oe

British Columbia

Drive finishes up just shy
of target with $79,658 in

It was a financial drive unlike any other,
which began falteringly and ended at a
whirlwind pace, as close to $40,000 came in
during the last week.

Butas the final receipts were tallied up at
Saturday’s wind-up banquet, the total fell
just short of the $82,000 target, at $79,658.

“This has been a marvellous effort, an
incredible effort,” Tribune editor Sean Grif-
fin told supporters in announcing the drive
figure. “We may have fallen short but it’s not
a setback—what’s happened over the last
week has reaffirmed the vital importance of
the paper.”

Griffin noted that the 1990 drive was the
first since the unprecedented changes in
Eastern Europe and the elections in Nic-
aragua, changes which he noted “have been
coming at expressway speeds, pushing away
a lot of things that people thought were
certainties.

“We can feel the exhilaration of new
winds blowing,” he said, “but we’ve also felt
the storms swirling around us.”

Despite that, “we’ve had people coming
into the Tribune office over the past week,
bringing in another donation and telling us
that the paper was vital—that we couldn’t
afford to lose it.” And they have been both
long time supporters and others who have
only just begun reading the Tribune, he
added.

“There are new winds blowing in Canada
too—on the left, in the pro-Canada and en-
vironmental movements. We intend to be
part of them—and the money you’ ve raised
has ensured that we’ll be able to do that,” he
said.

Griffin also made a final appeal to sup-
porters to put the drive over the top in the
next week,

Earlier, singer-songwriter Holly Arntzen
had made a dramatic opening to the banquet
as she walked among the crowd, singing
Stan Rogers’ powerful song Northwest Pas-
sage which, she said, has come to symbolize
the campaign by groups such as the Pro-
Canada Network for Canadian sovereignty.
Amtzen recently completed a coastwide
tour performing at concerts in several B.C.
centres for the Wild Salmon/Clean Water

campaign.

Cuban consul-general Rolanda Rivera,
in Vancouver for a series of public meetings,
spoke briefly, reiterating Cuba’s intention to
defend its sovereignty in the face of the
renewed U.S. campaign of destabilization.

Although the final total this year was shy
of the target, the efforts by the top money-
Taisers among both individuals and press
clubs was undiminished.

Tribune business manager Mike Proniuk
gave top honours this year to the Powell
River club for turning in more than $1,655
on its target of $500. Runners-up for the
provincial award were Victoria and Port Al-
berni clubs.

In the Lower Mainland, New West-
minster captured the top spot, raising $5,037
on a target of $2,000. Runners-up were
North Vancouver and Burmaby.

The top money-raisers among indi-

viduals were:

Century Club ($1000 or more): Anita
Andersen, Joan Brimacombe (in memory of
Vern), Beth Chobotuck, Bill Doherty, Gud-
run Doherty, Mary Gawrycki (in memory of
her husband Walter), George Gidora Sr., Jo
Gunn, C. S. Jackson, Agnes Jackson, Ernie
Knott, Annabelle MacKay (in memory of
Hamish), Mona Morgan, Gladys Neish,
Alice Person, Ed Skeeles, Eileen Stevens,
and Bill Zander.

500 Club ($500 or more): Ernie and Eil-
een Babuick, Fred Bianco, Vern Bigelow,
Frank Cox, Dan Frankham, George Gidora,
Hal Griffin, Betty Griffin, Sean Griffin,
Aubrey Hames, Anna Holbech, J. Hyra, Bob
Jackson, Angela Kenyon, Dorothy Lynas,
Peter Marcus, Walter Murray, Eunice Park-
er, Jean Pritchett, Maurice Rush, Ann Up-
hill, Donalda Viaud, Sam Vint, Eric Waugh
and Bruce Yorke.

IRC, arbitrator’s decisions back
BCTF on right to union security

The right of local teachers’ associations
to include membership and financial support
for the B.C. Teachers Federation in collec-
tive agreements was reaffirmed last week in
twin decisions, by the Industrial Relations
Council and by arbitrator James Dorsey.

“These two decisions send the clearest
signal to the handful of remaining non-
members in three school districts (Central
Okanagan, Langley and Terrace) that these
teachers should honour the membership
provisions negotiated by their colleagues
and that applies to the provincial level of the
teachers’ organization as well,” said BCTF
president Ken Novakowski in commenting
on the two rulings, brought down June 22.

