a_i! MEENA ibane Mma il wa / 2 *> ay = In solidarity in the struggle for Se Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre 17 E. Broadway, Vancouver, B.C., V5T 1V4, 875-86 16 or 875-8311 Season's Greetings to all and thanks for your support in the past year. decent jobs and incomes! in the labor President Doug Sigurdson Season’s Greetings and peace to all International Longshoremen's and Warehousemens Union Ship and Dock Foremen, Local 514 1st Vice-President Bob Pickering movement Secretary-Treasurer Charlie McIntosh President Doug Evans Vancouver and District Labor Council wishes all our friends a Merry Christmas and New Year in peace. Secretary-Treasurer Frank Kennedy ce eek eh ee hc eh: ch tac aati your continued = es ouNDNoOOHO KODNOOONOONOOOOONOOD 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 17, 1986 On behalf of our members and staff we extend season’s greetings. We also thank Tribune readers for Gainers strike and boycott. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2000, 37941 2th St., New Westminster, V3M 4H2 B.C. Industrial Council, Unit B, 5261 Lane St., Burnaby & MPotctototetotetotetotetctetotetotosotctetosotoscscs cscs teil te, support of the ouggngguonnnnnonoononnnanonnN 2 Q Georgetti acclaimed | for Fed presidency B.C. Federation of Labor délegates echoed the unanimity of the convention in biennial elections Dec. 4 and 5, electing all the federation’s 14 officers by acclamation and rejecting by an overwhelming majority the single challenger to the slate for the 25-member executive council. Steelworkers Local 480 president Ken Georgetti, a federation vice-president since 1984, moved into the president’s post by acclamation, succeeding Art Kube who had announced several months earlier that he would be stepping down. Federation secretary-treasurer Cliff And- stein was acclaimed for a second term in the only other full-time officer’s position. Also unopposed were the federation’s 12 vice-presidents, elected at large for the first time this year. International Woodworkers : president Jack Munro, out of the officers’ ranks since the IWA withdrew from the federation in 1984, moved into the vacancy created by Georgetti, while newly-elected Telecommunictions ,Workers president Larry Armstrong replaced retiring TWU leader Bill Clark. In elections for the 25-member executive council Dec. 5, the official slate was easily returned with only United Transportation representative Fred Court — who was expected to retire but decided to run again — unsuccessfully challenging the slate. The UTU is still represented on the council by Local 701 legislative representa- tive Paul Lawrence. For the first time, the 25,000-member Hospital Employees Union, which reached agreement with the federation on the terms of affiliation earlier this year, will have two members on the executive council. Georgetti told delegates in his inaugural speech that the convention showed that “labor has its house in order and labor is more united than it has been in years.” For many unionists, however the still unanswered question is what direction the federation will take under Georgetti’s lead- ership. Although he has been touted as the lead- ership candidate virtually since Kube announced he was stepping down, he has had little profile in the labor movement — a factor which figured in his assuming the presidency without opposition. A member of the big Trail local of the Steelworkers since 1972, he has been a full-time officer since 1979 and president of the local since 1981. He won applause from delegates when he pledged to enforce the picketing policy of the federation and “to use this policy to increase the effectiveness of strike action against employers who are determined to roll back the clock and exploit workers.” He also won support for his condemna- tion of the “absolutely unacceptable behav- ior of the Labor Relations Board” which, he said, “has become nothing more than another weapon for the employers and an easy bankroll for lawyers.” He promised to strike a task force of the officers to conduct a public inquiry throughout the trade union movement and propose legislative changes. But reactions were mixed to his calls to turn the labor movement inwards. “We can’t forget that we have our people to think of first,” he told the convention. “Our activities directed to outside the labor movement must be limited to support activ- ities. We have not the time or the resources to do otherwise. “The message I’m giving you is that we must do allin our power and concentrate all our resources into programs that will benefit our affiliates, the people we repres- ent,”’ he said. Since the advent of Operation Solidarity in 1983, the federation has gained consider- able prestige for its involvement in social movements in the province, including the KEN GEORGETTI ... mixed messages in inaugural speech. Ce Wi CLIFF ANDSTEIN ... second term as secretary. Solidarity Coalition and End Legislated Poverty. But Georgetti’s comments echo the views of some affiliates, particularly those in the private sector, who want to see the federation focus more exclusively on collective bargaining and other issues which directly affect trade unions such as the Workers Compensation Board. -Georgetti did note the militant traditions of the B.C. Fed, but added that the federa- tion “has always been willing to temper those traditions and principles with new progressive ideas. 4 “We can fight to protect ourselves and attain our goals or we can sit down and talk with those who oppose us and achieve the same results,” he said. Emphasizing that the “decision on which road we go is not ours alone,” he told dele- gates. “We can go either way — and we are prepared to go either way. “But one thing is certain,” he added, “no matter which way the employers and the government want to go, the B.C. Fed 8 prepared to meet the challenge.” In his address, newly-elected federation | secretary Cliff Andstein took note that the “tone of the convention, the resolutions an! the recommendations make it clear that thé delegates are demanding leadership action.” He cited a recent interview with formet B.C. Fed secretary Ray Haynes who sal that during his term of office 14 years ea lier, the IWA, CUPE and the constructio® unions were “all under the gun.” “We're still there,” Andstein emphas ized, “we still have a lot of work to do.” _ Delegates gave him a standing ovation he pledged to give “major priority” to fo! lowing through on convention recomme dations, particularly on a resolution which commits the federation to a program of action against the provincial government wage controls. : “We must defeat the Compensation St bilization Program — and it’s to that that I pledge to work,” he said to appla acclaimed to