however, the fight will go
on and will take the form of poli-
tical action for the repeal of the
Bill and the defeat of the Social
Credit party which sponsored it.

Representation at the meet-
ing included the B.C. Teachers’
Federation, the B.C. Govern-
ment Employees’ Union, the
Canadian -Union of Public
Employees, Hospital Em-
ployees Union, Amalgamated
Transit Union, the. Office and
Technical Employees’ Union
(Hydro employees), the Muni-

cipal and Regional Employees
Union, the Registered Nurses
Association of B.C. and a
number of other public em-
ployee organizations.

The total membership of those
represented by the fifteen
public employee organizations
was estimated at 115,000. Also
represented was the 160,000-
member B.C. Federation of
Labor, which has been invited to
name a representative to the
steering committee.

The meeting concluded that
Bill 3 is introductory legislation
and represents the first step in
the government’s plans to erode
the bargaining rights of all B.C.
workers. First it is the teachers,
then it will be all public em-
ployees and finally the entire
labor movement.

The teachers are determined
to fight back, and have asked all
public employees in the trade
union movement generally to
recognize their common inter-
ests and to join in that fight.

governments legislative pro-
gram at this session has come
into the open as labor and
people’s organizations unite to
fight back against Socred “‘cor-
porate state’ laws.

Bill 3, the outrageous amend-

ment to the Public School’s Act, .

while hitting the teachers
directly is obviously aimed at all
working people in B.C. The
Bennett government is moving
against 125,000 employed in the
public service (mainly in
organizations unaffiliated to the
B.C. Federation of Labor) to
impose controls.

A situation like that shaping up
in B.C., (where the government
openly advocates wage control,
provides massive giveaways to
foreign interests, and calls for
customs union with the U.S.),
doesn’t exist anywhere else in
the country.

Never has the need for united
action to challenge the sharp
right turn been as urgent as it is
in B.C. today.

While Bill 3 requires that any
increase in teachers salaries ‘‘in
excess of a _ percentum
prescribed” by the Lieutenant
Governor-in-Council, shall not
be allowed ‘“‘whether effected by
negotiation or arbitration,
unless the (school) Board has

_obtained the assent of owner-

electors’? in the given School
District.

The new legislation, Bill 37,
(entitled “‘An Act to Amend the
Constitution Act’’) extends the
freeze, ordering that ‘‘no
increase in expenditures of the
Government in respect of
salary, wages, fees, or the
contribution of the Government
thereto for the whole of the
Public Service . . . shall exceed
such percentage as is fixed by
the- regulation ..._ the
Lieutenant Governor may
order’. :

And yet, to be added to the
sweeping provisions of this Bill
is the prediction of Labor

Minister James Chabot that legis-

lation will also be brought down
to .control remuneration of
mayors, aldermen and muni-
cipal administrations.

By bringing section after
section of the public sector —
first doctors, then nurses and
hospital workers, school and
government employees
(already denied bargaining
rights), MLAs and public service
employees) under cabinet wage
control dictums — the big crunch
can then be applied to the private
sector.

And while the limit has been
set at 642% for this year, once
the principle is established,
there will be little to prevent a
3%, a 1%, or even a minus 5%

See SOCRED, pg. 12

B.C. Fed calls parley

The B.C. Federation of Labor has sent out a call for a
meeting of all union staff members in the Lower Mainland to
deal with the crisis posed by the employer-government attack

on labor.

The meeting is set for Wednesday, March 15, 12 noon, at
the IWA Hall, 13th and Commercial.

In its call to affiliated unions the B.C. Fed officers said
that ‘‘because of the present critical situation in negotiations
by the building trades, the public sector, (including the
teachers, etc) and others, we feel it is urgent that a meeting be
held of all staff representatives in the Lower Mainland.”

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