Labour — The Office and Technical Employees Union is locked into battles with two major B.C. utilities — and contracting out is the key issue in both cases. Conducting a strike vote July 14-19 are 487 OTEU members at B.C. Gas, owned by Inland Gas and formerly a division of the Crown corporation B.C. Hydro. Meanwhile, members employed at B.C. Hydro voted 73 per cent in favour of strik- ing in polls around the province under the supervision of local community people in late May and early June. The union served job action notice July 6. The 2,300 Hydro office and clerical workers will vote again in late July since the corporation sought and received an order from the Industrial Relations Council declaring the spring vote, conducted with- out IRC supervision in line with the labour boycott of Bill 19, invalid, said OTEU spokesperson Paula Stromberg. The company has refused to discuss the issue of contracting out, which has seen several B.C. Hydro operations sold off, Stromberg said. B.C. Hydro sold its cafeteria operation to White Spot restaurant owner Peter Toigo’s catering firm, and its mailing operations to a private courier. It is looking at contracting out payroll and billing operations to the Bank of Montreal, she reported. Inits most controversial move, it divested itself of its natural gas operation last year. Stromberg said Hydro, management refuses to negotiate even though the union reduced its initial wage proposal from 12 per cent in each year of a two-year contract to 10 per cent each year. The company, OTEU sets strike vote which said it would return to the table if the union lowered its demands, has not budged from offers of four per cent and five per cent. The company “wasted” close to $1 mil- lion in consultants fees last year and has paid dividends to the province of $102 mil- lion this year. It predicts increased pay- ments per year of $130 million, $170 million and $200 million through 1992, Stromberg noted. “Yet they’re still claiming they can’t give employees a raise.” The OTEU wants contracting out lan- guage similar to that included in contracts held by the International Woodworkers- Canada and the Telecommunication Work- ers Union. It stipulates that contracting out not be done in areas that are part of “‘nor- mal growth,” said Stromberg. - The union wants a master agreement to cover all Hydro operations. But the corpo- ration is asking the IRC to rule that Power- tech Labs, a subsidiary, is a separate employer. “This is what we call slow motion privat- ization,” said Stromberg, adding that B.C. Hydro is arguing for the ruling on the grounds that calling subsidiaries part of the corporation is “slowing down privatiza- tion.” At B.C. Gas, talks broke down with the company’s refusal to discuss contracting out language. It also wants a two-tier wage agreement as part of the integration of two collective agreements. This would be the first agreement between the OTEU and the recently privat- ized gas division. Hospital pact OK’d B.C.’s unionized hospital workers rati- fied a collective agreement that a union offi- cial says breaks new ground on worker input into health and safety, working condi- tions and contracting out. Hospital Employees Union secretary- business manager Sean O'Flynn said the union also achieved its “big objective” in securing a two-year contract. It expires April 1, 1991. Some 25,000 HEU members at 141 health care institutions last week voted 70 per cent in favour of the agreement, recommended by the leadership, that pro- vides total wage hikes of 13.1 per cent, benefit hikes of 1.6 per cent, and $2.5 mil- lion for retroactive classification claims. Ina release July 11 O’Flynn said the new provisions “will enable the union to deal with several ongoing problems in the work- place.” He told the Tribune the agreement estab- lishes a joint union-management study on the use of licenced practical nurses, orderlies and nurses assistants. The HEU and several supporting unions staged demonstrations at Vancouver Gen- eral Hospital last year over the layoff of practical nurses and other staff in hospital nursing teams and their replacement by reg- istered nurses. The union said the supposed cost-cutting measures, designed to cope with government underfunding, would in fact cost the hospital more while reducing staff. The union also warned that the use of RNs for all tasks mirrored plans already underway in the United Stated. The new agreement also sets up a com- mittee on contracting out. It will not have the power to cancel contracting plans, but can make recommendations to manage- ment. The pact also empowers the occupational health and safety committee to make representations to the employer and grieve violations of provisions on work loads, O’Flynn said. And it sets up training for employees in the handling of violent patients, he noted. O’Flynn said institutions covered by HEU contracts have been forced to take on more seriously disturbed mental patients as a result of the provincial government’s phase- out of mental care institutions such as Riverview. O’Flynn acknowledged that the new provisions “don’t have the teeth we’d like them to have. But they are in the agreement for the first time.” The agreement covers 25,000 of HEU’s 29,000 members. The HEU members went on strike June 22, after spending more than a week off the job respecting picket lines by the B.C. Nurses Union. The Health Sciences Associ- ation, representing health care technicians, also respected the nurses’ picket. Gea a Mane aed MO Naot Na SR mh MD Me CR RE ny DANG MN AED MR MS MS EE Ge Me MS Ma SRM i i i a FUBUNE ! . é i E I Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street | | Vancouver, B.C. V5K 125. Phone 251-1186 i a Names oe re re ee if i re ee : : Sic SE Ey CO Poasn Code 4... .5... . Sa 2 | lamenclosing 1yr.