au BRITISH COLUMBIA _ Whatever the terms of the agreement between Premier Bennett and IWA presi- dent Jack Munro, the Lower Mainland Solidarity Coalition gave notice Nov. 14 that it will continue the campaign against the government’s legislative package and will be pressing Operation Solidarity and the provincial Solidarity Coalition to do likewise. A stormy meeting of some 450 people from scores of community groups and unions debated the truce agreement last Monday, a debate described in an Coali- tion press release as a ‘“‘painful examina- tion.’’ Much of that debate was aimed at B.C. Federation of Labor president Art Kube who attended the meeting and who took considerable criticism for the failure of Operation Solidarity to consult with the Solidarity Coalition before making the agreement with the government. But in the end the meeting voted to en- dorse a six-point statement and instructed the Coalition steering committee to work Out an action program to back it up. The Statement: e@ Acknowledged the resolution of the ‘Campaign goes on’ — Coalition trade union issues in the agreement but em- phasized that it was ‘‘not a settlement of our issues’’ namely the withdrawal of the offensive legislation and the restoration of social services; @ Expressed disagreement with the absence of consultation with the Solidarity Coalition steering committee prior to the negotiations; @ Pledged the Coalition to continue the fightback against the legislation, a cam- paign not limited to the terms of the agree- ment; @ Called for a firm commitment from Operation Solidarity for assistance to the campaign; @ Noted that consultation, to be effec- tive, must be backed by mass political pressure and urged that any presentations to the government be made by the Coali- tion as a whole; @ Called for review of progress in talks in two weeks by a joint meeting of Opera- tion Solidarity, the provincial -Coalition and the Lower Mainland Solidarity Coali- tion. A more specific program had yet to be presented to a Coalition meeting at Tribune press time but steering committee members indicated that it would include the demand for the withdrawal of such legislation as Bill 2 (government em- ployees’ bargaining), Bill 5 (tenants), Bill 27 (Human Rights), Bill 24 (medicare), which have not been passed by the legislature, as well as the retention of such services as the Rentalsman, the Human Rights Branch, the retention of universal medicare and the maintenance of social services and education at 1983 levels. Committee members also indicated that the Coalition will press to have the demands presented to the government at the time of the B.C. Fed convention which opens Nov. 28 and will be asking that any agreement go to the Solidarity Coalition assembly for ratification. Demonstrations are reportedly being considered for the week of Nov. 28, as well as support for an action Dec. 10 organized by the Human Rights Coalition to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Teachers making up lost days ‘never discussed’, says Kube Continued from page 1 B.C. Teachers Federation president Larry Kuehn had earlier stated that if the govern- Ment was adamant in demanding that the three days be made up: ‘‘People will see no alternative but to go back to. where. they WOTe: ci. “There are a variety of tactics,” he said, adding that job action was one which may have to be examined again. The three days lost during the strike and the overall issue of education funding have €merged as\the most disputed parts of the _ 4greement Nov. 13 which suspended the €scalating public sector strike. Maintaining 1983 funding levels through was a major topic of discussion in the Negotiations which led to the agreement and, according the Kuehn, Kramer and IWA President Jack Munro who represented peration Solidarity, the understanding that was established was that the $18-20 Million saved on salaries during the strike Would be available for school boards for 1984. Some $25 million was to be cut from Education in the 1984 budget. Asa result, Kuehn stated in a press release Nov. 14, ‘funding for the education system for 1984 will be maintained at a level close to the current one.’ Kube said that Kuehn was ‘‘perfectly cor- rect”” in making that statement since he had Noted that the amounts were approximate. Bennett on the other hand, insisted that ere was “‘no committment” to maintain education funding at 1983 levels and that the strike savings ‘“‘should be maintain- budgets this year . . . so that teachers Could restore those days that were lost . . .” Bennett also levelled an attack at BCTF President Kuehn — an attack which has also N taken by Human Resources Minister Grace McCarthy. _ Thegovernment’s arbitrary and unilateral Position ‘of conditions ~ conditions Which Operation Solidarity participants in the negotiations deny were ever discussed — as thrown serious doubt on the sincerity of © government’s intentions in carrying out _ Te agreement. It has also underscored the ™Mments of many unionists and represen- Ives of community groups who have €d that it will require continued mass Pressure, to compel the Socreds to live up to Mmitments that were made. \NOse commitments, Kube said Friday, ART KUBE .. . Operation Solidarity will back teachers. also include an agreement that there be no reprisals against any strikers, that any changes to the Labor Code not be introduc- ed unilaterally and that a “‘three-person tem- porary advisory committee’? — including a labor representative who would be chosen from among several names put forward by the B.C. Federation of Labor — would discuss any code changes before introduc- tion. Not even those are clear-cut, however. Legal action against teachers is still in ques- tion as is the issue of across-the-province ex- emptions from Bill 3 since decisions on both those points are up to local boards. The government has stated only that “‘moral sua- sion’” will be used to get boards to come into line — an ironic about-turn since the Socreds have repeatedly interfered directly in the af- fairs of local boards in the past. Bennett was also vague on the question of the advisory committee on the labor code, refusing to be pinned down on its composi- tion. He told Webster that the process by which ‘‘the names would be selected would be discussed at a scheduled meeting Nov. 22 at which Jack Munro, Labor Minister Bob McClelland and Bennett himself would be ge Kube said Friday that there had been no agreement among the leadership of Operation Solidarity for that Tuesday meeting. 