Labour action key to province's future

— page 12

November 25, 1987
40°

Vol. 50, No. 44

Teachers’
Sign-up
gathering
momentum

The B.C, Teachers Federation is confi-
dent that all of its 75 locals will go the union
Touteina sign-up drive that has already seen
teachers in some local associations back
Union status by 100 per cent.

Despite complex regulations governing
the drive, the federation sees in the results of
its “extremely successful” certification
Campaign the complete unionization of the
Province’s public school teaching force, said
Sign-up certification co-ordinator Lynne
Macdonald.

The results prompted BCTF president
Elsie McMurphy to tell the federation’s fall
Representative Assembly that Premier Bill

ander Zalm’s attempt to “knock out” the
_ Ofganization has failed.

The drive is required under Bill 20; the
Teaching Profession Act the Social Credit
80vernment introduced this spring and
Which, along with Bill 19, the Industrial
Relations Reform Act, constituted a
double-barrelled attack on labour and the
teachers’ federation.

The Teaching Profession Act stipulates
that teachers chose p
Whether to unionize |
M votes conducted
at the local associa-
ton level. There are

5 local association
Beobers of the

BCTF eligible to
Vote in the drive,
With the administra-
tors’ associations
forced by the act to

me management. McMURPHY

Clearly an attempt to divide and conquer

the federation, which has been outspoken in
its Opposition to Socred education cut-
backs, the Act’s intent appears to be headed
for failure.

At press time, four teachers locals — in

Ope, Keremeos, the Queen Charlotte
Islands and Windermere — had voted 100
Per cent in favour of holding a certification
Vote. Another five locals had backed a certi-
fication vote by percentages in the high
Nineties,

_ Altogether 72 locals have commenced a
Sign-up drive, with at least 58 so far backing
a certification vote and only three locals yet
to start, Macdonald said. Most locals began

cir sign-up effort in late October after the
€deration held a special general meeting to
amend its bylaws in preparation for union

Status.

The main snag is Vancouver, where the
Vancouver Elementary ‘School Teachers

SOciation (VESTA) and the Vancouver

€condary School Teachers Association
(VSSTA) were unsuccessful in convincing
the Industrial Relations Council to allow

€ associations to hold certification votes
as separate entities. VESTA and VSSTA
ad already held sign-up drives.

see BCTF page 12

cS Union,
tion over an international trade ruling
‘that sould ee out B.C.’s

3 Gar,

1.8 ‘always wins and Canadians always lose outside

_ postal rates for U'S. periodicals andelim-

ination of tariffs on printed material and
recordings, and furthermore, the U.S.

retains the right to redress any future =

‘ — cultural! measures enacted by Canada.”

ot = they are ie ‘that to

frighten people into accepting the fee

= trade deal .. . oe Widen charged. —

_ Of the hearings, Armstrong said: “We u

can’t allow this farce: four 15-minute _

presentations from the whole of British
Columbia ..

Bill Blaikie, NDP MP for Winnipeg-
Birdshill and a member of the commit-
tee, also called the hearings a sham and

__ urged participants to “ask difficult ques- _
_tions of those who support free trade.”

Rally MC Michelle Hill noted NDP

: MPs are preparing a motion urging the

House to establish full full participatory :
hearings on the free trade issue. a

On Saturday, Dec. 5, David Orchard
__ of the Citizens Concerned About Free
_ Trade will “dispel the myths” at St. —
Andrews Wesley Church, 1012 Nelson
St. in Vancouver, at 2 p.m. _