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Delegates back 10-point action plan

Continued from page 1

“Convention delegates should be con- gratulated for producing this action plan through discussion of the floor of this con- vention,” said Canadian Paperworkers Union delegate Gene McGuckin as the revised resolution was introduced Wednes- day. “Now I have something I can take back to my membership to let them know that they’re not alone. They have the strength of the labour movement behind them.”

10-point program

The final motion adopted by the conven- tion resolved that:

1) The B.C. Federation of Labour, in co-operation with Canadian Labour Con- gress, continue its total opposition to the Mulroney-Reagan trade deal;

2)-The. B.C. Fed, in conjunction with the CLC, continue to work with popu- lar sector groups opposed to the trade deal;

3) Affiliates and labour councils be encouraged to be- come part of com- munity-based cam- paigns;

4) The B.C. Fed call on the CLC executive council meeting next week in Ottawa to call a ranking officers’ meeting to develop

~ THORKELSON

a a program of action BARKER against the ramifica- tions of the trade

deal; >) The B:C Fed

executive council, in consultation with affected affiliates, develop a program of action to deal with ramifications of the trade deal in the different sectors, and provide concrete support to affiliates affected by threatened or actual plant closures;

6) The CLC be requested to meet with the AFL-CIO and the B.C. Fed meet with appropriate state federations of labour to enlist their support in opposing attacks on Canadian labour standards and social pro- grams;

7) The B.C. Fed Task Force on Eco- nomic Alternatives be requested to identify alternatives to the trade deal in order to generate meaningful employment for Brit- ish Columbia;

8) The B.C. Fed, through the CLC, con- demn the federal government for failing to:

— make a commitment that any future negotiations be conducted in a manner that publicly discloses the items under discus- sion;

— ensure that social programs, envir- onmental measures and regional develop- ment programs are specifically excluded from definition as subsidies under the Mulroney-Reagan trade deal;

“— establish any program to alleviate the negative impact of the trade deal on workers who will lose their jobs and suffer economic dislocation, such as workers at Gillette, Pittsburgh Paints and Jarman Shoes.

9) The B.C. Fed continue its public information and education program con- cerning the negative implications of the trade deal;

10) The B.C. Fed monitor and report on the impact of the Mulroney-Reagan trade deal on British Columbia workers and industries, and urge the CLC to do the same

SHIELDS

12 « Pacific Tribune, December 5, 1988

Rally targets cutba

he said.

Some 500 delegates to the B. C. Federation of Labour convention marched to a rally outside Vancouver's federal government-owned Sinclair Centre in Vancouver Tuesday where speakers from the Canadian Union of-Postal Workers, Letters Carriers and the Public Service Alliance blasted the federal government for its cuts to federal programs and its privatization of Canada Post services. B.C. Fed president Ken Georgetti (above) reminded delegates that the building was the site of the old Vancouver Post Office where 50 years earlier, the single unemployed had been evicted by police after a month-long occupation to press for work and wages. ‘’Then, too, they were told to put their faith in free market policies,”

Cks, privatization

——

on a national basis.

Delegates were quick to welcome the beefed-up program laid out in the resolu- tion.

Message of support

Hospital Employees Union delegate Mike Barker told the convention: “I read point 5 to mean that if workers at Van- couver General Hospital decide to take action to stop one of the health care giants from taking over then we will have your full support.

“That’s the message I’m taking back to my members — and that’s the message that all workers in B.C. must hear,” he said.

“This resolution is telling us that the fed- eration has not accepted that the trade deal is a fait accompli,” said United Fishermen’s

. delegate Joy Thorkelson.

She emphasized that labour’s alternative program “will become much more impor- tant now ... and we’ve got to take it out to our members and our communities.”

“We are committing ourselves to a course of action that involves all of our tactics, our brains, our energies and our fundamental commitment to represent our brothers and sisters,” declared B.C. Govern- ment Employees Union president John Shields.

And UFAWU delegate Jim Sinclair urged the convention to “make the protec- tion of our jobs, our resources, our services and ultimately our country the highest priority for the next year.”

Central issue

The future of the labour movement’s two-year-old campaign against the trade deal dominated the debate on the floor from the opening gavel at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre Monday.

As delegates were filing into the conven- tion hall, newspapers were carrying reports

of Gillette Canada and Quebec-based Jar- man Shoes closing their Canadian plants and moving to the U.S. to prepare for the implementation of the trade deal.

Little of that was reflected, however, in the low-key addresses to the convention given by federation president Ken Georgetti and CLC president Shirley Carr.

Georgetti acknowledged that. the fight over free trade “is not over” but limited his comments about the labour movement’s role to suggestions that the prime minister “owes it to Canadains to address their con-

cerns before legislative approval (of the trade deal.)”

_Carr similarly stated that the CLC would press for job placement programs to relo- cate workers who lose their jobs because of the trade deal.

More hard-hitting, however, was the message from former B.C. NDP premier Dave Barrett, newly-elected as the MP for Esquimalt Juan de Fuca.

Barrett, who addressed the convention Monday, told delegates that the NDP members would be pressing the government to ensure “that if anyone is going to lose jobs, we want job replacement programs —

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and we want them right now.”

He warned that there would be “more and more branch plant closures” as a result of the trade deal.

“Gillette got out because they wanted to" be first before the real avalanche begins and because they want to be out of the way before we force the government to do some- thing,” he said.

Barrett did not say, however, whether the NDP caucus would continue to oppose the trade deal in the House before it is signed Jan. 1, 1989, as several prominent union and anti-free trade coalition leaders hav¢ urged.

But he warned the convention that “working men and women are in fora diffi- cult struggle.” :

He urged unionists to work for “unity 19 the Canadian trade union right across thé country ... to defend working men an women from the trade deal.” He also called on the labour movement to begin “a mas" — sive pre-planned organizing drive” to bring new members into the trade union mov ment.

“Unless we fight back, we'll go down thé tubes one by one,” he said to applause.

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