10

W. GEORGIA

Continued from page 1

Zander also announced that
the committee sent a telegram
with the concerns to immigration
and manpower minister Lloyd
Axworthy that day, ‘“‘but so far,
there’s been no response.

“‘There will be more
demonstrations, definitely.”’

Downstairs the rally was in
progress, with speakers that in-
cluded an alderman, an MP and
labor leaders interspersed with
sing-alongs led by labor singer
Phil Vernon.

Unemployed committee chair-
man George Hewison told the
crowd that the commission’s
failure to update was one reason
for claims foul-ups.

““They’ve got a computer
system that works just fine with
four percent unemployment. But
we haven’t seen that figure for 25
years. Now it’s officially 16 per-
cent, and in reality more like 20
percent in B.C.,”’ he said.

“To make matters worse, the
UIC is engaging in layoffs,’’ he
shouted through a bullhorn
over the roar of Georgia Street
traffic.

“But the bottom line is: we

ALBERNI MP TED MILLER... - ‘organize, demonstrate to get gov't action,’

MP backs jobless action

don’t want unemployment in-

_ Surance, we don’t want welfare

— We want jobs!’’ he said to
cheers from the crowd.

Libby Davies, the newest
alderman from the Committee of
Progressive Electors elected to
Vancouver city council, said she
knew of the frustrations jobless
experience with UI and welfare
claims from the years she worked
on claims assistance as a leader of
the Downtown Eastside
Residents Association.

“The fact that we’re here today
shows the unemployed are
Prepared to be united and de-
mand changes. We can be a
power alongside the labor move-
ment,’’ she said.

Davies also noted that he labor
backed members of city council
had voted ina no-layoffs, no cuts
to social services budget for 1983.

NDP MP Ted Miller (Alberni)
gave his full support to the pro-
test, saying, “‘demonstrations like
this are the only way to get action
in this country,”’

Pointing to the UIC offices, he
said: “If Ottawa can hear, maybe
it will get the message and we can
get some jobs in this country.

Carry on and keep. up the
fight,” he urged.

Supported by local labor councils,

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Several members of the Inter-
national Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers, Local 213, said
many of their members had been
of work for six to eight months.
“Aug. 13 was the last time I drew
a pay cheque,” said one.

The protest was the culmina-
tion of weeks of organizing effort
by the unemployed committee
and volunteers at the action cen-
tre (there are now 25 such centres

according to the B.C. Federation
of Labor).

At a press conference the
preceding Friday called to an-
nounce the demonstration and a
just-concluded meeting with UIC
officials, Zander held up a chart
outlining the percentage of case
complaints at each area commis-
sion Office.

“People sometimes let their
claims slide because they hope
they find work. When they finally
turn to UIC to open their claim,
they’re told they won’t be paid for
the elapsed time,” said Zander in
outlining one of several com-
plaints the action centre has been
handling.

“But when we step in to help,
they’ll rescind that decision,”’ she
said.

_ Worker grieves UIC order

The case of an Unemployment
Insurance Commission agent who
was ordered by her employer to
cease volunteer work at the New
Westminster Labor Council’s
unemployed action centre supports
claims that the commission is shut-
ting the door to jobless advocates.

Christine Beynon, a claims agent
with the Coquitlam office has filed
a grievance through her union, a
component of the Public Service
Alliance of Canada, in an attempt
to reverse the order.

She had worked one day on her
own time at the action centre
counselling unemployed workers
about claims procedure, an activity
which a co-ordinator at another ac-
tion centre said is forbidden by
UIC regional heads.

“Some agents have indicated to
us that they want to help,”’ said

Vancouver action centre co--

ordinator Kim Zander, ‘‘but they
are told they can’t on their own.”?

Action centre volunteers must
communicate with the commission
concerning claims information
through designated liaison people
under the supervision of the office
manager, according to Zander.
Agents who cooperate with action
centre workers on their own do so
at the risk of “‘prosecution’’, she
said.
In other comments Zander has
said the commission, which initial-
ly provided access to information
over the phone when the centre first
opened, has applied its rules and
regulations more stringently as ad-
vocates have helped more and
more for jobless workers wint
benefits from the UIC
bureaucracy.