In the case of the IRC decision, a three-
member panel headed by IRC adjudication
division chair Ken Albertini unanimously
rejected the claim by 26 Central Okanagan
teachers that the requirement to join the
teachers’ union before the end of the school
year June 30 constituted an unfair labour

practice. The panel stated that the legislation

“specifically permits the parties to a collec-
tive agreement to insert in their collective

2 « Pacific Tribune, July 2, 1990

agreement union security provisions requir-
ing membership.”

The 26 teachers, members of the anti-
union B.C. Teachers for Association, had
argued that they had been denied member-
ship in the local union, the Central
Okanagan Teachers Association (COTA),
and that their employment had been jeop-
ardized by the requirement that they join the
BCTR

But the IRC also rejected that claim, em-
phasizing that COTA had not denied mem-
bership but rather the 26 had “refused to
join.”

“We know of no jurisdiction in Canada
that goes as far as the (26) would like to go
ie., to prohibit the application of a union
security clause when an employee refuses to
join a trade union.”

Arbitrator James Dorsey also upheld the
BCTF in his ruling which stated that 13
non-COTA members who had refused to
pay a portion of their BCTF dues because of
opposition to the federation’s policies, were
not entitled to continue their boycott.

“Tf someone does not (pay the fees), then

he or she will not be fulfilling the terms and
conditions of employment and will place the
employer in the position where the
employee’s: defiant and continuous subor-
dination places the employer in breach of the
collective agreement,” he stated.

Dorsey ruled that COTA and the BCTF
were not to be treated as distinct and ordered
the non-members to pay full BCTF dues
retroactive to October, 1989. He also cited
earlier IRC cases in support of his decision
and noted: “To find otherwise would be to
ignore the practical benefits that accrue to
individuals as a result of the efforts or or-
ganizations such as the BCTF.”

COTA president Dave Gunderson wel-
comed the two decisions, which will require
that all teachers join by June 30 or the school
board will consider that they have resigned.

“These decisions say exactly what we’ve
said all along—that everyone should play by
the same rules and pay a fair share for the
benefits they get,” he said.

Ottawa,

Victoria

Ignoring
hungry kids

That in our rich city and province
there should be children who go to school
hungry is nothing less than a disgrace.
Yet it is a fact of life — of everyday life
for many of our kids.

The Vancouver School Board recent-
ly applied for and received a grant of
$200,000 from city council to help fin-
ance a $600,000 school board program
for this purpose. Discussion of the re-
quest revealed the following interesting
facts:

¢ Ottawa has declined to make any
direct grants for hungry school children.
It claims the grants it give to the provin-
ces under the Canada Assistance Plan
contain “provisions for
breakfast programs for needy children”
and therefore because of provincial “jur-
isdictional responsibility in this area, the
federal government cannot directly fund
such a program.” I wouldn’t call this
passing the buck, I’d call it a case of
refusing to pass the buck.

| Harry
Rankin

¢ The provincial government, which
always opens its purse so generously for
multi-million dollar grants to big busi-
ness, came out with this pontifical state-
ment (Housing and Social Services Min-
ister Claude Richmond speaking):

“We want people to manage their own
affairs without relying on government
intervention except when absolutely nec-
essary ... . A school meal program can
remove parental responsibility for pro-
viding food and runs the risk of creating
an indifference to family responsibility
and even greater dependency on others.”

If I were a doctor and a man like
Claude Richmond came to me for a heart
transplant, I think I’d send him to an iron
foundry.

¢ The school board actually had set
aside funds to finance the whole
$600,000 program. Furthermore, it del-
iberately left that item off the referendum
held early in May, apparently in the belief
that people would turn it down. I must
have faith in Vancouver voters. I can’t
imagine our citizens turning down a re-
quest for food for hungry school child-
ren.

City council voted for a $200,000
grant. If Ottawa and the Social Credit
government don’t give a damn, at least
we have a city council that does. The
school board program will provide 2,000
to 2,300 elementary school students per
day with hot lunches.

As for the future, I think that the
school board should begin to budget
funds for this purpose every year and
accept it as one of its responsibilities. At
the same time it should continue to de-
mand that the provincial government in-
crease its grants accordingly.

Meals should be there in school for
everybody who needs them. Food is also
a part of education. Hungry children
can’t concentrate on their lessons.

supporting ~