LABOUR McMurphy: teachers to face hard bargaining Predicting a season of hard bargaining in upcoming negotiations with the province's school boards, the head of the B.C. Teachers Federation Jan. 30 hailed the imminent total unionization of British Columbia’s 23,000 public school teachers. “I’m very proud and pleased to report this morning ... that every local has now completed its IRC (Industrial Relations Council) conducted vote to certify as a union local of the BCTF,” McMurphy told an applauding representative assembly. The representative assembly, consisting of local association representatives, also voted to oppose the free trade deal and privatization, for amending the Meech Lake accord, and to support the boycott of California groups sponsored by the United Farm Workers. The RA, which meets periodically throughout the year, makes recommenda- tions to the federation’s upcoming annual general meeting, which this year takes place March 27-30. This meeting marked the first time the seven-decades old BCTF has met as a trade union, a move necessitated under the Bill 20, the provincial Teaching Profes- sion Act. Acknowledging that she was presenting “old but good news,” McMurphy said the federation has issued 48 charters to local teachers associations who have voted, through an exception to the IRC boycott allowed by the B.C. Federation of Labour, to certify as locals of the new union. She reported that three recently voting teachers associations — Kimberly, Golden and Windermere — had backed certifica- tion in the IRC vote by 100 per cent. McMurphy said the strong mandate Not too late The leader of the Canadian Auto Workers declared Tuesday that it was “not too late” to head off the federal govern- ment’s free trade agreement with the U.S. “] think there’s enough push out there among Canadians to force a vote — not just on the free trade deal but on the whole direction for Canada,”” CAW president Bob White told delegates to the United Fisher- men and Allied Workers Union convention . in Vancouver. “And | the Canadian people have a right to a choice in 1988, before the trade deal is implemented in 1989.” Speaking to a packed session of the convention at- tended by scores of members of other — unions throughout BOB WHITE the Lower Mainland, White focussed on the trade pact with the U.S., challenging the government arguments in every area where it has claimed benefits from the trade pact. He also warned that if the corporate sec- tor were successful in implementing the free trade agreement, it could bring about eco- nomic changes that would be virtually irre- versible. “And it is this attempt to end or at least decisively undermine any future pro- gressive alternatives that makes free trade so dangerous and important to the rest of us,” he Sale 2: bets. White, who has played a prominent part in the campaign against free trade since before the agreement was signed, told dele- gates that it was a comment by chief trade negotiator Simon Reisman that summed up the government's approach in the trade talks. Leaving a trade briefing with various 42 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 3, 1988 gives the BCTF leadership the backing to pursue establishing the federation “as the single voice and vehicle for representing teachers in curriculum development and evaluation policies.” And, she said, the executive committee wants to set “negotiations to extend the range and quality of representation of teachers in curriculum development. “Certainly, we have never had a set of - negotiations more important than those we contemplate now,” McMurphy told the assembly. The BCTF president set the tone for a future policy vote when she hit the free trade deal between Canada and the United States. “Comprehensive free trade with the US. would mean theend of our distinct society,” she said, noting Canada’s superior social services, labour legislation and environment laws. : “When one hears talk of a ‘level playing » field, one can easily imagine that field would not be levelled by bringing American public sector labour laws up to the level of ours,” McMurphy asserted. She also noted the Canadian Federation of Teachers call for amendments to the Meech Lake Accord, charging that it makes a substantial shift ‘tin the balance of power from Parliament to the provinces.” The accord’s decentralization threatens not only the rights of individuals — Meech Lake appears to grant provinces overriding powers over provisions of the Constitution — but education as. well, McMurphy warned. Noting the accord allows provinces to opt out of national programs and establish provincial ones as long as these are compat- to head off groups including the CAW, Reisman, when asked about support for the trade deal, announced: “The people who count, those who create the jobs, are with me.” “He was clearly revealing whose interests he and the Tories have been representing,” White said. He emphasized that business has been “trying to convince us that they represent the national interest but their self-interest is transparent.” In fact, the very things that Canadians are concerned about losing in the free trade deal are considered liabilities by the corpo- rate sector — and that is why business has been “united as one class” in promoting free trade, said. White. He cited the case of energy which has prompted much of the