LABOR — Plumbers leak tip on ensuring future — Let’s hear it for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 46 in Toronto. Last year they decided to go out and organize the non-union residential contractors in Canada’s largest city. That they did. Then, they proceeded to take these same contractors to the mat in a six-week strike be- fore extracting an outstanding contract. The new pact will mean 300 additional jobs for Local 46 members who’ ve been hard hit by layoffs. It also flys directly in the face of those who argue that it is necessary to accept concessions to win jobs. Before our readers rush to point out that wage rates in this contract are still below commercial construc- tion rates, we ought to remember that Laborers Local 183 (Toronto), first started organizing form workers~ on highrise apartments on the basis of wages well below the commercial rate, but eventually closed the gap to reach the rough parity that now exists between the commercial and residential workers. The main point, however, is that Local 46 rejected the approach contained in ‘‘Ensuring our future’’, a sleezy document that maintains, ‘“‘some agreement provisions are simply unrealistic in today’s difficult construction environment. Such provisions seriously detract from union construction’s ability to meet and beat the competition.” Collective Throat-Slitting The so-called “‘unrealistic’’ provisions are hours of work, overtime provisions, shift work provisions, holidays, reporting time and travel and subsistence pay. It’s the authors of ‘‘Ensuring our future’? who are unrealistic. This manual on collective throat-slitting is co-authored by none other than the Canadian Exe- cutive Board of the Building and Construction Trade Labor in action George Hewison Unions. They’ve evolved a simple thesis that concessions are necessary for the preservation of building trades jobs. Local 46 found a better way, by demonstrating through this settlement that if the non-union sector is providing unfair competition — organize - the non-union contractors. Amazing in its simplicity, the tactic was easily overlooked by the U.S. appointed leaders of the building trades in Canada, who are far too pre- occupied with the complex task of disorganizing the organized to consider an old trick of the Canadian rank and file — fighting back. Unified Approach Needed Yes, Local 46 is to be commended for finding a better way, under difficult circumstances. In organiz- ing the unorganized they continue to provide their members with the dignity of forward-looking union representation, superior wages and conditions and better safety. : The Pipefitters settlement also hints at what is pos- sible if the building trades put their collective muscle behind organizing the unorganized. The problems Staring at the trades urgently require a unified ap- proach. For instance, technological change is hitting the building trades in an unprecedented way, simplifying labor processes and blurring the lines between the various trades. Leadership can either meet this important development with a new spirit of inter-union coopera- tion, or opportunistically use the situation to under- mine other unions. Building trades workers need in-fighting and under- cutting of each other’s rates like they need a hole in ~ the head. The structural crisis of this economic sys- tem means that the employers for whom the Canadian Executive Board bleeds so profusely, have no interest in the kind of heavy duty projects that are required to really put Canada back to work. Taking the Gloves Off They’re in business to make a buck. Commercial construction on a mass scale needs an expanding economy, and that demands new policies. New policies mean taking off the gloves and not cozying up to the Mulroney government — a govern- ment that wants to strangle the home market by throt- tling the Canadian working and middle classes. New policies mean demanding more, not less schools and hospitals, along with a crash housing construction program. It means the development of an east-west energy grid among other things. The process starts with the tough kind of job under- taken by Local 46 and others. It starts with co- operation within the trades to take up on the em- ployers; it starts with re-uniting the House of Labor, (spelled CLC not CFL); and, it starts with fighting for arealjobs program, (which means political action), to force Canadian politicians to get serious about real, meaningful jobs — including thousands of jobs for building trades workers: The “fairness and impartiality” of the B.C. Workers Compensation Board has been systematically eroded during the res- traint years by the Social Credit govern- ment, to the benefit of employers and the increased suffering of workers, the B.C. Federation of Labor has charged. In releasing the report of the Fed’s public inquiry into the workers’ compensation sys- tem held across the province last spring, federation president Art Kube and inquiry chairman Leif Hansen called Apr. 7 for the removal of board chair Walter Flesher and for a Royal Commission into the compen- sation system. After hearing 134 submissions in 15 communities, the federation’s Occupational Health and Safety Committee came up with 38 recommen- dations which, Kube said, would be pres- ented to Labor Min- ister Terry Saggerty. The