$200 2yrs. $350) 3yrs.$500 Foreigniyr.$320 § z Bill me later ~—Donation$........ - i Leenseenasmeesenes : bak 8 « Pacific Tribune, July 17, 1989 Closed sessions won defeat Tory Art Kube reported to the June 10-12 meeting of the Pro-Canada Network (PCN) that the Canadian Labor Con- gress was focusing on the Unemploy- ment Insurance cuts, and would be lobbying MPs until the end of August. He said “every labour council will be encouraged to set up coalitions to apply pressure on MPs.” Kube emphasized the need for educa- tion in preparation for greater mobiliza- tion. He ended on a lower note, saying “the CLC feels there is not a feeling out there for stronger action”. Brother Kube may well be right about what the CLC feels. But the other side of what the CLC is up to was not reported at the PCN meeting. The CLC and the Canadian Federa- tion of Labour are taking part in yet another series of meetings with business organized through the Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre (CLMPC). A meeting held at the begin- ning of June was chaired by Barbara McDougall, the minister of employment and immigration. The subject was the reallocation of the $1.3 billion gutted. from the UI program. This was a few days before the PCN meeting, and it’s possible that Kube wasn’t told about the meeting. The information came to light in a speech by Arthur Kroeger, deputy minis- ter for employment and immigration, when he spoke to a June 14 gathering of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Associa- tion (CMA) in Halifax. John MacLennan t LABOUR IN ACTION Kroeger said the old approach was to invite various interest groups to submit briefs. But “the trouble with proceeding in this way is that you end up with wish- lists, and are then stuck with the impos- sible task of trying to reconcile them.” At the end of this process all the different bodies then turn on the government, he claimed. Kroeger told the manufacturers that it was the advice of the CLMPC which saved the day and got the government off - the hook. The approach of the CLMPC is to get various contending parties to argue out their differences among themselves first, and only then have them come to government with proposals, said the deputy minister. Kroeger noted that the tone of the meeting “was highly constructive and provided grounds for optimism about the future.” It was agreed that CLMPC will set up six task forces made up of representatives from each of the major “stakeholders” to address a number of areas. Each task force is supposed to pro- duce a document by mid-September reflecting the consensus attained on the assigned subject and, if desired, an identi- fication of remaining areas of disagree- ment. The results of the task forces’ work will then be discussed at a series of sym- posiums that the CLMPC will organize in the fall. These will be informal, closed door affairs of 50 or so participants in each case. budget q LEO GERARD... iflabouris goingto | sit down with big business it must b@ | on the basis of labour’s program. The objective is to arrive at whatevel | degree of agreement may prove possible | on the major programs and issues facing the government in the use of the funds» that are expected to be available for te allocation. Once again, the CLC seems to be pub |” ting more energy into sitting down with | the government than fighting the pro- posed UI cuts. Leo Gerard pointed out at the CLC meeting of the heads of unions 19 | Toronto Feb. | that if the labour move- | ment is going to sit down with business and government, then this has to be 0 the basis of labour’s program. It is cleat that when the CLC sat down with the | employment and immigration ministe?, labour’s program was checked at the | door. Any of the fightback in Canada at the moment is in spite of the leadership of the CLC. It is being led by the unions involved with saving VIA Rail, the fishermen on both coasts, and the nurses in both B.C. and Quebec. The lead in the fight against the Tory agenda was taken by the women’s movement though the National Action Committee’s (NAC) campaign to “De Rail the Budget”. Kube may be right when he says “the CLC feels there is not a feeling out there for stronger action.” But if you take the | pulse of the workers from the confines of | company board rooms and closed meet- ings, you aré sure to come up with af answer that meets your expectations. It’s only the labour movement that has the ability and organizational skills to unite all the forces against the neo- _ conservative Tories. This will take an | all-out effort. It can’t be done while hold- | ing hands and having nice cozy, cordial | talks with big business and its Tory government. | Correction from the last week’s columm | An editorial error had us incorrectly | reporting that a reception organized by NUPGE president John Fryer for Franck Boulin of the WFTU was held in November. Fryer met Boulin in Novem- ber, the reception the CLC chose to boy- cott was in March 1989.