.__ Continued from gage]
a eee. result...” the letter
ae We urge you to develop a
oF as Which protects the principle
me el and affordable access
pate s telephone system which
Pai fan no increase in local
another letter was sent to Pat
nation e B.C.’s Minister of Inter-
Gan Trade and Science and
pee on, calling on him to
MG ht the groups’ views and to
PPose rate re-balancing” when

h
ae the federal-provincial

2.
nay icouver city council added its
ry, alc” those opposing rate ‘re-
Crease” ‘and the consequent
-°S in local rates in a
chee lous Vote Feb. 18, following
apps Vice-president Ada Brown’s
pearance before the council
ting, -
on the immediate agenda in
People’s organizations hope
is the Me a cross-country debate
F Issue of “
Fences Te-structuring, as oppo-
ce Correctly call it.
vate companies, whether
tt Y Or publicly-owned, cur-
bothy €rive their revenues from
ger: 8 distance and local phone
a Os, Oth business and residen-
fe s me distance service is the
ates for side of the business with '
clea : Ocal service tending to fall
lephis Ctual costs. But because the
Boho ne companies are regulated
ceria Poles — and guaranteed a
i of Teturn on investment
si (oak obliged to “cross-
the local rates from long
With Profits,

a the sudden new growth in
Ssio Tket oe Ee rroation ce
ae an ideologically

ations foverament in Ottava

Ompanies, including

gh, ,1®lecommunications, have
.'0 Move into the profitable

On win, oe Service in competi-
Trt the telephone companies.
Phone © 22's, including B,C. Tele-
OPPocewwd Bell, have nominally

he crTe's competition before

ou trog 1S simply to delay the
Uch tr O82 Of competition until
Ir ‘1 4S they can “re-balance”
foulq ; ture” their rates. That
distance NYolve reducing long-
lY ing Charges “while dramati-
cee ts the cost of local
“10) Bs :
he miOtsly, the corporate sector,
eS, Woe Of long distance ser-
y. Ould be the main benefi-

oh aeic last year nominally
© Compa. CN-CP’s application
Vice ok for long distance ser-
at it wy the Tuling made it clear
Mer Teally only a postpone-

expect Year, the commission is
fromonce hear a new application
Bony -P and a new set of hear-
hed} Stk Te-structuring is to be
“been er ough no date has
Vent wit REC — which, in any
he govern take its direction from
Panis 3 Ment — allows the com-
hres Te-structure their rates,

.

‘Atal and small business

rate re-balancing,” -

but their longer-term ’

J a eae, 1
& - q : . S : a = = §
_ 5 : 7 ¢ 5 4
_._—_iésaefmeeée —

users can expect huge increases in
their telephone bills for local ser-
vice. In the U.S. where telephone
de-regulation is well underway,
residential users faced increases
ranging from 200 to 400 per cent.

The demand from big business
to de-regulate telecommunications,
both to allow new companies into
the lucrative long distance market
and to provide “free market” rates,
has prompted the Tories to launch
their “telecommunications review”
which is expected to move into
high gear with the federal-provin-
cial meeting next weekend.

The Tories strategy for carrying
out that review was outlined in a
confidential cabinet document
which was subsequently leaked. A
copy was also obtained by the
Tribune.

It is full of suggestions for con-
sultation to ensure access to tele-
phone service but the thrust of the
policy is to allow more competition
and to change the regulatory struc-
ture to permit “cost-based pricing”
and the replacement of cross-
subsidies on local rates.

Significantly, the document re-
veals that it will be big business
which will benefit from the changes
at the expense of residential users
and warns that the government

' De-regulation to allow
competition in long distance
service will inevitably result
in massive increases in local
phone rates — but the
government doesn‘t want
the public to see it that way.

will have to head off any “common
front” of opposition.

“A new  telecommunications
policy could be considered as
favorable to big business,” it states.
“Therefore the government must
develop a strategy to dissipate the
formation of a common front
between the public and the provin-
COS :

The document acknowledges
that the Tories’ policy direction
will be to allow “‘cost-based rates”
which will result in cuts in cross-
subsidization and therefore in-
creased local rates.

It admits, according to what it
calls the most objective study, that
rate increases up to 12 per cent per
year would be expected which
could result each year in 2,500 to
7,5000 subscribers across Canada
having to give up their phones.

It also notes that “local mea-
sured service’ (LMS) may be
introduced as a result of de-
regulation. Under LMS, subscrib-
ers pay for every call. The system is
widely in use in the U.S. and else-
where and has forced curtailment
of phone use for many low-income
people.

Not surprisingly, the document
warns the government to avoid any
reference to the U.S. experience
where de-regulation has resulted in
huge increases in local rates and
often chaotic service. Even more
important, the superior ability of
such giants as General Telephone
and Electronics — B.C. Tel’s par-
ent company — to prevail in a

SS Ss SS
competitive market has resulted in
even greater corporate concentra-
tion in the industry.

The document also urges the
government to “launch a major

consultation program” to “prevent —

the formation of acommon front,”
and to arrange the timing of any
rate re-structuring so that the
CRTC, not the government, is seen
as the author of the increased local
rates that will inevitably result.

