Construction unions charged this week that the AIB is Haclans the big
contractors with its recent rollback in last year’s contract settlement.
The construction industry negotiations for 1977, soon to get underway,
are expected to be difficult because of the anti-inflation guidelines.

Changes in B.C. unions
shown in latest

As of January 1, 1976, there were
426,723 trade union members in _
this province, an increase of 6.3
percent over the total membership
of 401,608 reported for the previous
year. As a percentage of the total
work force, union membership
went up to 44.9 percent, up from
43.7 percent in 1975.

These and other useful statistics
are available in the B.C. Labor
Directory 1976, published by the
B.C. ministry of labor, research
and planning, Victoria.

Once again, the International
Woodworkers of America is the
largest union with 41,875 members.
Next is the B.C. Government
Employees’ Union with 32,764
members followed by the B.C.
Teachers’ Federation with 28,415,
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees with 23,105 and the
Teamsters with 18,870.

The order of rank illustrates the
changing composition of the trade
union movement. For example,
three of the five largest unions are
public service unions. Together
they represent more than 84,000
workers. F

Another interesting fact emerges
in relation to the top five: two

Bargaining strategy key

Contract conference set

The B.C. Federation of Labor
this week issued a call for a one-
day conference to coordinate 1977
contract negotiations as the
Federation and local labor councils
began mapping a new campaign to
battle wage controls.

The one-day coordinating con-
ference — urged by several union
locals in view of the number of

B.C. FED.

cont'd from pg. 1

Human Resources department and
“the increase in the budget of the
Highways department ‘“‘can only
serve as a sad reminder that the
old days of blacktop politics have
returned to British Columbia.”

The budget’s call for restraint on
the part of workers was rejected by
Guy who termed Wolfe’s statement
that workers should ‘“‘expect less,
demand less and produce more’”’ as
“comic relief.”

‘Any economist knows that
productivity has little if any actual
relationship to how hard a person
works,”’ Guy said, “‘and even the
anti-inflation board admits that the
past year’s inflation rate was more
luck than good management, and
that dramatic increases in food
and other costs will likely result in
a rate of inflation in 1977 that is
greater than the six per cent AIB
guideline.”

The Vancouver and District
Labor Council added its voice in
condemning the budget at its
regular meeting this week with the
adoption of a resolution that ex-
pressed “profound dissatisfaction
with the provincial budget.”

The VLC also pointed to the
inadequate concern for unem-
ployment and added that the
budget ‘“‘continues the policy of
placing burden of taxation on
working people.”

The budget perpetuated the old
Socred policy of giveaways, the
VLC said, draining provincial
resources and leaving no lasting
development behind.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 28, 1977—Page 12

affiliates whose contracts expire
this year is scheduled for
February 10 and will include staff
representatives, local presidents
and representatives of negotiating
committees.

A renewed campaign to convince
the provincial government to with-
draw from the federal wage
control program was also outlined
by the Federation which will be
calling on local unions to make
their views known to premier
Bennett and MLAs before the next
federal provincial conference on
the Anti-Inflation program.

The Federation will itself press
for withdrawal from the program
when it makes its submission to the
provincial avenues later this
year.

In addition, it will be preparing a
brochure ‘‘to explain why the
current six per cent guideline is
completely unjust and to expose
how wage controls are having a
negative impact on the Canadian
economy.”’

The campaign by the labor body
was part of a program outlined by
the Canadian Labor Congress
calling on provincial federations to

“take the fight to provincial

governments.

A three-point program outlined
by CLC secretary Donald Mon-
tgomery called for representations
to provincial governments, lobbies
of MLAs and petitions to municipal
councils to urge further pressure
on the provincial governments not
to: renew agreements with the
federal government.

Delegates to the Vancouver and
District Labor Council this. week
responded to the CLC letter with a
resolution calling on the council to
make representations to all
aldermen and municipal councils
under its jurisdiction.

Delegates also noted the need for
national coordination of the
campaign against the controls and
endorsed a second resolution

calling on the Congress to call a
national conference ‘‘to discuss
further means of PUE an end to
wage controls.”

Jack Nichol, UFAWU secretary
and a member of the Federation’s
executive council, welcomed the
scheduling of the Federation’s
conference and told delegates,
“there’s great concern among
trade unionists as to where
negotiations are going in face of
the six per cent guideline.”’

Unions are being picked ‘‘on a
piecemeal basis,’ Nichol said,
adding that the problem would
continue without coordinated
action.

