Tet LABOR — Print unions block CLRA ad for scabs The B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council worked out an agreement with the Labor Relations Board Monday blocking Construction Labor Relations from con- ' tacting Building Trades workers directly to call them back to work at reduced wages. But the CLRA threat to hire non-union scabs still hung over job sites across the province as the Building Trades strike- lockout entered its second week. The LRB settlement, worked out in sev- eral days of informal hearings at the board, stipulates the CLRA “will not directly initiate any further communication or nego- tiations with individual employees in an attempt. . .to reach an agreement with indi- vidual employees concerning terms and conditions of employment.” However, the commitment does not. apply to any “unsolicited” communication that some individual employee might make with CLRA, the LRB stated. In return, the Building Trades agreed to withdraw its application before the Labor Relations Board for a cease and desist order. The LRB agreement will blunt the CLRA efforts to follow the Alberta union- busting strategy of imposing a lockout, lift- ing it and then calling Building Trades workers back to work under imposed con- tract conditions. But contractors were still attempting to recruit non-union scabs to complete con- struction work now behind picket lines. An unknown advertiser attempted to insert classified ads in the Vancouver Sun and Province last week calling for strike- breakers, but the ads were declared hot by the members of the Vancouver Typogra- phical Union and did not appear. ITU Local 226 president Harold Dieno confirmed that local members had exercised their rights under the contract not to handle the copy. Pacific Press, publishers of the Sun and Province, was expected to take the issue to the LRB although Dieno said he knew of no application yet. The LRB has already upheld the right of the ITU and the Newspaper Guild to refuse to handle hot ad copy in two earlier dis- putes, at Famous Players and Pacific West- ern Airlines. The Business Council of B.C. has appealed the Famous Players’ decision but a ruling has not yet been brought down by the board. Ads did appear in the Victoria Times- Colonist over the weekend however, inserted by Campbell Cosntruction; a CLRA-affiliated company based in Victo- ria. But they too, have now been declared hot by the ITU, Dieno said and were therefore. pulled from the paper. The ads invited applications from car- penters and construction laborers and stated that wages would be paid according to the standard CLRA contract, “plus addenda” — the 50-odd concessions writ- ten into agreements by the CLRA. The ads also stated: “Be advised it could - be necessary to cross Building Trades lines to access job sites.” Carpenters Local 1598 business agent Wayne Cox said that the union began leaf- letting outside Campbell Construction after the ads appeared. Some 30 applicants showed up during the time union represen- tatives were there, he said. The leaflet cited a CLRA memorandum sent out to member, companies advising that non-union workers would have to be told that they would only be temporary because Building Trades members would have to be called back once the dispute was settled. “They are using you as fempbisix workers,” the leaflet said. It emphasized that contractors were “counting on your desperation to act as a strikebreaker” and urged applicants: “Don’t let the employers use you this way. Don’t let them make you be a scab against your fellow worker.” _ Cox said that Campbell is the general contractor for two major projects in Victo- ria, the cancer clinic at Royal Jubilee Hospi- tal and the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral. “We don’t expect them to scab the church job — we don’t think the church would allow it,” Cox said. But he added that Campbell could try to bring scabs to the cancer clinic site, particu- larly if other contraetors attempt to breach picket lines at other sites. With the continuing threat to their unions, the Building Trades have won wide backing from trade unionists, including a pledge of full support from the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor and labor councils. Last. week, the Hospital Employees Union, itself facing demands for a wide » range of concessions, donated $5,000 to the Building Trades and pledged assistance on picket lines. Police arrest 46 pickets on line in Gainers strike Continued from page 1 The buses were still not able to get through Werlin said, but they were expected toreturn later Tuesday afternoon, or failing that, the following morning. But by then, he emphasized, “there could be thousands of unionists down there.” Picketers are coming from the Building Trades, from all over the labor movement in Alberta,” he said. After the concessions that meatpacking plant workers were forced to accept in 1984 and the beating that Building Trades workers took two years ago, at the hands of Tory-backed contractors, the Gainers strike has become the rallying point, the dispute on which to take a stand. The Fletchers’ strike is also critical but the absence of unions around Red Deer makes it. more difficult. Still, across the province, the labor movement recognizes that the time has come to take a stand, Werlin said. 