LR

Fryer’ s bold claims not reflected
in government employees’ contract

The Financial Post’s Western
Business Section carried a feature

story July 28 on this year’s contract .

negotiations between the B.C. Gov-
ernment Employees Union
(BCGEU) and the Government Em-
ployees Relations Bureau (GERB).

John Fryer, general secretary of
the BCGEU, was extensively
quoted. For example: “‘Our mem-
bers genuinely feel they are entitled
to a decent settlement. We are not
going after catch-up increases to
make up what we lost over the past
two years. What we lost, we lost.
But our demands are tailor-made to
keep up with the cost-of-living
(COLA) this time around.”’

The writer, Rod Mickelburgh,
described the strategy of the union,
as related by Fryer: ‘‘As it did in the
previous set of negotiations when
the BCGEU threatened to pull out
only government liquor store work-
ers in the event of a strike, the un-
ion is developing a sophisticated
strategy of job action, should a ne-
gotiating impasse occur. Fryer said
the union is again considering

per month,

@ August 1, 1980, a further in-
crease of eight per cent.

@ August 1, 1981, another increase
of eight per cent.

Although a number of gains were
made in addition to the general
wage increase, they hardly justify a
three-year agreement with only
three successive eight per cent in-
creases, at least in the opinion of
many knowledgeable labor leaders.

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

For example, the bargaining
bulletin issued by the BCGEU
August 27, gave the value of the to-
tal increase over three years as 26
per cent, based on the rate structure
of September 30 of this year. The
total cost, including fringe benefits,

as many arguments in opposition to
a settlement based on a COLA for-
mula as there were arguments in
favor of it.

However, in selling the package
to the membership a special edition
of the union’s paper, the Provincial
was published. On page 17, there is
a reproduction of an illustrated fea-
ture from the Financial Post
September 1, 1979, dealing with
economic projections for the 1980s.
According to this feature, average
wages “‘might go up at eight per
cent. a year’? and “‘inflation will
probably average seven per cent a
year only.”’

I phoned a few of my friends who
are proféssional economists and
they told me that the Canadian
Consumer Price Index for August
1979, for all items, was 8.4 per cent
above August of the previous year.
In Vancouver, the increase was 7.6
per cent but the Vancouver CPI
could soon match the national
figure or rise above it.

Further, according to Economic
Facts, put out by the Trade Union

BCGEU'S NORM RICHARDS (I),

conference.

selecting specific groups of employ-
ees to walk off the job, but not li-
quor store people, this time.”

The picture of Fryer that emerged
trom this story was that of a fighter
prepared to storm the statistical
barricades of the provincial govern-
ment, in support of the wage de-
mands of the membership. For ex-
ample, he was quoted directly as
follows:

‘But [ still believe the stumbling

block wil! be money. The govern-
ment appears to be totally opposed
to a COLA clause (cost-of-living
formula to compensate for rising
prices) for our members and that
could be the nut. If the only way for
us 10 get it is with a scrap, then
there will be a scrap.”

In view of the recent settlement
without. a COLA clause, many
members, including a good number
who voted for the settlement be-
cause they saw no practical alterna-
tive, are beginning to ask some hard
questions.

For example, last May some 200
delegates from the component
groups attended the master bargain-
ing policy conference. They left that
meeting with the idea that the
union, through the conference, had
firmly decided to demand a $150
across-the-board increase in a one-
year agreement, or if a two-year
agreement, $150 a month in the first
year and a COLA clause in the se-
cond year. Instead, the master bar-

gaining committee, after lengthy -

negotiation, unanimously recom-

mended a three-year settlement, as

follows:

e@ August 1, 1979 — an increase of
eight per cent with a minimum
of $80 and a maximum of $159

JOHN FRYER...the course was different following the bargaining

according to the same bulletin, was

estimated at 30 per cent, or 10 per
cent a year. However, the value of
the fringe gains won in negotiations
cannot be valued at four per cent,
because certain pre-existing benefits
which are related to ‘salaries, like
pensions, automatically increase in
cost to the employer with every
wage increase.

In Fryer’s address to the master
bargaining conference | found the
following:

“*It will almost certainly be neces-
sary to go to the membership for a
strike vote during this year’s
negotiations.

‘“‘We have the membership, we
have the leadership, we have shown
the solidarity and we are going to.
maintain our standards.”” |

Bold words indeed, but there are
many who say that what followed
fell far short of what those words
seemed to imply.

Once the settlement was unani-
mously recommended by the master
bargaining committee, some dele-
gates were surprised to learn that
the master bargaining conference
had not laid down the policy guide-
lines. It had merely advised the
master bargaining committee! Fur-
ther, a careful reading of the public
version of Fryer’s speech to the bar-
gaining conference makes it very
clear that Fryer, as the main spokes-
man for the union, plainly indicated
that he, personally, was considering

a number of options. While the dai--

ly press picked up the more dra-
matic parts of his speech, such as
the one which suggested a possible
strike, there was no analysis of its
contradictions and lack of central
thrust. For instance, there were just

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 28, 1979—Page 12

Research Bureau, higher interest
rates, a depreciating exchange rate
and higher oil prices will probably
result in double-digit inflation.

In evaluating these projections
we should bear in mind what John
Fryer told the bargaining confer-
ence.