outcry against the agreement because of the loss of sovereignty over energy resources and the unlimited access given the U.S. But there are no losses for the multina- tional oil companies because they will have achieved continental control over energy resources — and that continentalism will make it very difficult for any future Cana- dian government to enact a national policy on energy, he said. : ‘When we talk about surrendering the right to specify conditions for foreign inves- tors orto Otherwise interfere in corporate decisions or the market, we are raising issues basic to our concept of economic democracy and national sovereignty — the collective ability of citizens to influence and shape their economy and society,” he said. - “But if your dominant view of freedom and sovereignty is the freedom to do busi- ness where you like and as you like, then our losses are business's gains.”” The CAW leader charged that any prom- ised benefits — jobs and secure access to the U.S. market — will not materialize. SD oa Delegates vote at BCTF representative assembly. 1 ible with national objectives, she asked: What does ‘compatible’ mean? If a pro- vince decides to distribute federal shared- cost funds for education in the form of vouchers to individual students, is this ‘compatible’ with national objectives?” Delegates voted strongly to oppose any form of privatization of the public school system, after hearing a presentation from Burnaby Teachers Association representa- tive Dawn Lupton. But they also voted to table a motion calling for a special BCTF conference on privatization, opting instead for a resolution that committed the federation to joint activ- ities with other groups opposed to the pro- vincial government program. Differences emerged over the composi- tion of a task force on class sizes and work- ing conditions, during debate over an initiative from the Langley Teachers Asso- ciation. The association, which has waged a campaign on class sizes within its commun- ity since the last federation AGM made the issue a top priority, introduced a motion urging the representative assembly recom- mend to the upcoming annual general meet- free trade, And if there are a few reductions in consu- mer prices, they will be far less than what the government is claiming and they will come at the expense of lost jobs. “Will free trade give us the secure access to the U.S. that the pro free traders kept emphasizing was the main objective?” White asked. “The idea that the dominant economic power in the world ... would exempt us from its laws and surrender a vital measure of autonomy to us was absurd and the agreement is testimony to that fact.” He reminded the convention that the MacDonald Commission had asked the country to take a “leap of faith” into free trade. “But for the corporate sector, it is a leap with a very comfortable landing.” For the rest of Canadians, however, it poses the risk of a “dramatic erosion of social, cultural and political sovereignty,” he warned. But despite what he called business’s “single-minded support of free trade”, White emphasized that “a social movement is building across the country in opposition to the government’s agenda.” Name . Wddress Foes Ce IRIBONE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. VSK 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 ai Kete reel’ Vise oe. Ag 0.0.0 0 © Ce 2° © 0 00 « 4» 0:4 0 0s «0.0 2 \0 Postal Code lam enclosing 1 yr. $160] 2yrs.$280) 6mo. si00 Introductory offer, 3 mo. $31 Foreign 1 yr. $250) Bill me later 0 - READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOUR | ing that a task force on class size, class “composition, teaching load and profes-— sional standards be struck. i Delegates wound up voting on an amended version — from former BCTF president Bill Broadly and member Gordon | Vickerson — of the motion, which called for a task force on teaching conditions and professional practices, for an expanded task force of nine members to be chosen from the membership at large and on the AGM to recommend a budget and timelines for the task force to the next representative assembly, in late May. ; The motion was opposed by some speak- ers from the floor, including members of the federation’s 11l-member council. They argued that the task force should be struck immediately and consist of members of the working and learning conditions and bat- gaining committees. In a standing vote the assembly, which operates on a weighted vote system adopted the motion 317-199. The task fore will have no bearing on this year’s collective bargaining, the first by the federation’s .- locals as trade unions, which begins in the: next few months. & says Whit He was given a standing ovation by dele-_ gates as he told them that there was still time “for Canada to change course. } “T think we can defeat the attempt of this” government to take us deeper into integra tion with the United States,” he said. UFAWU president Jack Nichol also tol delegates that the convention would be con-_ sidering a number of resolutions on free” trade and would be continuing to work with” other groups to defeat the trade agreement. - And when a federal election is called, h said, ‘we will be telling people that this is government which should be defeated and party which should never be elected to offic again.” Renew now at old rate eee eee wean er ?