; The Cang

~anadj i :
Medicines fan Aid for Vietnam Civilians (CAVC) sent a shipment of

Photo sho

R ere merchandise for the children of Laos. Photo above shows

| hertom h Npacking crates from the Vancouver-based committee.

Ss 89 put on Ws one of the sweaters knitted by Canadian women

“Ntribution a Lao youngster. You can help this work by sending a
— nto: CAVC, Box 2543, Vancouver 3, B.C.

I On } .

Pishen tng talks between the
Nd the ee Union (UFAWU)
Way. pa nadian. Union of Rail-
Workers @nsport and General
this (CBRT) will take place
Having : €r with a view to
Metails', documents and
“OMpleteg jaitions of a merger
Year. Y the first of next

The

*Dproveq eer ship of UFAWU
Merger € move towards
‘ention at their annual con-
F0proveq 4 last week. They
That the | ° Tecommendation
ecret 5, vote on merger be b
ship ae of local nieitber:
“omes. Stings when the time

| Wing t
1s tates he Week-long sessions
a

Sp ear various u

tesco as gue
i the p’, UtSt vice-president
pon, Who ea: achers Federa-
lent Said “It js not suffi:

| 0 F

ernment crib’ the Bennett
© cont reactionary — j
Piehts “gptuous of the Opes
4 : = Which virtually
H8ainin Chers’ collective
jatest actiq ents: is only the
/ 8say ‘on in a sustai
atic against labor ghd view
pent,» S by this govern-

dec:
ites °4 Bill oe € convention

Mestro as an attempt
Hh Posin Collective Bakeattiig.
yc Pretenc 48e controls under
& ile | a of fighting inflation
She cked Ng prices and profits
Cling .
| Soviet Fon the invitation of the
inion electey orkers Union, the
| my © Visi * Beeation of
Lo ctetar © USSR. Uni
| 4 a Nichol of ie
arg eneral i
Hitt mem ' executive
pltoria ers Elgin Neish of
orma Jones of

Upert will spend two

Hishermen to continue
Merger talks with CBRT

weeks next October visiting
Soviet fishing centres.

They expect to discuss
problems of common interest to
fishermen of the two countries
with their Soviet counterparts in
a continuing exchange of views
conducted by two previous
UFAWU delegations to the
USSR and one Soviet Food
Workers Union delegation to
this country.

One of the questions which
concerned fishermen was the
growing pollution threat of
rivers and west coast waters. A
number of resolutions were
adopted which set forth oppo-
sition to oil tankers routes, the
Moran Dam, pulp plant and
forestry pollution of all kinds. A
resolution which urged Cana-
dian-U.S. discussions to set up a
complete marine traffic control
system along the coast was dis-
cussed by the delegates.

The three top officers of the
UFAWU, president Homer
Stevens, secretary-treasurer
Jack Nicol and business agent
Glenn McEachern, were elected

Wives of Spanish
prisoners coming.

Two wives of Spanish political
prisoners are expected to arrive
in Toronto on April 28 to start a
national tour for one month to
help win amnesty. The Canadian
Committee for Amnesty for
Spanish Political Prisoners
said plans call for them to speak
in major Canadian cities.

The Vancouver section of the
Committee said this week plans
are being made for a rally in Van-
couver sometime in May. The
date for their arrival here is not
yet known, but details will be
announced shortly.

The B.C. Federation of Labor
presented its brief to Labor Min-
ister Chabot on Tuesday out-
lining five major areas in which
Bill 88 poses serious dangers to
labor and urged withdrawal of
the Bill. The PT here publishes
the major portions of the brief
outlining labor’s main objec-
tions to this obnoxious and

dangerous legislation.
* KOK

There are five major areas in
which Bill 88 could have disas-
trous results.

In the first place, Bill, 88
threatens the very basis of our
industrial relations structure
— the collective agreement.
The collective agreement is the
most basic protection which a
worker can obtain through trade
union organization. His wages
and working conditions are guar-
anteed and protected through
the collective agreement.

This protection can-be totally
invalidated if the employer is
able to transfer work from em-
ployees covered under the collec-
tive agreement to another organ-
ization, company or groups of
workers on a contract basis.

Bill 88 could make such con-
tracting out a common practice
by stripping away protections
provided under the collective
agreement. This would
encourage any employer to
ignore the wages and conditions
provided in the collective agree-
ment by contracting out work at
sub-standard wages and con
ditions.

Not only would this be con-
trary to the interests of the
workers involved; it would
affect the entire economy of the
province, with the probability
that thousands of jobs would be
lost as work was contracted out
to low-wage, poor living-stan-
dard areas, including other prov-
imees-and even other countries.

Obviously, this would lead to
massive industrial strife as
workers, stripped of the protec-
tion provided by their collective
agreement, fought to protect
their wages and conditions. The
prospective chaos which this
suggests should, in itself, make
clear the urgency of with-
drawing this legislation.

~ kK

The second major area of
potentially drastic conse-
quences is the threat to the union
shop posed by the legislation.

