ha Nee ts et ened Ny, gt Ye Ay erent rt ee se FL ee ae ae ‘Unionists broaden Tranquille Occupation The solidarity among workers occupying _ the Tranquille extended care facility in loops continued to grow this week as Psychiatric nurses, member of the Union of Registered Psychiatric Nurses, voted to JOin some 600 members of the B.C. Govern- ae Employees Union in their dramatic ac- n. The BCGEU members launched the oc- Cupation of the centre at midnight July 19, Opening another front in the battle against the Socreds’ Bill 3, the Public Sector Restraint Act. The facility, which houses some 350 men- tally handicapped patients, was to have been Phased out over a ten-year period ending in 991. But the government suddenly an- Nounced that it was moving final closure up ‘0 December, 1984, at which time patients Would be moved out into the community as Part of the Socreds’ program to shift costs on to local communities and private groups. With the closure order moved up, the 600 Workers feared for their jobs under the new Testraint legislation since it provides for fir- Ng without cause. : Employees at Tranquille voted at a— Meeting July 20 to continue their occupation Ol the facility until they get a written com- Mitment from the provincial government to Onor provisions of the collective agreement and the terms of Treasury Board order 57. «¢_the BCGEU members took up the slogan 57 or fight’? in demanding that the govern- Ment honour the Treasury Board ofder Which spells out. procedures for job transfers, placement in existing vacancies, Carly retirement and severance pay. It was ‘Ssued following an agreement between the Union and the government covering closure OF institutions. € collective agreement also covers such areas as layoff and recall, seniority, reloca- On and reorganization. . But with Bill 3 hanging over every public “ctor employee in the province, all those Provisions are in doubt once the agreement “xpires Oct. 31. Our members at Tranquille are angry and frustrated,’”” BCGEU president Nor- Man Richards said in a statement July 21. nee We have provisions and procedures t up over years of negotiations with this theement. Now the government is saying, th St us, we’ll draw up new regulations after © New legislation is passed. aln Ow can we trust them when they have d fady broken existing agreements?’’ he “manded. BCGEU spokesman at Tranquille Dave one terson warned that it would likely ‘‘bea Ng Occupation.” Gr inistry of human resources minister Wi ace McCarthy refused to discuss the issue th the union until the workers lifted their Pation. tel Puty minister John Noble sent a Bow to the members insisting that the Wi arent would close down the facility a due regard for the collective agreement. - But the telegram did not address in any leo the question of what happens if the new “8islation is passed and the current collec- © agreement expires,’’ said Richards. bas ere is no commitment whatsoever to Th Or the provisions of the agreement and “asury Board order 57 after Oct. 31.” sie having first taken over four brings, the BCGEU members have now buted their occupation to all the Conta; ® in the centre except the single area 09) doctors’ offices and consulting "y oe from which management personnel ia of the patients are receiving full care for en orkers taking part in the occupation shi 2! hours in addition to their regular BRITISH COLUMBIA As the massive crowd begins to fill the B.C. Place parking lot, marchers still file Ai across the Georgia Viaduct and down into the access roads (top). At right, sign hoisted by demonstrator symbolizes the demand voiced by opposition all across the province. Thousands echo rally demand: ‘Withdraw all the legislation’ With their lines stretching back the entire distance they had come, row after row of people — an estimated 30 to 35,000 of them — marched to the B.C. Place Stadium Saturday to voice their united de- mand that the provincial government withdraw its budget and all the legislation that went with it. ““We are here by the thousands to tell Bennett — withdraw the legislation,”’ George Hewison, chairman of the Lower Mainland Budget Coalition told therally to tumultous applause. The huge rally, held in the shadow of B.C. Place Stadium, climaxed a two kilometre march from Thornton Park, site of the Socreds’ ALRT station. It was only the first of what will clearly be a number of massive protests against the government’s legislation as the opposition grows in strength and breadth. Literally hundreds of organizations — some of which had hardly taken part in a demonstration before — joined the march and rally, filling the parade route with their banners. Local Unions joined with the Socred silenced More than 1,000 people booed and jeered Kamloops Socred MLA and _tourism minister Claude Richmond Friday in protest over the government’s budget, and finally forced him to give up on his speech. The demonstration was organized on last minute notice by the local unemployed when they learned that Richmond was to open an extension of the city’s Riverside Park, known as Waterfront Park. The turnout in- dicated the opposition to the government mounted. ie secretary James Chabot was also scheduled to speak at the park opening but cancelled his engagement the same day. unemployed, tenants, pensioners, women’s groups, community groups and anti-racist organizations. \. Estimates of the numbers varied con- siderably but on two occasions the Tribune counted marchers and each time, more than 500 people per minute walked by. The march took more than an hour to pass. With the marchers, and lining the stage at the rally, were scores of disabled people in wheelchairs who are among the thousands of people who will be hit by the barrage of legislation fired into the house July 7. “T am here because we have all lost something — our fundamental human rights,” fired human rights commissioner Hanne Jensen declared in an impassioned address. “You must all speak out, because human rights are not frills, or favors, they are rights — and they are not for sale,”’ she said to a roar of applause. Vancouver mayor Michael Harcourt in opening the rally, reminded Bennett: ““Mr. Premier, you have no mandate for this; you received only a 1.5 percent increase in the popular vote. . “‘That doesn’t give you the right and the privilege to dismantle our democracy,’’ he declared. Charan Gill, chairman of B.C. Organization to Fight Racism, B.C. Fed first vice-president Jack Munro; Unemployed Action Centre co-ordinator Kim Zander; Disabled Coalition represen- tative Jill Weiss; Catholic priest Father James Roberts and Frances Wasserlein, representing a coalition of women’s organizations against the budget, joined others on the platform in blasting the government’s legislation and urging an ever wider protest against it. Detailed the devastating effects that the proposed legislation would have on TRIBUNE PHOTOS — SEAN GRIFFIN women, Wasserlein told the crowd: ‘‘We will continue to speak out, we will continue to describe these abuses and we will con- tinue to join with you to defeat these pro- posals.’’. ‘“‘We will not be silent . . . when the Socred government is bent on re-creating a time when independence, self determina- tion, and decent wages and working condi- tions for women were not on the agenda of this province,’’ she declared. Unemployed coordinator Kim Zander reminded the crowd that unemployment had created the conditions for the Socreds’ budget. ‘‘And the lesson of that is that the unemployed and the employed must unite — and unite in the most massive way possi- ble,”’ she said. ‘‘This budget must be defeated — and it will be defeated,’’ she said to cheers. Father James Roberts condemned the government for ‘‘turning violence on its own people . . . and destroying its man- date.”’ “It is not we who are the extremists,’ he declared. ‘‘It is you in Victoria who are the extremists who are seriously destabilizing the social fabric of British Columbia.” From every speaker came the pledge that the fight would continue to compel the government to back off. . “The fight will goon,’’ Hewison told the huge crowd as the rally wound up. ‘‘There will be more marches and demonstrations and new tactics until this legislation is withdrawn.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 29, 1983—Page 3