B.C. Fed presi- the blame for the calf i current state of the ai y A merlabor minster” ARTKUBE Bob McClelland, under whose direction the board rejected strong recommendations for the inclusion of farmworker safety regula- tions and enforcement procedures, closed regional offices and cut back WCB staff. ‘2 -e 8 £2 > SO % te} G4) 0 oe 8 tam 8 « PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 14, 1985 PACIFIC RIBUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. VSK 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR Outrage over the elimination of several board services, denial of compensation for injured workers and the WCB commission- er’s “wilful twisting” and outright violations of current Workers Compensation Act reg- ulations has grown since the appointment of Flesher, a former business executive, to head the board two years ago. The Fed’s report is the first systematic compilation of the grievances voiced by injured workers and their unions since the replacement of the relatively more liberal chairman Art Gibbons. “The inquiry would like to have a written a report that would not have been an indictment of the workers’ compensation system, however, that is not possible as the “testimony from workers and unions has indicated. This government has violated the spirit and intent of the Workers’ Compen- sation Act (1983) in every aspect: compen- sation, prevention, rehabilitation and assess- ments,” the report charged. “This statement cannot adequately con- vey the pain and suffering of injured workers.” In the chapter dealing with “preven- tion,” the report cites the case of a Safeway worker who received benefits for a two- month period during which she was off work because of shoulder pains. Two years later she applied again after receiving a doc- tor’s diagnosis for the continuing pain. It was found to be work-related, but the WCB adjudicator, despite the lack of medical ee 2.4 0:40 24.06 b's 8 ee 60 bed 6 00. ee 616». 9 _ ‘Revamp workers’ compensation: B.C. Fed examination by the board, disparaged the claim. According to the clerk, the WCB now routinely rejects “repetitive motion claims” from Safeway workers. In another instance, a former faller employed by MacMillan Bloedel became a paraplegic after the WCB inspector accepted new job procedures the faller had rejected as unsafe. “We have found, as a result of the inquiry touring the province, that contrary to the legislation, the Workers Compensation Board is now refusing to implement what by statute constitutes a final and binding decision of the medical review board. So the commissioners are interfering with the already established legislation,’ said ’ Hansen. : Said Kube: “The WCB has all but aban- doned its vocational rehabilitation role. There is no doubt that the WCB has cut cost in this area, but in the process they are creating new welfare recipients, because injured workers who are not given new job skills have ultimately nowhere else to go.” Kube called for the removal of Flesher as board chairman, terming the former busi- ness executive a “hatchet man” who had performed similar tasks for private compan- ies. The report’s recommendations concern- ing workers’ compensation include: © A Royal Commission into the system, and amendments to the Workers’ Compen- sation Act establishing mandatory public commissions to review the Act and board structure; @ The inclusion of agricultural workers under the WCB health and safey regula- tions and the immediate adoption of pesti- cide regulations recommended by the board’s regulation advisory committee; © The inclusion of fishermen and fishing vessels, and domestic workers under WCB coverage; - © A “substantial increase” in the number of WCB occupational hygiene and safety officers; © The development of a policy guaran- teeing full income replacement; ® The appointment .of another labor ™ representative, after consultation with the” B.C. Fed, as commissioner; ! © The yearly publication by the WCB ofall” known and suspected hazardous chemicals, ® Yearly increases to the employers’ “assessment rate” (frozen by Flesher last year) to meet the “financial requirements” of the board; ; © The scrapping of new regulations — adopted last December for boards of review. The Fed noted the confusing rules,” designed to “trap” claimants, have caused @ backlog of some 5,300 cases. | Public for fair wage | ~ More than 80 per cent of the Lower Mainland’s residents support fair | wage legislation, according toa recent | survey initiated by the B.C. and | Yukon Building Trades Council. by The survey, conducted through | > computerized random sampling, | — found 40.3 per cent of the respondents | “strongly support” the statement, i “Fair wage laws should be used to -etablish reasonable wages in the con- struction industry.” The statement was “somewhat supported” by another 41.2 per cent. : To the statement, “Fair wage laws should ensure that union and non-un-- ion firms competing for public con _ struction contracts will bid on an equal footing,” 47.2 were strongl _ affirmative, with 34.1 per cent _ “somewhat” supportive. Council president Roy Gautier said - the results showed a “solid majority’ of area residents support the fair wage __ bylaw recently adopted by Vancouver _etycounh He said that fair wage by should be a “major issue” ih eve)