LABOR WCB stalling over safety rules costing lives — Fed The Sedan Farmworkers Union and the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor charged the provincial government with “cav- eo ing in to political pressure” from big farmers for once again refusing to implement safety regulations on farms despite a Victoria inquest jury’s recommendations for enforcement of safety standards. B.C. Fed secretary-treasurer Cliff Andstein also reiterated the federation’s demand for a royal commission of inquiry into the Workers Compensation Board, calling a commission “the only way to guarantee that the WCB will operate as it was intended to.” The unionists’ comments came after the WCB was pressed for action on the recommendations of the inquest jury which had been investigating the death of a seven-year-old farm- worker’s child, Dina Pedro, who died July 6, 1984 after falling into a tank of pesticide on a Saanich daffodil farm. The jury, which brought down its report last week, noted °CLIFF tht the farmer, Geoff Vantreight, did not have a current - AMES TEIN RAJ CHOUHAN pesticide control permit and called on the WCB to enforce farmworkers. “If the government really cared about the safety standards regarding the use of pesticides. health and safety of farmworkers, it would implement those But there are not going to be any regulations covering B.C. _ regulations that were drafted in 1983 right away,” he said. farmworkers, the WCB announced Jan. 17. Andstein echoed Chouhan’s comments, adding, “It’s no Instead, the board stated, draft proposals will be published —_ secret that McClelland’s riding is in the centre of an agricul- July 1 and public comment invited until Oct. 1, with the _ tural region and he is simply attempting to keep his suppor- possibility of new regulations left over until 1986. ters happy at the expense of farmworkers.” - Significantly, a WCB inspector testified at the inquest that The federation charged that the refusal to enact regulations: he had not been allowed to enforce even existing regulations, was another indication of the increasing employer bias of the demonstrating the refusal of the WCB to move against _ board, evidenced recently by-a freeze on employer premiums farmers. and new regulations allowing for increased fines against “How many workers have to ‘be poisoned, injured and employees for unsafe work. killed while growing our food before the provincial govern- “McClelland is doing the bidding of employers in WCB ment moves to put a stop to it?” Andstein demanded in the matters” said Andstein. “Instead of pointing out to employ- federation statement. ers that if they work to reduce the number of accidents their The board’s obstruction is the most recent example of the- assessments would go down, he lets them off the hook.” government giving in to pressure from the large farmers and In a related development, workers will face even more ‘their main lobby group, the B.C. Federation of Agriculture. bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining their rights under a new set In 1983, a draft set of farm safety regulations was drafted bya of regulations drafted by the administrative chairman of the WCB-union-farmer committee but they were scuttled by the WCB boards of review, Gerald Levey. (The boards, which government and the board. Public hearings were called off review WCB decisions on appeal, are theoretically independ- _ just before they were set to open in January, 1984. In their ent of the WCB and accountable to the labor minister.) place, the agricultural federation annnounced a Beet The new regulations, which have been blasted by the trade program to improve farm safety. — union movement, would give boards new powers to refuse Since that time, the federation has resisted any Se to oral hearings, create new delays in obtaining files and, in a bring WCB regulations to the farm and has threatened to __ rule described as a Catch-22, would force workers to submit drop the voluntary program if rules are imposed. written notice of intent to appeal in order to get information CFU president Raj Chouhan charged that the government from claim files — information that may be necessary to was taking its cue from the farmers and disregarding the submit the notice in the first place. Celebrate fifty years with a $2 investment There’s one thing that hasn’t changed since the Tribune’ s forerunner, the B.C. Workers: News first appeared in January, 1935. We still depend entirely on our readers for support — and on winning new readers for the paper every year. Now as we near the end of the circulation drive, launched last October, we can say that we’ve got a good beginning in the 50th anniversary year, with 311 new subscriptions. But we want to see that number grow. And there’s only a week left in which to do it. Feb. 1 marks the end of the drive. It’s also the last day for the special introductory subscription rate of $2 for three months. : So if you haven’t taken advantage of the best working class bargain around, do it now. If you’re a new reader, fill out the form and send it in. If you’re already a subscriber, why not introduce the paper to a. friend? Help us mark 50 years with more new readers than ever before. é , THREE MONTHS $2 : SRE Se, te Se ee ee : MRPRESS nc fe es Loe See eee ce : A ie oo ee POSTAL CODE 42 i : Eee u E Clip and mailto: i 1 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, 2681 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. VS5K 125 » L Jeft it with little choice. HEU taking strike votes after 3 years without pact Still without a collective agreement after more ~ than three years of negotiations — including an |} | arbitration award that was struck down by B.C. Supreme Court — members of the Hospital | Employees Union at 12 long term care facilities — began conducting strike votes this week. 3 HEU members have already voted to strike at one | Victoria facility — Sunset Lodge — and the vote was being conducted at Luther Court, also in Victo- ria, at Tribune press time. The others were expected to be completed soon. All 12 are represented by the Continuing Care Employee Relations Association (CCERA). Significantly, members of the B.C. Nurses Union have also been frustrated in their efforts to settle collective agreements at the same institutions and have been conducting rotating walkouts over the ~ past few weeks. Much of the media coverage has focused on the } “disruption” caused by job action, but the HEU has } countered that the torturous bargaining course and | the continuing obstruction put up by CCERA has a i =| i ““We’ve reached the end of the road — what else can we do but prepare the stage for job action?” HEU president Bill MacDonald said Monday. | The central issue at all 12 facilities is equal pay, | with HEU members seeking the same wage rates — paid to other HEU members at otherlongtermcare — homes. 4 Union secretary-business manager Jack Gerow — charged that CCERA, which took over when the | former Government Employment Labor Relations | Bureau (GERB), was disbanded in November, 1983, “has been trying to cheat ourmembers out of decent | wage increases by hiding behind the Comprstiae Stabilization Program. SANN “And now they want to, go one step further and deny them the same wage paid to their fellow union members doing the same jobs,” he said. _ The HEU first. tried to settle the agreement in December, 1981 when the 12 homes were represented by ff GERB. Three months later, the union was still without a contract and opted for be : binding arbitration. BILL MACDONALD. The arbitrator, Judge D.E: McTaggart, subse- quently ruled that workers at the facilities were indeed entitled to wage parity with other HEU members at long term homes, but the arbitration award was later quashed by B.C. Supreme Court. - The union again went into negotiations in June, 1984 but bargaining broke down in October. “There’s no reason at all that our members should get less at these facilities,” said MacDonald. “But CCERA wants ‘us to subsidize them through sub- standard rates. “We won't accept that,” he said. The 12 facilities where strike votes are being con- ducted are in various centres throughout the pro-- vince including Trail, Delta, Cranbrook, Victoria, Nanaimo, Oliver, Saltspring Island and Vancouver. In addition .to those, HEU members at some 10 facilities not covered by CCERA, have also been without a contract for three years. Members at Haro Park Centre in Vancouver voted unanimously for strike last December. The Labor Relations Board set aside that strike vote in a decision Jan. 20, however, ruling that an arbitration award on the non-monetary items of a previous agreement, although accepted by the union, was not sufficient to settle the agreement. Therefore, the board ruled, the union could not proceed to strike action on a new agreement. The HEU has launched an appeal of the ruling. 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 23, 1985