Kitimat workers reject

Aican’s ‘no hike’ offer

Kitimat smelter workers put their new
“bottom line’’ position to the Aluminum
Company of Canada this week after
members of Local 1 of the Canadian
Association of Smelter and Allied Workers
rejected a tentative two-year contract that
would have provided no wage hike for the
first three months.

Close to 1,300 members of the
1,700-member local voted 65 percent last
Thursday to reject the Alcan offer which
provided for a five percent increase, deferred
to July 24, 1983, and a seven percent in-
crease, effective July 24, 1984. The contract
expiry date was Apr. 23, 1983.

On Monday, the union told the company
that it was prepared to recommend accep-
tance if the company would boost its offer to
seven percent in each year of a two-year con-
tract, payable on the April anniversary
dates.

CASAW business agent Wiho Papen-
brock told the Tribune Wednesday that the
union also specified three other items that
must be-part of a new contract, including
elimination of any waiting period for sick
pay, overtime provisions that comply with
the provincial Employment Standards Act
and increased premiums for continuous shift
work.

“The company initially told us thatithere
was no more money and even told us to con-
duct another vote,’ Papenbrock said in a
telephone interview.

“They’re looking at our offer now. But
it’s pretty clear they’re not going to move
~ quickly,”’ he said.

Yet Alcan is in an ‘‘excellent position’’ to

pay, Papenbrock emphasized, pointing to
statements by the company that it expects to
enjoy substantial windfall profits in 1984
and 1985.

“Every indicator points to the price of
aluminum continuing to climb,” he said,
citing price increases over the last year of 20
cents a pound.

In addition, he said, Alcan has current
plans to expand its power generation capaci-
ty at the Kemano hydroelectric station and
to construct two new aluminum smelters in
northern B.C.

“Our seven percent in two years is well
within their ability to pay,” he said.

But it is not a single agreement that is at
stake for Alcan. ‘‘We’ve got the whole
Employers Council of B.C. on our backs,”’
he emphasized.

The Alcan contract talks opened a major
round of bargaining in the resources in-
dustries and they were being particularly
closely watched by Cominco which has stall-
ed on its current negotiations with
Steelworkers at Trail and has already sought
concessions from the union. Employers
have been looking to 1983 negotiations in
anticipation of reduced wage bills.

The tentative agreement, with the wage
deferral, and the possibility of its ratification
had been widely reported in the business
pages.

“‘We’re among the first to come up for
bargaining — but we’re not going to knuckle
under,’’ Papenbrock said.

“It’s going to be a touchy few weeks
ahead but we’ve got a solid mandate from
the membership.”’

Ese ES ObE

With another May Day come
and gone, we ponder the
significance and the impact the in-
ternational workers’ event on
_ Columbia’s working peo-
ple.

We haven’t yet reached the
**85,000”’ mark with May Day, as
we have with the Walk for Peace
— but we feel confident the labor
will continue to unite around the
demands for jobs and an end to
cutbacks in social services in
demonstrations that will increas-
ingly edge closer to that mark.

GREATER VANCOUVER

As with May Day,
we need ‘85,000’

We also put trust in our readers
and supporters to help the
Tribune reach its target of $85,000
in this year’s press drive, although
we must note that the tally so far
shows us farther from that goal
than we’d like to be.

At press time $20,470 has come
in. That’s a bit low with only
seven weeks to go until the end of
the drive. So we need to sound a
“may day’’ call and urge our
readers and supporters to make
that extra effort so we can
celebrate the achievement of
**85,000”’ this year.

Here is where we stand

N. COAST/INTERIOR

KIM ZANDER .

Continued from page 1

“We are owed a debt — and I vow that
I and others in the action centre and the
unemployed committee won’t stop until
that debt is paid in full — and the key to
achieving that is to get rid of the
Socreds,’’ she declared.

Susan O’Donnell of the Vancouver
Status of Women said women, lacking
benefits and union protection that cover
much of the rest of the workforce, swell
the ranks of the ‘hidden unemployed.”’

The majority of women are gathered in
low-paid ‘‘female job ghettos’’ and lack
basic protection such as paid maternity
leave and daycare, and make 59 cents for
every dollar the average male worker
earns, she said.

“T’m encouraged that women have a
voice here today and I hope we’re
developing a unity that will continue,”
she said.

