The Downtown Vancouver
Association (DVA) wants city
taxes on business reduced.
That’s hardly news. But the
demands of the DVA go a lot
further than they have ever gone
before.

Who is DVA? It is not
representative of small business
in the city. It represents the big
corporations in the downtown
area — the banks, insurance

DVA ploy makes
vote choice clear

costs, as well as street
maintenance, sewers and water.
In other words they have no
hesitation in demanding that
these services be maintained.
But they want services to people
cut or eliminated and they don’t
want their taxes used to pay for
services to people. Have you
ever heard of anything more
selfish? They may lack a human
conscience but they certainly

Fryer upholds BCGEU pact |

John Fryer, general secretary,
B.C. Government Employees’
Union, writes: I was pleased to read
in the Oct. 1 edition the article on
the possible adverse health effects
of video display terminals (Surrey
case highlighting growing concern
over VDTs,”’ Tribune Oct. 1).

This is an issue that must be ad-

dressed by unions in negotiations:

We cannot sit idly by and hope for

companies, developers, in- don’t lack gall.

Harry

Rankin

vestors, the big retail stores such
as Woodwards, Eatons and the
Bay, the big hotels such as the
Bayshore Inn, the Hyatt Regen-
cy and the Hotel Vancouver.
And here is a list of some of the
demands the Association is
making on the city council:

@ Abolition of the 10 per-
cent business tax;

@ A drastic reduction in
their property taxes and that the
revenue from these taxes be used
only for ‘‘essential services” (as
defined by them) and ‘“‘basic
functions of government”’ (also
defined by them).

@ Similar reductions in
funds for recreation and com-
munity services as well as funds
| for health and social services

~and’ grants to community
organizations.

@ Drastic cuts in the school
board budget.

The association wants the city
to provide police and fire pro-
tection for members’
businesses, no matter what it

, council.

passes.

ing now.

The presentation of these
demands by the DVA to city
council at this time was an elec-
tion ploy. The head of the DVA
is none other than Philip Owen,
an NPA aldermanic candidate
in the.November civic elections.
And he’s the man who
presented these demands to city
Outside of council,
their choice for mayor,
Jonathan Baker, is singing the
same tune. The choice in this
year’s civic election is becoming
clearer with every week that

The voters can opt for an
NPA line of budget cuts,
layoffs, reduction in taxes for
big business, cuts and/or
elimination of services to peo-
ple. Or, they can opt for COPE
which places people before pro-
perty, which says that council’s
first responsibility is to take care
of people, and which insists that
big business pay its fair share of
taxes which it is certainly not do-

legislation or benign arbitrators to
protect our members. As you and
your readers are well aware, legisla-
tion to protect workers always
follows what has been negotiated in
collective agreements.

One of the major achievements
of the tentative agreement now out
for ratification by members of the
B.C. Government Employees’
Union is contract language that
provides complete protection for
VDT operators.

The new clause provides for eye
examinations prior to commencing
work on/the VDT and follow-up
examinations after six months and
then annually. There is also provi-
sion for two additional ten minute
rest breaks for VDT operators in
addition to the two normal rest
breaks and meal break during the
seven hour shift.

Any operator who becomes
pregnant is entitled to be im-
mediately reassigned to other work
with no loss in pay (where other
work is available - Ed.). This is
significant protection considering
the possible damages of low-level
radiation.

One area generally overlooked,
particularly in the arbitration
route, is the design of terminals and
the surrounding environment
which results in muscle strain,
lower back and neck problems,
tendonitis, headaches and eye
strain. The language we recently
negotiated requires equipment that

a a A i ty i ae it
PEOPLE AND ISSUES
a RR a as a i Rae ces

fj t's certainly a measure of the new influence of
the new peace movement that CBC Radio
should schedule a 11-day series of interviews and
commentary called Nuclear Peace — a series term-
ed by the CBC Ideas producers as ‘‘the most im-
portant series” in the program’s 22 years. But it is
also a measure of the lingering attitudes, left by the
cold war and former external affairs minister Mark
MacGuigan, that the world’s largest peace organi-
zation, the World Peace Council and its affiliate in
Canada, the Canadian Peace Congress, were com-
pletely passed over in the more than 100 interviews
conducted for the series.

