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April 15, 1987
40°

Vol. 50, No. 14
ens

Thousands of trade unionists
who filled the PNE Gardens and
the Agrodome for back-to-back
tallies Monday and Tuesday had
two resounding messages directed
against the Socred government’s
Bills 19 and 20.

The first was aimed Premier
Bill Vander Zalm: withdraw the
legislation.

And the second was for the
leadership of the trade union
movement: mobilize the mem-
bership into action immediately
to fight the repressive bills.

On Tuesday, more than 6,000
unionists, framed by placards
and union banners, turned out
for the rally organized by the
B.C. Federation of Labor, one of
several to be held around the
province this week.

The previous night, 2,000.con-
struction workers filled the PNE
Gardens for a rally called by the
Building Trades which unionists
have seen as the main target of
the Socreds’ de-unionization drive
if the legislation goes through.

BILL 19 page 12 S
ca om Their numbers demonstrating the mounting opposition to Bills 19.and 20, more than 6,000 unionists turned out to the

PNE Agrodome on short notice April 14 for the third in the series of province-wide meetings called by the B.C. Federation
of Labor. Rallies were also held April 13 in Kamloops and Fort St. John together with a Building Trades rally in Vancouver.

British Columbia teachers this week reiterated their demand for the
withdrawal of Bills 19 and 20, promising that the fight against the
Social Credit government’s anti-labor legislation would continue.

And outside the provincial legislature last Thursday, representatives
of the Canadian Teachers Federation and provincial teachers’ federa-
tions from across the country pledged that the B.C. Teachers Federa-
tion “is not alone... the teachers of Canada will stand with you on this
one.”

Teachers from local associations across the province began voting
this week to give the BCTF executive a mandate to begin job action
against Bill 20 which would impose an authoritarian new teachers’
college system on teachers, leaving them vulnerable to arbitrary dis-
missal if a government-appointed council found them “unfit for teach-
ing” for any reason.

Close to 3,000 teachers jammed the Italian Cultural Centre in
Vancouver April 14 to hear BCTF president Elsie McMurphy reiterate
the federation’s condemnation of the legislation and to begin balloting.

Last week, teachers from across the province voted by a resounding
97 per cent to back the federation’s opposition to Bill 20.

On Thursday, the BCTF took those votes to the steps of the
provincial legislature where more than 600 teachers rallied to back the
BCTF demand to “kill the bills.”

“The real goal of this legislation is to destroy the BCTF because the
organization has articulated the concerns of teachers about what the
government is doing to the education system in this province,” Ron
Warder, president of the Sooke Teachers Association, told the rally.

BCTF first vice-president Alan Crawford addresses teachers on the steps of the legislature April 9. ‘see CTF PAGE 3
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