menue

ith

EE NE

SE I TT I TI TE TE

British Columbia

SED TE ELT LT

Foran
8-hr day

Behold our May Day issue, in
which we “go big” to celebrate the
workers international holiday which
found its birth in martyrdom.

Among the issues at the time of the
killing of the Chicago militants who
demonstrated on this day in 1886 was

the demand for the eight-hour day.
But putting out the May Day issue, _

with its usual 32 or more pages during
our regular schedule requires us log-
ging far more than eight hours daily.

But it’s what many “politicos” face

in the life they have chosen. And, —
when we view the product at the end _
of a gruelling week, we usually think

it’s been worth the effort.

We hope you do, too.

Last week we reported several indi-

viduals who have already joined the
500 Club in this year’s financial drive.

- But we would like to see several
more supporters raise $500 or more
by the time the drive ends at our Vic-
tory Banquet June 25.

In the meantime, we can report
with gratification contributions total-
ling more than $22,430 —- about one-
quarter of what we need to keep the
Tribune coming to your door in the
next year.

We'd have to acknowledge that the
Vander Zalm and Mulroney govern-
ments don’t limit their activities to
eight hours daily either. They work

‘round the clock to help make Canada
- a non-union 5lst state.

Until their agenda is defeated, we
plan to work hard too. And with your
help and their defeat, we know it can
be done.

DERA extends our
best wishes on
_ May Day
to all our friends
and supporters

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
RESIDENTS’
ASSOCIATION

9 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. VGA 1M9
Phone: 682-0931

| Protest slams gov't cuts |
to single parent benefits

The provincial government received a
large “baby” Monday from some 100 peo-
ple who demonstrated against the Socreds’
chopping of $50 a month from many single
parents’ welfare benefits.

Even though Social Services and Hous-
ing Minister Claude Richmond made an
announcement shortly before the noon-
hour demonstration that the $50 would be
restored for some, it was not enough to
mollify outrage over the cutback.

“Its a partial victory, but there is the still
the situation where thousands of kids in this
province are hungry,” Jean Swanson of
End Legislated Poverty charged.

Until April 14, single parents — the vast
majority of whom are women — were clas-
sified as unemployable by the ministry if
they hada child under seven months or two
children under 12 years of age. It was part of
a sweeping reorganization of the system.

The reorganization change d the defini-
tion of unemployable to apply only to par-
ents of a child of 15 weeks or less.

The move drew instant condemnation

from ELP and jhe B.C. Federation of
Labour. Federation secretary-treasurer Cliff
Andstein termed the move “an unwar-
ranted attack on people who cannot defend
themselves.”

“In case the minister hasn’t noticed,
there are no jobs out there for these people
and moving to cut their welfare incomes
isn’t going to make jobs appears,” he
said.

On Monday, Richmond restored the $50

; to single parents with one child under seven

months and to those with two children
under six years of age.

“That still leaves thousands of kids~

hungry — those between the ages of six to
12 years. They are among the poorest kids
in the province,” Swanson said.

“T intend to go to work but not until I
have quality daycare for my child,” said
single parent Carole Brindle at the Robson
Square demonstration.

Province-wide, the figure is 85,000 child-
ren living in poverty, Child Poverty Action
League spokesman Pat Chauncey told the

Columbia that our government expe us

|
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x
N
N
\
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a iN
N
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CAROLE BRINDLE ... adequate day-
care needed.
crowd.
She noted the large stuffed doll in the
form of an infant in the wicker basket beside
her. The doll and basket were later taped 1
the door of the government’s nearby Val
couver offices with a note stating the
“baby” had been ‘“‘abandoned” because %
poverty.
Chauncey told the crowd: “Our baby
represents 84,000 children in British

——

to feed on welfare rates that are one half the
poverty line.

“Our baby is going to grow, just as our
fight for justice for the poor is going 10 |
grow, just as our fight for the unemployed! :
going to grow. ..,’”” Chauncey vowed.

—

Vancouver drops, Burnaby sets, fair wage

Vancouver city council’s right-wing
majority quashed an attempt to reinstate a
program that once ensured non-union
workers on city-contracted jobs received a
union rate of pay and similar benefits.

