THEY CALL TT § SCAB CHASING: Locked out Telus workers ‘Adam Yawrenko and George Normandeau follow managers in ing pickets" | ~ from the Telus building on Keith Ave. to jobs in the field. : : ; L Discor - As the Telus lockout enters its eighth week, both sides get used to anew reality. ected -A special report by Sarah A. Zimmerman ON ANY NORMAL day. Adam. Yawrenko would be doing technical work for. Telus asa central office maintenance employee. . Ms _ But these are not normal days for Yawrenko te) , eight weeks, sos ua --Yawrenko” now w spends most das i in {front of work locked out 1t employeés De eal would. Then, he and another locked-out worker, George, Normandeau, team upt to engage infl flying ah oy field and. setting up picket lines. introduce ourselves every day,” Yawrenko says. The idea is to draw attention to the concerns of the: Telecommunications Workers Union (TWUV). Namely the issues of working without a collec- . tive. agreement and Telus’. intention to contract out some jobs : ' “It's: sort f faking to th street and letting | pickets - — - following. replacement, Workers i into the” is ““Qur job as scab-hunters extraordinaire is to re- dic: fresher. courses ‘for’all-its managers in the © ing Telus customers with. the. best service possible ' given the circumstances In ests there: are: only two managers based tive is I want to make things better around: here - for them and me and the customer.” aa - through the region trying to do the work the TWU 200 suggestions for. improvements since eth Joc! - _employees here usually do. | ; | out begany 2.0 And in some. cases, ' retired Telus managers’ » “They have: gained ‘such a greater. apprecia- have come back to work during the lock-out. tion for the work they would otherwise. manage,” “This is what hurts the most, is retired manag- . McArthur says, adding ‘those suggestions are in ers who have come out of retirement for scabbing, the process of being implemented. 2 you can understand other: managers coming ups” -i-.~“Some of them are small ones, some of them ‘Yawrenko' says." a oes ihe "ate ways in: which we. dispatch work ‘to our field “But ‘the’ bottoit liné!"aecording to Telus offi: 7 ‘resources — many. of them* are savin ia’ ‘great ‘deal cials, is customer service can not suffer... - ‘of time and effort.” -’ While‘many managers were thrust: into, duties’: gl Patent os a SEER. completely outside their comfort zone, Sinnott has Back on the picket line, workers bide the: the benefit of 14 years of working as a technician, .. doing whatever they can to keep busy — ‘doing central office maintenance and working at-. playing cards, often talking with. passersby. asking the test desk. That’s ‘where preliminary tests are questions and a lot of waving at motorists. giving done to troubleshoot problems with phone lines. . them a little honk of support as they: driy re past . Sinnott’s been in a management role for the __ - The end of the dispute is nowhere ‘in sight'and- t 18 years and says the company offered peri- _ the chasm that exists between replacement wo ork: _ ers and locked-out t employees Just ‘Brows arg NEW ROLES (clockwise from left): Telus manager Les Sinnot ‘makes a service call to a Terrace home complaining of no dial tone. @ Glenn Woollett, another man- ger, goes up in a bucket truck to investigate a problem. @ Below, locked-out TWU workers pass the time playing cards at the Keith Avenue location. ® Meanwhile, at the Lazelle Ave. Telus location, Glenn Martin and Glen Olver man the picket line. , SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTOS Dear Sir: The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - AS ES ~ CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag _ Don’t do it again Dear Sir: I would like to comment on the Aug. 10, 2005 letter to editor entitled “Writer says he should have stayed put in the hospital”. As the current chair of family practice at Mills Memo- rial hospital it is necessary to publicly address the issue of the mechanism for dealing with patient care complaints _ originating from the hospital. There is an official’ process in place to deal with com- plaints that always first involves contacting the hospital _ administration. If there is a medical staff issue the chief of staff and/or the medical director for the Northern Hospital Authority would also become involved as directed by the hospital administration. When. complaints of a medical nature first arise through the media there is no way for the medical community. to respond in any capacity due‘ to the concerns about viola- tion of confidentiality. , Therefore in order for any resolution of a complaint to | occur there must be involvement of the proper channels of communication. — " While complaint letters to the editor involving