Beynon was ordered to stop
volunteer work with the New
Westminster centre in a Dec. 23 let-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— FEBRUARY 11, 1983—Page 12

ter from the UIC director of per-
sonnel in Ottawa, Doug Lindley.
She had worked at the centre
Nov.25, and had filed a form re-
quired where conflict of interest
might be involved and received ap-
proval from her office manager.

Union representative Julia Bar-
dos said PSAC does not consider
Beynon’s case a conflict-of-interest
situation and will argue this point at
a meeting with the commission’s
regional management next week.

Since Beynon was ordered to
stop work because of an alleged
conflict of interest, the case cannot
be sent to third-party arbitration,
as is usually the case with
grievances under PSAC’s collective
agreement.

Instead, it is covered by the
Public Service Staff Relations Act,
under which the union must con-
vince the commission itself that no
conflict of interest exists.

\me-

Richmond CUPE local
fights contracting-oul|

A petition calling for reten-
tion of the municipally-run gar-
bage collection system has
already grown to 12,000
signatures as Richmond outside
workers, members of Local 394
of the Canadian Union of
Public Employees, battle ef-
forts by the municipal council to
put garbage collection out to
private contract.

In a split 5-4 decision, Rich-
mond council voted to put the
$1 million garbage collection
contract out to tender with the
intention of contracting out by
Mar. 14. Four companies —
right-to-work advocate Len
Rempel’s Haulaway Disposal;
Smithrite, which recently
wrested garbage collection from
civic workers in North Van-
couver as well as a Texas-based
company and a smaller Surrey
company — have submitted
bids. The deadline is Feb. 22.

But advocates of contracting-
out, including mayor Gil Blair,
did not figure on the widespread
public opposition to the deci-
sion, and CUPE is pressing to
have the whole issue recon-
sidered at a council meeting
Feb. 28.

“There’s an awful lot of
public support for our
position,” CUPE Local 394

president Donn Stanley told the:

Tribune Wednesday. He added
that in several days of door-
knocking to get signatures on
the petition, members have

TWU pact backed 87%

The 11,000-member
Telecommunications Workers
Union announced Friday that
the membership voted 87 per-
cent to ratify the tentative agree-
ment hammered out earlier with
B.C. Telephone.

TWU vice-president George
Yawrenko noted that the pact
“‘was not the be-all and end-all
in settlements”’ but said that the
union was pleased to be able to
negotiate an agreement with im-
provements in security and
benefits. For years, the union
has been forced into a strike or
lockout in order to win an agree-
ment.

Yawrenko added that the tur-
nout for the ratification meeting
was particulary large.

As the Tribune reported
earlier, the two-year agreement

of six percent effective July 1,

division of B.C. Tel, include

“rarely found anyone who sup }
ports contracting out.’’ a

In addition, -the local papety |
which initially indicated |
editorial support for
contracting-out, has ‘“‘nowW™
turned around,” Stanley said. It |
has also run several pages of ler”

ters which overwhelmingly sup- ; |
Port retention of municipal gal- |

bage collection.

‘q

He said that there is a lot of |
“public fear about the bad }
reputation that private garbage |
contractors have.’’ Most are |

non-union and offer 4
minimum level of service once
the contract is established.
The CUPE president also
emphasized that in making the -

initial decision, the five }

aldermen who voted for

contracting-out ‘“‘weren’t listen- |

ing to the public,”’ as has bee
demonstrated by the petitions
and letters.

The Richmond outside
workers’ local, which once had
350 members has already been
reduced to 267 members as 4
result of cutbacks and
contracting-out of other
municipal work. Some 40 jobs
would be lost if the council gives
up municipal garbage collec-
tion.

At the same time, the private
firms have long coveted the
lucrative Richmond contract
since it is worth in excess of $1
million and involves nearly all
flat terrain with a dump site in
the immediate area.

provides for a deferred increase

1983 and a further seven percent
increase, effective Mar. | , 1984.
The old agreement expired Dec.
31, 1982.

The contract also averted the
layoff of some 2,100 employees
which was to have taken place
Dec. 22, 1982, and guarantees
no layoffs in 1983.

Other benefits in the package,
which also covers the new
Business Terminal Equipment

elimination of pay increment
steps for operators and clerical
workers, VDT rest breaks, ex-
tension of medical coverage to

part-time workers and
strengthening of technological
change provisions.

iIBUNE

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