Premier Bill Bennett has agreed to meet with represen- tatives of the B.C. Government Employees Union this coming Tuesday, Jan. 26, to discuss their concern over possible in- troduction of wage guidelines in the public sector. Bennett’s response followed issuance of a statement by the union that it wanted a meeting with him — and did not intend to take no for an answer. What the union wants to discuss with him is the Alberta government’s proposal for establishing national wage guidelines in the public sector, to be presented at the First Ministers conference in Ottawa, Feb, 2-3. “We are calling on the premier to reaffirm his commit- ment to the employees of this province and reject the slick at- tempts of some of his colleagues After first announcing the decision and later putting any action off indefinitely, the inter- national building trades are now moving ahead to establish the breakaway Canadian Federa- tion of Labor. James McCambly, executive secretary of the Canadian ex- ecutive board of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Council, announced last week that the founding conven- tion had been set for March 31-Apr. 2 in Ottawa. McCambly claimed that some 400 delegates would be in attendance. However, three major trades —the Laborers, Carpenters and Ironworkers — are reportedly, not going to be represented at the meeting. In the case of the has made no move to send measure of the pressure that has been applied by locals across Canada for the union to remain within the CLC. The international building International Long- shoremen’s and Warehouse- men’s Union secretary Frank Kennedy was returned for his second term as president of the Vancouver and District labor completed its annual executive elections Nearly all of the positions on the 12-member executive board were filled by acclamation. In the only contest, for chairman of the credentials committee, Evert Hoogers, president of the Vancouver local of the Cana dian Union of Postal Workers, defeated International Wood- workers delegate Garth Brown by a vote of 69-53. Others elected were: first Carpenters, the international - representatives — possibly a. Council Tuesday as the council - BCGEU gets meeting on wage curb threat in other provinces to avoid their responsibilities to their employees,’’ said BCGEU president Norman Richards. “We are entitled to a fair and equitable settlement, given the fact that our wages have fallen so far behind inflation in the past three years.’ In Toronto earlier this month, Sean O’Flynn, presi- dent of the Ontario Public Ser- vice Employees Union, declared that government employees would resist wage controls with ~ every means at their disposal. “Ottawa’s 1976-78 round of wage controls held down our wages, but it didn’t stop infla- tion,’’ he pointed out. ‘‘We’ll fight hard against’ any attempt to use us as scapegoats again.” - Some 55,000 Ontario public employees are now in negotia- tions for a new contract. Trades revive CFL trades withheld per capita payments from the CLC in 1980 in a dispute over jurisdiction in Quebec, delegate representation and voting at CLC conventions, and jurisdictional conflicts with industrial unions. Finally, in April of last year, the CLC suspended the 14 unions.and set up a separate CLC building trades depart- ment. But because affiliation to the new set-up would have en- tailed locals confronting their internationals, the building trades remain outside. Since that time, there have been several efforts, notably by the B.C. Federation of Labor, to seek an alternative solution. Predictably, unions that at tend the CFL convention will cast a weighted vote depending on the size of their organization. And the right to send resolu- tions will rest solely with the head office. The building trades have repeatedly demanded that CLC conventions be run that way. DIC backs Kennedy vice-president, Doug Evans, IWA; second vice-president, Opal Skilling, Office and Technical Employees; third vice-president, George Hewison, UFAWU; secretary- treasurer, C.P. (Paddy) Neale Hotel, Restaurant and Bartenders; organization com- mittee chairman, John Fitz- patrick, Marineworkers and Boilmakers; legislative commit- tee, Tom Kelly, CUPE; public relations committee, Jim O’Donnell, Hotel and Restaurant; grievance commit- tee, Dolly Storey, Telecom- munications Workers; metropolitan advisory commit- tee, Dave Martindale, Bakery Workers. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN, 22, 1982—Page 8 Delegates to the Vancouver and District Labor Council Tuesday threw their support behind Mon- treal’s embattled transit workers, calling on the Canadian Labor Congress to demand that Quebec withdraw its back-to-work legisla- tion and demand that the employer “‘get back to the bargaining table.’’ Unionists at the packed meeting unanimously endorsed the resolu- tion, introduced by the executive in response to Quebec’s Law 47 which ordered. striking transit workers back to their jobs on penalty of stiff fines against both their unions and individual members. UFAWU delegate George Hewison warned that the law pass- ed by the Quebec National Assembly ‘‘is part of a dangerous trend across the country. “And now we’re faced with the possibility of the Quebec assembly coming back into session to do ‘another Reagan’ ’’, he said, referr- ing to threats to decertify transit workers’ unions just as Reagan decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Hewison cited a recent speech by labor minister Charles Caccia in which he declared that the ‘‘class’ struggle is over’? and a much- quoted speech by Noranda vice- president Adam Zimmerman who suggested unions be made subject to Combines legislation as ex- amples of the dangerous trend. “Tt sounds like the same thing coming across as they’re getting CPU standing by pulp ban The Canadian Paperworkers Union is standing by