Enis i ie Special to the Tribune PORT ALBERNI — Interna- tional Woodworkers Local 1-85 charged Monday that MacMil- lan-Bloedel-Noranda is ‘‘punish- ing”’ the Alberni Valley more than any other region in the com- pany’s operations with layoffs and plant closures. In a well-documented brief to Alberni city council, IWA Local 1-85 president Earl Foxcroft re- ment has admitted that the com- pany can no longer have a con- science for the people of Alberni. MacMillan Bloedel has stated that it is not prepared to provide a safety net for its laid-off employ- ees, he said, and has advised them instead to turn to the government. But Alberni local members are bearing the brunt of M-B cut- backs beyond the extent of the current slump, the local stated. As of last week, only 150 people vealed that senior M-B manage-’ from a total local membership of some 6,000 were working. _ Local 1-85 recording secretary Monty Mearns documented the extent of downtime in the Alberni Valley operations, demonstrating that it far exceeds that in other M-B operations. In the logging sector, he said, Alberni Valley camps have lost 110 days this year and 100 work- ers are On indefinite layoff. By comparison, camps at Shawnigan Lake and Northwest Bay have been down about. 30 days while other M-B camps at Copper Can- yon, Menzies Bay, Kelsey Bay and Port McNeill have lost be- tween 60 and 75 days this year. In the plywood sector, Alberni Plywoods has been shut down for 22 weeks so far this year and has had a crew reduction of 80, he said. In contrast, Vancouver Ply- wood has been down 13 weeks with no crew reduction. (Ironically, Vanply faced per- manent closure in 1978 because of inefficiency and antiquated equipment. Alply, on the other hand, has undergone consider- ‘able modernization. ) Mearns also pointed to differ- ences in the sawmill sector, noting that Alberni’s Somass sawmill has been down 19 weeks with a crew reduction of 600, compared to Canadian White Pine in Van- couver which has been down 10 weeks with no crew reduction. “Our MacMillan Bloedel op- erations have lost more work in the form of layoffs and cutbacks than any other area in the prov- ince,’ he said. ‘‘Together with devastating layoffs, we can also note that we are facing permanent job losses of about 1,000 people.”’ Emphasizing that small local businesses are ‘‘in the same boat as IWA members,”’ Local 1-85 first vice-president Nick Bos charged that it was M-B’s plan to “change the face of the Alberni Valley.” M-B ‘punishing Port Alberni,’ says WA © MONTY MEARNS. . . layoffs worst in Alberni Valley. Local president Earl Foxcroft told city council Monday that M-B should be reminded that its tree farm licences were granted “not only to provide company profits but also to provide contin- uity of employment. a “The trees belong to the citi- zens of B.C. andif M-Bis not pre- | pared to do something with them } to provide employment, then they should give up their tree farm | licences to someone who is,”’ he ~ declared. Gary Swann, Communist Pal- | ty candidate for the provincial | riding of Alberni, backed the un- |f ion’s stand in an interview with the Tribune this week. | “MacMillan Bloedel has the | main means of providing em-_ ployment in this area,’’ he em- | phasized. ‘‘But yet it is telling the people that it can’t provide a | ‘safety net,’ that people should | look to government. “If M-B isn’t prepared to ac- cept the responsibility that goes with its tree farm licences, then | the government should take the | company over and operate the Bete * he said. aes Continued from page 1 ment proposed rollback of wage increases won in the 1982 con- tract, pending the outcome of a court challenge the Vancouver school board is cxpected to launch against the ministry’s latest round of budget cuts. That position headed a series of recommendations over- whelmingly adopted by more than 550 local teacher represent- atives at a special BCTF confer- ence at UBC last week. Other demands adopted on the recom- mendation of the BCTF execu- tive urged teachers to: @ Maintain the existing pupil-teacher ratio; @ Fight to preserve the right to quality education; @ Make clear to the public and the provincial government that no cuts to education are justified; @ Maintain this year’s bud- get at the May, 1982 level. The conference also agreed to make the effects of the cutbacks known to their own members and to the public. BCTF locals will be urged to hold ‘‘study ses- sions’’ during the first week of federation will insert adver- ,tisements in weekend additions of the daily press prior to school opening, and sponsor televised messages. Vander Zalm’s message to the trustees was summed up by B.C. School Trustees Associa- tion spokesman Steve Bareham as, ‘‘go ahead and give whatever you want in bargaining, and we'll roll it back at the CSP board.”’ “I don’t know how in hell boards will be able to negotiate in good faith,’’ Bareham told the Tribune Tuesday. The minister’s message also contained modifications to the latest restraint measures an- nounced July 30. In an apparent effort to shift.more of what the BCSTA has called the “‘dirty -work”’ onto local boards, the | Teachers rejecting 1982 wage rollback school, while province-wide, the - ministry no longer requires that its approval be sought for to any layoffs boards may wish to ef- fect. “The crisis we face,’’ said BCTF president Kuehn to teachers at the opening of last week’s conference, ‘‘is one that threatens our working condi- tions and job security, and with them the learning conditions of our students. At an even more fundamental level, we face a crisis which threatens the very nature of the public school as an institution in our society.” Kuehn told the delegates the Socreds’ slashing of education and social service programs was something that government had wanted to do for years. The government will borrow- millions to finance B.C. Hydro, B.C. Rail and a host of mega- projects. But in the name of avoiding deficit financing they will borrow nothing to save social services, he said, charging that the refusal to borrow con- stituted ‘‘almost their only political principle.” The BCTF president also told the Tribune Wednesday that reports in the Vancouver Sun quoting him as ‘‘expecting”’ wage freezes or rollbacks in 1983 were erroneous. “The government has of- fered us two pay cuts, which would constitute a reduction of teachers’ living standards by 25 percent. But we have agreed to nothing the government has demanded,”’ he said. Kuehn ‘also clarified earlier remarks attributed to him that he agreed with BCSTA presi- dent Gary Begin that school budgets should be limited to six percent increases in 1983 and five percent in 1984, using 1982 as a base year. “T said that it would take $200 million more than the government has planned just to bring school budgets up to'the six-and-five level. But in our opinion, that’s not enough either.”’ PACIFIC TRIBUNE— AUGUST 27, 1982—Page 8 *: TWU fighting new layoffs The Telecommunications Workers Union has denounced as “thogwash”’ claims by B.C. Tele- phone that its massive layoffs are economically necessary and will launch an arbitration action to con- tend that the staff cut is the result of technological change and therefore illegal. TWU vice-president George Yawrenko made the statement Aug. 18 following receipt of a hand-delivered letter from B.C. Tel giving notice that 2,100 employees would be laid off Dec. 22 and an- other 500 temporaries would be terminated some time before that date. The layoff date — three days be- fore Christmas — gave a harsh edge to B.C. Tel’s action which has been widely seen as a vindictive re- sponse to the union’s successful court challenge of an earlier layoff notice. Only the week before, the Supreme Court had ordered the telephone monopoly to reinstate 1,800 employees who had been laid off Aug. 4 with inadequate notice. This time, the numbers of em- ployees affected was increased and the notice gave no recall date, indi- cating that the layoffs may be per- manent. Some 1,365 workers in the plant division and 735 in the clerical division are to be cut, in addition to 500 temporary employees. Adding further to the vindictive tone was company spokesman Ken Metherall who noted: ‘‘Under the first notice of layoff they would have been recalled in February.” “Tt seems the company is out to penalize the union and its members for pursuing their legal rights under the Canada Labor Code last month when the Aug. 4 layoffs were found illegal,” Yawrenko charged. “Tt is nothing less than cruel for B.C. Tel to notify these 2,600 em- ployees they can now look forward to a Christmas that begins with un- employment,”’ he said in a state- ment. Yawrenko dismissed as ‘“‘hog- wash’’ company claims that the layoffs are the result of economic necessity. ‘‘There is no evidence that we have or that the company has submitted to any government or other body that they in fact have valid economic problems,’’ he said. e He pointed out that B.C. Tel had inserted a notice in | newspapers the same day announcing a zoning ap- plication to allow the company to build a multi-storey office building and training facility in Burnaby. “Tt’s outrageous that B.C. Tel tries to claim that it will have no money to pay the wages of 2,600 of its employees in six months when, at the same time, they are launch. ing new projects which will put millions more dollars into further capital expansion.” B.C. Tel representative Metheral insisted that the layoffs were eco- nomic, claiming that the staff cuts had to be increased from the origi- nal notice because ‘‘the economy has done anything but improve since June when the first notice was issued.”’ But problems of the economy have not buffeted B.C. Tel too hard. Even before it received the benefits of telephone rate in- creases, the company enjoyed a first quarter profit in 1982 of $15.9 million. A May 26, 1982 notice to shareholders announced a 40-cent dividend on shares. The TWU is contending that the layoffs are dictated by the com- pany’s program of modernization and technological change but, be- cause of existing protective clauses in the collective agreement restrict- ing layoffs which result from tech- nological change, B.C. Tel is seek- ing to use the current economic cli- mate to reduce the work force. Under the current agreement, members with two years’ seniority cannot be laid off for reasons of tech change and those with less sen- RIBUNE City or town Postal Code lam enclosing: lyr. $14 O 2 yrs. $25 0 6 mo. $8 O Old New() Foreign 1 year $16 0 Bill me later 1 Donation$.......... CLI LP LF ET ED LY LP EF MP LET LEY LEP A, Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 Read the paper that fights for labor RE 2 0h 9 eee 5. 0.0 co 0 ata neiel-s .s ete We 4) ORE lie ig tas Mae ee be ts Ee Mee ge rte ee ee ie, a ae Ve ee ete ee en eet tices hs Name Ames: Ps een \ iority must still have one year’s NO” | tice of layoff. - TWU president Bill Clark em phasized earlier that B.C. Tel has: “never been happy” with thos? clauses and would seek any avenvé to get around them. “We do not accept that thes layoffs are above board and we continue to fight them from every angle we can find to protect the rights of our members,” said Yaw” renko, bert confirmed Wednesday that thé union is now in the process of sete ting a date and securing a chairmal | for an arbitration to determine) whether B.C. Tel is, in fact, laying off staff for reasons of technologi cal change and therefore acting i legally. Also undoubtedly linked with BiG: Tel’s punitive action are UP” coming talks on a new collective agreement to replace the old ont which expires Dec. 31, 1982. A recent union bargaining col” ference put a top priority on # catch-up wage increase for T members and the first talks on 4 new contract are set to begin in Sep tember. Clearly B.C. Tel is seekiné to set a climate for those talks wil? its claims of economic difficultié® and the layoffs are aimed at softel” ing up the bargaining stance set by the convention. Yawrenko also emphasized cat the layoffs are ‘‘a public issue.’ “Tf the company is allowed 0 proceed with these layoffs alrea@) inadequate staffing will deterioral® and customer service will suffet badly,” he warned. ~ TWU business agent Linda He