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UNEMPLOYMENT PROTESTED WEEKLY

It isn't Socred territory — the riding is held by NDP MLA Karen Sanford — but B.C.’s
tight government is reminded anyway that its policies create unemployment, every
Tuesday at noon outside the Social Credit constituency office in Comox. Demonstrators,
members of the Comox Valley Committee for the Unemployed, started the action when
Solidarity protests swept the province in March, shortly after the Feb. 20 provincial
9et was brought down. The response from passersby was so favorable, said commit-
tee member Wayne Bradley, that the demonstration has become a weekly institution.

“Action could stop

Now that Bill 28, the Labor Code

“see Act has been passed by the
: Pe ment, the labor movement
= ve to organize and mobilize to
a the bill is never implemented”
~Ommunist Party urged at a public
mecting May 16, soe: Z

eae,
estat 1S ever made to stick just once, then
itS provisions will
an Overwhelming advantage,”

Fred Wilson, chairman of the party’s labor
committee, warned.

“But stopping it from bein g implemented

_. isawinnable goal — if the B.C. Federation

_ and

of or and Operation Solidarity are
determined that it will not be implemented
and if they launch a program of action to
stop it,” he said.

The 125 People at the meeting echoed
that call, unanimously endorsing a resolu-
tion calling on Operation Solidarity to
initiate a program of industrial action and
urging the Solidarity Coalition to “expose
the undemocratic nature of the legislation”
ind to link it to the other regressive legisla-
tion passed by the Socreds.

© Meeting came just hours after the
B.C. Federation of Labor’s all-union con-
ference at which scores of unionists had

| criticized the B.C. Fed officers for their

weak program against the Labor Code. The
conference Overwhelmingly demanded
tougher measures, including job action.
Communist Party chairman George
Hewison, who addressed the CP meeting
along with Wilson, told the audience that

“history was made at the B.C. Fed
conference,
= There was a loud and clear messsage

m that meeting — directed not only at
the Socreds but at those trade union leaders
who would stand in the way of the strug-

”

» he Said,

Some of the B.C. Fed leadership have’

been “drifting” in the face of the legislative
onslaught from the Socreds, but the union
representatives at the conference demanded
that the leadership “stand up and take
action,” he emphasized.

And there are many in the trade union
movement who realize that there is much

more at stake than union rights and condi-

tions, Hewison noted.

“One of the purposes the Socreds have

GEORGE HEWISON. ..’‘loud and clear message from Operation Soliarity conference.”

Bill 28 use’ — CP

Am

give employers and the

with this legislation is to gut the trade union
movement — and in so doing to rv:ake sure
that there is no opposition to the Socreds,”
he warned, emphasizing that the trade
union movement is the major factor in the
NDP. .

“Unionists at the B.C. Fed meeting were
demanding, not only in their own interests
but also in the interests of others, that the
leadership take action to fight the legis-
lation.”

Wilson also warned of the danger to the
political opposition inherent in the legisla-
tion and directed a note of criticism at the
NDP for its failure to attempt to block the
bill’s passage as it had done with scveral bills
last fall. Bill 28 passed third reading in one
sitting. :

“Can you imagine a complex piece of

legislation, with eight pages of significant

amendments, passing clause-by-clause in
less than a day?” he asked.

“It only serves to emphasize: if Solidarity
does not continue to fight in opposition to
this government, there will be no opposition.”

Wilson also warned that if the trade
union movement is smashed as a result of
this or any other legislation, “the NDP will
never again form a government in this
province.”

The Socreds can be stopped from using
Bill 28, he emphasized — but for that to
happen, “the trade union movement will
have to begin tomorrow organizing Solidar-
ity II.”

a the Communist Party is prepared to
do its part “to help lead in action”, he said,
adding that the party moved quickly when
the legislation was first introduced, outlin-
ing its analysis of the threatening legislation,
issuing its appeal for action and mobilizing
its own membership. 2

Wilson emphasized that the role of the
left and the Communist Party in particular
was crucial — both to expose the class
nature of the Socreds’ legislative program
and to help ensure “that there are no more
Kelownas.”

Pointing to the “Build Solidarity IT” slo-
gan behind him which the party coined ear-
lier this year, he told the meeting: ““We’ve
got a job to do, tonight and tomorrow — to
build, organize, mobilize and unify to bring
this slogan to life.”

5

Pa

The B.C. Federation of Labor
emerged May 17 from an all-day confer-
ence on unemployment pledging imme-
diate action to initiate a campaign for
shorter hours — including urging affil-
iates to make the issue a priority in
bargaining — and to ask its. member
unions to implement an overtime ban.

In the longer term, the federation will
be pressing for changes in government
policy to increase “value-added produc-
tion” in key resource industries, particu-
larly the wood industry, federation
president Art Kube announced.

And the federation will assist Unem-
ployment Action centres to step up their
activities and will be working with labor
councils and local unions to organize
regional unemployment rallies in the fall.

“You're going to see an escalation in
the activities of the unemployed —
they’re going to be a lot more visible,”
Kube told reporters following the
conference.

Originally set as a focal point for the
federation, the unemployment confer-
ence was overshadowed by the all-union
meeting the previous day called to dis-

the amendments to the Labor Code.

Unlike the program put to the earlier
meeting, however, the federation plans on
unemployment appeared to satisfy most
delegates as a practical program of
action by unions and unemployed
committees.

Outlined in a five-page document, the
program emphasized a decentralized
campaign, involving local unions, labor
councils and action centres primarily
with assistance from the federation and
the Canadian Labor Congress.

It urged local unions and labor councils
to establish active, representative unem-
ployed committees and “‘to mobilize the
unemployed into visible fightback
activities”.

Some seven or eight regional rallies
around the province on unemployment
in the fall are planned as well as a federa-
tion-co-ordinated lobby of MLAs at
some unspecified date.

cuss the labor movement’s response to -

Reduced hours urged
fo cut unemployment

Building Trades Council president
Roy Gautier told reporters that the pro-
gram was “not just another program”
but would be a priority to the trade union
movement “and we'll be driving it home
to the government.”

But he emphasized that the success of
it would depend “on how successful we
are in mobilizing the unemployed.”

Absent from the program were any
proposals for a co-ordinated campaign
by Operation Solidarity against govern-
ment layoffs in the public service and in
education which have contributed signif-
eo to increases in unemployment in

But unionists were nonetheless unequi-
vocal in condemning Socred policies for
creating unemployment levels not seen
since the 1930s. :

“The government said last year that its
restraint program would lead us to the
promised land — but - unemployment
has gone up from 12.7 per cent to 15,”
Kube charged.

“The policies of the provincial
government are completely bankrupt.”

The federation president emphasized
that if the trade union movement could
bring about a reduction in the work
week, it would have a significant effect
on unemployment levels. 4

A shorter work week has long been
the aim of the federation but has never
been the target of a concerted campaign.
The B.C. Fed convention last year
adopted a resolution reaffirming support
for a shorter work week with no loss in
pay and calling on the federation to
make it a key demand in the campaign
against unemployment.

Kube emphasized that workers in sev-
eral major industrial countries have
taken up the campaign for shorter hours,
adding that Canadian workers had not
had significant change for 40 years.

He cited particularly the campaign in
West Germany where thousands of
metal workers are currently in a major
struggle with employers over their
demand for a reduced work week with-
out any loss in pay. }

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 23, 1984 ¢ 5