UU UL AL dtl LABOUR Employers wielding Bill 19 in new bid for concessions By FRED WILSON The B.C. construction industry has a gun pointed at the head of this province’s build- ing trades unions, and Bill 19 is the trigger. A number of the new provisions of the Industrial Relations Act are aimed at the Building Trades particularly, notably the elimination of any meaningful successor rights or protection against double breast- ing. However, as Building Trades delegates from across B.C. head for Nanaimo and the annual convention next week of the B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council (BCYT), they looking down the barrel of a threat from the Construction Labour Rela- tions Association to use a little known pro- vision of the new Act. Bill 19 allows employers in a bargaining council to dissolve their council and bar- gaining relationship on nine months notice. And in August, just after Bill 19 became law, CLRA told the Building Trades that 70 contractors had applied to the Industrial Relations Council to get out of CLRA. Unless the unions agreed to re-open negoti- ations to discuss concessions, CLRA would disband, the employers’ group stated. Such a move by CLRA would render the Building Trades master agreement void on its conclusion next May. It obviously would signal a move by all remaining union con- tractors to go non-union. CLRA is demanding major concessions that would see the master agreement split into four: industrial, commercial and insti- tutional, residential and marine. Each would have different schedules. Soon after the BCYT convention, nego- *4tions will open, with the contractors seek- council to amend ing major concessions and the unions looking for a signed commitment that Bill 19 won’t be used to double breast and escape union commitments. The CLRA tactic of playing off one sec- tor of the industry against another, and their threat to disband and go totally non- union, is timed to take advantage of a grow- ing threat to the internal unity of the trades. The long standing divisions within the trades fostered by the international head offices and the Canadian Federation of Labour will come to a head at the conven- tion in the election to succeed outgoing pres- ident Roy Gautier. Gautier’s supporters in the BCYT have nominated Cliff Rundgren, business man- ager of Local 213 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The increasingly aggressive right wing of the trades is putting forward millright Len Werden, a member of the Provincial Coun- cil of Carpenters. The Provincial Council of Carpenters last week handed six non-union con- struction workers cheques from Labour Canada totalling $11,450 for back wages owed them by the Kerkhoff Construc- tion Group which had flouted fair wage union’s headquarters Friday, provincial council secretary Colin Snell called on the federal government to re- instate fair wage schedules in pub- lic construction. “(Labour Min- ister Pierre) Cad- ieux said he need- ed proof that fair wage protections were necessary,” said Snell. “Here it is. We call on him to reinstate the fair wage schedule for public construction immediately.” The arrival of the cheques, the largest of which is for nearly $5,600, is the latest round in a year-long fight by the Carpen- ters Union to win back wages for several construction workers who had worked on the Kerkhoff Construction Group’s project building the barracks at the Chil- liwack Army base. - After the project was completed in November, 1986, several workers learned that Kerkhoff had not paid his employees according to the fair wage schedule then SNELL Union wins more pay for Kerkhoff workers provisions on the Chilliwack army_base project. : As he turned over the cheques at the some non-union contractors are pre- for back wages on’the Chilliwack base _workers to sign their cheques and turn ‘them back to the company. still in effect on federal projects and approached the Carpenters to assist them in recovering the money. When the union filed a complaint with Labour Canada, Kerkhoff and its pay- roll agent, ALC Construction, initially made adjustments but then instructed workers to sign the cheques over to ALC if they wanted continued employment with the company. The union pressed the case with Labour Canada and Cadieux and was ultimately successful in getting an inves- tigation which confirmed the union’s charges. : “This kickback scheme shows how far pared to go to exploit and cheat their employees,” Snell said. “It highlights the need for strong fair wage legislation at all three levels of government.” The Kerkhoff Group, then known as J.C. Kerkhoff, was also involved in flout- ing fair wage provisions at the Expo site. Snell noted that the latest cheques bring the total recovered to $22,500 for the six workers who were earlier given a first payment on wages owing. He added that others, in addition to the six the union acted for, would also be receiving cheques from Labour Canada project. Ironically, one of those still owed money is Daryl Spenst, the son of the Kerkhoff superintendent who asked 12 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 21, 1987 GAUTIER (inset); section 33 of Bill 19 being used by CLRA. - Contempt | ‘proceeding Building Trades unity is also complicated by a move of six unions that make up the “mechanical trades”, including Werden’s millrights, the Plumbers, Machinists, Heat | and Frost Insulators, and the Boilermakers, | | to open separate negotiations with CLRA. There is a belief by some that the work picture for these trades is better than for the other trades and that they will be able to secure a better agreement on their own. It would also mean, of course, a weaker posi- tion for the remaining trades facing conces- sion demands. The seriousness of the threat to the Build- ing Trades bargaining council posed by the mechanical trades was underscored this -week by the move of the international office of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters to cancel the scheduled elections in Local 170 (B.C.) of the union. The Plumbers, the largest of the mechan- ical trades, was due to open nominations last Friday when the membership got the news that on application from business manager Norm Farley, the international had cancelled elections until next May or later. The international seized on the case of former business agent John Boe to cancel the election and maintain Farley in office beyond his mandate. Boe had been barred from holding office or attending meetings for life arising from a minor incident at a union meeting. He took the case to court and two weeks ago, a B.C. judge ordered him reinstated with full rights in the union in a scathing indictment of the Local 170 leadership. However, a more serious challenge to Farley’s leadership had come from former business manager John Wynn who was to have been nominated Friday to regain the business manager’s office. A victory by Wynn in the 170 elections would shift the balance in the BCYT heavily in favour of unity of all trades, and the maintenance of a strong building trades council. The cancelling of elections until May or after is seen by many as a move by the international to bolster its forces during the coming critical negotiations to accomplish a long standing goal, the dissolution of the B.C. Building Trades bargaining council. SS A A SS A Se TRIBUNE Postal Code lam enclosing 1 yr. $160] 2yrs.$280) 6mo. $100 Introductory offer, 3mo. $31 Foreign 1 yr. $250) Bill me later 0 READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOUR » 2 She ce |. 6 Me: Om, 6 e408 6.0 Db ate 02@-.0 0059 056 0 he eho. 9c: 0) Pte ere e oe i | ’ i Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street H Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. 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