Council voted 9-2 Tuesday to reject dele-
gations on a motion to re-establish union
rates of pay for contracted workers, and
then recorded the same vote against the
motion itself. It also rejected 8-3 a motion to
adopt the federal fair wage.

Meanwhile, however, Burnaby munici-
pal council upheld its decision last month to
implement a fair wage policy and rejected
attempts by a non-union contractors’
organization to torpedo the policy at its
April 18 meeting.

Philip Hochstein of the Independent
Contractors and Business Association of
B.C. has spoken against both the Van-
couver and Burnaby council motions. The
association’s executive vice-president, he
was among those opposing the Vancouver
fair wage policy during intense debate to
rescind the policy in February last year.

Vancouver had a fair wage bylaw in place
when the Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors and the Civic Independents held a slim
majority on council in the 1985-86 term. It
ensured that contracted city work pay at
least the wage established by the Canadian
Union of Public Employees, plus 28 per
cent for a benefits package. A commission-
er’s office to enforce the bylaw — _patt-
erned after a decades-old bylaw in
Toronto — was established.

MAY DAY
GREETINGS

— in solidarity with Vancouver's
working people, for peace, jobs and

a better city for everyone.
2066 Parker Street,
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 2L5
Phone: 254-4180.

That bylaw was later struck down in B.C.
Supreme Court following an action launched
by the ICBA. The city responded by voting
on each contract as it came before council,
and retained the commissioner’s office.

But the new NPA dominated council
abolished the position and program, despite
requests from several groups not to do so, at
a packed meeting Feb. 10, 1987.

Then the B.C. Appeal Court last month
overturned the Supreme Court decision.

Ald. Bruce Eriksen and COPE colleague
Ald. Libby Davies moved that in light of the
decision, council reinstate the fair wage pol-
icy schedule and restore the commissioner’s
position. Delegations were to be heard
April 19, but some groups asked that the
motion be deferred to a later date.

But at the April 19 meeting Puil, moving
what amounted to an amendment to the
previous week’s council motion, argued
that the delegations had already been heard
on the issue, and that it would be a waste of
time to hear them again.

He was backed by all other NPA alder-
men in attendance except Gordon Price.
The right-wing council members echoed
Puil’s comments that further debate was
futile, his claim that the program was too
costly, and that there have been “no com-
plaints” about wages so far.

Eriksen countered that the program “did
not cost us an arm anda leg,” and said there
were complaints even when the policy was
in place regarding non-payment of the rates
established by council.

He also noted the cheating of several

- CUPE rate plus 32 per cent for a benefits

non-union workers on the Expo. 86 site by
contractors violating the province’s fait
wage regulations.

“It’s a very important public policy issu
and these people, no matter who they ar®
have a right to be heard. All you’re doing
censorship, and you know thats ve Davies
charged.

Meanwhile, Burnaby bona on March
28 adopted a fair wage policy based on the

package. As with the former Vancouvel”
policy, the policy still pays construction
workers less than the going Building Trades
rates.

The Burnaby policy, adopted by cout
cil’s New Democrat majority, will pay
labourers $16 per hour, which, according !©
a council report, is at least what contractol
working for the municipality paid thet!
employees during 1987.

The council policy was attacked by
Hochstein in an address to the alderme?
and in a letter to The Vancouver Sun.

The non-union builder’s spokesma?
called the policy “an unwarranted ane —
unnecessary intrusion into the market
place.”

But ina response in The Vancouver Sun's
letters column, Building Trades Counell
president Len Werden countered that
delays on non-union projects in Burnaby
had influenced council’s decision. é

**Also, local economies and small busl-
ness in particular can only suffer from the
continual forcing down of wage levels and
purchasing power,” Werden wrote.

“We hope that other municipalities will
recognize the good sense of Burnaby’s
action,” he stated.

Canada has a proud tradition of providing safe,
accessible, and affordable services.
We cannot afford to give them away!

Surrey-White Rock Council for Public Services

—a

Surrey-COPE and Unity in 1988

536-4045

Stop privatization and the Mulroney trade deal.

(Annual dinner and panel discussion May 15 — see classifieds)

2 Pacific Tribune, April 27, 1988