Mike Kramer, acting president of the
B.C. Federaion of Labor, stressed the in-
ternational aspect of May Day and the in-
volvement of labor in the struggle against
the arms race.

May Day is velecerared? in the ‘“‘East
Block and the West Block countries”’ and
B.C. workers ‘‘will always celebrate
labor’s day, not the day given to us by
legislation,’’ declared Kramer. ©

The B.C. Fed secretary-treasurer said

tional conferences and forums with
workers in such countries as the Soviet
Union, Japan and Poland ‘‘and wesee no
problem with workers having direct con-
tact with each others.”

Turing to the arms race, Kramer
repeated the message he made at the

the politicians don’t listen, workers will
have to do something for themselves,
something revolutionary, and stop
building the engines of destruction,’’ he
declared to applause.

May Day is the day of labor unity —
but it is also a signal of warning, which

social service cutbacks, unemployment
and a spiralling arms race, said B.C.

Canadian workers often.meet in interna- .

Walk for Peace rally one week earlier: “‘If »

must be sounded during this time of ©

. debt owed to unemployed workers.

World workers’ meets
praiseworthy—Kramer

MIKE KRAMER ...
recognize May Day.’

to Victoria four days from now that the
Socred government is out — that will bea
real day to rejoice.”’

“It is important to stand together to
face the attacks on the working people of

‘We'll always

Canada,”’ read a telegram sent to the rally
from Burnaby NDP MP Svend Robin-
son. He had been slated to speak, but was
unable to attend because of an emergency
caucus meeting.

Canada-Palestine Association presi-
dent Hanna Kawas linked the jobless
theme with the plight of Palestinians
dispersed among Middle-Eastern coun-
tries and around the world who are
treated as refugees and denied employ-
ment. :

Palestinians are also denied the right to

expand established or create new trade —

unions in the Israel-occupied West Bank.
But despite that, the General Union of
Palestine Workers continues to grow,
with 13 branches in the Arab countries
and others in Europe, he said.

The Canadian Labor Congress has for
along time accepted the Israeli claim that
the Palestine Liberation Organization is
terrorist, and has supported Zionists’
claims in the Middle East. But at its last
convention the Ontario Federation of
Labor took a ‘‘significant step”’ by voting
support for the Palestinian organization,

Bill Bennett 1,000 100 Correspondence 2,000 600 Communist Party leader Maurice Rush. Kawas noted.
Burnaby 5,500 194 Creston 400 150 The provincial election campaign has Kawas said attempts must be made to
Coquitlam 2,500 1,443 Fernie 250 151 seen a “‘new spate of attacks onthelabor © changeCLC policy because ‘‘the working
Kingsway | 7,200 1,809 Powell River 550 186 movement’? by the Socreds, which class of Canada and the Palestinian
N. Westminster 1,700 521 Sointula 300 212 demands unity in thelabormovement,he — working class have a common struggle —
Nigel Morgan 2,000 — Sunshine Coast 500 116 said. against a common enemy, and we are
Niilo Makela 800 206 = Trail 850 466 Loud applause greeted Rush when he - gathered hereto celebrate working people
ee Van sn we FRASER VALLEY urged trade unionists “‘to senda message _all over the world.’”
a Chilliwack 350 150 ' j
Richmond 1,500 44 p a
Delta 800 - :
Seamen 400 420
Langley 700 120 | =. , a
Van. East 9,500 4,927 :
; Maple Ridge 3,300 38 ;
Van. Fishermen 700 100 Saray 5.000 792 ~ q
West Side 3,500 1,055 White Rock 4.200 a ; Published weekly. a ‘Bult otha ee) Commercial Drive, :
VANCOUVER ISLAND
Name. 3... 2 Sean at Poe se ee eS ee
Campbell River 1,700 354 t \ ‘
OKANAGAN Comox Valley 1,800 299 b ANCGTOSS 525 5 eee ess sc "
Kamloops 900 50 Nanaimo 2,200 802 Postal Code......... Pes a a a a ao eS eee
Penticton 600 = Port Alberni 1,500 220 | 1 1ye.$440 2
Shuswap 750 8 _ Victoria 2500 1.218 |p| menconing: TY" Bit me later Donation Seunevce
Vernon 1,300 56 Miscellaneous ;
A Ehias aire 20,470 READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOR yo
Fa LT LF a a a La aM

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 6, 1983—Page 12 |