For the Mulroney government,
the opposition from the Prairie
provinces, which have publicly-
owned telephone companies, is a
significant factor to be considered.
On the other hand, B.C. and Onta-
rio are cited in the document as
favoring competition and McGeer,
particularly, is an avowed propo-
nent of full-scale telecommunica-
tions de-regulation.

The hidden strategy of the
government has also added to the -

anger of those opposing de-
regulation and re-structuring of
rates.

“It’s taxpayers’ money that the
government is using to tell us
something that they know them-
selves isn’t true,” said Nichola
Hall, a SPARC volunteer and one
of the co-ordinators of the Feb. 13
meeting.

“Tt’s revealing that they acknow-
ledge that local rates will increase

— but they don’t want the public ©

to see it that way.”

She emphasized that the com-
mittee would continue to do every-
thing possible to ensure that there
is a common front of community
groups and others to oppose the

‘rate re-structuring.

Telecommunications Workers
Union researcher Sid Schniad also
noted that the next major move
toward de-regulation could come
relatively soon if the CRTC decides
to reconsider the CNCP applica-
tion to enter the long distance
market. CNCP was turned down
last year but the changes that the
CRTC ordered to the structure of
telephone rates indicates that the
commission may now be moving
‘on the Tories’ agenda for de-

Tegulation.

At the time of the decision, last
August, the CRTC followed the
advice of various corporate inter-

_ venors and limited the amount of

long distance revenue that could be
used to cross-subsidize local rates.
It also opened the door to the re-
structuring of rates. '

If the competition is allowed,
Schniad warned, it will mean lower
long distance rates and a decline in
long distance revenues for com-

panies like B.C. Tel. “And does |

anyone think that they’re just
going to accept those lower
revenues? If they lose the profits
from long distance, they’re going
to jack up the local rates — and
keep jacking them up the way they
have in the U.S.,” he said.

The TWU has urged consumer
groups, unions, senior citizens’
organizations and others to write
the CRTC and oppose the intro-
duction of competition into the
long distance market and to
oppose any rate re-structuring by
the telephone companies.

“say in running this province and this country that we will not be

“upset them, and wait for the next election in hopes that we elect an

BILL MACDONALD. . .with union’s bargaining motto.

‘Stand firm’ in 1986
bargaining, HEU told

Public sector workers are facing a “determined onslaught” on
their wages and working conditions from both employers and
governments but they shouldn’t be afraid to stand their ground
despite attempts to make them an election issue, Hospital
Employees Union president Bill MacDonald declared Sunday.

Speaking in Vancouver, MacDonald told the 400 delegates to the
union’s convention and wage conference that the Socreds’ restraint
program has meant layoffs for hospital workers, cuts in real wages
and safety standards, as well as a decline in the quality of health care
for patients. And the government is still committed to Testraint, he
warned. ;

“But the time to stand our ground has arrived,” he said. “We
have to show government and big business who haveso much to ~

inhibited in any way from our task of defending the interests of the
members of this union. .

“I’m sure many of you are asking yourselves: what’s the solution?
.... It’s easy to say that the solution. is political and we should lie _}
low, keep quiet, not put our case to the public for fear that we might}

NDP government.

“That unfortunately is the attitude of some leaders in the labor
movement in B.C. today.

“But what that says to me is that they don’t believe in themselves.
and they don’t believe in the labor movement. It’s an unacceptable
attitude, it’s a defeatist attitude and it’s the attitude and tactics that
has lost us the last three elections,” MacDonald said to applause.

He urged unionists to continue their activity in central labor
organizations “and to work together to build an organization that
can, as in the past, confront any government if the need ever arises.”

MacDonald’s remarks came in the second session of the six day
convention, called to set policy for the next two years and to
establish HEU demands for the upcoming 1986 bargaining. Dele-
gates were slated to take part in several closed-door sessions to
discuss bargaining demands for a new master agreement which
comes up for renewal March 31.

The 24,000-member HEU is coming off a 51-month contract and
union secretary-business-manger Jack Gerow warned members
earlier this year that they would face “the most reactionary set of
concessions demands ever seen by the union and its members.”

Both the HEU and the B.C. Government Employees Union have
already declared that they will not make concessions in 1986 con-
tracts. And with virtually every major union contract in the public
sector up for renewal this year, public sector bargaining will be a
significant factor in the provincial election campaign widely
expected this year.

B.C. Federation of Labor president Art Kube touched on that
issue in his address to the convention Sunday, telling delegates that
the Socred government.was a government “which has created
ae unemployment. ..and has deliberately set out to hurt
people.

“You have a major responsiblity,” he told delegates, “to see to it
that Bill Bennett does not form the next provincial government.”

He also warned delegates that they would face new threats from
de-regulation and free trade, both of which are being actively
promoted by Ottawa and Victoria. .

“A lot of people think that de-regulation simply means that
they'll be able to travel to Toronto for $120,” he said.

“Well, it won’t” he stated. “In fact, de-regulation will affect all
workers negatively.” ;

As for free trade, he warned, if it is introduced tomorrow, “We
won't be selling lumber to the U.S. — we will just be selling our logs
down the river so they can be sawn across the 49th Parallel.

“We will be even more the hewers of wood and drawers of
water,” he said.

“There is nothing for workers in free trade — we should fight
it,” he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 26, 1986 e 3

ES