“There will be a need for con-
tinuing conferences as unions enter
negotiations and the situations
heat up,” he stressed.

Nichol also emphasized the call
for a national conference, pointing
out that affiliates have not had
clear direction on the course of the
fightback: against controls since
the Day of Protest, October 14.

Elsewhere in the Vancouver and
District Labor Council meeting,

delegates elected new officers for
1977, returning all but one of the 12
members of the council’s executive
board.

Carpenters Union delegate Colin
Snell was acclaimed third vice-
president when incumbent Jack
Lawrence did not stand for
nomination.

Others elected were: president,
Syd Thompson; first vice-
president, Cliff Rundgren; second
vice-president, Mike Stevens;
secretary-treasurer, C. P. (Paddy)
Neale: chairman of organizing
committee, Homer Stevens;
legislative committee, Hugh
Comber; public relations com-
mittee, Dave Werlin; grievance
committee, Bud Devoe; education
committee, Walter Jacobs; metro
advisory committee, Frank
Kennedy; credentials committee,
Opal Skilling.

organizations — the BCTF and the
Teamsters — are not members of
the B.C. Federation of Labor, the
provincial body for all Canadian
Labor Congress Unions. The BCTF
has been debating affiliation to the
trade union movement for many
years but it remains an_ in-
dependent professional
organization which engages in
collective bargaining under special
legislation.

Twenty-two unions are listed as

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

having a membership in B.C. of
more than 5,000. Some 320,254
workers hold membership in these
unions and together make up 75
percent of the total membership of
all unions.

Of the 22, six are made up ex-
clusively of public service em-
ployees — the B.C. Government
Employees, Nurses, Canadian
Union of Public Employees,

‘ Teachers, Hospital Employees and

federal government employees.

Almost one-thirdof the combined
membership of thé 22 largest
organizations belong to unions
which are not affiliated to the B.C.
Federation of Labor. In these
cases, all but one — the Public
Service Alliance of Canada — are
ineligible to join the Federation
because they are not affiliates of
the CLC.

The industrial distribution of
union membership gives the
following picture:

Manufacturing .... 26.1 percent
Construction ...... 11.9 percent
Trade andService . 43.8 percent

Other industries ... 18.2 percent

Over the year, union mem-
bership among women grew by 15
percent, compared to an overall
growth of 63 percent in mem-
bership. Females membership
stood at 122,117 as of January 1,
1976, constituting 34.6 percent of all
female paid workers. More than
half the male paid workers (51
percent) belonged to unions as of
the same date.

Twenty-one unions had female
membership of more than 1,000,

survey

Association (17,914 members),

led by the Registered Nurses |

B.C. Teachers’ Federatio
(15,335), Hospital Employees
Union (13,251), and the B.C
Government Employees’ Unio
(12,380).

Ten of these 21 unions are noe
affiliated to the B.C. Federation of _
Labor. Of these, nine are ineligible
to join the provincial labor body
because they are outside the CLC

It is significant that 88 percent 0
the female union members belong —
to these 21 unions and that the vast"
majority of them are employed i
trade and service occupations.
Also significant is the fact that
almost half the organized women
workers belong to independent
professional organizations or trade |
unions unconnected with the CLC |
and its provincial labor federatio

The strength of the CLC in this”
province remains virtually un
changed with 71.4 percent of the
total union membership. Of the
CLC-affiliated membership, 37.9 —
percent belong to purely Canadian
unions.

Unaffiliated unions have 25.4
percent of the total membership _
andthe Confederation of Canadiat
Unions 3.1 percent.

It is interesting to note that the
total membership of the B‘C.
Federation of Labor was 230,000 as
of November; 1976. In cold
statistics, this means that only
percent of the total trade uniom >
membership are affiliated to the
central labor body in this province.

In view of this fact, it should b
obvious that the leadership of th
B.C. Federation of Labor, cannot
treat the 44 percent outside “i
ranks as if they didn’t exist. It is to
the credit of the Federation of-
ficers that they have, in the main,
pursued a realistic policy par-
ticularly where there are
bargaining relationships involving
affiliates and non-affiliates. 4

The overall picture also shows —
that much work needs to be done
order to unite all legitimate trade
unions in one central body.

-COOPERATION GROWS

In 1976-1980 socialist community
countries will import from the
USSR about 364 million tons of
crude oil, about 90 billion cubic
metres of gas, 67 billions kilowatt
hours of electric energy.

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