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Sherry Spence and Vicki Metcalfe, members of Local 40 of the Hotel, Restau-

rant and Bartenders, keep up picket

lines outside the Nanaimo Golf and
Country Club where 14 Local 40 members have been on strike since July 18
for a first contract. Union representative Mary Jane Donnelly said the employer
had brought in a private negotiator in an effort to thwart the union’s bid for a
first contract and had sought during mediation talks Oct. i)
contracting-out language that would allow the club to contract-out virtually all
the work now performed by employees. But the strike is solid, she said, and the
strikers have been backed by a special support committee
Nanaimo, Duncan and District Labor Council.

and 4 to get

set up by the.

South African delegates
raise rail unions’ ire |

Continued from page 1
_ Mahlangu also noted that the neighbor-
ing state of Mozambique has suffered sab-
otage of its railways by the Mozambican
National Resistance, a counter-revolutionary
organization with links to South Africa.

Reporters were shown a video tape of a
recent ABC news report featuring the effort
of black dockworkers in Port Elizabeth to
achieve recognition and bargaining rights
for their union with SATS, and the repres-
sion of union activities by the state.

During the Heavy Haul conference dele-
gates are to be treated, at taxpayer expense,
to a first-class train ride through the Fraser
Canyon and around Roberts Bank. That
treatment, from the Canadian National
Railway, “humiliates” Canadian rail
workers who are opposed to apartheid, said
Paul Lawrence of the United Transporta-
tion Union.

“We'll be doing it under protest,” said
Lawrence, who explained that because of
the “quasi-military” nature of Canada’s
railways it is not possible for rail unions to
stage an outright boycott of the trip.

Burnaby NDP MP Svend Robinson
reported that External Affairs Minister Joe
Clark had admitted in the House of Com-
mons that the attendance of the SATS dele-
gates at the conference represented a
“technical breach” of anti-apartheid sanc-
tions levied by Commonwealth nations at a
conference in Nassau, the Bahamas, last

year.

“A breach is a breach is a breach,”
Robinson asserted. “The presence of the
SATS six here makes a mockery of (Prime
Minister Brian) Mulroney’s signature on the
Nassau accords.”

The B.C. Fed’s Cliff Andstein hit media

12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 22, 1986

coverage of protests against apartheid, not-
ing that recent coverage of .the B.C.
Government Employees Union’s boycott
against South African wines concentrated
on “the government versus the union”
rather than the “propriety” of the provincial
government stocking the wines in its stores.

“The press has an obligation to report
that (the attendance of the SATS delegates)
is indeed a scandal,” said CCU president
Jess Succamore.

Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt cited
the city’s own policies against apartheid,
including its moves to withdraw city funds
from banks with extensive South African
dealings. “We are therefore doubly ashamed
that Vancouver is the site of this violation of
the Commonwealth sanctions,” he said.

Other representatives at the press confer-
ence and rally were Rev. Tom Anthony of
St. Mary’s Anglican church, Zayed Gamiet
of the Anti-Apartheid Network, and presi-
dent Jim Hunter of the Canadian Brother-
hood of Railway and Transportation
Workers. Organizations endorsing the pro-
test included the Independent Canadian
Transit Union, the B.C. Teachers Federa-
tion, the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers, the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union, the Southern African
Action Coalition, the Canadian Paper-
workers Union, Oxfam Vancouver, the
Vancouver Municipal and Regional Employ-

-ees Union, Southern African Women

Against Apartheid, the Canadian Auto
Workers, UBC Students Against Apar-
theid, the Canadian Association of Indus-
trial, Mechanical and Allied Workers,
Canadian University Services Overseas and
the Food and Service Workers of Canada.

Premier calls shots,
could settle strike,
says hospital union

The Health Sciences Association wired
Premier Bill Vander Zalm Monday with an
offer to end the current dispute based on
wage proposals already on the table — but
got no action.

Instead, Vander Zalm seemed bent on
manipulating the strike to his own political
advantage, following a pattern he set Oct.
14 when he first involved himself in the
dispute. z

HSA executive director Jack Campbell
sent*a late morning telegram to Victoria
Oct. 20 proposing a tentative settlement of
the association’s current dispute with the
Hospital Labor Relations Association on
the basis of accepting the wage.proposals
laid out in the first two years of a four-year
contract proposal advanced earlier by
Industrial Inquiry Commissioner Fred
Long.

