LABOR

Socreds’ new bill attacks
transit pact, union warns

The Independent Canadian Tran-
sit Union has hit a new Social
Credit bill the union president
points out could “virtually elimi-
nate 50 per cent of our contract.”

If adopted, the British Columbia
Transit Amendment Act (No. 2)
would ‘give the management of
B.C. Transit full powers over staf-
fing and manning clauses, declare
the new ALRT rapid transit system
off-limits to the union, and force
municipalities to adopt provincial
government transit plans, ICTU
president Colin Kelly warned.

The union has sent a letter to
Vancouver city aldermen warning
of the latter aspect of the bill,
introduced into the legislature late
afternoon on May 10.

Kelly called the bill a “vindictive
thing.”

The ICTU president said Bill 38
attacks conditions laid down in the
basic agreement the union struck
with B.C. Transit last fall after the

dispute involving ICTU’s
“unstrike” tactics and a subequent
three-month lockout.

The government eventually leg-
islated transit employees back to
work, but not before B.C. Transit,
a Crown corporation, realized sub-
stantial savings from the lockout.
It prompted charges from the
labor movement that the dispute

was deliberately manipulated to
save dollars to be used for the pro-
vince’s costly megaprojects.

Despite the back-to-work order
the union succeeded in preventing
B.C. Transit from opening the
door to part-time drivers, a move
which would have allowed the
company to pay less in benefits and
make layoffs easier.

But Bill 38 now leaves the part-

ne

COLIN KELLY
time driver issue “open to ques-
tion,” said Kelly.

The relevant section of the bill
reads: “Every collective agreement
between the authority and a trade
union shall be deemed to provide
that it is the function of the author-
ity to manage the affairs of the
authority (including) the exclusive
right to determine the employ-
ment, complement and organiza-

tion of employees necessary to
carry on the business and opera-
tions of the authority, and the
work methods and procedures
applicable in the provision of tran-
sit services.”

The bill abolishes the Metro
Transit Operating Company and
folds it into B.C. Transit, but then
stipulates that B.C. Transit “shall
not be treated as one employer
with any corporation, individual,
firm, syndiciate or association with
whom it contracts for the provision
of transit services. ..”

The union scored a victory last
year with the Labor Relations
Board ruling that Metro Transit, a
quasi-corporation set up to run the
buses in Vancouver and Victoria,
was a “common employer” with
B.C. Transit. The intent of Bill 38
appears aimed at new corporations
such as the B.C. Rapid Transit
Company, established Feb. 7 to
run ALRT.

Kelly said the “most specious”
aspect of the bill was the section
imposing on municipalities transit
agreements. The bill would allow
the provincial government to set
capital and operating budgets for
each municipality or district.

Kelly said the union and Van-
couver aldermen would be meeting
to discuss the bill.

Seamen promised back pay

A strike by 20 seamen aboard a
Cyprus registered flag-of-conven-.
ience ship docked in Port Moody
has succeeded in wringing a prom-
ise of payment for more than
$100,000 in back wages.

RALLY HITS
JOBS LOSS

PRINCE RUPERT — More
than 200 workers demonstrated
outside a fancy dinner at the
civic centre here launching.a new
$275-million grain terminal that
will result in a net loss of 100 jobs
for the hard-hit area.

Speakers Peter Northcott from
the local teachers association,
president Joy Thorkelson of the
Prince Rupert Labor Council,
and Dan Miller of the Pulp and
Paperworkers Union of Canada
hit the closure of the old grain
terminal, which they said is a
productive plant that, if closed,
will see several jobs transferred
out of Prince Rupert.

The demonstration also focus-
ed on threatened Tory govern-
ment changes to the Unem-
ployment Insurance program
which would increase the wait-
ing period for benefits in a
region with more than 30 per

But, says International Trans-
port Workers Federation (ITWF)
representative Gerry McCullough,
“We haven’t got the victory until
they sign the contracts.”

The crew members, mainly Fil-
ipinos, are maintaing their strike
aboard the Nueva Esperanza until
the wages are paid by the ship’s
owner, Anchorage Navigation, a
British-run firm with a Cyprus
office.

The issue highlights the problem
the ITWF, an amalgam of port
unions world wide, has in ensuring
that international union rates are
paid crewmen on flag-of-conven-
ience vessels.

McCullough, a member of the
Seamen’s local of the Canadian
Brotherhood of Railway, Trans-
port and General Workers and the
ITWF representative for Van-
couver, said the crew — 17 Filipi-
nos, three Greeks and one Spaniard
— are striking for the difference
between federation wages and the
amount the crew signed for in the
Philippines.

The Filipino crewmen signed
with the federation when they
boarded the ship in Japan. The
ship had been signed on and issued
its federation “blue card” by a
Korean crew in Germany. —

The Filipinos were supposed to

— ployment. sign with the federation before they
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: READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 22, 1985

left the Philippines. Instead, the
crew members, who were not told
they were entitled to ITWF wages,
were made to sign forms declaring
they would work for the shipping
agency’s rate, said McCullough.

“This kind of thing goes on in
lots of place,” he said.

The agency has been paying the
able seamen among the crew a base
rate of $360 (U.S.) per month, with
no overtime pay until after 120
hours per month has been logged.
After 120 hours, the agency pays
an additional $40, McCullough
said.

