LU

LABOUR

Continued from page 1

She said the ombudsman’s
report is proof that a Royal
Commission into the WCB’s

tions should be implemented
now, the report only touches on
a few aspects of workers’ com-
pensation in B.C., said Allevato.

She also said arguments
against instituting the recom-
mendations on the grounds
these would be too costly, “fare
ludicrous. That $263-million
surplus Nielson is talking about
would go a long way to solving
all the inequities and faults in
the present system.”

Trade unionists say the first

18 of Owen’s recommenda-
tions, dealing with first-stage
claims, should be implemented
immediately. They are cool,
however, to recommendations
that they say would increase the
“adversarial” nature of the
appeal process.
Among Owen’s list of sugges-
tions, some of which entail legis-
lative changes, are recommend-
ations that:

@ The WCB discontinue its
policy of suspending benefits
pending the outcome of empl-
oyers’ appeals;

@ Claimants be allowed access
to their file on request;

@ Decisions denying claims
be preceded by a letter outlining
the reasons for denial;

@ The cammissioners’ auth-
ority to overturn or reject review
board recommendations be ter-
minated.

Owen’s report also recom-
mends that the medical review

workings is needed. While sev-.
eral of Owen’s recommenda- ~

WCB reform pressed

Workers Compensation Board offices, Richmond ...

Commission is needed.

panels be independent of the
WCB, falling instead under the
authority of the independent
review board.

And the ombudsman calls
for a conference “of all inter-
ested parties” to review the
recommendations and other
WCB issues.

“T think that’s an excellent
idea, but only as a first step toa
Royal Commission,” said
CAIMAW’s Walker.

In a letter to Nielson B.C.
Government Employees Union
president John Shields urged
the implementation of Owen’s
recommendations for “the pri-
mary adjudication ‘process.

“TI am concerned that Mr.
Nielson’s initial response was
unduly negative, particularly in
light of the measured and objec-
tive analysis of the ombuds-
man,” Shields wrote.

Royal

In another letter the BCGEU
president urged Labour Minis-
ter Lyall Hanson to allow an
“independent inquiry” into the
WCB arising from the $99.3-
million payback decision.

That decision, which fol-
lowed reductions in 1987 aver-
age assessments to employers
earlier this year, was called “a
disgrace” by International
Woodworkers Canadian pres-
ident Jack Munro.

Georgetti said that “someone
has to pay for the workings of
the board. If employers don’t,
then the provincial government
will have to come up with the
money.”

He called the move “part of
the Vander Zalm government’s
strategy of putting B.C. into the
bargain basement for sale, by
offering employers an assess-
ments holiday.”

Labour in action

GEORGE HEWISON

- PSAC come to bat in a few weeks time.

~ Havilland, with bargaining at the Big Three shaping up for

AFL blasts Labour Code

EDMONTON — Bill 60, Al-
berta’s proposed new Labour
Code is a_ pro-business legal
straight jacket which the Alberta
Federation of Labour has vowed
to oppose.

AFL president Dave Werlin, in
the wake of provincial Labour
Minister Ian Reid’s introduction
of the legislation, June 17, has
promised to extend the fed-
eration’s ‘‘Change the Law”
campaign to lobby against Bill 60.
That campaign, and the turbulent
labour climate which produced it,
were the main reasons the Tory
government launched its costly
review of labour legislation in
1986.

Werlin has said the federation
will once again tour every region
of the province to mobilize both
public opinion as well as labour
against the bill. 1986 witnessed
what amounted to a total break-
down in labour relations in Al-
berta with such key battles as the
Gainers strike, and other strug-
gles including Ziedler Lumber,
Suncor and Fletcher’s Meat
products.

The Change the Law campaign,
he added emerged from these bat-
tles and its main focus, aside from
demanding sweeping labour law
reform, ‘‘was to continually re-
mind Dr. Reid and his colleagues
what the major underlying causes

”

were.

These included the employers’
widespread use of spin-off com-
panies to escape union organiza-
tion, the imposition of 25 hour
lock-outs to destroy union con-
tracts, and the hiring of scabs.

