LABOR

BCGEU blasts gov't handouts -

The B.C. Government Employees
Union has filed a formal complaint with
the Labor Relations Board, the first-action
in the union’s campaign against Socred
plans to privatize government services and
“downsize” the public service.

The application to the LRB charged the
Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing
with irregular staffing procedures, point-
ing out that private consultants were being
hired to replace laid off or fired govern-
ment workers. :

MTOC seeks

showdown,

The Metro Transit Operating Com |
pany is “trying to provoke an all-out
confrontation” with its employees, tie
Office and Technical Employees Union
Local 378, has charged. _
Anne Harvey, who chairs the unions |

The bulletin noted that some depart-
ments were making “frantic efforts” to
meet the staff reduction targets set by the
government.

The object, it said, “is to make it appear
to the general (and voting) public that
government ‘downsizing’ is a success and,
at the same time, to provide inspiration to
the private sector.”

__ However, it emphasized: “Preliminary
investigations by the union have indicated

barrel politics.

workers,” he charged.

average and for a lot less money,” he said.

According to the union, it is just one
example of “what is taking place behind
the closed doors of some ministries”. And

Cliff Andstein, director of collective
bargaining for the BCGEU called the min-
istry’s action ‘“‘a blatant return to pork

“The ministry, in this case has hired
three consultants, one of whom is a former
gold commissioner for B.C., to do clerical
work normally performed by government

Andstein said that a consultant was
being paid $290 per day to go over two to
four complex files or six to eight simple
files per day. “This is work normally per-
formed by a Clerk 5 whose production
standard is at least 15 files per day on the

CLIFF ANDSTEIN. ..Socreds hiring private
consultants at exorbitant rates to do
government employees work.

it will be conducting further investigations
and then releasing the information to the
public.

Last week, the BCGEU sent bulletins
out to its various components asking
union members to report details of

government reorganization moves in their
departments.

that in the area of contracting out of work
to the private sector it may cost the tax-
payer more, not less, for the same
services.”

BCGEU president Norman Richards
_charged that the government was using its
privatization program “to reward its polit-
ical supporters.”

Earlier this month, the BCGEU blasted
the government for its plans to close the
Coquitlam regional laundry in April and
contract out hospital laundry services as
well as its plans to turn prison food servi-
ces over to private caterers.

The corrections component of the
BCGEU voted Feb. 12 to “refuse to work
Participate, co-operate or interface with
the untrained staff of private contractors

providing food services to corrections
centres.”

VGH accused of anti-

Building Trades workers demonstrated
outside Vancouver General Hospital Feb.
16 to protest what the Building Trades
Council termed union-busting tactics of the
VGH board of trustees.

The noon-hour rally was addressed by
Building Trades Council president Roy
Gautier and“B.C. Federation of Labor
secretary Mike Kramer who pledged the full
support of the federation. “Your fight is our
fight,” he declared.

The Trades released an information bul-
letin showing that the VGH board, while it
had insisted it was unable to pay wage
increases to hospital workers, had hidden
$7.79 million in wages that had been bud-

geted but never spent. “This is just one
further illustration of the active support the

trustees are giving to the Socred govern-
ment’s attack on unionized workers,” the
bulletin charged, adding that construction
workers were also victims of that policy.

Last year, the VGH board, at the urging
of the provincial government, broke with
past practice and awarded a $4.5 million
building contract to a non-union company,
Kirkwall Construction, The firm has been
the target of Building Trades protests ever
since.

But it was a comment by George Plant, a
Socred-appointed trustee and the member
of the VGH building committee, which
most dramatically underscored the attitude
of the VGH board and drew the ire of
unionists.

“Tf they’re hungry enough,” he said Nov.

union stance

9, referring to unemployed construction
workers, “they'll work for $6.50 an hour.”

The Building Trades charged that the
provincial government is not enforcing its
own fair wage legislation “and is deter-
mined to turn public construction over to
non-union contractors.”

In a related development, anti-union
contractor J.C. Kerkhoff and Sons launched
a libel suit last week against the Provincial
Council of Carpenters, the union’s local 452
and the president of a housing co-op which
had been built by Kerkhoff. The Carpenters
have been waging a campaign to stop Penny-
farthing Development and the B.C. Central
Credit Union from turning a condominium
project contract over to Kerkhoff.

‘Solidarity response should echo ’83’

CONTINUED from-page 1

That will more than pay for the loss of
user fee revenue as well as the increase in the

’ Health Ministry budget.

The budget estimates also revealed that
the deficit from last year’s budget was $300
million less than had been projected, giving
credence to charges that the government
had deliberately “cooked” its books in
order to carry out its cutback program.

