February 6, 1989
50S

Vol. 52, No. 4

Teachers
make key

gains in
contracts

Close to half the province’s public
school teachers have settled collective
agreements that provide major break-
throughs in working conditions,
George North of the B.C. Teachers
Federation reports.

North said Wednesday that negoti-
ations in 32 school districts have been
wrapped up, breaking new ground in
achieving key items like noon-hour
supervision and preparation time
and, in several areas, class sizes.

There are still 41 contracts to be
settled, North reported.

Meanwhile, the board of one
school district still in negotiation
wants its fees to a recent convention of
the B.C. School Trustees Association
returned because of the attitude
expressed by the key speaker in a
workshop on negotiations.

North, head of the BCTF bargain-
ing division, has reported that several
school districts have been using as
negotiators lawyers from the BCSTA’s

law firm, Campney and Murphy, and |

that it has led to impasses at the bar-
gaining table and strikes.

“There is no doubt that some trus-
tees are trying to perpetuate what the
(provincial) government has been try-
ing to do (to the BCTF),” he said.

But hard-nosed attitudes have only
strengthened teachers’ resolve to
achieve a fair contract, North said.

In all districts teachers have

achieved an exemption from noon-

hour supervision and an average one
hour of class preparation time. Both
were long-term objectives, but until
being unionized under the Socreds’
Bill 20 — ironically, legislation
designed to weaken the BCTF —
teachers could not bargain over work-
ing conditions.

Another major breakthrough achiev-
ed by about a dozen local teacher
associations was a limitation on class
sizes. Some associations did not put
the issue on the table, while in other
districts the issue has been referred to
a joint conimittee for recommenda-
tions, North said.

see TEACHERS page 2

The Mulroney government’s decision
to resume cruise missile testing in the face
of the INF treaty has angered the coun-
try’s peace forces.

And that anger was inflamed this week
as the federal government announced that
it had granted the U.S. request to test the
new and more destabilizing version of the
cruise which is equipped with “stealth
technology.”

“We are shocked by the outrageous
news that Canada will permit testing of the
stealth cruise missile for the U.S.,” Frank
Kennedy, chair of the 230 member-
organization End the Arms Race, said ina
telegram to Prime Minister Brian Mulro-
ney Thursday.

“This is not representative of Canadian

people’s opinion and is unacceptable in a
democracy. This
decision should be
reversed now,” the
telegram stated.
After hesitating
for several days in
making the an-
nouncement, the
federal government
confirmed Wed-
nesday that the
cabinet S Pompe KENNEDY
and priorities com-
mittee had acceded to the U.S. request to
begin testing the new cruise missile, known
as AGM-129A. Like other stealth wea-
pons in the U.S arsenal, the missile is to be

»

equipped with special surfaces and a
specially-configured exhaust to minimize
radar detection.

Under the umbrella testing agree-
ment signed in 1983 and renewed by the
Tory government last year, new cruise
models must be separately approved by
Ottawa before testing can proceed —
allowing the government a new opportun-
ity to prevent an escalation in the arms
race. But External Affairs Minister Joe
Clark rejected that opportunity, arguing
that the new weapon “contributes to stra-
tegic deterrence.”

That argument was contradicted, how-
ever, by a senior military official who said
Wednesday that the new missile was

see CRUISE page 8

Babine logging issue back in court

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Ralph Michel, one of the Gitksan Wet’suwet’en chiefs who took part in last fall’s blockade to stop Westar Timber from
building a bridge across the Babine River, speaks to supporters outside B.C. Supreme Court Monday morning. The tribal
council, which also set up tents on the courthouse steps that evening, was appearing in court to present evidence against
Westar’s appeal of the injunction granted last year that had halted company efforts to log areas currently under land claim.
The Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en land claim is currently being heard by Chief Justice Allan McEachern and is expected to run

until 1990.

Pe ER EE PT Re eee

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