Combined with what he called
Alberta’s ‘‘antiquated, anti-union
certification process,” and pen-
sion regulations that permitted
Pocklington to seize part of the
workers’ pension funds, the
government's _ pro-business
labour policies were exposed as
the cause of hostilities.

‘Despite the overwhelming
evidence at the public hearings,
despite concerted province-wide
lobbying of MLAs, and despite a
petition with more than 20,000
signatures, the government has
introduced legislation which
either fails to address any of our
major concerns, or what is even
more serious, adds to the
anti-union, anti-labour provisions
in existing legislation,’ Werlin
said.

The federation centred on
about half a dozen major areas
and _ scores of omissions. In fact,
Werlin pointed out that the pro-
business bias is actually en-
shrined in the proposed labour
code’s preamble.

It talks about labour relations in
the framework of ‘‘the competi-
tive world-wide market economy

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 15, 1987

*’ and bases them “‘on a com-
mon interest in the success of the
employing organization ...”

So the intent is to develop a
labour relations climate in Alberta
serving business interests rather
than protecting workers’ rights.

Included among labour’s com-
plaints against Bill 60 are:

e A section banning picket line
solidarity, or publicizing a boy-
cott by anyone not striking, or
employed by the company in the
dispute;

@ Introduction of a forced
mediation process where the min-
ister can unilaterally appoint a
mediator after 60 days of bargain-
ing, who in turn can recommend
the minister appoint a mediation
board;

@ Permission for employers to
force a vote on their final offer
whenever they choose to do so;

@ The “right” for workers to.

exempt themselves from union
membership. on_ religious
grounds, while enjoying the full
wage, benefits and working con-
ditions negotiated in a union con-
tract;

' @ Limitless authority for the
government to force workers into
consultative procedures bypass-
ing unions, and the creation of
multi-sector labour relations and
employment standards advisory
councils with unknown mandates
and powers.

‘noose tightens around the trade union throat.

_words of the former provincial deputy labour minister,
_ stitutes ‘“‘legislative violence’’ against workers, i

Are the lesson
of unity

being leamed

by leadership?

There is a great deal of concern in the trade union moveme
that the specially-called meeting of the Canadian Labour Co:
gress later this month will deal with the Canadian Autoworke
Fish incident as the main agenda item.

If this proves to be the case it will be a collective tragedy fe
labour, especially if the meeting is not used to quickly consign the
divisive issue to history and forge the new unity demanded
these times of intense struggle.

The time and energy of Canada’s top trade union leaders wo’
be better spent preparing labour for the biggest test ofits history

Licking its wounds
Canada Post, and the Mulroney Government, have just taken
licking from the Letter Carriers and the trade union movement
despite the unprecedented use of government strikebreakers a
violence gagainst workers.
The government has gone off to lick its wounds, but has swo
to be back.
Harold Dunstan, chief spokesperson for Gafenh Post, appeé
intent on taking another run at postal workers during ‘the ne
round of the continuing saga at the post office when CUPW

The CAW is locked in serious union-bashing combat at.

tember.

Tightening the noose
The United Food and Commercial Workers union isin ah
long clash with the Western Groceries chain, and the Big: fo
conglomerates.
The Steelworkers, who almost escaped 1987 bargaining
scathed, are in a classic strike at Cominco in British Columbi
This is but a sampling of what some of the major union
going through. The registry is far from complete.
Then there’s the politico-legal front:
Merv Lavigne and the NCC have just scored again as the le;

Bill Vander Zalm has rammed through legislation whith: int

Ss sentiments. of British Columbians. —

* Neanderthal cousins
sa Next pa in VaAlbertali Vander Zalm’s neanderthal cousin .

Petes have just confirmed that they too have learned not
from last year’s Gainers’ dispute. Premier Don Getty has br.
in amendments to the Labour Code which make the act worse!
—> (as if that was possible).

Grant Devine, in Saskatchewan, fas eed to sell

and in face of police ae
tees have moved out into
: f democratic opinion. —