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LRB acts for grower
but slow for union

Farmworkers at a Langley mushroom
farm who were fired for union organizing
were told by the Labor Relations Board
they would have to wait nearly a month for
a hearing on their case — while the Mush-
room Growers Co-operative was able to get
an expedited hearing for a cease-and-desist
application almost within hours when those
same farmworkers began picketing the co-
op’s processing plant.

And that, says the Canadian Farm-
workers Union, points up the direction the

LRB is taking following the amendments to ~

the Labor Code passed by the Socreds May
16.

“It makes me very angry,” CFU presi-
dent Raj Chouhan told the Tribune June 6.
“Eleven of our people were fired after we

_ put in an application for certification but

they were told they would have to wait until
June 25 fora hearing.

“But the co-op applied for a cease-and-
desist order Friday, and got an informal
hearing Saturday and a formal hearing
Monday,” he said. :

“It tells you how biased the board is — it
can find all the time and staff necessary if
the request is from the employer.”

The CFU applied for certification at
Hoss Farming Company Ltd., a Langley
mushroom farm owned by Harbhajan
Uppal, on May 28. The night before, five of
the 11 who had signed up with the union

had been fired for union activity and when

they all set up picket lines to protest the
firings, the remaining six were sacked as
well.

The organizing campaign was brief — a
measure of the appalling conditions the 16
employees at the farm have had to endure.
Piece rates give them less than $2 per hour,
there is no vacation pay, statutory holidays
are ignored, the hours often exceed 14 per
day without overtime and workers ‘“‘were

told to go into the bushes” if they wanted
toilet facilities, Chouhan said.

Farmworkers began picketing the Fraser
Valley Mushroom Growers’ Co-opera-
tive — which purchases and processes the
mushrooms from Uppal and other grow-
ers — after co-op personnel manager Jeff
Grainger appeared at Hoss Farming to tell
picketers that their action was illegal.

Although co-op management denies any
direct labor relations role in the farms that
suply it, Grainger’s role alone has belied
that neutrality. He is the negotiator for Choi
Mushroom Farm in Langley where’ the
CFU has been striving for a year to nego-
tiate a first contract.

CFU pickets were forced down at the
co-op plant June 4 however, when the LRB
ruled the mushroom farm and the growers’

. co-op did not share a common employer.
The growers’ association had earlier applied -

for Supreme Court injunction but the mat-
ter was referred to the LRB.- :

This week, the farmworkers began dig-
ging in for a long fight, something that has
become familiar to them in organizing
mushroom farms. Pickets went back up at
Hoss Farming June 6.

In an unexpected move by Uppal, six of
those who had been fired were sent letters
June 7 asking them to return to work. They
did return but they spend half an hour
before their shifts as well as their lunch
breaks on the picket line.

“I think the employer’s idea was to try
and break the unity but it certainly hasn’t
done that,” said Chouhan.

The B.C. Federation of Labor has also
declared its support for the CFU efforts,
noting that the treatment given the farm-
workers was typical of the anti-union
behavior which will be encouraged by the
Labor Code amendments.

Continued from page 1

Then there’s the contest tickets, which
give donors a chance at a car, a vacation
or even a side of beef — or cash
equivalent — to help see them through
the tough economic times. But remember
that there’s only 11 days until the draw

’ on June 23, so get those extra tickets
now

Here’s whe

GREATER VANCOUVER
Bill Bennett 800 416
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Kingsway 7,000 4,507 |
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North Van. 3,000 2,976
Olgin 650 259
Richmond 1,400 1,440
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Van. Fishermen 800 74
West Side” 4,000 2,675
FRASER VALLEY
Chilliwack 350 220
Delta 800 507-
Langley | 700 631
Maple Ridge 2,800 2,238
Surrey 5,000 2,895

White Rock 1,200 1,918

Only 1% weeks left
to reach the target —

enthusiasm to all facets of the fund-

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Readers have shown their support
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fill the Tribune’s always needy coffers,
and we're asking them to spread that

raising effort.

That way we’ll all have something to
celebrate June 23. And who wants to
read headline stories about press drives,
anyway?