CBC Stereo will be airing the series Oct. 18-29 at
8:05 p.m.

Dr. John Morgan, president of the peace con-
gress noted that since ‘it is impossible that the pro-
gram organizers have not heard of the world’s
largest peace organization, World Peace Council
or of Canada’s oldest peace organization, with 25
councils across the country, one can only conclude
that their exclusion is deliberate and a yielding to
the very cold war pressures that have produced the
nuclear madness.”

He added that it was ‘‘ridiculous” to ignore a
leader of the stature of WPC president Romesh
Chandra or to bypass an organization with the
“long history, numerical size and vigor of the Ca-
nadian Peace Congress.”

The congress has asked that members and sup-
porters write or phone CBC to press for inclusion
of the viewpoint of the World Peace Council and
the Peace Congress in its important series.

* * *

T wo weeks ago we warned that the tentative set-
tlement negotiated by the leadership of the
B.C. Government Employees Union fell right into
line with the Bennett government’s wage control
program. We also noted that Bennett could not
have asked for a more highly-placed figure to en-
dorse the phony restraint program.

Sadly, our comments weren’t long in being con-
firmed.

In a speech to the Coquitlam chamber of com- ’
merce Oct. 6, Bennett praised the tentative agree-
ment as an example of just what the ‘ ‘restraint pro-
gram... is all about.”

He also turned it against the B.C. Teachers
Federation, noting that now that the BCGEU and
the B.C. Medical Association had accepted re-
straint, teachers are the only holdouts.

* * a
Wie former Tribune staff reporter Janice Har-
ris left the office a year ago to ‘“‘do some
travelling,”’ little did anyone know — herself in-
cluded — just what that would ‘mean.

Back in Vancouver this week, Janice dropped in
at the Tribune, looking much the same as ever but
with a travel log that would astound even a United
Nations diplomatic envoy. In addition to stops in
Paris and Athens, a stint picking oranges on the
Peloponnesian peninsula, she managed to travel -
extensively i in India and Turkey, stay On a cOopera-
tive in Israel and take part in a 250-mile trek in Ne-

Somewhere in between, she also took part in the
400,000-strong historic peace rally in London’s
Hyde Park — although she notes that her arrival in
Israel was not so well timed. On the day she came,
Begin launched thé barbaric i invasion into Leb-
anon.

has adjustable keyboards and
screens and calls for the joint oc-
cupational health and safety com-
mittee to ensure that appropriate
safety standards are met.

We, as trade unionists, must
always bear in mind that collective
bargaining is the most effective tool
with which to gain rights for
workers. Governments may attack
us with restrictive wage control
legislation but our job is to not only
fight back on the wage control
front but to make sure that collec-

Praise for COPE duo

Stan Persky, Vancouver, writes:
Considering the amount of hot air

, that gets wasted on elections, I’ll

keep this short and sweet.

Two of the people I am going to
be voting for aldermen in this
November’s civic election are
Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies.
Here’s why,

Nearly a decade ago, in 1973,
there was a part of Vancouver call-
ed Skid Road. It had rotten hous-
ing, firetrap hotels, over-serving
beer parlors and few of the normal
neighborhood services. That is
when Bruce Eriksen and Libby
Davies started a citizens’ action
group called the Downtown
Eastside Residents Association
(DERA). Ten years later, that part
of town is known as Downtown
East. Life isn’t ritzy there but its
residential hotels are covered by
fire and safety regulations, its beer
parlors are monitored and it has a
lively community centre located in
the old Carnegie library. A lot of
improvements are the result of
DERA, Eriksen and Davies.

