Battle for Lavern heats up

Supporters rally behind
mentally handicapped man

By JEFF NAGEL

UNIONIZED = school district
maintenance workers have filed a
grievance aimed at eliminating a
non-union job held by a mentally
“handicapped man."

Lavern. Chinn has worked
sweeping parking lots and shovel-

ing snow for the school district —

for 22 years.

But Chinn could soon lose his
job because the union has torn up
21989 agreement with the school
board that allowed him to work
outside the union.

CUPE local 2861 president
Rick King says school board cuts
to the hours of unionized
maintenance workers have forced
them to cancel the agreement.

Union members absorbed a cut .

in hours this month equivalent to
a reduction of 5.5 full time jobs
spread out over 50 custodians.
‘*We're talking aboul people
losing $600 per pay period off
their paycheques,’’ King said of
the board’s cuts, “You can’t
reduce our membership on one
hand and continue this other ar-
rangement on the other hand.’”
King says the union wanis the
46-year-old Chinn to be allowed
to join the union — something

the school. district says won’t.

happen because the job never of-
ficially existed.

If Chinn was allowed into the
union, he: would not receive
seniority for the 22 years he has
worked, :

As a result, he would be the
first in line for any future layoffs
— and would become an effec-
tive shield for the union against
further cuts.

The union issued a proposal to
the school board last Thursday,
but school district secretary-
treasurer Barry Plersdorff said a
response won't be ready until
sometime this week.

“‘What they’ve proposed fe-
quires a whole bunch of coor-
dination between us and (the min-
istry of) social services,”
Piersdorffi explained.

“resblve it? 2.

Ifan agreement isn” v reaciisd by
next week, the matter covld go lo
arbitration.

Meanwhile, Chinn's supporters
are circulating a petition demand-
ing he be allowed to keep his jeb.

“We profest most vigorously
the threat to this employee’s
livelihood that is posed by the
current dispute between School

‘District 88 and the Canadian
Union of Public Employees,” it
says.

“We are
certainly, looking for a way lo

Marg Stanvick, Chinn’s sister
and the organizer of the petition,
doesn’t like the union’s tactics.

“Don't pick on someone who’s
handicapped,”’ she said. ‘‘Go
picket the school district of-
fices,**

She described her brother as a
hard worker who has never been
in trouble with the law or caused
any problem in the community.

**He showed up here crying the
other day because he doesn’t
know what’s happening to him,”’
Stanvick added.

“I'd like to sce that Rick King
go out and sweep parking lots in
the snow and rain.’”

She also slammed the school
board, which she said would hap-
pily save Chinn’s $16,000 salary
and blame the union.

“*The school board could cul
administrative costs,’? she said.

Above all, she said, her brother
shouldn't be dragged into a dis-
pute over culs in hours.

“The battle’s between thom - _
not him.’?

King admitted the union’s

Stance has not been popular,

“‘Everyone’s painting us as vil-
lains,”’ he. said, ‘‘I’m not the
board. I am not personally the
union. I’m just the spokesperson
for the local.’

King says the board’s cuts vio-
late the 1989 agreement, in which
the board agreed no union mem-
ber would be displaced by the ar-
tangementt.

“We. are the ones who are
slanding up for him,” King
added. “*If the board really feels
strongly about having a special
needs person in place they should
sit down with the union and dis-
cuss bringing Lavern into the
union.”

**They’re saying he’s half a
man — that he doesn’t deserve
full union pay and benefits.”

Chinn is paid $8.50 an hour.
Starling union rate is $15.30 an
hour.

King said the ‘union would be
willing to negotiate some level of
seniority for Chinn.

The ie oily. other option outs ie of

» unio membership, he said, is

Chinn is no longer an official em-
ployce of the school district, but
is instead subsidized by social
services to work there. -.

Workers with the Choices pro-
gram, which supports mentally
handicapped people, call Chinn’s
success in mainiaining a job, an
apartment of his own and an ac-
tive social life a ‘‘triumph.”’

‘*He has it all,’? said program
director Luanne Jeffrey.
what all our clients strive for.’

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 27, 1993 - A3

News
I In Brief

Rule
changes

THERE ARE some changes
to this fail’s municipal,
regional district and school
district elections, says the .
person responsible for the
conduct of the elections,

The age is now 18 instead
of 19 and a person must live
in the jurisdiction in which
they want to vote for at least
30 days prior to the election,
says Elaine Johnston. ©

The provincial voter’s list
is being used for the clec-
tions but people can still

‘register at the polls on elec-
tion day, she added. .

And, a new voter category
has been added, People who
own property can, upon get-
ting a certificate from ‘the
relevant jurisdiction, vote in
the jurisdiction in which the
property is located even if
they don’t live there.

“TE you already reside in
the jurisdiction you get 4
residency vote. You can't
gel another one,’ ‘said
Johnston,

Voting takes place Satur-
day, Nov. 20 with polls
covering the area and taking
in all three calegories —
regional district, school dis-
trict and municipal.

Kemano
report

A COPY of Alcan’s 140-
page breakdown of its
Kemano Completion Project
prepared for the B.C, Utili-
ties Commission is available
al the library here.

The report was prepared .
for the commission’s review
of the project which is
scheduled to begin Nov. 9.

Alcan placed the $1.2 bil-

“It’s .

lion project on hold in 1990
LAVERN CHINN has been working for the school district doing manual labour for 22 years. Chinn | sue to a federal court dec-
was paid $50 a month when he first started in 1971. It wasn’t until 1989 that his pay was increased sion. - :
dramatically from $100 a month to an hourly rate of $6.30. He's now paid $8.50. an. hour. He's at That decision has since.

the centre of a labour relations battle that could see him nearly ‘double his pay — ar loge his job.

Chinn is one of only two people
out of 25 mentally handicapped
people in the program who are
enlirely sclf-supporling, receiving
no social services subsidy, Jeffrey
says.

Jeffrey said Chinn has gained
pride, dignity, and self-esteem
through his work. .

“Now to take it away is going
to be: devastating to him,’’ she
predicted.

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