The legislation is a back-door
introduction of so-called ‘‘right-
to-work’’ laws, more properly
called ‘‘right-to-scab’’ laws.
Most union agreements provide
that all newly-employed per-
sonnel must, within a specified
period of time, join the union
which has won the prevailing
wages and conditions and which
provides representation for all
employees in the particular

operation. i

Bill 88 could enable an em-
ployer to re-introduce the intimi-
dation prevalent in open shop
situations. This could result in
some employees not joining the
union in spite of receiving all
the benefits of union repre-
sentation by negating the provi-
sions in the collective agree-
ment requiring union member-
ship. The end result is exactly
the same as more directly
worded right-to-work or right-to-
scab laws. 3

We would emphasize, as we
have pointed out previously,_

that such legislation has pro-
duced depressed economies
wherever it has been introduced
and has condemned the vast
majority of men and women
working for wages and salaries
to live in poverty and insecurity.
No government could seriously
wish to turn British Columbia
into a northern Alabama; nor
could anyone seriously expect
British Columbia workers to
quietly acquiesce in the
destruction of their hard-won
living standards and working

conditions.
***

The third area in which this
legislation is intolerable is with
respect to picket line provi-
sions.

The legislation could force one
citizen to ‘‘steal bread from an-
other’s mouth,” by forcing him
to cross another worker’s picket
line under threat of fines or
jailing. When a collective agree-
ment reserves the right of a
union member to refuse to cross
a legal picket line, it protects
the individual’s right to refuse
to destroy the rights of other
workers by rendering ineffec-
tive their basic legal weapon.

Legislation which negates such
provisions in a collective agree-
ment is simply legislation which
forces men and women to deny
each other’s rights — legislation
which turns neighbour against
neighbour. We cannot believe
that any government which
professes to uphold the Cana-
dian way of life can open the
door to such cannibalism
through legislation.

This Bill also strikes a blow at
one of our best guarantees of
industrial stability. By placing
in jeopardy the practice of union
hiring or the union hiring hall,
Bill 88 could turn back the clock
to that grim period when thou-
sands of workers led a miser-
able migrant existence, trailing
endlessly around the province
in search of work on construc-
tion projects.

B.C. Fed outlines case
against Bill to Chabot

Any British Columbian who
can remember the _ once-
common sight, before the union
hiring hall was established, of a
constant procession of derelict
trailers to every corner of the
province will totally reject Bill
88. Not only did this situation
condemn thousands of workers
and their families to a miser-
able existence, it also adversely
affected the life of every com-
munity in the province.

The union hiring hall brought
order out of chaos. Under this
legislation, it could be endan-
gered by any worker too selfish
to wait his turn for an available
job. We would also find British
Columbians losing their jobs to
workers from other provinces
and could see a massive influx of
unemployed construction
workers competing for jobs
with British Columbians,
creating an even greater pool of
unemployed workers in our prov-
ince. ** *

Finally, this Bill, which is sup-
posedly designed to deal with a
jurisdictional problem, could
create jurisdictional problems
beyond belief.

At present, it is generally true -

that most legitimate unions —

have no desire to invade basic
jurisdictions other than their
own. As a result, we only have
jurisdictional problems in a
limited number of cases, where
jurisdictional lines are hazy.
Bill 88, however, would be an
open invitation to unions to
invade other jurisdictions. In
such circumstances, it would
only take one or two unions who
might be inclined to invade other
jurisdictions to start a chain
reaction which could have
chaotic results. A union seeing
its jurisdiction invaded would be
under tremendous pressure to
protect its position by finding
another area into which it, in
turn, could move. We could end
up with jurisdictional battles by
the dozen.

Merge all protests into one
mighty torrent says Phillips

A call for a united, popular opposition which would merge the

different streams of protest into one mighty torrent to stop the—

Socred government’s reactionary attack on democracy and the
people came last Thursday from CUPE spokesman Jack Phillips. He
was addressing a rally of about 250 trade unionists in Trail’s Labor

Centre.

The rally was one of many
being held around the province
to protest Bill 3.

The Trail rally approved
resolutions calling on MLA’s to
oppose Bill 3. Included among a
wide range of speakers con-
demning the Bill and roasting

Education Minister Brothers, _

whose seat is Trail-Rossland,
was Trail Mayor E.E. DeVito
and NDP candidate Chris
D’Arcy.

Referring to Bill 88, Phillips
said these amendments are
more than an attack on collec-
tive agreements and protective
practices of the Building Trades
unions. They are an attack on the
entire trade union movement.

“Too many of us are looking
at only one facet of what is
taking place and are thus failing
to see the overall picture,”’ said
Phillips. ‘“We cannot look at the

present situation merely as —

teachers, non-teaching school
board employees, building
trades workers, smelter
workers, trade unionists, wel-
fare recipients or members of a
political party to the left of the
government party.

““We have to see ourselves as
part of the growing majority who
are disenchanted, dissatisfied
and fed-up to-the-teeth with this
government in Victoria. . .

‘What we need for salvation
of this province is a united,
popular opposition of the people.
Let us find the common denom-
inators and merge the different
streams of legitimate protest
into one mighty torrent. . . The
trade union movement, with its
more than 200,000 members in
B.C. could be the catalyst for
such a movement,’’ concluded
Phillips. : :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1972—PAGE 3