The condition would be that it would be a
two-year, not a four-year, agreement, expir-
ing March 31, 1988, the HSA stated.

“This represents no increase over what
was proposed in the four-year contract,”
Campbell stated in his telegram. “It simply
means cutting the contract at the end of the
second year rather than continuing with
unknown wage re-openers.

“If it is acceptable,” he said, “the HSA
will call all picket lines down, ending the
strike right now.” He added that services
would be fully restored while the proposal
was going out to a [|
vote of the member- .
ship, and that the
HSA executive would
guarantee a unani-
mous recommenda-
tion for acceptance.

Although the

association had re-
ceived no formal
reply at Tribune
press time, Vander ;
Zalm had indicated JACK CAMPBELL
to reporters Monday that the proposal
would be rejected, suggesting that the four
year contract proposed by commissioner
Fred Long “‘was a good deal” and the union
could work with that.

The premier also told reporters that the
association ‘‘should be talking with
HLRA.”

But HSA communications officer Howie
Smith noted that, in talks with the industrial
inquiry commissioner, “every time the
HLRA took a position, they had to make
phone calls.”

In sending the telegram, the HSA was
simply directing its proposal to the place
where the decisions were being made, Smith
said. :

Vander Zalm’s comments capped a week
of behind-the-scenes manoeuvring in the
dispute by both HLRA and the premier’s
office that began when the association first
announced plans for strike action Oct. 14.

HSA had earlier sought government
action to resolve the dispute with HLRA,
sending letters in August and September to
Vander Zalm and another to Health Minis-
ter Jim Neilson, emphasizing the urgency of
wage increases to bring HSA salary levels
up to those of Ontario.

But not until five minutes before the
HSA announced that strike notice had been
given and escalating strike action was set to
begin did Vander Zalm contact Jack
Campbell.

The following day, Oct. 15, Industrial
Inquiry Commissioner Fred Long prepared
a hurried-up report after discussions with

the HSA “and after a lot of phone
some of them to the premier,” Cam
said.

Long’s proposals called for a 10
cent increase in the first two yea
four-year contract, plus whatever in
the B.C. Nurses Union is able to get im
wage re-opener provision of its third ye
well as a wage re-opener, based on a:
tion, for the fourth year. The prop
based roughly on the agreement y
BCNU, without the restorative provis
and with the addition of a fourth yeg
re-opener.

“The gun was put to our head to
it,” Campbell said, noting that F
Vander Zalm “let it be known througk
industrial inquiry commisioner that if
didn’t accept it and went ahead with st
action, we would be faced with a
cooling-off period.”

_ Campbell emphasized that the
tion intended to put the proposal
membership for a vote, although th
tiating committee expected it we
overwhelmingly rejected.

But before that could be done
began walking out spontaneously i
tion to the contract proposals,

““We had no alternative but to m
ranks with our-members and begin
ing strike action,” he said.

HSA members are out a:
tals in Vancouver, Burnaby a
Kimberly, Comox, Trail, Prince }
Kamloops, Victoria, Grand Forks a
Mile House. However, the associa
co-ordinating strike action on a dai
and the situation could ch
day, said Smith. ange tam

Smith said picket lines went up
at four hospitals — Vancouver
Burnaby General, Richmond Gene
Royal Jubilee in Victoria — and m
of the Hospital Employees Union
staying off the job and respecting p
lines. Members of both the HSA an
HEU are maintaining essential ser
staffing levels equivalent to those on
tory holiday. 2

In other locations, however, pick
have been taken down so as not»
other health care workers from ge
work, Smith said. a

B.C. Federation of Labor secreta
Andstein said last week that strike
was being co-ordinated through th >
tion, with co-ordinating meetings
held regularly and frequently. :

He emphasized that the federatior
established procedure for mail
essential services which is being follo
the unions affected.

Vander Zalm has so far hel
imposing a further cooling-offp
HSA — waiting, perhaps, until
the election campaign — but
the past week have shown cleart:
major obstacle to settlement of th
is in the premier’s office.

Smith said that Vander Zalm
ters in Richmond Monday that
knows what we want. :

“Since HLRA is not moving t
settlement, we can only assum
the request of the premier,” Sn

“It seems his silent request to th
the dispute should continue,” he

“Tf that’s the case, then it
irresponsible position to health
health care workers in this pro’

Cl