British Columbia

New coalition fights
wage gender gap.
poverty, privatizing

With little fanfare — at least, so far — a
relatively new and broad-based coalition
has been demanding an end to poverty level
wages in British Columbia.

But Women for Better Wages raised its
profile late last month with a trip to Victoria
to press the Social Credit government to
raise the province’s minimum wage to $7.45
per hour. That wage will at least raise the
incomes of B.C.’s working poor, many of
whom are women, at slightly above the
national poverty level, they say.

For Anita Archambault, a single parent
with two small children, involvement in the
coalition has meant personal empowerment
and unity around the demand to end the
poverty cycle.

“We could get off welfare much easier if
we could get a fair wage,” said Archam-
bault, an east Vancouver resident.

Archambault, whose suit in B.C. Supreme
Court last December forced the Socreds to

reverse a decision cutting $50 from thou-
sands of GAIN recipients by redefining
them as employable, said Social Service
Ministry policies keep women in a cycle of
poverty.

She said she was paid $105 per month for
childcare expenses by the ministry while
working at a lower paying job. Ironically,
the amount of support increases the higher
the wage earned, she said. :

Women for Better Wages, which includes
several trade unions, community organiza-
tions and the Canadian Federation of Stu-
dents, has two aims: a rise in the minimum
wage and placing equal pay for work of
equal value in legislation.

“Low wages are a major cause of poverty
and we’ve got to wage a major campaign,”
said Jean Swanson of End Legislated Pov-
erty.

Swanson said middle-income earners are
shrinking in number and are being replaced

Small business people in several areas
of Vancouver are up in arms over the
huge tax increases imposed on them this
year. They have a good case.

City taxes on residential property have
gone up an average of 4.5 per cent. But
taxes on the city’s commercial properties
have gone up an average of 21.2 per cent.
In 443 cases they have gone up 50 per
cent or more. Many of these small busi-
nesses rent properties. Their landlords
aren’t worried about the tax increases —
they’re included in the terms of the lease
and just passed on to their tenants. It’s
the little guy who gets it in the neck.

The Kerrisdale Commercial Associa-
tion sets out their case clearly.

“Owners of small business in-certain
areas of the city of Vancouver,” the letter

Small business right
to protest tax bite

‘called a public meeting, demanding some

- beyond all reason. One way to deal with

action, to which members of city council,
MLA’s and others were invited.

The outcome, of the meeting was a
decision to appeal. to the provincial
government to set up an emergency relief
fund for these. businesses.

I spoke at the meeting and pointed out
that the main cause of their problem was
the offshore capital that has flooded into
Vancouver, driving up real estate prices

that problem would be to put a hefty tax
on profits made from speculating in real
estate. Some countries impose a value
added tax, whereby 50 per cent or more
of profits made by increases in real estate
values goes back to the municipality or
state.

states, “are shocked and dismayed by the
exorbitant increase in their property
taxes for 1989. As tenants, most of these
people have only just received tax
increase invoices from their landlords
and now, under terms of their leases,
have until July 5, 1989, to pay their taxes
or be in default of their lease agreement.
“The main districts of the city affected
are Chinatown, Kerrisdale, Robson
Street, South Granville and Kitsilano.
“The increases in assessments and
consequently in property taxes bears no
relation to the sales or profitability of the
businesses operating on the premises.
“Now, as a result of these tax
increases, an emergency situation has.
arisen which would lead to the closing of:
“many small businesses.”
The merchants affected are so angry
that they have formed an Angry Citizens
Action committee. On June 28 they

‘based on the ability to pay. The bigger

Rankin

I think there should be a cap on taxes
for small business but it should be limited
to small business, not to all commercial
properties and certainly not to the prop-
erties of big landlords.

The whole assessment method also
needs to be revamped. We have a situa-
tion today where big commercial enter-
prises like the big hotels and retail stores,
the big office buildings, the banks, the
CPR, and especially the Expo 86 prop-
erty are assessed at far below their real
market value and as a result do not pay
their fair share of taxes.

