Page 4, The Herald, Friday, May 2, 1960 . _ an | 7 oe aE So tte (TERRACE/KITIVAT “daily herald — General Ottice - 635-6357 “Published by Circulation - 635-4357 - = Sterling Publishers .PUBLISHER - Calvin McCarthy EDITOR - Greg Ailddieton ~ -” CIRCULATION. — - 4 - TERRACE & KITIMAT: who CUT. . Publishad every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Varlfted Circulation. Authorized as second class mali. Registration number 1201. Postage paid In cash, return postage guaranteed. . NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, complete and sols copyright in any advertisement produced and-or any edHorlat or photographic content published In the Herald. Reproducfian is not permitted without the written: | Permasee of the Publisher.” : —_— |. otawis,Federal centralization ~ the « | of power in Ottawa ~ has large sectors mee "While in no way associating themselves Rene. Levesque or hig banana republic dr “ Quebec, Premiers Peter. Lougheed of Al "Blakeney of Saskatchewan and Brian Peckft “Newfoundland Jhave been ‘protesting what the: sider has been Ottawa's greedy ripoff of their resot " income.’ re nas ~ Ontario has been more or less silent, having had, until very recent years, the best of everything that's . > ye ovince ~ in comparison to rich. Alberta, | chewan and British Columbia ~ is in line for federal " equalization poyments, but so far, with a sound sense of national decency, has kept its hand out of the _ federal till. a Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince. Edward Island - aa | vot and Nova. Scotia, too, might feel like super-rich _ ne ‘| ‘Alberta and Saskatchewan if they had the resource . a wealth. ; cet fe, 4 And who knows that New Brunswick might not be on ' ooo): Sits way with its potash, forest products industry and - '. -7 . 7" mineral development? ol NS : _ The thing is that centralization as against decen- tralization is the hottest thing going in the. country’s . + federal-provincial shop. . s The wonder is that it always has been - right from _ thé very outset at Confederation. © pos Itcomes home to you when you walk into Sir John A. Macdonald’s beautiful old home clese-by the Ontario . | | a TALK ): The right to work is one nobody would argue with. Mention right-to-work laws, on the other hand; and buelnessmen,. - trade unionists and politicians hit the roof.’ What is right-to-work legislation and why does it have the power to send the province's political temperature soaring? “Well, first of all, right-to-work is a mignomer,” explained Paul Weiler, then headof B.C.’s Labor Relations Board, in an’ interview last year. “Nobody's advocating any kind of ab- : solute right to work.” |, 7 ; co “Nobody in the right-to-work part of the employers’. community is suggesting that employers will be denied the right to fire people for cause, or that employers will be denied the right to lay people off if they feel that's economically _ rensible,” he said. ; . lakefront in Kingston. — Oo ‘There is Canada’s first Prime Minister, in a score of ‘historic pictures. - _ i . Two stand out. — - 4 One a stunning. old and lovingly preserved lithograph — colors still. sharp — of Sir Jom A, sheathed in the-Union Jack,, proclaiming: ae | J “One party. One policy. . One flag." ; But out on the lawn of the beautifully’manicured | estate, from the flag staff flies not Sir John's:“one flag," the Union Jack, but the Red Maple Leaf on a Essentially, right-to-work Jaws .as practiced. in the U.S. deny unions the security clauses in labor contracts that give them exclusive authority to bargain for all the employees in . the sectors that they represent. Thay have been passed - | mostly in southern states like Georgia and'Alabama. ==. In B.C. some businessmen have called for the introduction of right-to-work laws in this province to curb what they see as foo much union power. _ ‘ . They want to see an end to the closed shop situation where potential employees at a unionized work place must join the union before geiting the job. Employers miust hire from the _ field of white, former Prime Minister Lester Pear- mnon. _ : ' son's new Canadian ensign, ink vas the ta ' id’ You protest that it’s scarely in keeping he tone But David McIntyre of the B.C, Federation of Labor said . closed shop agreements are actually very smallinnumberin =f | He] at 1067, 80 authentically preserved through the rest of Be: | a a . E ‘ophis is federal property, you know,” chides ‘the. - The biggest number of agreements'in this province — \ ‘ curator, “and that is the flag of Canada.” . Never mind that Sir-John, even in his deepest _ whiskey-cblored dreams; probably 'never-sét eyes’on ‘this red maple leaf. © 0 0 Vn eee It has been'— and likely will continue being ~ a source of irritation and controversy between historial purists and federal centralizers, = sw But the sharpest of two standouts is an old wood engraving of a newspaper cartoon. a it shows Sir John, Beleaguered, hunched atop a pile of heavy slabs of stone shaped like a flat-topped