LABOR

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@ The inclusion of pension payments as
earnings this year, which also delays or elim-
inates early retirees’ claims;

@ Wilson’s proposals in his November
1984 statement, “A New Direction for
Canada,” which included extending the
waiting period for voluntary job leavers to
12 from the current six weeks, lengthening
the qualifying period from the current 10-14
weeks, reducing benefits from the current
60 per cent of earnings, and lowering the
duration of benefits to 40 from the current
50 weeks (as noted by the B.C. Provincial
Council of Carpenters in its submission);

@ The fact that the commission is itself a
byproduct of the Macdonald Royal Com-
mission on Canada’s economy, which
recommended further cuts to UI and disen-
titlement to benefits for thousands of recip-
ients;

- ®@ The low-key nature of the commission.
“We note (protested the coalition, the
_ Unemployment Insurance Working Group)
..that your commission has been adver-
tised in a very, very limited fashion. . .You
have not told people where you are holding
hearings and the advance notice of these
hearings has been minimal.”

In their submission the B.C. Provincial
~ Council of Carpenters listed the cutbacks
____ that have been imposed on Unemployment

Insurance since 1975, including the increases
in the qualifying period to 10-14 from eight
“weeks, dropped coverage for part-time
employees working less than 20 hours
___ weekly, and the lowering to 60 per cent

_ from the former 75 per cent of earnings in
benefits payments.

“The inevitable result of these cutbacks is
an increase in the number of the individuals
unable to collect UI benefits. In 1978 one in
eight unemployed individuals did not

to one in four,” council secretary-treasurer
Colin Snell told the commission.

Most of the recommendations of the
Macdonald Commission regarding the UI
we m have been endorsed by the Con-

‘servatives, Snell observed, which the Car-
penters found “appalling.”

“The Macdonald Commission came out
_ with incredible conclusions and recomme-
nations which clearly demonstrated that it
ignored the representations from the labor
- movement and supported those from big
business.” Included were recommendations
which would reduce an individuals’ UI
income by 88 per cent, the Carpenters
noted. »

- “Tt is our fear that the commission on
Unemployment Insurance: will have the
- same built-in bias and will come to similar
conclusions,” stated the Carpenters’ brief.

The Carpenters and others — including
__ the B.C, Federation of Labor, the Confed-

_ eration of Canadian Unions, the Vancouver

Unemployment Action Centre and the
National Anti-Poverty Organization — hit
the Macdonald Commission’s suggestion
that UI benefits act as a discincentive for the
jobless to find new employment.

Pointing to certain “offensive” state-
ments in the UI inquiry commission’s
guidebook (entitled, Back to the Drawing
- Board), CCU secretary-treasurer John

_ Lang said: “Raising yet again the tired spec-
tre of unemployment insurance ‘abusers’
serves no useful or constructive purpose.
Such attempts at witch-hunting ought to be
laid to rest once and for all.

“The suggestion that youth unemploy-
ment does not really exist, or, if it does,
could be solved by coercing young people to
join the army, is odious. The notion that
Unemployment Insurance discourages
unemployed people from job hunting. . .is
truly insulting.... Enough jobs simply do
not exist,” Lang asserted.

Outnumbered though they were by
groups opposing the threatened erosion of
UI benefits, business organizations made
their mark by backing calls for further
benefit reductions. The Vancouver Board
of Trade, the B.C. Chamber of Commerce

receive UI. By 1979 the ratio had increased -

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 15, 1986

‘Don’t cut UL’ gov't told

Unemployed demonstrate outside UI inquiry commission hearings Jan. 7. Speakers

at demo and those submitting briefs inside said they feared the commission would. :

be a rubber stamp for upcoming regressive changes to Unemployment Insurance.

and the B.C. Business Council took their
turn at the microphone to echo the recom-
mendations in the Macdonald Commission
report.

The Business Council was the most out-
spoken in its advocacy of UI cutbacks,
although council president Jim Matkin
sought to sugar-coat the council’s recom-
mendations by citing the “integrity” of a
program based on “insurance principles.”

“T think you speak with forked tongue,”
remarked Frances Soboda, a vice-president
of the Canadian Labor Congress and one of
the two labor representatives on the six-
member commission.

(Other commission members include
chairman Claude Forget, an associate direc-
tor of the C.D. Howe Institute, forestry
executive Guylaine Saucier, management
consultant Roy Bennett, social science pro-
fessor Dr. Moses Morgan, and Interna-
tional Woodworkers Western Region
president Jack Munro.)

