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LABOR

The “‘blatantly political’? ac
tion by the directors of os
Greater Vancouver Regional
District in laying off the man who
is also union president — the only
layoff by the GVRD — will be
coming back to haunt them when
they meet Jan. 26.

On Tuesday, David Cadman,
president of the Vancouver
Municipal and Regional
Employees Union who was laid
off Dec. 31 as part of a budget cut
outlined his case before the Van-
couver and District Labor Coun-
cil which has unanimously back-
ed his demand for reinstatement
in a letter to the GVRD.

The 4,500-member VMREU is
not affiliated to the labor council
although it bargains jointly with
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees which is. Ironically,
Cadman was laid off the same
day the unions’ contract with the
GVRD expired.

GVRD chairman Jim Tonn re-
jected a request from the council
to appear before the Jan. 26
directors’ meeting but the coun-
cil’s letter of support has been
made public along with scores of
others written on Cadman’s
behalf by unions, teachers’
organizations and schools.

The last time the GVRD
discussed Cadman’s appeal for
reinstatement — an in camera
meeting Dec. 15 at which direc-
tors voted narrowly to take no ac-
tion — GVRD officials withheld

DAVID CADMAN...
‘political’ layoff.

target of

the letters of support from both
GVRD directors and reporters.

Several GVRD directors, in-
cluding two Vancouver COPE
aldermen, have pledged to ensure
that the issue is raised again at the
Jan. 26 meeting.

Cadman, together with
another GVRD employee, was
given layoff notice Nov. 25 when
the GVRD cut out an informa-
tion services program which had
serviced Lower Mainland
schools, explaining GVRD pro-
grams to students.

The pretext for the layoff was a
budget cut — even though the
GVRD wound up its 1982 opera-
tions with a $392,000 surplus and

even though the amount cut —
$89,550 — was greater than the
figure of $65,762 which financial
director George Carlisle initially
stated would be necessary to keep
the 1983 budget within Victoria’s
five percent guidelines.

The official letter to Cadman
announcing the layoff cited the
““world-wide economic
recession.”

But the woman who was to be
laid off with Cadman was quickly
given another job with the GVRD
and since Nov. 25 four new
employees have been hired.

Yet Cadman, with 41% years
seniority, has been refused per-
mission to ‘“‘bump”’’ employees
with less seniority and was denied
a vacant position although the job
description closely matched his
own.

The VMREU-has grieved the
layoff and there could be as many
as four arbitration cases related to
the dispute. Until the dispute is
resolved, Cadman will continue
to sit on the bargaining commit-
tee.

“The real reason for this is not
economic at all,’’ Cadman told
delegates to the labor council
Tuesday.

“Tt’s a blatantly political act in-
tended to intimidate members of
our union on the eve of bargain-
ing for a new contract.”

As the president of the the
largest union in the GVRD joint
bargaining committee Cadman

Cadman layoff could haunt GVRD

had a high profile during the
three-month strike in 1981. He
has also been prominent in the
Defend Educational Services
Coalition (DESC) which has led a
campaign against Secred educa-
tional cutbacks.

Peter Wilson, president of
CUPE 1004 which is on the joint
bargaining committee, echoed
Cadman’s comments, adding
that the politically motivated
layoff was ‘‘a slap in the face for
the VMREU and for the whole
labor movement.’’

He urged unionists throughout
the Lower Mainland to get letters
into the GVRD in time for the
Jan. 26 meeting, supporting Cad-
man’s demand for reinstatement.

‘‘We can’t let this issue go,’’ he
said, ‘‘we can’t let the GVRD of-
ficials and the politicians get away
with it.”’

Council secretary Paddy Neale
also deplored the reasons for
refusing a council delegation
given by GVRD chairman Jim
Tonn who claimed that because
the dispute was in the process of
arbitration, he did ‘‘not think it
appropriate to entertain a labor
council delegation.”’

’ “Tf the GVRD would recon-
sider the layoff of Cadman,”
Neale said, ‘‘then the arbitration
would be totally unnecessary.”
The cost of the arbitrations to the
GVRD would easily exceed the
budget savings gained by the pro-
gram cut.

The Vancouver-New
Westminster Newspaper Guild last
week blasted Pacific Press,
publishers of the Vancouver Sun
and Province for ‘‘stonewalling’’
an arbitration which was to have
determined the future of 54 Guild
members laid off Nov. 1.

_The Guild statement, accusing
Pacific Press of ‘‘cynical disregard
for the uncertain future faced by
those employees who were laid
off,” was in response to Pacific
Press’ latest action in launching yet
another appeal of a month-and-
half old arbitrator’s ruling ordering
the company to produce documen-
tary evidence to prove the layoffs
were for economic reasons.

Throughout the dispute, the
Guild has sought an expedited ar-
bitration to remove the uncertainty
facing the 54 who have been off the

payroll since Nov. 1. ‘But the com-
pany has continued to stonewall
what seemed a just and reasonable
request to try and expedite the ar-
bitration,”’ the union said.

Although not of the same
magnitude in numbers affected,
the case has similarities to the

layoff dispute involving the
Telecommunications Workers and
B.C. Tel last year in that the union
argues that the layoffs are based
not on economic necessity but on
company reorganization — and
therefore in contravention of the
collective agreement.