“COLA clauses are based on the
consumer price index which does
not take into account all price
changes or all items people must
purchase. People may be lulled into
a false sense of security and believe
CPI will do all the negotiating for
them.”’

Tactically, it would have been
wiser to insist on a substantial wage
demand in each year of the term fi-
nally agreed to, with a COLA
clause to protect the established
wage scale. As the settlement was
presented to the ratification meet-
ings, the members were given elab-
orate charts to prove that they
would get more dollars out of three
successive eight per cent wage: in-
creases than they would from a
single increase of eight -per cent,
followed only by COLA ad-
justments in each of the next two
years.

All this, of course, was specula-
tion, but the fact remains that a
large majority voted in favor of the
settlement, after being told ‘‘it is.
the best agreement we can reach
without resorting to strike action.”’
With no serious preparations for
strike action up to that time (such as
taking a strike vote), is it any won-
der, that many members saw the
choice as general strike followed by

back-to-work orders under the Es- ~

sential Services Disputes act, or ac-
ceptance?

The same Financial Post July 28,
also quoted William Hamilton,
president of the Employers’ Coun-
cil of British Columbia, the voice of
big business and the major public
employers in the field of labor rela-
tions. He expressed concern about
the impact of private settlements on
the public sector. He specifically
mentioned the settlement in the for-
est industry which provided for 90
cents an hour in the first year and
9.5 per cent in the next year, along
with a substantial number of special
wage adjustments.

If there is any lesson from the

BCGEU negotiations, it is that the

employers of British Columbia are
more co-ordinated in labor negotia-
. tions in the interest of profit — than
' the unions are in the interest of their
membership. Now, the BCGEU set-

’ tlement has effectively set guide-

lines for the ferry workers, B.C.
Hydro employees, municipal em-
ployees and others; guidelines that
will be difficult to smash.

A comic relief was added by a
report in the Vancouver Province
that in accepting the settlement the
BCGEU ‘members ‘“‘rejected’’ a
splinter group of Maoists who
proudly proclaim that Albania is
the only true socialist country.

In one of their leaflets handed

-out to BCGEU ratification meet-

ings, this sect called for a mobiliza-
tion to be the start of a campaign
“to build a general strike of all
workers.’

A counter leaflet put out by a
“rank and file B.C. Government
Employees Union Committee,”
condemned the ultra-leftists very
sharply: ‘‘One might ask where
these yahoos will be when we hit the
bricks? Probably in some basement
churning out leaflets.

‘We are voting on our contract
without pressure from above and
we don’t need it from the crazies
either.”’

While we can agree that union
members are justified in protesting
the stupid antics of the ultra-leftists
who came to their union meetings
with leaflets calling for rejection
and general strike, we must note the
reactionary and chauvinistic tone of—
the counter document. For exam-
ple:

‘*We don’t need outside help and
we don’t need it from groups who
believe that Albanian goatherds are
the true representatives of the
‘revolution.’

“The same Marxist- Leninist
bunch are the ones that are helping
J. C. Parrot of the Postal Workers:
slide his union slowly down the tube
and have ‘helped’ him to break the
law when he didn’t have to.”

Thus, as we have noted in many
of our comments, the ultra-left,
through their sectarianism, failure
to recognize the workers’ level of
development, and their wild, con-
frontation tactics, always end up
serving big business and right-wing
labor leaders, irrespective of the
good intentions of this or that in-
dividual who has been caught up in
their disruptive activities.

Foulks spea
in city Oct.

UBC professor James Fo
will be speaking on his r
tour of Vietnam October 9 if
public meeting scheduled for #!
Unitarian Church, at 49th
Oak in Vancouver.

Foulks spent a week in
nam where he _ intervie

~several prominent Vietnal
leaders and visited'a num
centres including Lang
which -was_ systemati
destroyed by Chinese forces
ing the invasion in February
slide presentation will also %
part of the meeting, slated for?)
p.m.

COMBINES

Continued from page 1

reasonable protection’’ could 6
vestigated.

Holmes elaborated on that
for a Toronto Globe reporter
day, contending that even
union’s activities were exclud
effects of unions actions — if,
example, they caused restraif
trade — were subject to inves
tion. If upheld, that conte! i
could have serious implication
the entire trade union movem!

Union counsel Ian Don@
presented lengthy argument
back the contention that
fishermen are workmen an
therefore exempt from investig
and similarly their union, beca'
is a ‘‘combination of workmen:
also exempt.

He called on Justice McKay,
dismiss the Combines appli
for an enforcement order ag
the union, and to interpret the
once and for all.

Although the Section exer
“‘combinations of workmen’
been in the Act since its incepti
has been variously interpret
in fact, a confidential mem?
dum released in court last 7)
revealed that the Justice D4
ment did not consider the sect!
protect all the activities that W)
may be engaged in. It was thé
terpretation which gave the £
light to the Combines brane
pursue its attack on the UFA

In launching the investigatiO!
branch has maintained that
probing ‘‘the entire industry.”
claim apparently failed to com
Justice McKay, however, who
mented, ‘‘The thrust is obviov

Justice McKay also state
the ‘‘basic issue’? was whet
not ‘‘fishermen are workmen

He later said that his incliné
“is to find that fisherme
workmen under the Act.”’

PACIFIC

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