Labour

Labour Notes

Parks youth corps
‘work for welfare’

The president of the B.C. Division of the
Canadian Union of Public Employees
called on the provincial government last
week to scrap its plans for a low-wage
Environmental Youth Corps and to “go
back to the drawing board on programs for

youth employment and environmental pro-

tection.

“A work-for-welfare program is a work-
for-welfare program whether or not it is
dressed up in the guise of environmental
protection,” Mike Dumler declared in a
statement issued in response to the govern-
ment’s new program.

Victoria announced May 5 that it would
provide $11 million to establish a new
Environmental Youth Corps that would
pay welfare recipients $7 an hour to work in
the province’s parks and forests. The prop-
osal was seen as a response to the federal
government’s unemployment insurance
cutbacks which ministry officials acknowl-
edged would shift costs from the federal to
provincial governments. ,

Dumler called the plan “simply another
attempt by Social Credit to revive the old
idea of turning social assistance recipients
into a pool of low wage labour.

“These schemes provide a public subsidy
to employers while giving social assistance
recipients just enough weeks of work to
qualify them for unemployment insu-
rance,” he said. “That in turn relieves the
provincial government of its cost while
increasing demand for UI.”

Dumler emphasized that CUPE, whose
members work in parks maintenance and
development for municipalities and regional
districts, “wasn’t even consulted about the
program.” He added that the government
“knew perfectly well that this new privatiza-
tion plan would be a direct intrusion on the
long-established work of our members.”

Dumler called on the government to sit
down with the “people who work in this
field and develop a program that would
make a real difference.

“And if they Were serious about
employment for young people, they would '
develop proposals for long-term permanent
jobs at decent wages,” he said.

Fed sets task
force hearings

The B.C. Federation of Labour’s Task
Force on the Economy was set to open its
first town hall meeting in Kamloops May 11
as the labour central begins hearing the
opinions of British Columbians on the pro-
vince’s economic future.

The task force, made up of the B.C. Fed’s
officers, was set up following the conven-
tion last year which instructed federation
leaders to take labour’s economic policies
into communities around the province and
seek the opinions of individuals and organi-
zations in order to put forward a number of
economic initiatives.

A discussion paper, entitled Looking
Ahead, which outlines some of the federa-
tion’s economic policies, has been sent out
to organizations around the province. —

Some 13 meetings throughout the pro-
vince are scheduled between May 11 and
June 28, although locations have not been
finalized for all of them.

12 e Pacific Tribune, May 15, 1989

The schedule so far is: May 17, IWA
Hall, 13th and Commercial, Vancouver;
May 18, Merville Community Centre,
Courtenay; May 23, Victoria High School,
Victoria; May 25, Cowichan Community
Centre Theatre; May 30, Pioneer Inn, Fort
St. John; June 7, Park Lake Motel, 1675
Abbott St., Kelowna; June 12, New West-
minster, location TBA; June 13, Cran-
brook, TBA; June 15, Capital Theatre,
Nelson; June 22, Prince Rupert, TBA; June
28, Inn of the North, Prince George. All
meetings are at 7:30 p.m. except those at
Victoria and Fort St. John which are at 6:30
p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively..

Cut-rate pact
in court, IRC

Local 1518 and 2000 of the United Food
and Commercial Workers last week
launched a two-pronged legal effort aimed
at nullifying the cut-rate agreement signed
by the specially-chartered Local 777 of the
union and Westfair Foods, owner of the
Real Canadian Superstore chain.

In a joint statement, Local 1518 president
Brooke Sundin and Local 2000 president
Leif Hansen announced that the two locals

had instructed their legal counsel to apply to.

B.C. Supreme Court to quash an ex parte
injunction granted to Westfair/Superstore,
and also to go before the Industrial Rela-
tions Council for an order nullifying the
contract and disqualifying Local 777 as a
trade union because of employer domina-
tion.

Sundin noted said the legal actions were
the result of discussions that the locals had
held with the B.C. Federation of Labour.

The court application will seek to have
Local 1518 and 2000 removed from an ex
parte injunction which had been granted to
Westfair/Superstore prohibiting them and
the union’s international office from lifting
Local 777’s charter. The locals also want the
injunction quashed.

In the application to the IRC, the two
locals backed their claim of employer dom-
ination in Local 777, noting that company
representative Andrew Smith, in an affi-
davit sworn as part of the original applica-
tion for the injunction, outlined a deal he
had made with UFCW Canadian director
Clifford Evans to bypass Local 1518 and
2000 in return for voluntary recognition of
Local 777. Smith is vice-president of labour
relations for Loblaws, a Westfair subsi-
diary.