OKANAGAN
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Shuswap 750 414
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N. COAST/INTERIOR
Correspondence 2,200 2,324

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Fernie ro 260 226
Powell River 550 - 828
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Terrace — .. 113
Trail - 850 567
VANCOUVER ISLAND
Campbell River 1,700 896
Comox Valley — 1,100 395
Nanaimo 2,200 1,395
North Island 400 409
Port Alberni 1,500 972
Victoria 2,500 2,352
Miscellaneous 1,591
TOTAL: 70,000 51,879

Le: a
U.S. union-busti i
“©. union-busting hi

The Retail Wholesale Union charged Slade and Steart, a wholesale grocery
last week that “U.S. scab herds” and _ supplier to hotels, restaurants and insti-
“guards with billy clubs” were being tutions, is 100-per cent owned by the
used against 76 union members locked _U.S. firm, Pacific Gamble Robinson.
out by Slade and Stewart Ltd.

“The company has hired scabs to do
our members’ work and has hired
guards with billy clubs and hard hats,”
said RWU representative Al Peterson.
“They have boarded up the windows,
put up fences and surveillance cameras
and obtained two-way radios for the
guards. All this is being supervised by
Americans up here without work
permits.”

Peterson charged that it was obvious
“the new management of this Ameri-

can-owned company intends to make
its operations non-union.”

The RWU has been attempting t0
negotiate a new contract to replace the
old agreement which expired Mar. 31,
“but the company is apparently not
interested in a negotiated settlement,
said Peterson. The workers were lock
out at the Vancouver operation on
May 18 and at Penticton, Kamloops
and Terrace June 1. :

The B.C. Federation of Labor
declared its full support for the union
June 6 and called on unionists to refus¢ |
to handle Slade and Stewart products. |

Solidarity II ‘urgent’

The Communist Party has sent a
sharp warning to the labor movement
that the provincial government has
now launched the decisive phase of its
anti-union prograim with the proclama-
tion of the new B.C. Labor Code, and
that a massive union-busting campaign
is now imminent in B.C.

Communist Party labor committee
chair Fred Wilson addressed CP public
meetings May 30 in Kamloops, May 31
in Salmon Arm, June 12 in Surrey and
June 16 in Nanaimo. CP provincial
leader Maurice Rush will speak June 18
in Victoria. Wilson and Action Caucus
spokesman George Hewison addressed
a meeting of over 100 trade unionists in
Vancouver following passage of the
new labor legislation. __

Trade union officials have tended to
minimize the impact of the new code,
Wilson told the Interior meetings. “The
entire legislative framework governing
employer-union relations has been
completely changed to invite open
employer participation in union bust-
ing,” he said. “This was not done to
merely enable some employers to take
advantage of it, but to re-shape power
relationships in this province.”

even familiar with the provisions of the
new code, there is agreement that the |
labor movement cannot afford to sit on

a three-year strategy and that a Solidar-
ity II mobilization is needed, said
Wilson.

“Tt is clear that a majority of rank
and file trade unionists and Solidarity —
activists support the call for Solidarity
II,” he added. — ;

Wilson projected the CP labor
committee’s proposals.for mobilization
of Solidarity II, including: :

e A commitment from Operation —
Solidarity and the Solidarity Coalition
that the provisions of the new code will
not be allowed to penalize or break any
one union;

e@ A program of rallies and study
sessions around the province to inform |
workers of the new code and its
implications;

© Formation of a united steering |
committee of Operation Solidarity and: |
the coalition to develop daily and
weekly tactics in the fightback; |

© Meetings with new NDP leader
Bob Skelly and the NDP caucus to
ensure close co-ordination;

© Full support for the Building

When the seriousness of the chal- _ Trades unions at the Expo site, in the
lenge is brought home to the labor _ front line of the struggle against the new
_ Movement, a part of which is not yet —_ code.

ICTU set to launch strike |
them because they involve service cuts, |
MTOC is expected to imposethem, an }
action which will touch off the strike. |
The scheduling issue is alsolinkedto |
the demand by MTOC — the main >
stumbling block’ in contract talks —
for greater management control, one of
the aims of which is to replace many
full-time drivers with part-time, cutting
both staff and bus service during non-
rush hours.
_The 2,600 ICTU members have been

without a collective agreement since |
Mar. 31, 1983. :

The Independent Canadian Transit
Union said that it may be compelled to
launch all-out strike action in Van-
couver and Victoria Friday if transit
management goes ahead with its plan
to assign new work schedules unilater-
ally and urged public support for the
union’s action.

June 15 is the day that Metro Transit
Operating Company has set for drivers
to sign up for new schedules which
involve substantial reductions in ser-
vice. Since the drivers will not accept

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 13, 1984

—s

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