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ICBC lockout threat

The B.C. Federation and Local 378 of the Office and Technical
Workers have called for meetings with provincial labor minister
Jack Heinrich in an effort to head off a full-scale lockout by the In-
surance Corporation of B.C. — a lockout the union fears would

yet another threat to public auto insurance in the province.

“It looks like they (ICBO) are trying to shut the whole company
down — and to make the workers and the union the scapeg: ne
Local 378 business representative Franz Scherubl told the Van-
couver and District Labor Council Tuesday.

“In fact, it may go as deep as trying to get rid of ICBC and public
auto insurance altogether,”’ he warned.

The 6,000 members of Local 378 have been without a contract
since last Sept. 30. The Insurance Corporation locked out 34
members who refused to work overtime and subsequently locked"
out 300 more. As well, 38 members are on strike, the result ofa
choice given union members whether to go out on strike or con-
tribute 10 percent of salary to a union fund. Most opted for the 10
percent assessment.

But local president Fred Trother warned this week that it had
been widely speculated that ICBC would move to a full-scale
lockout once annual Autoplan premiums, most of which come due
Feb. 28, were in.

Scherubl told the labor council that the dispute ‘‘is a political
one’? — because the wage and benefit items are not that expensive.

“Our demands would only add four-tenths of one cent to prem-
iums,”’ he said.

On the other hand, the mismanagement of ICBC has resulted in
massive extra cost being added to operations, he charged.

He cited chronic understaffing for insurance adjustors — ICBC
is unable to recruit adjustors because of low wages — with the
result that hundreds of claims have to be sent out to private firms at
more than twice the cost. ~

“Many times there will be a ‘fire sale’ at claim centres,’’ he said,
referring to ICBC’s practice of settling claims at inflated costs
“simply to get them off the table.

“We've tried to meet with the president of ICBC, with Heinrich,
even with Bennett on the issue,’’ he said.

Trotter said that the meeting with Heinrich was demanded ‘‘so
that the minister is aware that ICBC is moving toward a full shut-
down — and what the impact will be on motorists.”

Nabob votes on pact

Members of the Canadian Allied Manufacturers Wholesale and
Retail Union, on strike at Nabob Foods were to vote Thursday on a
new tentative agreement worked out early Tuesday morning after a
long bargaining session.

Union president Hugo Tims said that the executive was recom-
mending acceptance of the new pact which includes a compromise
on the main contentious issue, hours of work.

The 200 workers at Nabob had been working a four-day, 36-hour
week but the Swiss-owned company had demanded a change to a
five-day week.

The compromise was expected to include some change in the
work week with provision for accumulated time off.

The settlement followed an incident on the picket line Thursday -
in which some 150 RCMP officers, many of them equipped with
riot gear, arrived in buses and station wagons with dogs, claiming
they had been tipped off about increased picket line activity.

As had been typical throughout the strike, the provocative ap-
pearance of police coincided with an increase in the number of scab-
driven, semi-trailer trucks crossing the picket line.

Union members had earlier complained that police refused to res-
pond to their complaints but appeared suddenly every time that a
number of trucks were to go through the line.

“The police looked pretty silly out there, especially since we only
had about 12 picketers,”’ Tims said. “‘But the publicity it created
might have helped us to get the tentative settlement.

“But more than that, the support from the labor movement real-
ly helped,”’ he said.

The B.C. Federation of Labor had earlier cited the Nabob
dispute in its militant declaration of support for striking workers.

Professional strikebreakers, organized by the same man, Len
Baldini, who had organized them in the Endako strike, were the
main factor in prolonging the Nabob dispute.

Longshoremen get 15%

B.C. longshoremen voted 80 percent to accept a new wage deal
which will give them a 15.1 percent increase for the 1981 portion of
their three-year agreement. :

The International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union
entered negotiations last month on a wage reopener clause in their
collective which was triggered by a 20 percent increase in
the cost of living over the first two years of the agreement, originally
signed in 1978.

ILWU secretary-treasurer Frank Kennedy said that the $1.65 in-
crease for 1981 includes $1.30 provided by the existing COLA clause
in the contract. The new base rate for longshoremen is $12.55.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 20, 1981—Page 12

RA BOR

Leslie, GVRD must take
blame in municipal strike ~

who have served their communiti¢s 4

As predicted in last week’s La-
bor Comment, the negotiators for
the Greater Vancouver Regional
District flatly rejected the new con-

tract proposals of the Canadian

Union of Public Employees and
the independent Vancouver and
Municipal and Regional Employ-
ees Union. :
According to press reports, the

-meeting lasted 45 minutes. Accord-

ing to some of the unofficial re-
ports circulating in the labor move-
ment, Graham Leslie took up near-
ly all that time to say ‘‘no deal.”

The union’s new package pro- —

osal, based on a one-year contract,
called for the following:

@ A wage increase of $1.50 an
hour retroactive to Jan. 1, 1981; 75
cents per hour on July 1 and a fur-
ther 75 cents on Sept. 1. For trades-
men, an additional 75 cents an hour

on Jan. 1, 1981, plus 40 cents on

July 1 and 40 cents in September.

@ During the next three years,
the rates of pay for clerical workers
(mostly women) be adjusted to
achieve parity with outside work-
ers. (At the present time the starting
rate for aclerical worker is approxi-
mately $2 an hour lower than the
starting rate for an outside
laborer.)

The GVRD is not moving from
its original offer of $1.30 an hour
over one year, plus an adjustment
of 75 cents an hour for tradesmen

and the revised health and welfare —

package.

