Fishermen's
unions join.
lobby on Ul

United Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union president Jack Nichol, business
agent John Radosovic and other UFAWU
members were joining representatives of
fishermen’s unions from across the coun-
try this week to lobby the federal govern-
ment to abandon any plans it has to
implement the cuts to unemployment
insurance proposed by UI commissioner
Claude Forget.

Members of five unions — the UFAWU,
the Newfoundland Fishermen’s Union
(affiliated to the United Food and Com-
mercial Workers), the Great Lakes
Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, the
Maritime Fishermen’s Union and the
Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Trans-
port and General Workers — were to
present a joint brief to the standing parli-
amentary committee on fisheries March 5.

The five unions, which together repres-
ent some 40,000 workers across Canada,
are demanding that the government scrap
any proposed changes to UI, particularly
those which would eliminate benefits for
fishermen.

The Commission of Inquiry on Unem-
ployment Insurance, chaired by Tory MP
Claude Forget, brought down its 330-page
report last November, recommending that

‘wt Labor Briefs

unemployment insurance be cut by elimi-
nating benefits for fishermen and seasonal
workers and by introducing a system of
“annualization” whereby UI benefits
would be proportionately reduced for
those working less than a full year before
filing a claim.

The recommendations were condemned
by the two labor representatives on the
commission, IWA president Jack Munro
and Steelworkers Local 4253 president
Frances Soboda. In a minority report,
they stated that the Forget’s recommenda-
tions propose “harsh and devastating cuts
in UI benefits that favor myths over the .
realities (and) the intolerance of a fanatical
few over the wishes of most Canadians.”

They referred to the plan to cut fisher-
men’s benefits as one of several “reaction-
ary proposals” and warned that the
impact of annualization would be “catas-
trophic for individuals, for families, for
industries and regions.”

UFAWU secretary Bill Procopation
said the union lobbyists would also try and
meet with Fisheries Minister Tom Siddon
as well as Employment Minister Benoit
Bouchard over the course of the week.

VDLC urges
city riding
be retained |

Delegates to the Vancouver and Dis-
trict Labor Council, representing some

65,000 unionists in the city, voted Feb. 17
to demand that Ottawa reject a proposed
boundary commission recommendation
that would see the riding of Vancouver-
Kingsway eliminated.

The council called on the government
to retain without change the central Van-
couver riding, currently held by NDP MP
Ian Waddell.

The federal Electoral Boundaries Com-
mission has proposed the addition of five
new ridings in rural British Columbia but
also recommended that Vancouver-Kings-
way be wiped off the map and its constitu-
ents divided up among three other
Vancouver ridings.

The move would mean that rural MPs
would represent only 70,000 constituents
while those in Vancouver would be com-
pelled to represent 107,000.

“It’s outrageous and totally unfair to
the city of Vancouver,” Waddell stated in
declaring his intention to fight the change.
“It will mean poorer service for the resi-
dents in dealing with immigration, unem-
ployment, pensions and more.”

Waddell pointed out that the original
report, issued last August, made no men-
tion of the change in the Vancouver boun-
daries, proposing only the addition of the
five new rural ridings in the province. “But
now they’ve issued a new report eliminat-
ing the riding of Vancouvr Kingsway —
without any consultation at all,” he said.

Vancouver city council has also voted
unanimously to oppose the elimination of
the riding.

against cuts

Petitions set

to Ul program

Unionists have launched two petitions
aimed at blocking cutbacks to Canada’s
unemployment insurance system pro-
posed by the Tory government and UI
commissioner Claude Forget.

The first warns that the Forget commis-
sion recommendations would reduce UI
benefits to the unemployed and impose a
heavier burden on provinces and individ-
uals and calls on the government “to reject
any legislation designed to eliminate fed-
eral contributions to the unemployment
insurance program or to reduce UI benef-
its for unemployed Canadians.”

Another petition, launched by the Pub-
lic Service Alliance, calls on the federal
government to cease immediately its cuts
in Canada Employment and Immigration
staff.

The staff cuts, begun by the Tory
government last year, “are not based on a
lack of work or a discontinuation of ser-
vice, but are the result of a political deci-
sion to drastically reduce the number of
jobs in the federal public service,” the peti-
tion states.

Copies of both petitions are available
from local labor councils and union offi-
ces.

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_ AFL change-the-law campaign gathers steam

Special to the Tribune

EDMONTON — Probably the most int-
ensive, united and popular campaign in the
history of the Alberta Federation of
Labor — the Change the Law! campaign
— has won the support of affiliates, the
building trades unions and the general pub-
lic.