The case has also been the sub-
ject of one landmark arbitrator’s
ruling, which is of key importance
to unions seeking to force
employers to justify layoffs. But it
is just that ruling which Pacific
Press has appealed every step of the
way.

“4 his decision Nov. 29, ar-
bitrator Bruce McColl ordered
Pacific Press to produce specific
documents relating to the com-
pany’s financial position in order
to determine the validity of claims
of economic necessity.

A critically important aspect of
the decision was McColl’s ruling
that the documents must be pro-
duced in advance of the arbitration
hearing on the layoffs in order to
give the Guild adequate time to
study the complex financial
statements.

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But the company refused to pro-
duce them, and instead appealed
McColl’s decision to the Labor
Relations Board.

In a decision date Jan. 7,
however, a three-member LRB
panel upheld McColl’s ruling,
stating that ‘‘in certain cir-
cumstances, an arbitration board
has the ability to order pre-hearing
production of documents.”? And
in a related decision, LRB vice-
chairman Ken Albertini ordered

the company to produce relevant

documents within two weeks.

But Pacific Press again refused
and last week requested a full
board review of the panel’s deci-
sion upholding the arbitrator.

The company appeal forced a
postponement of the layoff ar-
bitration, set to open Jan. 13 for
more than four months, until May
30.

As a result, the Guild said,
“there are now more than 50 of our
members out on the street who now
must wait until well into the sum-
mer for their fate to be decided.”

The Guild had sought, under a
provision in the collective a agree-

RIBUNE

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
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Read the paper that fights for labor

i

Guild hits company ‘stonewalling’

ment known as the “‘status quo”’
clause, to keep the employees on
the payroll until the issue was ar-
bitrated. The clause stipulates that
‘conditions prevailing prior to an
action or circumstance which
results in a grievance shall be main-
tained unchanged pending final
settlement of the grievance except
in cases of discharge...”

However, a LRB panel ruled
Jan. 11 that the clause did not apply
in the case of the layoffs.

Ironically, the finanial
documents sought by the Guild
would probably have to be produc-
ed during the course of the layoff
arbitration hearing — a fact which
the company has acknowledged. It
has insisted throughout the dispute
that its only objection is to produc-
tion of the documents in advance.

But if that is so, ‘‘why doesn’t
the company agree to produce the
relevant documents for purposes of
the current arbitration while pursu-
ing the its challenge to the points of
law involved?’’ the Guild asked,
emphasizing that it was Pacific
Press which forced the postpone-
ment of the layoff arbitration.

“‘The Guild was prepared to go
ahead even if it did not have the
relevant documents,” it said.

“Tt has been the company’s in-
tention to drag out and elay the ar-
bitration as much as possible —
almost as a punishment to the
Guild for having the nerve to
challenge the layoffs.”

The union also warned that since
the arbitration, there had been a
serious deterioration in relations
with Pacific Press, signalling a
return to ‘‘the bad old days’’ before
the eight-month 1978 strike.

“That is in no one’s interest in
these grim economic times,’’ it
said. ‘‘One B.C. Tel in this pro-
vince is enough.” ~

Court case
on pay set

The B.C. Teachers; Federa-

tion intends to launch a test case |

this week in an effort to compel

B.C. school boards to imple- }
ment the arbitrated wage set- |
tlements given teachers last }

month.

The petition will be filed in
Supreme Court on behalf of the
Fernie Teachers’ Association
but the outcome is expected to
affect all 62 districts where
teachers took their salary
disputes to arbitration.

Arbitration boards handed
down awards ranging from
three percent to 6.5 percent in

December although every settle- |

ment must be submitted to

Compensation Stabilization |

Program commissioner Ed

Peck under the provisions of the |

Socreds’ wage control legisla-
tion. Peck will then make fur-
ther adjustments.

But until he does, the boards

are legally bound to pay the ar- |

bitrated increase from Jan. 1,
the BCTF will argue in its peti-
tion to the court.

The teachers federation con-
tends that Fernie teachers
should get their increase from

the beginning of the year and |}

that any change required by
Peck should be effected through

adjustments in paycheques after s

he has brought down his ruling.

The Fernie arbitration award
included a mid-month advance
payment of 40 percent of the
January salary, payable Jan. 14.
But payment was not made by

the board, prompting the court 4

petition.

Union peace
group begun

A trade union peace commit-

tee encompassing major unions }

throughout the Lower

Mainland may soon bea reality,

Vancouver and District Labor
Council president Frank Ken-
nedy told the council meeting
Tuesday.

A meeting called Sunday to
discuss the feasibility of such a
committee drew 21 represen-

tatives from 16 unions. Among |

those represented were the
Telecommunications Workers
Union, International Wood-
workers, United Fishermen, In-
ternational Brotherhood of

Electrical Workers, Carpenters, | j

Longshoremen, B.C. Building
Trades Council, Office and
Technical Workers, Postal
Workers and the B.C. Teachers
Federation.

Kennedy said that a con-
ference was set for Feb. 12 in the
ILWU Local 500 hall at which
time a trade union peace com-
mittee would be formally.
established. Invitations to
unionsts are to be sent out wide-
ly prior to the conference.

A broadly-based trade union
peace committee has long been
an objective of peace activists,
and for Kennedy himself who,
as chairman of End the Arms
Race coalition has campaigned
for its establishment.

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