oe LABOR Unions target in food store campaign By SEAN GRIFFIN Over the past year, the battle among food giants for a tighter grip on the food retailing dollar has meant a stepped-up drive for concessions from food industry workers, particularly in hours of work and Sunday work. But for unionists in stores franchised by the Kelly-Douglas chain, it has meant an outright attack on job security — and on the union itself. And playing a role is lawyer Israel Chafetz, a partner from the law firm of Jordan and Gall, which is a notorious name throughout the labor movement for its appearances on behalf of a number of anti-union clients. “There doesn’t seem to be any end to the amount of money that Kelly-Douglas is wil- ling to spend to go after the union,” Retail Clerks Union president Bryan Denton told the Tribune in an interview. “Through Israel Chafetz, they’re trying to emasculate the collective agreements we’ve had for years.” Itself owned by the multinational Weston ‘Save house’ govt told As several women staged an occupa- tion at the Transition House for bat- tered women in a bid to avert impending closure, the B.C. Govern- ment Employees.Union and the Solid- arity Coalition reiterated demands that the Socred government keep the facility open and its services available until a new agency is found to take over the operation. A group of women moved in to occupy the house June 28 just hours after after the scheduled closure time set by Human Resources Minister Grace McCarthy. The group was also seeking this week to restore telephone service which was cut off by government order June 28. Transition House has been run by the YWCA under contract to the min- istry but the contract expired June 30. McCarthy had said the facility would be closed pending the awarding of a new contract, tenders for which were being received until last Friday. But any closure would endanger the lives of women and children who may needs its services, the Solidarity Coali- tion warned. “The lives of women will be at risk if there is an interruption of service,” said coalition chair Renate Shearer, adding that the organization was “shocked by the callous indifference of the govern- ment to the plight of battered women. “In order to ensure the safety and needs of battered women, we strongly urge that the Ministry of Human Resources keep Transition House open until a new contract is awarded,” she said. In separate messages to McCarthy, both BCGEU president John Shields and B.C. Association of Social Workers executive director Christopher Walms- ley also demanded that Transition House be kept open without interrup- tion. Shields emphasized that there was “no satisfactory alternative to the vital service the Transition House is provid- ing.” According to BCASW figures, 187 women and 141 children were accommodated in 1984 while 637 women and 700 children were turned away because the facility was full. Shearer also said that the actions of the government in closing the facility bore out warnings made last year by the coalition that privatization would lead to a reduction and then a withdrawal of Services. " 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 3, 1985 company, Loblaw’s, Kelly-Douglas Ltd. franchises some 40 stores in B.C. including Super-Valu, High Low, Extra Foods and in the Kootenays, Ferraro’s. Although the stores are nominally independent, they Hegotiate as a group with the Retail Clerks (as well as the Meatcutters and Bakers where those unions are also certified). But although the union has reached agreements with Safeway and Stongs and is reportedly close to an agreement with Overwaitea, “we haven’t got anywhere with the Super-Valu negotiations,” said Denton. “And the issues in dispute all relate to job security.” Denton said that the company has recently exploited some weaknesses in the collective agreement to circumvent seniority and reduce full-time workers to part-time. Those problems have now been com- pounded in current negotiations. “Chafetz has singled out those areas of the agreement for attack — areas that oth- ers in the industry have always observed, fe he said. He emphasized there seemed to be “an overall plan being orchestrated to under- mine the union, to try and get decertifica- tions or to reduce the effectiveness of the union to nothing.” Some of the events preceding the negotia- tions, in which Chafetz was also involved, add considerable weight to that charge. Denton pointed to an incident some four years ago in Haney as the beginning of the campaign. There, a Shop-Easy store, fran- chised by Kelly-Douglas, closed its doors and issued severance pay cheques to all its employees. A few months later, the store re-opened as Extra Foods. Although the union won successor rights in that case, it wasn’t so fortunate in Victo- ria where Shop-Easy was successful in, as Denton put it, “exploiting fear and family connection” in getting the union decertified. In the Kootenay’s last year, the company adopted a new tactic. Although it already had 10 stores, includ- ing one in