The depth and breadth of that support
will be seen in a massive demonstration
March 5, when the Alberta Legislature
resumes to consider proposed labor law
amendments that the AFL and other labor
. groups charge will continue to stack the
cards against the workers.

There is nothing new about labor’s
demands for decent labor legislation,
whether in Alberta or elsewhere, but what is
new is the intensity of the federation’s cam-
paign for new labor legislation in the Tory
controlled province.
_ Also new is the labor unity and the public
support behind this particular campaign. In
addition to winning the support and partic-
_ ipation of the building trades unions, the
AFL campaign has also attracted broad
sections of the public from church groups,
women’s organizations, unaffiliated unions,
the National Farmers Union and numerous
special interest groups.
The recent Gainers strike was the catalyst
in this high level unity campaign. Peter
Pocklington, his blatant use of scab labor
and his withdrawal of the workers’ pension
reserves during the first days of the strike;
the court injunctions which imposed restric-
tions on picketing never before placed on a
union; the deployment by the authorities of
the police riot squad and the mass arrests of
hundreds of workers — all focused labor’s
and the general public’s attention on Alber-
ta’s unjust labor laws.
Early in that strike, the AFL moved into

action, marshalling support for the Gainers

workers, leading a boycott of the com-
pany’s products and campaigning to

"12 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 4, 1987

change Alberta’s labor laws. Its first phase
was the lawn sign campaign which created
the impression of a federal, provincial or
civic election in Alberta.

More than 10,000 lawn signs appeared in
Edmonton and other cities during the
summer of 1986.

The settlement of the Gainers strike
shifted the AFL’s mobilization to the pur-
suit of legislative changes. Public support
for the Gainers work-
ers was thus carried
forward and con-
tinues to buttress
the AFL’s drive to
“Change the Law!”

Before the strike
ended, the drive for
decent labor legisla-
tion forced Tory
Premier Don Get-
ty’s government to
appoint a commit-
tee headed by provincial Labor Minister,
Dr. Ian Reid, to review Alberta labor legis-
lation.

Reid’s Labor Legislation Review com-
mittee, then set out on a world junket to
Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the United
Kingdom, West Germany and the United
States, in search of “enlightenment’on
labor legislation.

While Dr. Reid and his nine-member
committee were touring the world, the AFL
undertook its own tour to review labor legis-
lation. The Reid junket cost Alberta tax-
payers close to half a million dollars.

The federation’s tour, which included a
visit to the provincial labor department’s
labor library, where all of the world’s labor
laws are documented, as well as a visit to all
10 provinces throughout the country, cost
the AFL affiliates less than $6,000.

Fresh from their globe-trotting, the Reid
committee held public meetings throughout
Alberta to hear the views of labor, business

WERLIN

and the general public on the province’s
labor legislation.

The committee finally released its report
on Feb. 12. It was a great disappointment to
the labor movement in Alberta. “While Dr.
Reid’s report contains a few positive

- recommendations,” AFL president Dave

Werlin commented, “they are far out+
weighed by the negative ones.

“Regrettably, the Reid committee rec-
ommendations, if legislated, would add to
Alberta’s already bad legislation and make
it even more repressive.

“The release of this report won’t slow
down the AFL’s ‘Change the Law!’ cam-
paign,” he said. “In fact it will be carried on
and intensified.”

At press time, the federation and the pro-
vincial building trades council were meeting
with Reid to detail labor’s objections to his
recommendations and to press for recon-
sideration.

Two particularly objectionable recom-
mendations in Reid’s report are those cal-
ling for a compulsory final offer vote and
extending the current ban on secondary
picketing by prohibiting all but the direct
employees of a struck enterprise from pick-

FIPIBUNE

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186

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[reap THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR |

eting. On that second point , Werlin said
the AFL is emphatic in its opposition
“We're saying that’s an unwarranted intru
sion into the rights of labor and we, in fact
would defy any law based on that recom
mendation.”

The Getty-cabinet will be considering th
Reid report and preparing legislative
amendments for the March 5 resumption OF
the Legislature. -

Labor and its allies plan to stage a dem=_

onstration, March 5 at the Legislature |

demanding labor law reform and the reve
sal of cutbacks in the funding of social servir |
ces education and health care. i

“We aim to convince this government t0
reform its labor laws and end social servi
cuts during the spring session of the Alberta
Legislature,” Werlin told the Tribune. —

“However, if the Getty regime fails t0”
respond to popular demand, we will carty
the campaign forward as long as it takes;
even if that means taking our issues into thé
next provincial election.

“I’m convinced,” Werlin added, “that
growing number of Albertans are prepare?
to change the governing party if that party
refuses to change its agenda.” ;

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