By 1980, Eriksen had been Van-
couver’s “‘unofficial alderman”’
for years. A lot of people thought

he ought to be working on the ‘‘in-

side.”” That year he was elected
alderman and Davies was elected to
the parks board.

‘For a change, we elected some
people who weren’t just all pro-
mises and no action, Eriksen turn-

_ed out to be a first class people’s

representative. If there was a
rookie-alderman-of-the-year
award he would have won it hands
down. But don’t just take my word
for it. Geoff Wheelwright, writing
in the Courier, described Eriksen’s
job performance as ‘‘enthusiastic
and hard working, easily grabbing

tive bargaining still works. To do |
that we must keep fighting to pro ||
tect all of our members and 10)
make gains through collectivé|}
bargaining in such areas as healtll),
and safety, equality for womel ||
workers and other necessary
benefits. —-

We believe that the!
breakthrough and gains we have):
made in those areas this yea
demonstrate that collectivé
bargaining still works for trade
unionists.

top honors as the alderman wh)
has brought the most number 0!

private policy motions . e
never gives up an issue.’’ The Van

couver Sun’s Linda Hossie rankell|
Eriksen as one of the ‘‘most ha |
working, innovative and asin |
politicians on the council . . . the |

only alderman who can be found at
city hall on almost any working |
day. ”

During the same period, Libby
Davies served on the parks board,
was president of DERA and work-
ed as a board member of thé |:
Carnegie Centre. As she fought fot
free use of public facilities for poo! |
people, columnist Wheelwright
praised her “‘hard work.’ Citysidé
writer Hossie described Davies a5 |
“articulate, intelligent, principled
and widley respected.” A lot of
people have come to believe that
she, too, ought to be working on
the “‘inside’’ at city hall. That is
why she was nominated as an alder |
manic candidate by COPE.

I do not live in the downtown»
eastside. I live in Kitsilano. Yet |

think Eriksen and Davies speak for
people all over the city. I don’t
think either of them is a saint but I
do know where they stand on thé
issues. Their support for g
housing, decent transportation and
the ward system as well as their op-
position to unnecessary demoli-
tion, exorbitant rent increases
various fast-buck shysters did not
begin yesterday.

There is one thing I know. about
them. You can be sure that the day
after they are elected they won't —
suddenly forget all the things they —
said before they got elected. In
other words, Eriksen and Davies -
are that rare thing in civic affairs —
politicians you can be proud of |
having supported. —

Continued from page 1
orchestrated campaign on cut-
backs, so that our 30;000
members can participate in a
show of strength, local by
local,’’ she said. ;

Both BCTF president Larry
Kuehn and information officer

have not ruled out the use of
strikes, or other job actions in
the near future.

Resolutions for . further. ac-
tion may come at the regular
meeting of the BCTF represent-
ative assembly Oct. 22 and 23,
according to Myers.

In an interview Wednesday
the federation spokesman said a
major motion introduced, but
not voted on at a special meeting
of the assembly Oct. 2, calls for
a “‘phased withdrawal’ of serv-

Surrey rally hits cuts |

Arnie Myers in recent remarks. -

ices if an election is not called
and teachers are laid off in 1983.
Layoffs of teachers and other | —
staff are a real possibility since |
Bill 89, trotted out as an anti-
dote to job terminations, does | —
little to help school boards live | —
within the means of govern- |
ment-imposed restraints. Zi
That was the scenario laid out | —
by B.C. School Trustees Associ |
ation president Gary Begin in a | —
telegram to education minister |
Bill Vander Zalm, which was |
read into legislative debate oD |
Bill 89 by NDP education criti¢ | —
Gary Lauk Oct. 7. 4
“We urge you again to give |
school boards the laws we need |
to manage restraint. We n
laws which allow teacher tet- |
minations by seniority and for |
short term staff layoffs,”’ the
telegram stated.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 15, 1982—Page 2