PHILLIP LEGG REGION PROTESTS RATE INGREASE By PHILLIP LEGG Regional Assistant Research Director The Regional Council No. 1 of the IWA, the B.C. Federation of Labour, and the Tele- communications Workers Union have joined forces to protest B.C. Tel’s application to the Canadian Radio-Televi- sion and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for an increase in telephone rates. The rate increase application is being re- viewed by the CRTC at central hearings held in Vancouver. At these hearings inter- venors (i.e. those opposed to the application) are allowed to present evidence and cross- examine B.C. Tel officials on the issue of the rate application. The hearings, which started September 30 and will last until the end of October, are conducted along the lines of a court trial with the rate increase being the disputed issue and the panel of three commissioners being the final judge. From the outset of the hearings the trade union group has focused on two main issues: 1) Given that increased telephone rates effect everyone in B.C., the structure of the CRTC hearings should be changed to be more representative of telephone sub- scriber interests. More specifically, we argued that the hearings be expanded to include those communities most signi- ficantly affected by changes in the B.C. Tel network that would result from this rate increase. 2) In 1977, when the CRTC approved B.C. Tel’s last application for a rate increase, the commission directed the company to develop quality of service indices in order that the commission and telephone subscribers have some concrete evidence that increased rates yield better quality service. B.C. Tel has complied with the letter rather than the spirit of this direc- tive. The labour group’s position has been to reject the application because B.C. Tel has not provided specific evidence on how an increase in sub- scriber rates will lead to better quality telephone service. With reference to the issue of a more repre- sentative CRTC structure, it should be pointed out that the commission has scheduled a number of regional public meet- ings in four communities outside Van- couver; Vernon, Cranbrook, Dawson Creek and Victoria. The purpose of these meetings is to allow residents in those communities to express their point of view on the applica- tion for a rate increase. Our objection to the structure of regional public meetings is that they are not constituted as a decision making forum but rather a public relations sham on the part of the commission that is designed to convince telephone subscribers 10/Lumber Worker/October, 1980 outside the Vancouver area that their concerns will be properly considered in the decision on the application. We argued before the commission that the regional public meetings should have the same status as the central hearings being held in Vancouver i.e. that people attending the regional hearings should have the right to present evidence and cross-examine B.C. Tel officials. After hearing our argument on the expanded hearings issue the commission ruled against our motion. We, in turn, are appealing this decision to the federal courts in an attempt to have the commission’s decision overruled. Although our pre liminary appeal has been rejected we are now attempting to seek a ruling from the Federal Appeals Court on the issue. Another issue that is the focus of a great deal of debate at the central hearings is the service quality issue. The thrust of the argu- ment put forward by the labour group and other intervenors starts from the position that telephone service is like any other com- modity that consumers purchase. That being the case, subscribers have the right to know exactly what they are purchasing when they receive telephone service. At present, the telephone company does not provide that information; it is like buying a bag of flour without knowing how much isin it. Importance of service quality to the present application for a rate increase is two fold. In the first instance, B.C. Tel subscrib- ers have the right to know whether their monthly phone bill is justifiable in terms of the phone service they received in that month. The evidence presented so far indicates that the service supplied by B.C. Tel is inferior to the service supplied by other phone companies across Canada, even though B.C. Tel’s monthly rates are in most cases equal to or greater than the rates charged by other telephone companies. The second aspect of this issue is the question of whether the proposed rate increases will be used to supply better quality phone service. At the center of this issue is whether B.C. Tel operates in the best interests of its sub- scribers or in the best interests of parent company, General Telephone and Elec- tronics of Connecticut. The position put forward by the intervenors is that the rate increase will be used to finance the purchase of GTE equipment and an increase in the rate of return for B.C. Tel shareholders (GTE controls 51% of B.C. Tel shares). The combined efforts of the labour group at these hearings represent a unique endeavor on the part of working people to demand a more responsible level of corporate behavior from regulated private monopolies. “One look at them guys sloppin’ in off a side hill makes ya wanna quit before ya start!” RAJ CHOUHAN IWA TO BACK FARMWORKERS’ UNION IWA convention delegates pledged or- ganizational and financial support to the Canadian Farmworkers’ Union after hearing the Farmworkers’ president, Raj Chouhan, describe the deplorable condi- tions farmworkers were forced to put up with. Chouhan told the convention that the workers had little protection under the law and the farm owners took advantage of this to treat them like serfs. Where it was necessary to provide the workers with accommodation, the farmers usually housed them like cattle. Toilet facilities were of the roughest and seldom was running drinking water provided. Chouhan told his audience that not only were the workers faced with these conditions but time and time again the farm owners would cheat the workers out of their wages. He stated, however, that with the forma- tion of the Farmworkers’ Union and the help of organized labour he was optimistic conditions would quickly improve for the workers. SWEDES CONTRIBUTE 00,000 KRONER Over the past few months information has been appearing more or less daily in the Swedish press on increasingly violent treatment of groups in Guatemala fighting for democracy. There was the recent drama at the Spanish Embassy when 27 agricultu- ral workers were gunned down an act to be condemned by any one with a sense of justice. The Labour Movement’s Interna- . tional Centre (AIC) in Sweden, a body representing the LO, Social Democrat Party and the Co-operative movement in the international field, has sent a gift of 50,000 kroner to the families of the agricultural workers who were so brutally murdered to express its support for and solidarity with the opposition in Guatemala.