By contrast, the ITWF rate is
$821 per month, based on a 40-
hour week, for able seamen, with
overtime pay at $11 per hour for

‘Saturdays and Sundays, he said.

Angered over the loss of pay, the
crew members contracted McCul-
lough when the ship arrived in the
Port of Vancouver May 8.

A representative of the shipping
agency flown in from the Philip-
pines at first refused to meet with
McCullough. But on May 16 she
offered the ITWF representatives
cheques for the back wages, he
said.

“We refused the cheques. I told
her to deposit the money with our
lawyers in the Philippines, where it
will be passed through the Philip-
pines Overseas Employment Agen-
cy (formerly the National Sea-
men’s Board),” McCullough said.

McCullough said a_ special
branch of the federation was
formed some 14 years ago to
organize workers on flag-of-con-
venience vessels, but admits there
are problems ensuring union rates
are paid to the international crews.

“The idea was to chase these
flag-of-convenience ships back to
their own country. But we really
need legislation to aid us in this.”

Historic victory:
union at Eaton’s

By MIKE PHILLIPS

TORONTO — Buried in the many gloomy analyses of the
recent Eaton’s settlement is the real, if somewhat flawed victory
that the contract and the five-and-a-half months struggle which |
produced it represent for the labor movement.

When the smoke clears away, the one thing Eaton’s feared the
most, and pulled every string it could to prevent, was achieved by
the strikers. t

For the first time in 115 years a union exists in’not just one, but |
six, Eaton’s stores. f }

While that fact doesn’t take away the disappointment many of
the strikers and their legions of supporters feel over the terms of
that contract, described by chief union negotiator Tom Collins as |
‘unfair and unjust’, neither should the strikers fail to grasp the ©
victory achieved and the potential if offers workers in the whole |
retail industry. ;

The Eaton’s struggle is a vivid example of the powerful forces |
in our society array against working people when they fight for
simple justice and trade union and democratic rights. ;

Undoubtedly the leadership of the Retail Whoesale and~
Department Store Union will come under fire for mistakes in
developing its strategy in this epic strike. But the decisive facto’
in the outcome, which saw Eaton’s choke on the union but force |
its shameful contract proposal of Nov. 30 on the workers, was the
company’s ability to rely on all of the resources at its disposal
particularly the Tory provincial labor ministry and the big
business media.

Arrogant Refusal

The labor board decision which found Eaton’s had not bar
gained in bad faith was an open invitation to the company to
arrogantly refuse to negotiate a reasonable settlement.

In the end; Eaton’s planned to lean on Ontario labor law t0~
gouge the union out ofits business, by refusing to take the strikers ~
back after the six months expired on their union certificates. 0
May 30 the first of the certificates would have come up, making!
possible for the company to refuse to take back any worke
wanting to return to work.

In fact when the tentative pact was announced, the strikers ~
expected Eaton’s to mobilize the inside workers and the scabs
hired during the strike to come out and vote the contract proposa”
down, paving the way for the company to exercise its “rights”
under the law. a

But now the question at Eaton’s isn’t whether there will be a |
union, but how active, how strong, how united and how militant”
that union will be fighting for the leadership and loyalty of th
1,500 workers in the six organized stores, as a prelude to”
representing all of Eaton’s 35,000 workers.

All of the issues that propelled Eaton’s workers to join the
union in the first place — the company’s insufferable paternal
ism, the total lack of recourse to challenge arbitrary manageme
decisions, the denial of workers’ dignity or human rights ont
job, lousy pensions and the rest — aren't going to be wiped away |
by Eaton’s supposedly ‘‘revamped”’ personnel philosophy.

Eaton’s Dictatorship

Certainly before the union took root among the worke
Eaton’s wasn’t planning any reforms in its treatment of t
workforce. And, as it demonstrated during the strike, no wor
ers’ complaints or input of any kind will ever take precedenc®
over the drive for the fattest profits possible and Eaton’s self-p
claimed right to run its business like a dictatorship. 2

The other point often missed in assessing the strike is that the
more than 300 strikers who conducted the fight during one of this
country’s most bitter winters, are, after five and half months oF
struggle, a very dedicated, toughened and experienced cor
around which to extend union organization at Eaton’s. i

As many strikers pointed out, during their historic fight, the
lives have been changed by the experience. 3
_ They've learned what Eaton’s is really all about. And mo
importantly they’ve learned that workers don’t stand alone W
they take up the fight for justice. a

During the strike they forged links of solidarity with the labo"
and women’s movements, the churches, the cultural communtt
Their cause went deeply into communities right across the ent
country. The boycott is gaining ground from coast to coast.

Struggle Continues

Nothing expressed this breadth more, or the extent of Eaton»
growing isolation than the May 7 Eaton’s Boycott Extravagan
It brought together a large group of Canada’s top entertaine
writers, actors, artists and leading cultural figures around labor
a benefit performance that packed Massey Hall.

Even as the strikers return to work, the Canadian Labor Con
gress has pledged not to lift its boycott until labor is assured
300 strikers won’t be fired or that Eaton’s won’t put it’s ST
ned workers into action in a bid to decertify the RWDSU.

STUN means ‘Stop The Union Now’”’ and is the mana
ment-inspired group which failed to block the organizing dri
but continues in its efforts to push the union out of Eaton’s-

That’s why militancy is the mood Eaton’s strikers will
taking into work with them. The strike was only the first steP
their battle for justice and dignity. Now comes round two-