3 He added that if any social issues were to be discussed at that meeting, ‘‘then I would tell Jack Munro that he should be accom- panied by someone from the. Solidarity Coalition.” In fact, it is the social issues, including tenants’ rights, human rights legislation, medicare and social service cutbacks that are largely unresolved in the wake of the agree- ment that brought down picket lines Nov. 13. There is only a vaguely sketched framework for future discussions and those discussions will apparently be limited to cer- tain areas. Kube told Friday’s press conference that it was never intended that social issues would be negotiated as such. ‘‘The Coalition said long ago that negotiations.could not be bas- ed on trading off human rights for tenants’ rights and so on,”’ he said. Still, the agreement that was reached had the effect of negotiations since it apparently limited the scope of consultations with the government — the government’s Bi:l 24, restricting medicare, for example, is not on the list of issues to be discussed — and ap- peared to accept the demise of the Ren- talsman and the Human Rights Branch as a fait accompli. Kubealso contended that the public sector strike had been aimed primarily at ‘‘in- dustrial relations issues”’ which, he said, had been resolved. That was at variance with earlier statements, however, that the ‘‘ante”’ would go up to include social issues as the strike escalated. On another point, Kramer had earlier . acknowledged that Operation Solidarity had erred in not consulting the Solidarity Coali- tion before it entered into negotiations and concluded an agreement. But those differences have been ironed out, Kube said, adding that there is now “tharmony and unity of purpose between Operation Solidarity and the Solidarity Coalition.” A meeting was to be scheduled Nov. 21 between the steering committees of Opera- tion Solidarity and the Coalition, to discuss the further campaign against the Socred’s legislative package. He emphasized that Operation Solidarity “will support the Coalition fully in its efforts to discuss issues with the government.”’ ‘Refuse Socreds power sellout’ The Socred government’s efforts to sell hydro power to the United States on a permanent, long-term basis is a threat to B.C.’s environmental and economic in- terests, and should be rejected, the B.C. provincial committee of the Communist Party of Canada has stated. In a letter to the secretary of the Na- tional Energy Board, provincial CP leader Maurice Rush urged that Energy Minister Stephen Roger’s plans to export ‘firm power’’ to Los Angeles and other California communities be rejected. ‘*We further urge that no such deal be approved before a public hearing is held in B.C. into the proposed deal where in- terested citizens’ organizations will have an opportunity to state their opinions,”’ wrote Rush in a letter Nov. 9. Rogers and B.C. Hydro management are claiming that the province must sell off the surplus power from recent pro- jects that were undertaken as a result of incorrect demand forecasts by Hydro planners. Otherwise, the story goes, B.C. consumers will face whopping hydro bills in the near future. Dangling the threat ofa 50 per cent rate hike during the next three years, Rogers announced Nov. 9 that the government is abandoning its policy of selling surplus power on a temporary basis. He said he expected the NEB to approve the applica- tion for firm sales, and that a tentative, three-year deal has already been struck — with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the communities of Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale. The deal will involve the sale of three to four billion killowatt hours annually, Rogers announced. “Ttis one thing to sell surplus power on a temporary basis which could later be cancelled if B.C. should need that power. It is an entirely different thing to sell hydro power to the U.S. on a basis of a firm commitment to provide large blocs of hydro over an extended period of years,’ said Rush in the letter. Rush said B.C. Hydro, backed by the provincial government, has ‘‘followed a deliberate policy of overbuilding hydro . . . In order to justify later exports of firm power to the U.S.” The Revelstoke dam, scheduled to go on line next year, is an example of that policy, Rush charged. Noting that the Communist Party and several other organizations opposed firm power sales to the U.S. at recent National Energy Board hearings, Rush said such deals “‘represent a major integration of B.C. with U.S. interests in which we will in future be called upon to develop expen- sive and ecologically damaging hydro electric power dams to continue to supply the U.S. market with hydro power. “In our view this will saddle future generations of British Columbians with huge debts in order to generate and sell power to the U.S. It constitutes a betrayal of Canadian national interests as well as the interests of B.C.,’’ he charged. Rush warned that once U.S. industry bases its expansion plans on continued sales of surplus power from B.C., it will “be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to later cancel such deals.”’ B.C.’s industrial expansion depends of having that surplus available for future needs, Rush stated. “The stakes are high for the people of B.C. In the view of the Communist Par- ty, the National Energy Board should re- ject the application of the B.C. govern- ment and B.C. Hydro. . .,”’ he urged.