A recent circular put out by the
striking unions made these points:

@ The proposed $1.30 increase
is supposed to incorporate a catch-
up, in recognition of the fact that
wages of municipal employees
have fallen behind those in the pri-
vate unionized sector. However,
the basic rate in the forest industry
is now $1.96 an hour above the
basic municipal rate and the Inter-
national Woodworkers of America
will be negotiating new rates in a
few months.

@ The employers’ proposal to
restructure the clerical pay plan
would widen the gap between cleri-
cal and outside rates of pay.

@ The GVRD is proposing that
aban on work stoppages be written
into the collective agreements, a
cutback on paid leave for union
business, reduction of overtime
rates for statutory holidays and the
implementation of a job evaluation
maintenance plan previously re-
jected by the unions. —

In the past, the strategy of the
GVRD Labor Relations Commit-
tee was to divide and conquer, to
play the independent VMREU

_against CUPE and one CUPE local

against another. Also, they tried,
on occasion, to utilize the negotia-
tions with the police and firefight-
ers’ union to set a pattern for the
other unions, or vice versa.

Now, with a strike in the muni-
cipalities of Burnaby, Coquitlam,
New Westminster, the City of
North Vancouver, the District of
North Vancouver, Port. Moody,
Richmond and Vancouver, involv-
ing CUPE and the VMREU, the
GVRD negotiators have less room
to manoeuvre in this fashion. In
addition, the municipal employees
in Surrey have gone on strike, after
rejecting a wage offer of $1.50 an
hour in each year of a two-year
agreement.

However, the GVRD negotiat-
ors are working hard to get the low-

est possible settlement. The Van-
couver Sun reported Feb. 10 that
Vancouver city police had settled
for a two year agreement as fol-
lows:

@ Awageincrease of 14.17 per-
cent in the first year and nine per-
cent in the second.

Labor
Comment
Jack Phillips

e@ Anine percent increase in the
second year, plus a cost-of-living
adjustment formula keyed to the
Vancouver consumer price index.
According to the press report, the
police will receive increases in the
second year to cover every rise in
the consumer price index beyond
nine percent.

Police union spokesmen ex-
pressed satisfaction after the ac-
ceptance vote, claiming their mem-
bers will now be the highest paid
policemen in Canada. —~

The salary for a first class con-
stable will rise from $2,053 to

. $2,344 per month, an increase of

$291. If the outside laborer on the
basic rate ($8 an hour) was offered

_the same increase, dollar for dollar,

it would mean a proposed boost of .
21 percent. If the lower paid clerical
workers were offered the same dol-
lar package, it would mean a much
bigger hike, percentage-wise.

A circular issued to North Van-
couver residents by CUPE Local
389 Feb. 9 put the issues in this
strike into sharp focus.

“We are truly sorry for any in-
convenience this strike may be
causing you. The strike was delib-
erately provoked by the Labor Re-
lations Department of the Greater
Vancouver Regional District which
negotiates for most municipalities
in the Lower Mainland, including

_ the City and District of North Van-

couver.

“They provoked the strike by
demanding cutbacks in our agree-
ment.”

The circular then gave the fol-
lowing examples of proposed cuts:

1. The agreement provides for
paid sick leave up to 20 days a year.
Now, the GVRD wants the em-
ployees to pay for the first two
weeks of sickness — out of their
own pockets.

2. The agreement provides for
retirement and severance pay,
which provisions the GVRD wants
to eliminate.

“These benefits were gained in
lieu of wages over many years of
hard bargaining. They should not

‘be taken away from employees

RIBUNE

lished weekly at Suite 101
este : VBL 3X9. Phone 251-1186 %

| Read the paper that fights for labor

Vancouver, B.C.

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Se A

—

well.”
The circular listed the two key
union demands as follows:
@ Equal pay for work of equal
value. This applies mainly to WO-

men employees who make up the» -

majority of the office employees. —

Their basic rate is more than $2 an

hour below the basic rate for af”
outside laborer. ;
@ A substantial catch-up in the”
form of a general wage increasé-
During the Trudeau wage control
period and subsequently, wages for
public employees fell behind the

rate of inflation, and slipped badly

in relation to the private sector.

Addressing itself to the question

of tax increases that might follow —
the new wage settlement, the cil”

}

cular made the following com
ment: > ‘ '

“This need not result in any in-
crease in taxes. It would, howevets
require a redistribution of munh
cipal expenditures — a cut in the
subsidies to developers and othet
big business interests and the use of
these funds to provide more set
vices to residents.

“Furthermore, the revenues of
the two municipalities could be
greatly increased if big commercial
and industrial properties were aS __
sessed at their true market value. —
Today, they are under-assessed and
do not pay their fair share of taxes:
Our municipal councils are doing
nothing to correct this inequity.””

The message to the public com-) .

vices to the public and fair wages”
for employers! Let’s get back to the”
negotiating table and reach a fait
settlement!” |

CUPE Local 389, which is rep
resented in the central negotiatin’

_ cludes with this call: “Good sef-

committee for the Lower Mait- .

land, is to be congratulated for it
ongoing efforts to explain the 1°
sues to the residents of their tw
municipalities. Itisto be hoped that
the central negotiating committe’
will step up its publicity campaigt”
and take its message to the public i?
a more appropriate fashion. E
Every reader of this article wh

lives in the area affected by this dis
pute should do everything possible
to help settle this dispute. For
ample, you can send aletter to you!
mayor and council demanding q
negotiations be resumed on #
meaningful basis, with all issu
subject to negotiations. It is my Ua
derstanding that this was the post
ure of the union representative
when they met with the GVRD
gotiators on Feb. 16, but Grahai

Leslie and his colleagues refused ©
recognize the movement represent
ed in the union proposals, and thé
new possibilities for serious negoU"
ations. ;

—i1416 Commercial Drive,’

SS A ea Os Sade tl ieee aie

6 months $7 o