its position that members would not handle pulp from the non-union Quesnel River Pulp mill until Macmillan- Bloedel gives assurances that only union made pulp will be used once the contract with Quesnel runs out. “We want those assurances before we’ll handle any pulp and as yet we haven’t got them’? CPU representative Brian Payne told the _ Tribune Wednesday. The issue erupted last week when the union told MacMillan-Bloedel that CPU members at M-B’s Port Alberni newsprint mill would not - handle Quesnel pulp unless M-B guaranteed that future pulp would be bought from a union mill after 1983. M-B contracted in 1980 with Quesnel River to provide 27,000 tonnes of thermomechanical pulp. Quesnel River Pulp, controlled by West Fraser Timber and Daishowa Paper Manufacturing, a Japanese multinational, has so far frustrated union organization of i ats plant in Quesnel. The last shipment of pulp from the non-union mill is sitting on a train on Vancouver Island and, ac- cording to Payne, the company has not yet tried to move it towards its destination, Alberni Pulp in Port Alberni. : Payne said that the union’s posi- tion is that if the pulp shipment comes in to the Alberni Pulp yard, “‘our members will refuse to handle it if the employer still hasn’t come to any agreement on future pulp contracts, “‘What the company will do then “Yd & & ff ff fs ® 3 @ win support of city labor | from the Reagan administration i in the U.S.,’’ he said. a “But transit workers in wor treal are saying: we’re not going to accept it.”’ Hewison warned that unionists would be seeing many more battles like that waged by the Montreal workers and urged delegates to ‘roll up your sleeves to help these people.”’ The council was to send a telegram outling the Vancouver resolution to the transit workers who were continuing to refuse to bow to the back-to-work order. Under Law 47, rushed througha special session of the National Assembly Jan. 15, strikers were to return to work by Sunday or facé fines totalling $1 million daily. But maintenance workers in the 2,200 member Montreal Transit Union an affiliate of the Con federation of National Trade Unions (CSN), ‘voted that day to defy the legislation. Only hours later, the ‘435-member Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission Office Workers, alsa a CSN af- filiate, voted to stand with them as did the independent Brotherhood of Bus Drivers and Metro Operators, with 4,200 members. Norbert Rodrigue, president of the CSN, has pledged moral and financial aid to the strikers and declared that the transit commis-- sion “‘will not be allowed to crush the transit workers.”’ we don’t know, but that’s our posi- tion,’’ he said. - The CPU representative had in- dicated earier that other newsprint mills where the CPU is certified could also be affected. Theissue at stake is jobs since the pulp now being supplied by Quesnel River has traditionally © been supplied by Finlay Forest Products pulp mill at Mackenzie in northwestern B,C, “Finlay had the contract to sup- ply pulp,”’ Payne said, although he was not certain if the amount sup- plied was the same. “But we’re really concerned that later this year our members will be out of work and the non-union mill in Quesnel will be purring along.”’ he said. _ The mill at Mackenzie is current- ly working with a full crew but most of its pulp is apparently destined for overseas and markets there are weakening. =] [={ 8 = _ government might move to do just The possibility that the Levesque = that loomed closer at Tribune pres: time as the Quebec premier gavé workers 24 hours to go back t¢ work or face even worse penalties. Those consequences could in: clude legislative decertification of the unions, denial of compulsory checkoff, firings of union officer! and — reminiscent of Reagan’s ac" tion — mass firings. A four-member delegation fro the government was to meet trans workers Tuesday to outline t sanctions that unionists could fac Significantly, however, th group was given no mandate negotiate on the outstanding issues. The last offer tabled by the” MUCTC called for only a 20 per- cent increase for mechanics ove three years — far less than even the” current rate of inflation. q At the Vancouver Labor Couns i cil meeting, CUPE delegate Harry Greene reminded delegates of t MUCTC’s long record of bad fai bargaining. ‘,% Bet Tp gla tl ON 2 Be ae vey Sere ee eS yee Over the past eight years, he said, ‘‘transit workers have had to” strike for every agreement they got,’’ because the employer ‘‘jus kept on saying ‘no’, knowing that” the provincial government woul bail it out.”’ He echoed Hewison’s warning, adding that the government’s ac- tions against the transit workers. “are part of the overall attack of public employees.”’ “We sure as hell don’t want to see our members laid off,’’ Payne emphasized. ‘‘All we’re saying is” that if the mill at Alberni needs pulp“in excess of that specified in the Quesnel contract, and after the contract expired, it should come from union mills. “We don’t think that’ s an une reasonable position.”’ Significantly, the contract be ween M-B and Quesnel River waS signed at roughly the same time aS M-B president Calvert Knudsen became a director of West Fraser Timber, one of the owners of the Quesnel River mill. A.C. Johnson, the president of West Fraser is himself a director of Scott Paper. Renew today before rates rise Feb. 1 Address City or town Postal Code ’ Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive. ‘Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 Read the paper that fights for labor «ee vb ey 8. W. 00.0 be opin eels. vie ew ts 0 9, 8 0.0 418 0 6 eo ntis-e 6 0,059 ole Oa ee ew Nar We Sie Niet ca ae ea See Se a es Oa er a ey | am enclosing: 1 year $120 2 years $220 6 months $7 0 OldO New Foreign 1 year $16 0 Bill me later (1 Donation$.......... VA LT LF A LT LE LP LL LY a