The government will also increase its
revenues in this budget from new measures
which amount to direct taxes on senior citi-
zens and those who require prescription
drugs. The minimum property taxes paya-
ble rise from $150 to $175 and the deducti-
ble for Pharmacare rises from the present
$125 to $175.

As ominous as the government’s planned
cutbacks are its plans for resource revenue.

Tabled with the budget were several
financial bills including the Resource Stabil-
ization Fund Act. Under its provisions, the
revenue from resources — royalties, stum-
page fees and so on — will be set aside ina
fund. In the first year, 70 per cent of that
amount will go for debt retirement but in all
future years, the entire amount will go for
that purpose.

Thus money from resource revenues will.
not be available to provide government
services.

Wilson warned that the legislation “will

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 1984

mean the complete alienation of resources
from the people.

“No matter how rich we are in resources
or how successful we are in selling them,” he
emphasized, “the revenue from them will
never be available for health, education or
other services.”

That process is already underway, he
added, noting that resource revenues are
expected to rise from $637 million in 1983-
84 to $679 in the new budget “‘yet there will
be massive cutbacks in nearly every
ministry.”

In addition, the government has taken
$470 million from general revenue and used
it to make a major reduction in the B.C.
Rail debt — a move which can only be
linked to the Northeast coal deal since BCR
is expected to sustain further losses as a
result of the coal sellout.

_Monday’s budget was universally con-
demned throughout the labor movement.

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president
Larry Kuehn warned that the cuts in the
Ministry of Education would translate into
the layoff of some 2,000 teachers.

B.C. Government Employees Union
president Norman Richards said that it
would create “fear and apprehension”
throughout the government service which

faces the loss of more than 4,000 positions.

B.C. Fed president Art Kube blasted the
government for its “completely cynical”

claims of economic recovery. “The cuts in
expenditures in every ministry, and the
increased revenues from taxes cannot trans-
late into anything else but diminished eco-
nomic activity in this province,” he said.

“How does that increase jobs?”

. Kube said that Operation Solidarity and
the Solidarity Coalition would be examin-
ing the budget in detail in meetings next
week before mapping out any action to
oppose it.

But Wilson emphasized that Solidarity
“has as much or more to fight in this budget
as the last one.

“This budget sets out to accomplish in
life what the government was unable to
achieve in its last budget and legislation.

“It deserves the same response it got last
July 7,” he said.

negotiating committee, Monday hit © |
company for a series of radio and news" :
paper ads which “implied that we didnt
want to bargain — so we’ve decided t0
call their bluff.” a
Harvey told the Tribune the umlom
decided to call a new negotiating sessio®
for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Airport Inn a
Richmond. At press time the company
had yet to respond to the invitation
resume talks, broken off last month. ——
The OTEU also decided Monday !0
lift its series of flying pickets, which ha@
been stopping buses from entering yat@
around the Lower Mainland during the
past two weeks, and instead set informa |
tion pickets at major bridges throughoul |
the area. e |
Bus drivers, members of the Inde
pendent Canadian Transit Union, Locé®
2, had respected the pickets, leaving the
task of driving retiring rush hour bus
into terminals to supervisory staff. |
“Our tactics were meant to put pres
sure on them (Metro Transit), not
cause inconvenience to the public,” Hat
vey explained. :
To avoid disrupting buses in servie
the company could have ordered !
supervisors to reroute buses, “but th
told them not to, and then they locke®)
out our people in the bus informatio?)
service,” said Harvey.
MTOC has locked out 95 OTEU}
members who answer calls from 'the pu
lic seeking route information as well a5
employees in the traffic checking, sch
duling. and parts and maintenance)
departments. The union has withdraw?
the service of six employees.
The union, which is in a legal strik "4
position following a 94 per cent vote last}
October, has the support of the B.C:
Federation of Labor in eforts to achieve
an exemption from Bill 3, the Public Sec
tor Restraint Act. a
Metro Transit has refused to allow the}
exemption unless the unions — both the}
OTEU and ICTU — allow major take-
aways in seniority, jobs transfers an@
other areas. Both unions have beet
without a contract since last March, and
ICTU members are currently taking 4
strike vote. 4
The company, which operates buses if}
Greater Vancouver and Victoria for B.C: |
Transit, also wants the unions to accept 4
two-year agreement with no wage}
increase in the first year, and 1.5 per cent
in the second, “and they’re threatening
to withdraw even that offer,” said}
Harvey. 4

Meanwhile, B.C. Transit, which has 4 |
surplus of $ 4 million for the 1983-84] _
operating year, plans April fare hikes |
ranging from 12 to 66 per cent, the}
OTEU noted.

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