LABOR

‘Go after non-union Ly

The secretary of the Pro-
vincial Council of Carpen-
ters called on the trade
union movement to assist
the Building Trades in
“going after every non-
union construction site” —
including Expo 86.

“The president of the
contractors’ association has
already said that parts of
the Expo 86 site would be
built non-union,” Lorne
Robson told the Vancouver
and District Labor Council
Feb. 7.

“And I think the trade
union movement should
have a long, hard look at
declaring any part of that
site that is built non-union
‘hot’ for the duration of the
fair,” he said.

A hot declaration could
prevent the delivery of
goods and services to the
affected site and would
create major disruption in
what is to be a showcase for
the Socred government.

Although no request has
yet been made by the Build-
ing Trades for such a decla-
ration, Robson’s comments
emphasized how serious
the attack on the Building
Trades — from the pro-
vincial government, the
Labor Relations Board and
the non-union construction
firms — has become.

“What they’re trying to
do is take away the right of
every Building Trades
worker* to organize and
negotiate a collective agree-
ment — it’s that serious,”
he told council delegates.

Robson appeared before
the meeting to urge council

assistance in the Building
Trades campaign to pre-
vent Pennyfarthing Devel-
opment Corporation from
turning the contract for a
$20 million luxury condom-
inium project on Vancouver's
False Creek over to a non-
union contractor, J.C.
Kerkhoff and Sons Con-
struction.

The Carpenters had
mounted a demonstration
of more than 100 unionists
outside the offices of Penny-
farthing earlier in the day,
the second such demonstra-
tion in the union’s continu-
ing campaign to keep the
project union.

The condominium devel-
opment is particularly con-
tentious because the finan-
cing is being provided by
B.C. Central Credit union
and because the first of
three phases of the devel-
opment was completed by a
union firm, Stevenson
Construction, before the
developer, in a bid to boost
profits, announced its inten-
tion to turn the project over
to Kerkhoff. (Significantly,
_ the principal of Stevenson,
Ken Stevenson, owns 40
per cent of Pennyfarthing.)

Following Tuesday’s
demonstration, unionists
leafletted several credit

Building Trades Council secretary Al McMurray address-
ing the Carpenters rally outside Pennyfarthing Develop-
ment offices Feb. 7.

unions, all members of B.C.
Central, advising members
that their money was being
used for union-busting and
urging that they press B.C.
Central to prevent the con-
tract going to Kerkhoff.
The Carpenters continued
in meetings throughout the
week to put pressure on the
credit union and at Tribune

‘press time, no final decision

had been made, despite
some media reports that
Kerkhoff had been given
the contract.

Several unions as well as
the Building Trades Coun-
cil have also threatened to
withdraw their funds —
which could run into mil-
lions of dollars — from
various credit unions if
Kerkhoff gets the contract.

The government and con-
tractors have both claimed
that the “cost squeeze” is
forcing developers to seek
cheaper, non-union con-
struction. But the Penny-
farthing development —
known as Harbor Cove —
has demonstrated how
developers have exploited
that claim in the interests of
higher profit.

In fact, the project was a
lucrative venture even before
the foundation was laid.

Originally purchased by
B.C. Central Credit Union,
the land on which the pro-
ject is situated went through
various transactions before
being sold to Pennyfarthing
for $9 million in 1982. In
1983, the market value of

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 15, 1984

the land, according to Pen-
nyfarthing’s own cost break-
down on the development,
had climbed to $17.8 million
— an $8.8 million profit.
B.C. Central itself made
over $7 million just from
the sale of the land.

The project itself is
covered by the federal
government’s Multiple Unit
Residential Building pro-
gram which will provide
significant tax write-offs for
investors without providing
any affordable housing.

Of the 75 condominium
units in the project, 65 have
already been pre-sold —on
the basis of the bid tendered
by the union firm which
constructed Phase I, Stev-
enson Construction.

Even with the union bid,
the total labor cost consti-
tuted only 16.6 per cent of
the overall cost of $20 mil-
lion. The developer’s prof-
its, on the other hand,
amount to $4.2 million or
21 per cent of the total.

Turning the contract over
to Kerkhoff — whose wage
levels average 40 per cent
less than comparable Build-
ing Trades rates — would
cut labor costs even more
and raise the developer’s
profit accordingly.

“Pennyfarthing is con-
templating this action solely
because it wants to increase
its profits by taking advan-
tage of the depressed eco-
nomic situation in the
industry,” the Carpenters
charged.

— SEAN GRIFFIN

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OTEU members halt buses at Oakridge yard Feb. 7

Labor Notes 7

Transit co. using Bill 3
as ‘club, “unions charge

The Metro Transit Operating Com-

- pany is trying to use Bill 3 as a “club” to

exact takeaways from its office workers,
the chief negotiator for the Office and
Technical'Employees Union, Local 378,
has charged.

That’s why negotiations have dragged
for almost one year, said Anne Harvey
during the first of several flying picket
actions at the bus yards around the
Lower Mainland last week.

The action began Feb. 6, when off-
duty union members and officials
stopped buses from entering the yard at
Oakridge terminal for one hour during
the close of the evening rush hour.

Bus drivers, members of the Inde-
pendent Canadian Transit Union,
respected the lines, leaving their buses in
the street and forcing supervisors to
work overtime driving the vehicles into
the yards.

The 240 OTEU members have been
working to rule and refusing overtime
since the mediator booked out of negoti-
ations Jan. 30. That followed months of
talks during which the company has not
budged from a two-year contract offer of
no wage hikes in the first year, said
Harvey.

The second year would provide only
1.5 per cent. “I think most of our
members thought of it as an insult,” the
chairman of OTEU’s negotiating com-
mittee said.

Metro Transit’s clerical, secretarial,
accounting and computer staff voted 94

per cent in favor of strike action last
October, “and have given their leaders
unanimous votes of confidence at several
meetings,” said Harvey.

OTEU leaders have hammered out a
strike action plan, she said.

Even though Ed Peck, the province’s
head of the Compensation Stabilization
Program, has ruled there is no reason the
transit unions can not be exempted from
Bill 3’s provisions, the company has
threatened to invoke the act unless the
unions make several concessions on
layoffs and transfers.

Similar concessions demands face
ICTU, which is also conducting a strike
vote after several months of negotiations.

ICTU president Colin Kelly said Bill 3
is a “factor” in the company’s demands
for takeaways on sick leave benefits, the
working practices agreement, transfer
rights and working hours and for part-
time drivers,

“They want all that and they’ve
offered no money,” Kelly commented.

Kelly said he saw a “recognizable
pattern” in the use of Bill 3, the public
sector act which allows employers to fire
employees without regard to seniority, to
exact concessions from public sector
unions.

ICTU’s strike vote raises the possibil-
ity of coordinated strategy between the
two transit unions. Both unions have
been without a contract since Mar. 31,
1983.

Labor peace meet set

Billboards, an education campaign
and leaflets will mark the Trade Union
Peace Committee’s contribution to this
year’s Walk for Peace, set for April 28.

Peace Committee chairman Frank
Kennedy is asking local unions to help
pay for the cost of several -billboards,

_which last year appeared in six major

locations around Vancouver.

PACIFIC

RIBUNE

This year the committee also plans a
two-page insert for trade union news-
papers, and 20,000 leaflets for distribu-
tion throughout the labor movement.

Locals are invited to the committee’s
conference on Saturday, Feb. 25 at the
Maritime Centre, 111 Victoria Dr.,
beginning 10 a.m. For more informa-
tion, phone 254-8141, or Dunc Shields at
684-3474.

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