BCGEU Saturday. Provincial government employees’ union leaders pledged harley and support oe $3m pledge to BCGEU Leaders of provincial government employees unions representing 300,000 workers in all provinces have shown that the fight against Bill 3, the notorious Public Sec- tor Restraint Act, is everyone’s fight, con- tributing $3 million to the strike fund of the B.C. Government Employees Union Satur- day. “*The eyes of the nation are on B.C., and provincial government employees know that if Premier (Bill) Bennett’s plan to fire government employees and destroy collec- tive bargaining in the public sector prevail here, they may well be next,’’ John Fryer, president of the National Union of Provin- cial Government Employees, told a press conference following a meeting of the union representatives at the BCGEU_ head- quarters. The eight provincial unions comprising NUPGE were joined by three non-member unions — the New Brunswick division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and two Quebec public employees unions — in. pledging, through donations and interest- free loans what Fryer called ‘‘the greatest sum of money ever raised for strike — in Canadian history.”” Fryer said the unions were concerned not only with Bill 3, but the other pieces of legislation which affect human rights and “those on fixed incomes.’’ Those concerns will top the agenda as the strike escalates, Art Kube, president of the B.C. Federation of Labor and head of the Operation Solidarity coalition of trade unions, has stated. Kube addressed the pro- vincial employees union leaders Satur- day. The province’s public school teachers, community college instructors, university support staff and 14,000 CUPE members were set to add their number — some 50,000 workers — to the 35,000 BCGEU members already out at press time Monday, as the se- cond phase of Operation Solidarity’s escalating strike action. Operation Solidarity leaders met with Compensation Stabilization Program com- missioner Ed Peck Sunday, seeking exemp- tions for other ‘unions from Bill 3’s draco- nian provisions. The leaders included Kube, B.C. Teachers Federation president Larry Kuehn, Hospital Employees Union secretary-business manager Jack Gerow, B.C. Fed secretary Mike Kramer and Inter- national Woodworkers regional president Jack Munro. B.C. Employers Council presi- dent Jim Matkin also attended. Peck is empowered to exempt individual unions from Bill 3, using guidelines included in amendments to the Act introduced shortly after the Socreds tabled their 27 budgetary bills July 7. LASOR Access to education added to BCTF's list Continued from page 1 ‘There is a whole series of issues that must be resolved if we go out,’’ BCTF president Larry Kuehn told the Tribune Nov. 2. As with others in the public sector, the immediate issue is that of ‘‘due process’ under Bill 3 since the legislation now gives arbitrary powers to school boards to ter- minate teachers indiscriminately. But the ‘‘second issue that goes on the table if we walk out,’’ said Kuehn, is education funding and the ‘‘power that the province has taken unto itself in limiting that funding under Bill 6. “‘Obviously the demand has been for withdrawal of that legislation — but the bottom line has to be that if the govern- ment is not prepared to drop the legisla- tion, it must put enough money into the system to maintain school funding at cur- rent levels,’’ he emphasized. Under the terms of Bill 6, funding for education is set to a target year and will be reduced to that level over three years — resulting in cuts in real funding of 25 per cent, the loss of 3,000 to 4,000 teaching positions and a dramatic increase in the pupil-teacher ratio. ‘For our members that means layoffs and deteriorating working conditions — but, more than that, it means real reduc- tions in the quality of education,’’ he said. Four other related issues were to go on the. bargaining table if the strike escalated: © Collective bargaining rights for all teachers including principals and vice- principals who have been excluded from bargaining under the terms of Bill 3; e A halt to the centralization of decision-making imposed by the provin- cial government under Bill 3 and Bill 6; © Access to post-secondary education for all qualified students; ® Removal of the limitations on human, democratic and social rights, a broad demand aimed at such contentious pieces of legislation as Bill 27, abolishing the Human Rights Code and Bill 5, which abolishes the Rentalsman. If the Socreds do not move in the bargaining with the BCGEU and the strike escalates to include the teachers, it will be only the second time in the history of the BCTF that teachers have gone out on a province-wide strike, Kuehn noted. The first time was in 1971 when the teachers’ federation staged a one-day work stoppage over pensions. But that was a limted protest unlike the massive job action which teachers have voted to take in support of Operation Solidarity. As a result teachers have been sub- jected to what Kuehn termed ‘‘a heavy campaign of intimidation’’ both in the media and from government ministers. He cited an incident Nov. 1° when leaders of the Solidarity Coalition met with Education Minister Jack Heinrich. “‘We talked to him about our concerns over funding and the other issues in education. We never even mentioned the strike. “But when we came out of the meeting, the minister talked of nothing else but the strike, when he was interview- ed by the media,’’ Kuehn said. Both the print and broadcast media © have carried extensive and often sensa- tionalized reports of the warnings made to teachers by school boards and the alleged threats of violence made to teachers who have said they will cross picket lines. But despite the campaign, the teachers’ strike organization ‘‘is holding together amazingly well,’’ said Kuehn. “There is incredible mobilization all over the province,’’ he said, ‘‘and we’re getting hundreds of calls from local com- mittees who are doing the organizing.’’ ‘fightback. When Op conference July 45, anilysic: It was mace _ working. class prespective. apt anu See around Ghai : _ independent. Jabor a PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 9, 1983—Page 12 The Tribune: from the beginning, a 1 Voi The day the Social Credit budget was | July 7, the Tribune-responded with a specia analysing the dangerous new legislation and opposition movement that. as. already beginning t to, ‘Stir, across the province). - Thornton Pa ‘h ,at sari at Empire Stadium»when the government’ s attack were chan ‘and J unemployment of th kind of paper since 1 t another ye ta Uniowand the other socialist countries; iddle East! and a ‘introductory. 9: Ls ree mon er for new readers. W of people who have seen and read th meetings to take it every week ust