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VAS 9-78

COPE, NPA to clash
over ward plebiscite

Continued from page 1
option for a partial ward system,

_supported by TEAM but the
-amendment was defeated by a vote

of seven to four, supported only by
the TEAM group on council.

In the vote on Rankin’s motion,
TEAM split with May Brown, Don
Bellamy and Bill Gibson joining
Rankin, Mike Harcourt and
Darlene Marzari for a narrow one
vote majority.

The plebiscite on the ward
system will be a central campaign
issue in the Vancouver election. As
it stands now, only the Committee
of Progressive Electors and _ in-
dependents Harcourt and Marzari
have consistently supported a full
ward system. The right wing Non-
Partisan Association (NPA) is
opposed and will likely campaign
vigorously against the proposition.
The plebiscite will cause even
greater difficulty for the already
troubled TEAM, however, as its
favored option of a partial ward-
system will not be on the ballot.

The need for a ward system in
Vancouver is a “living question’’.
Rankin argued before council.
“How can one person represent
both the interests and aspirations
of people in the downtown eastside
with a mean. annual income of

$2,500 or $3,000 and those in .

Shaughnessy with a mean income
of $40,000 or $50,000?”. There is
nothing incongruous with being
able to look after the concerns of a
local neighborhood and at the same
time considering the interests of
the city at large, Rankin replied to
the NPA argumentation. But under
the present system, he said, most
aldermen are connected only to
certain upper class areas of the
city on the west side. ‘Many of you
would need a taxi to find an ad-
dress in some areas of this city,”
he told the TEAM and NPA
councillors.

NPA alderman Warnett Ken-
nedy previewed the flavor of the
opposition to the ward system that
can be expected in the campaign
when he called the proposition ‘a
left wing plot’’. It is a ‘‘divide and
conquer tactic’,, Kennedy declared
to the jeers of the gallery,
promoted by ‘‘Communists, pinkos
and pink ladies.”

But as numerous speakers to
council suggested, it is not. the left
which needs a ward system, but
the right that requires the present
at large system to cling to power.
Rankin, Harcourt and Marzari, the
leading proponents of the ward
system, all finished near the top of
the polls in the 1976 election.

Election platforms set

Continued from page 1
prospect of running alderman
Harry Rankin, whe in 1976 out-
voted all civie candidates by a
wide margin, for mayor will also
be a consideration for COPE.
Regardless of which candidate
takes the mayoralty position, the
COPE slate has emerged as the
only reform alternative to the

fractured establishment forces..

About 150 COPE members
turned out last Saturday to COPE’s
annual policy conference and gave
approval to detailed platforms for
the council, school board and parks
board slates. Topping COPE’s
council platform is a program for

jobs, including a rapid transit
system, a housing program, dry
dock facilities for Burrard Inlet, a

convention centre and waterfront.

development. Also prominent in
the council platform is the call for

a full ward system and a proposal,
to revamp the tax system and —

reduce property taxes.

The Parks Board platform calls
for a new system of financing the
Board to make it accountable to
the voters for its actions. The
Parks Board’s priorities need to be
shifted, it stated, away from
tourist orientated facilities to
parks and recreational needs of
most citizens.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 15, 1978—Page 12

On November 8, 1976, the Public
Sector Employees’ Co-ordinating
Council was founded, in the board
room of the B.C. Government
Employees’ Union office in Bur-
naby. :

This development was described
by the sponsors as ‘‘a new chapter
of labor history in British
.Columbia.”” However, it appears
that the new council hasn’t made
very much history to date. For
example, to the best of my
knowledge, it has played no
significant role (if any) in support
of the Registered Nurses’
Association in their struggle at
Vancouver General Hospital,
despite the fact that the R.N.’s
belong to the council.

A booklet designed to acquaint
members of the founding groups
with the aims of the council lists
the member organizations: The
B.C. Government Employees
Union, the Registered Nurses’
Association of B.C., the Canadian
Union of Public Employees, Local
378 of the Office and Technical
Employees’ Union, Hospital
Employees Union, the Registered
Psychiatric Nurses’ Association of

B.C. the Association of University .

and Clerical Employees, the
Service, Office and Retail
Workers’ Union of Canada, the
Health Sciences’ Association, the
Greater Vancouver Regional
District Employees’ Union and the
Vancouver Municipal and
Regional Employees’ Union.
Conspicuously absent were unions
representing federal civil servants
and postal employees. Their ad-
dition would strengthen the
council. .

The PSECC is proud of the fact
that it includes unions and
associations with a combined
membership in excess of 110,000,
making it, according to one
document, ‘‘an organization with a
potential effectiveness to rival that
of other, more traditional
representative workers’ groups.”

At the time of its formation, the
council embraced approximately
25 percent of the union mem-
bership in B.C., as listed in the
official labor directory for 1977
published by the provincial
ministry of labor.