Specifically, the major organization of
B.C.’s big employers called for the removal
of sickness, maternity and adoption benefits
from the program, a resulting reduction in
premium payments for employers, and the
removal of variable entrance requirements
and ‘benefit duration based on regional
employment circumstances.

Echoing the Macdonald Commission’s
claim that benefits (the council termed the
current 60 per cent of earnings “‘generous”)
are a disincentive to finding employment,
the B.C. Business Council called for a 20-
week eligibility period and reducing the
duration of the standard claim to 26 weeks.

In its angry attack on that rationale, the
B.C. Federation of Labor raised the fears
organized labor has that recommendations
like those of the Business Council are close
to implementation. Citing several economic
projections that foresee continued high
unemployment, the Fed brief asserted,
“..it is unbelievable that anyone would
seriously suggest that unemployment insu-
rance is a disincentive for the unemployed

~ to seek work.

“The public needs a really strong warn-
ing that if they don’t take action, the Unem-

ployment Insurance program is virtually
going to be dismantled,” said Vancouver
Unemployment Action Centre co-ordinator
Kim Zander.

Speaking after a demonstration by some
50 jobless workers and anti-poverty advo-
cates outside the hearings Jan. 7, Zander
echoed the warnings of speakers at the pro-
test that the commission is slanted in the
direction of the cutbacks threatened by
Finance Minister Wilson and the Macdo-
nald Commission report.

Zander also hit the recommendations
made by Matkin, who she said was using
the commission hearings “to promote at
every opportunity the Business Council’s
preference for free trade with the U.S.”

In fact, she said, studies of the textile
industries in Ontario and Quebec show that
free trade will cause the elimination of Can-
adian industries and jobs.

Almost all groups who didn’t represent
business before the commission demanded
at least the preservation of the current UI
program. Several went further and de-

-manded substantial improvement.

Tabling a program similar to those
advanced previously by the VDLC’s unem-
ployment committee and the coalition Jobs
or Income Now, the B.C. Carpenters called

for benefits lasting the full duration of.

unemployment and increased taxes on prot-
itable corporations and financial institu-
tions.

Several organizations demanded an end
to the UI Commission’s enforcement officer
program.

NAME |
ADDRESS

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. continues its campaign to win back —

Expo back
wage claims |
hit $175,000:

The Carpenters Union has won the
first of several claims for workers
cheated out of the fair wage by con-
tractors on the Expo site — but the ©
list of claims has almost doubled over
the last several weeks as the union

wages for non-union workers at
Expo. =, =.

Carpenters Provincial Council
secretary-treasurer Colin Snell said ©
Jan. 10 that the number of workers -
who have made claims for back wages —
from Expo contractors is now more
than 60 and the total amount
owed — by 16 different non-union
contractors and sub-contractors — is —
now in excess of $175,000. .

“That’s an incredible increase and
represents the claims of more than 60
workers who came to us for help —
because they were cheated by their
employers,” he said.

The Carpenters placed ads in both
Vancouver dailies in November offer-
ing to assist workers who were
cheated out of wages by Expo con- —
tractors who did not pay the full Expo
fair wage laid down in the Expo cor-
poration’s tendering policy.

The fair wage — rangingfrom$14 f
an hour for laborers to $16.15 for
electricians — was set unilaterally by
Expo after it failed to resolve a long
dispute with the Building Trades over —
the minimum rate for work on the —
site. 4
But more and more cases have —
come to light where contractors have —
ignored that rate, in some cases pay- —
ing half the required wage, the Car-
penters reported.

As a result of the union’s efforts ~
however, some eight workers, includ- —
ing two carpenters and six electricians, —
have received back wages. The electri- —
cians were all working for oe .
Electric, a sub-contractor for Kerk- !
hoff Construction and Belmont Con- _
struction. 3

Expo Corporation has still not met ~
with the Carpenters and the Building —
Trades although Expo president Jim —
Pattison has stated that Expo officials —
are prepared to meet under the auspi-
ces of the Employment Standards —
Branch. | 4

Snell said the union was gratified c

that the pressure it exerted resulted in —
satisfaction being won onsome of the —
outstanding claims but emphasized —
that 60 cases have yet to be resolved.

“These are all cases of workers who —
were cheated out of the wages due to
them and we are not satisified with the —
time it is taking for these claims to be ©
settled,” he said. “Some of the clai- —
mants have been trying since last —
October to get Expo to take action |
against their former employers. The —
Expo Corporation, however, has still —
not taken any initiative to speed up
this process and we once again call on —
them to accept their public duty and —
move on this problem.”

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