~ we -_ & 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 30, 1986 LABOR 4 B.C.’s unionized fishermen ended their three-day old strike Sunday, settling for a collective agreement which contains some “important” salmon price hikes, preserva- tion of seiner crews’ share of the catch, shoreworker wage hikes and language that thwarts the companies’ drive for total automation of fish processing. United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union president Jack Nichol termed the agreement “positive,” saying it produced wage settlements for shoreworkers and tendermen “above the provincial and national average.” _ The union stymied company attempts to impose completely automated fish gut- ting and cleaning lines, but Nichol said the union still faces the task of implementing some form of protection for shoreworkers whose jobs are threatened by the new machinery. The union commissioned a study of fish plant production last year which found that B.C.’s industry “‘is very efficient and very productive,” said Nichol. Future monitoring of the results of automation will have to be performed by union staff quoRE womens ONSTRIE | UFAWU “eS ves 2- year pa ct BEM SBIR ON STRIKE ShorewoRer: walk out of Vancouver Canfisco plant July 25. and members, however, since the compan- ies have refused further co-operation. The settlement means that of an aver- age four processing lines per plant, the first and third lines will be staffed, while the second and fourth lines are totally auto- mated, for the first year of the two-year pact. In the second year, the first line will be manually processed, while the other three are automated. The UFAWU achieved the highest sockeye prices to date, union officials said, with prices set at $1.11 per pound in 1986 _ and $1.12 in 1987. Prices for pink salmon ~ also rose, to 32 cents and 33 cents respec- tively. The companies also reneged on an ear- lier stance to refuse to enforce the “7/11” process, whereby the crews of independ- ently operated seine crews receive.through the companies seven-elevenths of proceeds from,fish sales. - Employment Relations (CO Fed declares ALRT project hot Stepping up trade union action against the awarding of the Skytrain extension bridge to Hyundai and J.C. Kerkhoff, the B.C. Federation of Labor last week declared the project hot. While William Kerkhoff, head of the non-union firm which was awarded the contract by B.C. Transit, along with the non-union Korean multinational corpora- tion, has said he will find a way around the declaration, trade unionists say there is no way the project can be completed without union expertise. “I don’t know where he thinks he’s going | to get. assistance,” commented B.C. and _ Yukon Territory Building Trades Council , president Roy Gautier. B.C. Federation of Labor president Art Kube acknowledged there may be chal- lenges to the declaration, but that at the very minimum the hot edict will “frustrate” the anti-labor company’s attempts to construct the rapid transit bridge linking New West- minster and Surrey. “I presume there'll be all kinds of paper served,” said Kube, “but let Kerkhoff bear the additional costs for it?” Involving as it does a consortium of two non-union companies — one a huge, mul- tinational firm that operates union-free under the dictatorial regime in South Korea, and the other a notorious right-to- work firm from the B.C. interior that has, thanks to provincial government actions, made serious inroads into. traditionally unionized construction areas — the award by B.C. Transit is seen as a key challenge to B.C.’s labor movement. Two weeks ago the New Westminster and District Building Trades Council moved to declare the project “unfair,” meaning no building tradesmen would work at the Fraser River site. The Fed’s hot declaration “‘broadens out the trade union position,” said Gautier. “It extends the ban to transportation by sea, road and land,” he said. Gautier said the “first critical area” Kerkhoff will face is the underwater work required to set the forms for the bridges piles. He noted the Piledrivers Union had in a separate vote agreed not to work on the project. Kube said the hot edict “takes up the guantlet that Mr. Kerkhoff threw down. “He bragged he can do it all non-union. We're saying, “We'll give you that oppor- tunity, ” Kube remarked. : The B.C. Fed president said the edict ensures goods and services made by union labor — cement, rebar, steel fabrication, piledriving, telephone services, barges and towboats — will not reach the site. The federation expects that all trade unions — including non-affiliates — will respect the hot declaration, he said. In previous challenges to Kerkhoff’s presence on construction sites — notably the Pennyfarthing project at Vancouver’s False Creek two years ago, and some Expo projects — resulted in court action against the Building Trades. “We recognize that there will likely be legal hassles. When they come up, we’ll have to deal with them,” said Gautier. “If we’re able even to delay or frustrate the project, the operation will have been successful,” Kube said. Building Trades