eace marches to criss PACIFIC | Wednesday, April 16, 1986 ea5 Vol. 49, No. 14 j Newsstand Price 40° -cross province — page 3 iIRIBUNE Backgrounder: Reagan’s cover ". ,\ for a crusade ~$\ against Libya OE — page 9 — CLRA rebuffed as Trades back | strike by 95% ieee TF You w to srr A , Bed |CRRORISMBY ae ‘rot BOMB| ii Soe, CONT He U.S. consulate-general on West Georgia Street in Vancouver was the scene of a 200-strong protest Saturday as area Sidents echoed the call from other North American cities that weekend for an end to the U.S. aid to Nicaraguan °unter-revolutionaries. Telegram was sent to External Affairs Minister Joe Clark calling on the federal government to fak out against U.S. military aid to Contras and for a Canadian embassy in Nicaragua. Building Trades workers across the pro- vince sent a resounding message to Con- struction Labor Relations Association last Friday, as they backed their unions’ bar- gaining committee with a solid 95.3 per cent strike vote. Results of the government-supervised vote were released by the B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council April 11, after nearly a month of strike balloting across the 16 Building Trades unions in the province. “The membership have made it clear by an overwhelming majority that they are not prepared to accept the kind of massive cut- backs demanded by CLRA,” Building Trades Bargaining Council chairman Roy Gautier stated in a telex sent out following the vote. “They did so recognizing, and having experienced the 50 per cent unem- ployment in the industry. They obviously also recognized that, as shown by the disas- trous experience in Alberta, cutbacks do not offer any solution to the problem.” The massive support for strike action was registered despite an unprecedented cam- paign for concessions on the job site, waged by contractors who posted several “fact sheets” which claimed that the companies’ “destiny is dictated by the marketplace” and suggested that unions were undermin- ing employment opportunities for their members by resisting wage cuts. At the opening of talks in January, CLRA president Chuck McVeigh tabled demands for sweeping contract conces- sions, including wage cuts averaging $6 an hour, an increase in the work week to 40 hours and the virtual elimination of union hiring and its replacement by the old syste of “name” hiring. : The CLRA demands — delivered to the unions in the form of re-written collective agreements containing all of the concessions — were also accompanied by letters announcing that current agreements would be unilaterally terminated on the expiry date, April 30, if new concession agreements were not signed. The ultimatum was based on the strategy see CLRA page 3 noon in her office in Vancouver’s Scotia Centre at Georgia and Seymour. “The Vancouver Peace Festival, will open in the shadow of five U.S. nuclear- capable warships unless. the . federal government intervenes,” EAR vice- president Gary Marchant said in a statement April 10. “This is the largest peace event in North America with experts from around the world, hosted by the city and people of Vancouver, Canada’s invitation to the U.S. Navy to dock nuclear-capable warships in Van- couver during the peace festival is a real ( Peace activists from across the Lower ~ Stop Visit | vercsecGaireconeraiven re Of warships, Carney’s Vancouver ministerial office April 16 to press the federal energy min- bs a : EAR urging Tory govt ister to intervene to have cancelled a Canadian invitation to five U.S. war- ships to visit Vancouver April 18 — the eve of Vancouver’s Centennial peace fes- tival. The 225-member organization End the Arms Race has organized a delega- tion of peace, church, student and trade union groups to meet with Carney at slap in the face to the whole city.” The invitation was confirmed by Can- adian Navy spokesman Rear-Admiral Robert D. Yanow. The warships are slated to arrive April 18 and remain docked at Ballantyne Pier until April 22. Marchant said that EAR _ office phones had been “ringing off the hook” since the news of the invitation became public. “People are really incensed, really insulted,” he said. “The federal govern- ment has no choice but to cancel the invitation.”