patient care issues certainly are eye catching they will in no way Jead to any resolution of conflict and in any case paint both the person involved and the medica! staff at large in a poor light. | doubt this was the writer’s intention. = ; _ I believe that the medical staff at Mills Mémorial Hos- - - pital is providing an excellent service to the community of. Terrace and the northwest region of B.C. Let us try in the future to resolve < any hospital patient care problems i in the appropriate fashion. Greg Linton: MD, CCFP, Chair of Family Practice, Mills Memorial Hospital, Terrace, B. Cc. ‘Kitimat mayor defended _ Dear Sir: .. I find it very offensive when I read that former Alcan * ’ staff employee Hans Wagner in an Aug. 10, 2005 opinion piece, “Kitimat’s Future Is At Stake Here,” is giving sug- gestions on how the Mayor of Kitimat might handle the Alcan power sales issue. The fact that he was staff does not make Mr. Hans - ° : Wagner an expert, although it entitles him to an opinion ' no matter how wrong. The fact that he lives in the lower: mainland — far away from the action, certainly makes it | understandable that, at best, Mr. Wagner is ignorant, of the " truth or he had a bad cup of coffee the morning he wrote - this newspaper piece. The claim by Mr. Wagner, that Mayor. Wozney i is driv- oo ‘ing prospective industry away from Kitimat is preposter- ous. Kitimat is presently working on locating Enbridge, a major pipeline consortium, Kitimat LNG, a stranded gas importer, Cascadia, a gravel exporter and a copper smelter to the Kitimat Valley. All these companies have glowing reports on how well they have been received by the Dis- trict of Kitimat. ' Mr. Wagner states, “The course of litigation was ill ad- “> vised.” Kitimat is only asking the courts for clarification: of the 1950 and 1997 contracts. This surely can’t be con- .sidered confrontational. On the contrary, this is what civilized people do in a democracy when they have different opinions yet need-to look for long-term working relationships. If Alcan were right, why would they fear a court clarification? If the Dis- trict of Kitimat is right, should Alcan be exempt of hon- ouring the contract? Would Alcan truly spend millions of dollars blocking Kitimat’s attempt for clarification by the courts if Alcan has nothing to lose? ~ How could Mr. Wagner know that the Mayor and coun- cil have been actively pursuing communication with the Haisla, the Liberal government, Travis Engen, Cynthia . Carrol, Marco Palmieri, Alcan Board directors and Paul Henning? We must be kind and consider that Mr. Wagner lives in the booming lower mainland and is unable to understand the tough issues, and the pursuit for survival of Kitimat and the aluminum industry in British Columbia. Mr. Wagner - knows what happened to Kemano;.he spent a good part of . his life there and now Kemano has been shut down. Mr. Wagner, trust is being established with govern- ment, Alcan executives and our Haisla neighbours. Doors are opened and win-win resolutions are being sought. Next time, Mr. Wagner, may I suggest that you con- -tact the Mayor of Kitimat before you write without sub- stance. The Mayor is passionately defending Kitimat, not out of pride or personal agenda. The Mayor has sacrificed a lot. He ran as a Liberal MLA candidate for our riding, was a personal friend of Gordon Campbell, a friend of Alcan and defended Alcan when they almost lost their water li- cence in 1995. Mr. Wozney gave up all these alliances when Alcan power sales challenged the economic health of Kitimat. 1 am proud of this Mayor because he defends his town, with dignity, integrity and passion. You, sir, from your comfortable bunker in the booming lower mainland, pre- fer to lob i inaccuracies and misinformation. Geatan Pozsgay, . Kitimat, B.C. o Don’t induce fear I feel compelled to respond to the comments attributed to Mayor Jack Talstra on the front page of the Aug. 31 The Terrace Standard regarding the upcoming referen- dum.on fluoridation. — Mr. Talstra is quoted as saying that scientific opinion is divided on the benefits of fluoridation. In fact, valid scientific research on the subject is not divided at all, and consistently shows the benefits and safety of this public health measure in protecting the den- tal health of the population, especially the very young. Fear-inducing misinformation has been responsible for cancelling fluoridation in many communities — let’s make. sure our community is more enlightened. Carol Harrison, Terrace B.C. ~ About the Mail Bag The Terrace Standard welcomes leiters. Our address is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us at newsroom @terracestandard.com. Noattachments, please. Name, address and phone number required for verification.