BCGEU negotiates
Lookout contract

’ Forty members of the B.C. Government
Employees voted this week to endorse a
new three-year contract at the Lookout
Emergency Shelter, ending a five-week
strike at the downtown eastside facility.

Union representative Keith Graham said
the new pact brings workers up to the
standard of other BCGEU members doing
similar work, the issue which had prompted
the strike April 1.

The settlement followed statements by
several community leaders who called on
the government to resolve the dispute and
re-open the shelter which has been heavily
used as a result of closure of government
closure of psychiatric facilities and detox
centres.

Labour owes nothing
to Tory government

cruel, brutal budget that will come to ©

A recurring theme in the feedback to
my column is that I’m soft on the Cana-
dian Labour Congress leadership. No
one can accuse me of not walking an
additional mile for the sake of unity. But
it is now coming clear that the deaf
silence on the left while Mulroney sells
the farm is not a solid base for unity.

First, let’s deal with the CLC leader-
ship’s obsession with the Canadian
Labour Market and Productivity Centre
(CLMPC). It seems that in light of recent
developments around the CLC’s response
to the UI cuts and the first free trade
budget, the left critics of the CLC are
right to be alarmed at the latter’s
astounding “lack of leadership.”

According to Financial Post colum-
nist Hyman Solomon “key CLC officials
were kept informed of government
thinking in the lead up to McDougall’s
unemployment insurance changes. And
the policy was structured as much as
possible to prevent surprises, and remain
politically acceptable for both labour
and management.”

Solomon also said that the UI ane

changes could create a division in the
executive of the CLC if the UI changes
and other budget measures could be
“broadly interpreted as anti-labour.”

This article was written two days
before the leaked budget came down.
Solomon cautioned the federal govern-
ment that if there was too strong a
budget or if it was introduced insensi-
tively, the “changes could easily under-
mine the strong CLC fraction now
urging greater co-operation with both
government and management on labour
adjustment and global competitive prob-
lems.”

If one is to go over the response of the
CLC to both the UI cuts and the free
trade budget a number of questions
come up. It’s clear there is no intent at
this time to mobilize the members to take
on the government over either the UI
cuts or the reactionary budget, and yet
strong CLC leadership is the only path
for labour.

Reactions in the press from the CLC
to the UI changes are a combination of
criticism of the cuts and the approval of
the retraining programs.

The CLC came out with a statement
on the budget April 27 in which the CLC
president Shirley Carr said: “This is a

symbolize the free trade agreement with

its tearing down of our society, rather

than (its) building up.”

The statement is full of rhetoric that ~
has a familiar ring: lots of talk and no ~

action. The least that Carr could do
about a cruel and brutal budget would be

to call an emergency meeting of the —
CLC’s executive to plan labour’s tough ~

and effective response.

Was the CLC leadership kept informed ;

of the UI changes? Why didn’t they
blow the whistle on the Tories? Expose

them? This would has shown some real ~
leadership and stimulated the fight-back

before the UI cuts were implemented. If

they weren’t informed, why the wimpy, —

‘balanced’ approached to an attack that

is aimed as much at the trade unionsasat |

the unemployed?

Labour owes nothing to this pro
business, pro-free trade government. We —
are not in a fight governed by Marquis of ~
Queensbury rules. This is a struggle ~
between the transnational corporations ~

and their government, on the one hand,

John
MacLennan
LABOUR
IN ACTION

and labour, women, farmers, environ-

mentalist, peace, and a whole host of i.

other democratic forces that are under
attack, on the other.

If Solomon is right about a the strong
faction in the leadership of the CLC
wanting to sit down and work things out
with the government, so as to accommo-

date business, let’s see them take this d

stance to their memberships openly.

-— The “reasonable” approach by some —
leaders of the CLC to labour adjustment —

and global competitive problems will be
seen for what it is — letting the transna-

tional corporations have their way at the

expense of Canadian workers and their
trade unions.

What is needed at this time are resolu-
tions from labour councils and local
unions condemning the budget and the
UI cuts, as well as resolutions to the CLC
to start the fight-back. Resolutions that
also demand that Shirley Carr get off the
CLMPC now.

At the same time labour must be
involved with the different local coali-
tions to organize demonstrations, lob-
bies, and meetings that can help stop
these-reactionary measures, and to iso-
late and defeat the government that
promotes them.

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