settle B.C.’s unionized building tradesmen have approved by 72 per cent a two year agreement that their president, Roy Guat- ier, says has defeated an attempt to ‘‘deci- mate” union construction in the province. The agreement, which contains a wage freeze until Nov. 1, 1987, some rollbacks in travel and leave payments, and some shift work concessions, has this value — it leaves the trades’ agreements “intact,” said Gautier. “We'll be in a position to bargain again when the economy improves — hopefully after a change in government,” said the president of B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council. In recommending approval of the agreement to its members, the 17-union member council had to contend with three “dissident” unions — aligned with the U.S.-run Canadian Federation of Labor — which sought unsuccessfully to challenge FIRIBONE * I I I Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street u | Vancouver, BC V5K 1Z5 Phone 251 1186 I i Name SiGe ak pte BRA LG SHER pe ees sie ot ; : Address ........... ESOS e SHR eee ans ae ee See I | eer nce Postal:Code: 2... eee Spee’ FF I tamenclosing tyr. $160 2yrs. $280) 6mo. $100 acelin Tyr. $250 I I Bill me later) ~ Donation$........ U EAD THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR J the agreement in a Labor Relations Board case. Despite that opposition — which came from unions linked to a labor central which has frequently advocated concessions as a jobs-saving. measure — the membership strongly supported a pact that Gautier said prevents the wholesale “decimation” of contracts as has happened with the Building Trades in Alberta. In a statement released early this month: to counter the “dissident” campaign, six Building Trades unions noted the agree- ment contained none of the permanent roll- backs sought by the employers in the Construction Labor Relations Association. _ “CLRA set out to obtain major cuts in wages and 51 cuts in agreements. They have achieved none of these objectives,” stated a bulletin from the Bricklayers, Carpenters, Cement Masons, Electricians, Iron Workers and Laborers unions. Concessions in the agreement — which the council stresses are temporary — include eliminating travel time payments and travel expenses for periodic leaves and the introduction of “double shifting” (pro- posed by the trades to create jobs). Travel expenses remain intact, and the cuts are only in effect for 16 months. For the last six months in the pact, the expenses are to be reinstated. An addendum to the agreement regard- ing residential construction and involving a $4 per hour wage cut is not included in the ‘acceptance vote. The addendum will be voted on by individual locals during the, next few months. Contracting the issue @ IWA striKx continues. The International Woodwork union continued rotating st ' selected plants and mills followine refusal last week of the largest We if employers association to union’s key concern: job security: TWA executive assistant Clay?® said union members “are i? shape than they’ve ever been 10 out this strike.” A? Although the union reach memorandum of agreement with Council of Northern Interior rs on July 25 regarding the conten contracting-out issue, the rep: tive body of the coastal emp — Forest Industrial Relations f: — has rejected adopting the ment. ae “We're talking union secur), Perry told the Tribune, undersc0” ” the seriousness of the gf ntl practice of contracting out W od normally performed by IWA ™ bers. : “But FIR wants to keep the * (contract) language under YW" we’ve lost thousands of memy” jobs,” said Perry. . Perry said the union has avon : all demands regarding wages ® thal ‘proposed one-year agreement S° the | negotiations can concentrate as contracting-out issue. ef> stry giants such ‘as Mac del, have rejected IWA Seemandst union jobs —not merely union met bers currently working — bé tected from elimination. on In the memorandum of agree reached last week with CONE the northern Interior logging agreed to that language, provie they had the option of negotid exceptions. The IWA agreed. At the crux of the dispute 8 companies’ increasing use of * ‘pha has contractors — the so-called “ and pop” non-union outfits that P form a small part of the proc between cutting and pro timber. The other form of cont! ing, known as “stump to du involves larger contracting which usually employ union lat A provision that a minimum cent of the work performed on C? land through tree farm licences go to contractors has all but & nated union representation 19 Interior. ; Perry said the threat to [WA has increased in recent years } individual arbitration awards st dling” the letter of agreement kept most jobs union. The 50-p® clause was originally intended t0 f vent large corporations monopo the forest industry. . Perry said the employers are @ i particular aim at jobs in coastal ging, and maintenance jobs it the mills and the camps, seekin® replace these with contracts. But, he vowed, the union mem™™ are not prepared to back down 08 issue. “T don’t think the employers be measured the determination We ~ to keep our jobs,” he said.