Homeowners are in fact subsidizing
them. This unfair property tax system
must be corrected. Commercial and
industrial property taxes, like income
taxes, should be on a graduated basisand _

they are the more they should pay.

‘lo

low wages.

by low wage earners working full time and
part time. Statistics Canada reports that the
number of Canadians earning $4.24 per

_ hour or less increased by 33 per cent

between 1981 and 1986, she said.

“It is not possible anymore to pay for
school through summer work,” she pointed
out.

Jean Karlinski, research officer with the
Canadian Federation of Students-Pacific
Region, agrees. She said a majority of part-
time students are women who work at low
wages and have not been able earn enough
to finance a full-time education. ©

They face a catch-22 situation, because
part-time students are not eligible for full
grants under student financial aid pro-
grams, Karlinski said.

With many students earning around $5
an hour in a summer job that lasts about 14
weeks, few can afford to finance an educa-
tion that this fall will require an estimated
$11,380 in total expenses for an academic
year, she said, using calculations based ona
March, 1987 study by the Social Planning
and Research Council of B.C.

In the 1987-88 academic year, 47 per cent
of all B.C. post-secondary students were
part time. Nationally, there were 1.6 more
women than men in part time undergradu-
ate studies in the 1986-87 year, Karlinski
related.

Sue Vohanka of the Confederation of
Canadian Unions said the labour central
became involved in the coalition because
there hasn’t been a lot of progress in achiev-
ing the goal of equal pay.

“The coalition came together because a
number of organizations decided it was
time to get rid of that gap,” she said.

A CCU affiliate, the Canadian Associa-
tion of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied
Workers, fought a difficult strike last year to
achieve wage and benefit gains for workers
at White Spot restaurants. That experience
reinforced the determination of the confed-
eration, which Vohanka said was the first
labour central to adopt the equal pay for
women principle, to join the wage fight.

“While (the White Spot workers) made
significant gains, the starting rate in many

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2 « Pacific Tribune, July 10, 1989-

CRYSTAL, ANITA, STEPHANIE ARCHAMBAULT...

it:

cases is still not much above the minimum |

wage,” Vohanka said.
Marion Pollack of the Vancouver Local
of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers

pointed out that the fight for above-poverty _

wages is part of the anti-privatization battle.
Postal workers have had equal pay 1

their contracts since the late Forties, andthe _

principle is enshrined in the Cana
Human Rights Act, which covers federal
public sector workers. But Canada Post 18
contracting out more services to private
outfits paying rock bottom wages, she
noted.

Additionally, low wages means the post —
office can use the threat of scab labour dul-

ing strikes and lockouts, Pollack observed:

“If we want to see an effective privatiza-

tion fightback, we've got to couple that with
a-fight against the low.minimum wage.”
On June 27, members of Women fof

Better Wages took their campaign to the |
legislature, meeting for half a hour with

Social! Services. Minister. Claude Richmond
and later with the New Democratic caucus:
Some 40 women and their children

pressed the minister to raise the minimum

“ae |

ngle parents hardest hit by —

wage to $7.45 from the current $4.50 pet

hour. Not surprisingly, Richmond argue

against the coalition’s proposals, claiming4 —

minimum wage hike would bankrupt smal

businesses while saying other ministries —

were looking at recent hikes in Ontario am
Quebec.

“We told him it was unacceptable for —

people in our society to be living well below
the poverty line,” Vohanka said.

Vohanka, Pollack and Archambault —

expressed disappointment at their meeting —

with the NDP MLAs.

Pollack said party leader Mike Harcoutt
did not commit the caucus to the coalition §
program, but talked of the provincia

NDP’s “broad package for income secur
ity.” He did not give details or a time frame

for introducing the package, Pollack said.

“We hope we can get stronger commit: —

ments from them (in the future),” sal
Vohanka.

“There’s a feeling among everyone that —

this is just the beginning,” she said.

In memory

A tribute to my
friend and comrade
Tina Muryn
who will be

dearly missed

oe Ann Withers