Castlegar, Kelly-Douglas-owned Ferraro’s opened another store in Castle- gar. Circumventing the long-established Retail Clerks Union, the company signed a cut-rate collective agreement with a rump union, the Textile Processors, Service Trades, Health Care Professional’ and Technical Employees International Union Local 299. “The wages and benefits are sev- eral dollars less than Retail Clerks,” said Denton. The Textile Processors Union had no other certifications in Canada although it did exist in the U.S. It was brought here by a former business agent for the Teamsters, Hugh Finamore, and, according to the directory, is affiliated to the Teamsters. Once again, Chafetz appeared in the sce- nario as corporate counsel for Ferraro’s. And, according to Denton, Chafetz testified before a Labor Relations Board hearing on the case that he had referred Finamore to George Wood, the general manager for Ferraro’s. Chafetz and the Textile Processors also figure in another case involving High-Low, another Kelly-Douglas franchise in Coqui- tlam which is currently before the LRB awaiting a decision. High-Low closed down its North Road store last fall and moved operations to a _vacant Super-Valu store location at Burqui- . tlam Plaza. The move was unusual, said Denton, because the floor area of the store was almost halved. A few months later, Extra Foods, also a Kelly-Douglas franchise, opened a new store at the old High-Low location — and signed a collective agreement with the Tex- tile Processors. The Retail Clerks, which has been certi- fied at the old store for 27 years launched an application for successor status at the new store, arguing that the majority of the cus- tomers now shopping at Extra Foods had Z traditionally gone to High-Low. Appearing at the board for High-Low S company’ ‘s final offer. were Chafetz and senior Jordan and Gall” partner, Peter Gall. Although the union is hopeful that it can win successor rights —a_ decision is expected soon from former board vice-chair Peter Sheen — Denton warned that the case has serious implications. “If they get away with this, it means they can take any store, move it and then re-open under a new name — and get around the union,” he said. The appearance of Jordan and Gall’s law firm in so much of Kelly-Douglas’ labor relations work has also alerted the union to the extent of the campaign against it. The firm has connections with the Social Credit government — senior partner Don Jordan was a member of the committee which drafted the labor code amendments — and its lawyers have appeared in numerous high-profile cases where the employer’s objective was to get rid of a union or restrict its right to operate. Recent customers have included J.C. Kerkhoff and Sons, Pennyfarthing Devel- opment Corporation, Parkview Construc- tion (which challenged the Vancouver Parks Board on awarding a contract to a union firm), SGM Construction, which attempted to set up a non-union arm, and Slade and Stewart. The campaign has also come in the con- text of a battle between giants in the food industry over market share and control in the retailing industry. : The Kelly-Douglas chain, owned by the The icpkout became effectively permanent members of the Retail I Clerks, Bakers and Meatcutters at the Super-Valu in North Vancouver's Capilano Mall last week when management of the Kelly-Douglas franchise refused to budge _ from their concession demand for wage cuts anda six-year agreement with no job guarantees. Despite the threat of closure, perks voted 21-1 to Mee the Canadian multinational Goerge Weston Ltd. through Loblaw’s, and U.S.-owned Safeway have traditionally dominated the — industry. But in recent months Save-On- Foods, a division of Overwaitea, owned by the Jim Pattison Group has moved in with huge new “superstores” with longer hours and seven-day operations. In the long run, the battle will almost inevitably lead to even greater concentra- tion of ownership in the food industry as smaller independent stores get squeezed out. In theshort run, food industry workers are facing renewed demands for conces- sions, particularly in hours and work and Sunday work. The recent contract signed with Safeway in which workers were asked: to give up double time on Sunday — the new rate is straight time plus a $1.60 premium — reflected that. The demand for concessions, not only in — wages and hours but in basic union condi- tions has been the focus at Kelly-Douglas. Itself a highly-profitable chain — it racked up $18 million in profit in 1984 — Kelly Douglas also has the Weston corporate capital at its disposal “but it hasn’t put any new money into its stores,” said Denton. “Their solution is to go non-union or to try and get a cheaper union. — “We're going to have to fight it,” he said. “So far it’s just been before the LRB. But if that doesn’t work, we’re going to have to look at other’ways.” PACIFIC RIBUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 Postal Code lamenclosing 1 yr.$140) 2yrs.$2501 6mo.$80_ Foreign 1 yr. $200 Bill me later ~=Donation$