Wednesday, May 23, 1984

Newsstand Price 40° Vol. 47, No. 20
cnn ———

PACIFIC

—pPage 3—

NDP convention
Short on policy

UN :
WORKERS:

Unemployed members of the Carpenters Union put up pickets outside a construction site at West Broadway and Stephens in Vancouver
Tuesday in an action intended aon the climate of employer discrimination that has been created by the Socreds amendments to the
Labor Code. The owner of the site fired the contractor after the union applied for certification and hired a non-union contractor — who

then re-hired some of the non-union carpenters. Story page 12.

The B.C. Federation of Labor leadership .

opted May 16 not to launch a major battle
against the Socreds’ amendments to the
Labor Code but determined instead to “go
back to the rank and file and organize to
fight in the trenches” against the effects of
the restrictive new anti-labor legislation.

But the resounding demand from some
400 delegates to the all-union conference for
a more militant and immediate program of
action against the legislation prompted B.C.
Fed president Art Kube to annouce that the
program presented by the leadership would
be considered “a minimum program.”

Kube told reporters following the confer-
ence that the program proposed by the fed-
eration’s executive board, calling for
re-activation of local Operation Solidarity
committees to support unions in organizing
and in defending their members through
boycotts and other means, was considered

“too meek and mild” by the majority of
delegates.

“There was a very militant mood,” he
said, “much more militant that I would
have thought.”

Bill 28 was pushed through by the
Socreds May 16 and given royal assent on

the same evening. It passed clause-by-clause:

third reading in less than a day and encoun-
tered only nominal opposition from the
NDP despite an appeal from more than 20
trade union leaders last week asking the
NDP MLAs to fight the bill in the house.

The B.C. Fed program, which reflected
the reluctance of the federation leadership
to: mount an immediate campaign against
the legislation when it was first introduced,
was contentious from the moment it hit the
floor of the conference.

The meeting was closed to the press but

‘delegates coming in and out made little

secret of the demands being voiced on the

floor for more militant action and the
immediate mobilization of the entire trade
union movement.

The demand crossed traditional union
lines, with delegates from virtually every
union echoing the call for a co-ordinated
campaign, including job action against the
legislation. Only a handful of union repre-
sentatives, all of them from Canadian Fed-
eration of Labor affiliates, rose in support
of the program.

The report was not up for adoption or
rejection as it was an information meeting
only. But at one point, a delegate from the
Building Trades called on delegates to stand
up if they supported the demand that the
program be sent back to the executive for
strengthening.

The overwhelming majority rose to their
feet.

The mood of unionists had been indi-
cated at the Vancouver and District Labor

Building Trades unions will be shutting
down union construction sites throughout
the Lower Mainland this Wednesday to
stage a protest rally in the Pacific Coliseum.
The rally is set for 12:30 p.m.

B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Coun-
cil president Roy Gautier said Friday that
the protest will target several issues — the
amendments to the Labor Code which are
particularly ominous for the Building
Trades, the attack on union rights at Expo
86, and the continuing impasse in negotia-
tions with the Construction Labor Rela-
tions, Association.

Rally speakers will also outline the Con-
struction Workers Charter of Rights, first
issued by the Building Trades in Kelowna
last month. ‘

Union representatives were around to job
sites throughout the Lower Mainland this
week readying union members for the shut-
down and the rally.

It will be the second time in as many

weeks that the Building Trades have staged
an afternoon walkout to protest the
government and employer attack. Last
Wednesday, some 200 Building Trades
workers‘walked off the Expo site for a rally
in the Ironworkers Hall. ;
. The difference this week is that the shut-
down will be in defiance of the amended
Labor Code, pushed through the legislature
by the Socreds May 16.

B.C. Federation of Labor president Art
Kube declared last week, however, that if
the. Building Trades launched job action,
they would have the full support of the B.C.
Fed.

Building Trades organizers are expected
to outline a program of action at the Coli-
seum rally aimed at the Expo dispute as well
as the Labor Code amendments. The
Trades bear the brunt of the new code pro-
visions, particularly those covering con-
struction projects, certification procedures
and economic development projects.

Council the previous evening when several
delegates took the microphone to press the
federation to mount an immediate cam-
paign against the legislation. Delegates were
addressing an executive motion which
urged the B.C. Fed to consider escalating
activities against Bill 28.

And the mood of Wednesday’s meeting
clearly put a harder edge on Kube’s com-
ments as he spoke to reporters at the news
conference later.

“This program is a minimum program,
there could be more,” he said, noting that
Operation Solidarity would be holding its
annual meeting June 18 and 19.

Kube said that the federation intended to
move quickly “to protect our members’
rights and to make sure that no employer
takes advantage of this new legislation.

“We have one responsibility — to pro-
tect our members’ rights and we will do

See FIGHT page 12

Trades’ protest rally
to shut down projects

sa esc arse = : =