pyramid. : Ds Below, clamoring at the foot of this stone, creation, which vaguely suggests a throne, are the premiers of ut 70 per cent, he said — are union, toe certain ; renew employees must join the union’ cert ntimber of dave alter belng hired’ Empleyer# can hire who “~ they like, Ce oy Another kind of agreement is that based on the Rand Formula. This means that dissenting émployees at the work place are not compelled to join the unlon along with the 4 majority but they must pay union dues the same. Trade unionists argue that, since the laws require majority support among the employeesof any particular shop beforea union 13 recognized, the wishes of the majority should be - respected. And since even those employees who opposed the union receive its protection and benefits, they also have to contribute in the form of union dues. They see right-to-work proposals as an attempt fo torpedo the labor movement by eliminating security clauses. And any such attempt would be fought tooth and nail. : “The immediate regult of that (passage of right-to-work Jaws) would be a major; massive confrontation between — employers and trade unions in the organized sector,” predicted Weller. “By and large, the right-to-work ‘movement ip con- ‘ centrated among the unorganized sector,” he said. ‘‘If the government chooses to support unorganized employers in - their wih to fend off any kind of unionization, the whirlwind would be reaped by the employers in the organized sector.” Weller said employers in the organized sector had ‘very sensibly” come aut against such laws. “William Hamilton, president of the influential Employers’ Council of B.C. agreed with Weiler, saying, ‘We would not support right-to-work legislation. When you have a system which has developed over 30 or 40 years, and you have . “Think Pe gat a bite!” New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec, the original and founding provinces of the then Con- federation, created by royal proclamation by Queen - Victoria of the British North America Actin 1867.. even then, back 113 years ago? . Centralization.- oon ‘They are railing against it and accuiing Sir John d his new federal government of usurping power - And you know what the premiers are howling about, 7 : ‘their power, provincial power. They're in a frenzy, caught up ina mock war dance, and bringing the scene up to date, they might be "shouting “We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more.” But they did, and to this day, but not necessarily for “a great deal longer, are taking it. As you stand there, fascinated by the old wood cut, an old spinnet in Sir John's parlor begins playing ~ a ghoat, or at least a tape is at the keys - delicate old songs from the days of “one party, One policy. One relations between unlons and management that are by and’ —_ toe, Ca ahh flag.” - large satisfactory, I don't see why you have to wipe out by : ei TERT a 23:75 legislation a part of if thiat isso instrumentel to labor.” a “The bitterness, the recriminations, theresults would be so a much more devastating that what might flow from ‘The bitterness, the recriminations, theresulta would be go much more devastating that what might flow from the ‘cure’,”” he said. , Labor leaders have also been concerned by recent laws limiting strikes in the essential services area, originally affecting only firefighters, hospital workers and police of- cers. ; The 1977 Essential Service Disputes Act adds a whole series of public employees to the lat of categories covered by the Act, including employees of wb.C, Hydro, 1.C.B.C. and thi Workers’ Compensation Board. The act, In effect, could be used to exclude about one hundred thousand public employees from striking, a cruclal weapon in the collectinve bargalning process for all other unionized employees. Former B.C. Minister of Labor Allan Williams took pain ta point out that the law only takes effect when the normal collective bargaining process has broken down and where @ work stoppage would endanger health and safely, damage the provincial economy or disrupt education. When those conditions are met, the provincial cabinet can : a £ ; order suspension of the work stoppage for a cooling-off period ‘og Ts we EE SD a eee, ; _of 80 days while a special government fact-finder may in- ; . ; Oh a SOVEREIGNTY-~ vestigate the case.. _ ir ee ee _ J ASSOCIATION In case of work stoppage, the cabinet may also ask the =. ; wt ma Pp Sees Bo be “hae . Labor Relations Board (LRB) to designate which services provided by the employees are essential and order them continued. . This heppened during the 1976 strike at the Vancouver General Hospital. The LRB designated a number of hospital — employees as essential, ordering them to continue working behind union picket lines, on penalty of being fined 1,000 dollars each, ft was then forced ta protect those employees from retaliation by the union, which was tried to expel! them for crossing the picket lines, The LRB said the union's position was “kafkaésque”’, ee as oe