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 4, 1986 He cited as an example the 24-hour dis- patch phone line for the Boilermakers, a Building Trades affiliate. When members call in — and scores call each day — they are told that the Gainers strike is the “last stand for the labor movement in Alberta” and are urged to go down and doastint on — the picket line. ““We’ve declared this a watershed — and the trade union movement has got the mes- sage,” Werlin said. The Alberta Federation if! Labor has called for a boycott of Gainers and Fletchers products throughout Alberta and has applied to the Canadian Labor Con- gress to declare a boycott country-wide. The Alberta labor movement is also demanding legislation to outlaw the use of strikebreakers: A mass rally at the provincial legislature has been called by the federation for June 12 when the legislative session opens. Demon- strators will march from there down to the , Gainers plant. BCGEU PRESIDENT JOHN SHIELDS.. drawn. .concession demands still not Rollback not off table, BCGEU sets strike notic Declaring that the government had left the union no choice, the B.C. Government Employees Union issued 72-hour strike notice Monday. The announcement, made to a press conference in BCGEU headquarters, came after months of bargaining in which government negotiators have not moved from their demand for a two-year wage freeze and concessions — on hours of work. The 35,000 member public service unit of the BCGEU voted 83.7 per cent for strike March 24. “We hoped that the government, noting the strong strike mandate, would stop making unreasonable con- cession demands and finally begin to show that they were seriously interested ‘in negotiating a fair agreement,” BCGEU president John Shields told reporters. “Unfortunately, that has not hap- pened. None of the government’s con- cession demands has been withdrawn and the union has been stonewalled on almost all of its key proposals,” he said. Shields said that the 90-day strike vote mandate ends June 23, emphasiz- ing that the government’s refusal to negotiate a new agreement “has forced the hand of the union.” The BCGEU could be in a legal posi- tion to strike as early as Thursday although government and union‘nego- tiators were expected to meet Tuesday and Wednesday with provincial media- tor Vince Ready. Shields also emphasized that any strike action would-be selective and would be aimed at minimizing the inconvenience to the public while put- ting maximum pressure on the govern- ment. Such government services as land title offices and tax centres would be likely targets if the union took strike action. Last week, BCGEU officers © ducted strike strategy meetings at m0 than 30 centres throughout the P™ vince to prepare the membership in 4} event of a strike. Although the master contract the BCGEU expired Oct. 31 last yeat the government’s negotiating positio® has remained virtually the same throughout several months of bargail ing. It has echoed the declaration by Finance Minister Hugh Curtis — su sequently reiterated in the provinel budget and in changes to the Compe sation Stabilization Program — that there would be no money for increases for government employees: That position has been coupled negotiations with government demat! for a freeze on wage increments: extended hours of work withoUl” _ increases in pay and a 50 per cent cull sick pay. Hospital workers have been CO? fronted with even more sweepifié demands for concessions, indicatin clearly that the government is bent 2 sparking confrontation with public se? tor workers in the hope of using it t political purpose under the guise ? defending “restraint.” But the 1972 election which followed a series of strikes, many of them involv” ing the former Bennett government! hated Mediation Act, has demom strated that a strike movement coult have a significant effect in defea' Social Credit if the government chose to use it as an election issue. Members of the Hospital Employ Union and the B.C. Nurses Union bi conducted strike votes and the union, the Health Sciences Association voted unanimously at its convention last weekend to conduct its first ¢ strike ballot among its 4,500 mem! eS ee De a es Ss Oe a ee a a oe ee ge IRIBUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 Name ee ee Ce ee ee ee ey Postal Code . . Ce . . . 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