However, it should be noted that
out of 11 founding members, only
three are affiliated to the Canadian
Labor Congress and its provincial
federation. The remainder are
independent unions, some
preferring to be known as
associations. It should also be
noted that some of .these in-
dependent unions and associations
have, up to now, shown a narrow,
isolationist outlook in respect to the
labor movement as a whole. In
addition, there are potential areas
of conflict between some affiliates
in respect to jurisdiction.

However, it must be regarded as
a positive achievement that such
groups came together in defence of
their common interests and
identified themselves with
organized labor.

The booklet gives. some _in-
teresting data designed to dispel
the myths about the wages, fringe
benefits and job security of public
employees, as compared with
those enjoyed by workers in the
private sector.

o Wages and salaries for public
sector employees in B.C. were
behind in 1960 and remained
behind in 1975 by as much as 31.5
percent. In the five years between
1968 and 1972, public sector rates
fell even more behind than they
had done previously. Negotiated
wage increases in that period
averaged 38 percent, as compared

with 42 percent in the private

government operation...

Alliance of public sector
unions needs action plan —

sector. Between 1973 and the im-
position of controls in 1975, public
employees regained this four
percent, which put them exactly in
the same, relative position as in
1968. (Source: Wage and Salary
Data, Labor Canada).

o In the area of fringe benefits,
the most recent information flatly
contradicts the notion that public
sector employees’ costs are higher
than the costs for private sector
employees. In 1975-76 all employee
benefits, as percentage of gross,
annual payroll for all industry was

LABOR.
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS °

31.11 percent. For government
employees, it was only 28.4 per-
cent. (Source: ‘“‘Employee Benefit
Cost in Canada, 1975-1976’’,
available through Thorne Riddell

Associates Ltd., Management .

Consultants.)

o Only in pensions are govern-
ment employees on a solid footing,
because unlike most private sector
plans, the public section pension is
indexed to the rate of inflation.

In dealing with the question of
job security, there is an interesting

. statement:

“Starting with budgetary  cut-
backs introduced as _anti-
inflationary measures in the late
sixties and continuing with
decentralization, reorganization of
in-
creased contracting out of work to
private contractors, and spending
restraints to control government
outlays, pressures have constantly
been exerted on jobs and career
aspirations of thousands of
provincial and federal government
employees. As a result, job
security in government em-
ployment is not a reality. It should
therefore come as no surprise that
Statistics Canada in 1975 reported

‘some 29,000 unemployed persons

listed their last place of em-
ployment as public administration.

By 1976, this had risen to
87-0005. =
Significantly, the founding

statement points out that services
facing cutbacks are not those from
which industry benefits but ser-
vices to people. “‘It is in large part
those services that have permitted
working people to enjoy a
reasonable standard of living,
because standard of living means
more than an individual’s wages. It

’ also means the social care, op-

portunities and security that are
available to us all. Accordingly,
reductions in social services are a
direct assault on all working
people, a taking back of earned

benefits that people have spent -

years to attain. When governments
cut back these social benefits, they

== a

reduce the standard of living of
ordinary people just as if they had
cut back wages.
“But this cutback in service is
only part of the current assault on
the standard of living of working
people. Simultaneously with.
decreased benefits come increa
costs. Needed hospital services are
taken away at precisely the point
where the direct cost of those
services increases. Transportation -
costs increase but the services
decline. The ferry service doubles
the rate but reduces both the
quality of service and the numbers -
of staff. The costs of child care ris€
to unaffordable. proportions,
allowing fewer and fewer lower
and middle income families the us¢ ©
of day care centres.” e

As a critique of government
policies in respect to public sector
employees, the PSECC document
makes a number of significant
points but in the main, it is a
defensive statement with no plan of
action. It fails to define the nature
of the economic crisis in Canada
and the drive against the living —
standards of working people. In
that respect, it does not measure ©
up to some policy statements
adopted by the Canadian Union of
Public Employees, Canada’s
largest union and a component of
PSECC.

However, if there is one, out-
standing weakness in the PSECC
statement, it is the failure to offer a
program or plan of action. This no
doubt reflects the loose, elemen-
tary nature of the alliances
Perhaps that explains why the ©
council has been silent on the |

|
|
|

recent announcements from Ot-

tawa in respect to the cutting back

of unemployment ‘insurance

benefits and reductions in family —
allowances and the other cuts —
which will result in substantial
layoffs. of thousands of federal —
government employees. There is —
every indication that this trend will —
be repeated in the provincial and —
municipal areas. —

The PSECC statement closes —
with these words: ‘‘To that end we —
hope and expect that our co-
ordinated efforts on behalf of —
public sector employees will not
only avert the crisis facing us but
will also be an important first step —
towards a new unity among —
working people in general. That
unity will be our greatest
strength.”

We can only applaud that
statement. But we must also say
that what is needed is positive
action around immediate, pressing
issues, in conjunction with
organized labor as a whole and as
part of a constructive program to
advance the economic and social
conditions of all working people.
We have many good programs if
the trade union movement. What
we need now is more action on 4
concerted basis.

SN NSU NUN OREN UNEEAUING

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