The widow of one of the four
carpenters who fell to their
deaths after a platform col-
lapsed during construction at
the Bentall Centre last year is su-

In doing so, ‘Carol Davis has
had to forfeit half of $1,200 a
month benefits from the
Workers’. Compensation
Board, according to board
regulations. Davis filed the suit
in the B.C. Supreme Court
against the Toronto-based An-
thes Equipment Ltd., seeking
damages and related costs under
the Family Compensation Act.
Carpenters Guenter Otto
Couvreaux, Brian Stevenson,
Yrjo Mitrunen and Donald
Davis fell 36 stories in January,
1981, when the ‘‘flyform’’ on
which they were working col-
lapsed. Since then a construc-
tion worker in Calgary has been
killed in a similar mishap, also
involving an Anthes flyform.
Davis’ lawyer Craig Paterson
has written labor minister Jack
Heinrich asking that the
Workers’ Compensation Act be
rewritten to allow full compen-

{| | Members and supporters of
| the Canadian Association of In-
dustrial, Mechanical and Allied
Workers staged a brief occupa-
tion of the Labor Relations
Board offices in Vancouver
Feb. 18 to protest the LRB’s de-
cision to deny a vote on union
representation at the Cominco
operations in Trail and Kimber-
ly.

The action followed a presen-
tation by a small delegation of
area CAIMAW representatives
ofa 2,000-name petition to LRB
chairman Stephen Kelleher de-
manding the LRB allow Comin-
co workers to choose between
representation by CAIMAW
and the incumbent United Steel-
workers of America. During
this period about 45 Trail area

Unionists at the Columbian
newspaper in Coquitlam cap-
ped a three-day occupation of
the paper’s cafeteria — the-first
ever strike/lockout at the

for the Vancouver Typographi-
cal Union, the Mailers, i
Arts and the Guild, termed the
occupation, which was called
after management attempted a
lockout, a ‘‘success, since Guild
members formed strong links
with the rank and file of the
other unions.””

But the ‘‘saddest thing”’ was

Widow sues company
over Bentall tragedy

sation during damage suits,
terming the benefits cut ‘“‘a
totally outrageous and outdated

concept.

The WCB announced last
month that it was prepared to
sue Anthes Equipment on
behalf of the families of the four
carpenters, an action hailed by
provincial Council of
Carpenters president Bill Zan-
der as ‘‘a breakthrough in press-
ing workers’ claims against
negligence in safety practices.”’

Usually the WC Act prevents
such action by the board, but
since Antes is an out-of-
province company, it is outside
the scope of the Act. The other
three families have yet to decide
whether to allow the WCB to
represent them, in which case
their full benefits would be re-
tained.

A coroner’s jury found the

‘Anthes flyform to be ‘‘under-

designed,’’ and the board has
since established new regula-
tions governing flyforms.
Meanwhile, the carpenters
union is. investigating other

: possible flyform accidents.

Union occupies LRB

CAIMAW supporters arrived
by bus and filed into Kelleher’s
office.

At Kelleher’s request the
demonstrators vacated and
moved to an adjacent board-
room where CAIMAW vice-
president Peter Cameron and
others outlined plans to appeal
the LRB decision to the board
and the B.C. Supreme Court.

In a Feb. 19 press release,
B.C. Federation of Labor presi-
dent Jim Kinnaird branded
CAIMAW’s action ‘‘a childish
attempt to deflect attention
away from their own incompe-
tence.” The comments followed
similar remarks made earlier by
International Woodworkers
president Jack Munro.

Paper strike settled

craft unions won wage increases
of 26 percent compounded over
two years. The contract also
gives them parity with the Print-
ing Pressmen’s Union which
had signed a separate agreement
outside the council giving its
members a 51-cent premium.

The pressmen officially left
the council last December and
refused to agree to restoring
wage parity, said Glavin, who
added that ‘‘craft unionism’’
has always been a problem in
achieving unity among news-
paper unions.

Glavin said the newspaper
agreed to include as employees
and Guild members three pho-
tographers who had been work-

ing on a contract basis. Guild.

spokesman Patricia Lane said

not being able to achieve the _ other benefits include improved
Guild’s demand for catch-up vacation, sick leave and pension
for the lower paid clerical and _ plans, paid maternity leave and

| maintenance employees, he _ the night of pregnant women to
said. transfer from video display ter-
In the settlement, the three minal work without loss of pay.

LOR

Wage controls on public
employees held ‘unjust,

immoral and ineffective’

Continued from page 1
day government employees enter

contract bargaining without any
reference to the wage control agen-

cy.
“‘We do not have the slightest in-
tention of recognizing the existence
of their wage rollback bureaucracy
to be headed by Mr. Peck any more
than we have given recognition to
the Essential Services Advisory
Agency under Mr. McKee or theill-
fated Mediation Commission
under Justice John Parker,”’ Rich-
ards told a press conference at
BCGEU headquarters Tuesday.

JACK GEROW ... workers
made scapegoats for govern-
ment ‘economic ineptitude.’

“Our reaction to this unrealistic
wage control program of the pro-
vincial government is quite simply
that we intend to take the premier
at his word.”’ In his address to the
‘people of B.C. last Thursday,
premier Bennett said ‘collective
bargaining will take place in the
normal manner.’ This is also the
policy of our union. We intend to
negotiate a catch-up increase for
our membership whose pay che-
ques have been so badly eroded by
inflation over the last three years.

“‘We intend to secure the same
catch-up increase that the govern-
ment has so generously given itself
and all its management personnel
before announcing a wage control
program for the people who actu-
ually do the work,’’ he said.

Contracts covering some 36,500
BCGEU members are up for re-
newal July 31. Union members are
in the last year of a three-year
agreement which gave them only
eight percent increases each year.

“We have already shown re-
straint, plenty of it, over the past
three year period during which time
our wages have increased by 24 per-
cent while living costs in B.C.
eg 38 percent,’ Richards

She Hospital Employees’ Un-
ion, which has already been in pro-
tracted negotiations with Health
Labor Relations, representing
about.120 hospitals since last year,
also declared this week that it will
continue talks without reference to
the wage control program.

Gerow also made it clear that the
union will be taking action to de-
feat the government’s program —
and the government itself in an
election.

“We are going to become politi-
cally active because the only way to
Sa the program is to change

the government,’ he said.

Gerow added that as much as

| PACIFIC TRISUNE—FEB. 26, 1982—Page 12 _

$100,000 could be made available
by the union in an election to sup-
port candidates ‘‘who say they are
against introducing arbitrary and
discriminatory controls in an at-
tempt to take the government off
the hook for its economic inepti-
tude.”’

For all of the unions in the public
sector, the program is ill-conceived
and an attempt by the provincial
government to make public em-
ployees the scapegoats for a de-
pressed economy.

Richards charged that Bennett
was appealing to ‘‘reactionary
forces’’ by levelling his wage con-
trol program at the public sector.
“Picking on government employ-
ees may be politically appealing to
certain reactionary forces in the
province — but it will not under
any circumstances produce eco-
nomic recovery,’’ he emphasized.”’

He termed the wage control pro-
gram ‘unjust, immoral and, in our
view, ineffective.”’

Recent statistics bear out how
unjust wage controls are in any
form, let alone those imposed on
the public sector.

According to Statistics Canada
figures, calculated against increases
in the Consumer Price Index,
wages fell significantly below prices
in the period of controls and re-
mained there for two years follow-
ing the end of the controls period in
1978. It was only in 1981 that wage
increases even began to match the

NORMAN RICHARDS .. . Ben-
nett seeking to appeal to ‘cer-
tain reactionary forces.’

JIM KINNAIRD

ation over wage controls.

level of inflation which itself
been surging as a result of incre
in energy, food, housing, auto

surance and several other com

modities.
Emil Bjarnason, director of

Trade Union Research Bureau i
Vancouver, cited the current Stats-

Can figures which show wage
creases running at an average

12.1 percent for the first nine mon

ths of 1981 compared to an incre
in the CPI of 11.4 percent for
year.

It was because wages, after y

of being behind inflation, began

catch up, that employers and g
ernment have mounted press
for the reimposition of wage c
trols.

There is much the same ba
ground for Bennett’s controls é
though most observers agree that
his program was a ‘‘knee-jerk”’ 1&
action to a provincial budget crisis
and an attempt to exploit whatevel

sentiment there is for wage cont
to use against the public sector.

BCTF president Larry Kueht

also emphasized the depressing

straint program will have. He t

the Tribune Monday that betwee!

1,500 and 2,000 teachers will be
of a job in September as a direct
sult of the curbs on public spe

ing.
The BCTF has called an emer

gency representative assembly

warned —
government earlier of confront |

in-

OV’
'

ef

Ole
eel)

oul

27 and 28 in Vancouver at wil@!

some 115 representatives fr

will meet, together with the
executive, and the presidents
local associations to discuss the re

Address
City or town
Postal Code

! am enclosing:
lyr. $140 2yrs.$25 0 6mo.38 0
OldO New Foreign 1 year $15 0
Bill me later C1 Donation$..........

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

\

\ Read the paper that fights for labor
, Wame.; -23.. 5). ee.
¢

\

> 0.2 2 aie + ere ae Po es

ee) Oe ee ee en ee