1983 era of new policies for city

One of the major highlights of 1982 in the city of Vancouver was undoubtedly the Nov. 20 civic election which resulted in a loss for the NPA, a gain for COPE and the election of a labor-backed majority to city council. An example of the benefits to be derived from this labor-backed majority was the decision at the first meeting of the new city council not to in- stitute any layoffs in civic staff or to reduce services to citizens.

A second important feature of that election was the huge majority — 80 percent — which

Harry

Rankin

voted ‘‘Yes’’ in the disarma- ment referendum. The people of Vancouver want peace and disarmament, not a Reagan- inspired arms race that generates inflation and threatens mankind with obliteration. They also showed that very clearly last Apr. 24 when 35,000 Vancouver citizens marched for peace.

The other highlights of 1982 were not so positive.

The provincial government imposed wage controls on public employees forcing them to take a big cut in their living standards. It imposed cutbacks in health and education that resulted in the closing of schools, the layoffs of teachers and staff, the closing of hun- dreds of hospital beds and the layoff of thousands of hospital workers, :

The year 1982 saw the com- pletion of the 60,000 seat stadium at a cost of $111,000,000, all of it out of the provincial public purse. That’s why we had the cuts in educa- tion and health — to pay for the stadium. It was a good example of the priorities of this govern- ment — build sports stadiums free of charge for its millionaire sports promoter friends, while cutting services to people.

The same thing applies to B.C, Place — another provin- cial government mega project that we don’t need, being built with public funds to help out the government’s developer friends and backers.

We finally got the trade and convention centre off our backs when the federal government stepped in and rescued the pro- vincial government from another embarrassing failure. An NPA majority in city coun- cil had the gall to vote that this multi-million dollar centre should be exempt for all time from municipal taxes — even though the city would have had to spend millions of dollars every year servicing it with police and fire protection, water and sewers, lights and so on.

The provincial government also went ahead with an elevated light rapid transit line that the ci- ty and the GVRD didn’t want and that will cost several hun- dreds of millions of dollars more than a conventional line. The government’s policy of

and let the Act drop. But that

school boards. Municipal coun- cils are next on the list.

can’t help but come to the con- clusion that the biggest single problem facing the citizens of Vancouver is the provincial government with its programs directed to cutting services to people, eroding municipal government, and subsidizing the big corporations with public funds.

than 1981. But 1983 will be much worse. There is no light at the end of the economic tunnel.

wasn’t applied to light rapid

sence sion Modest wage hikes granted B.C.

SS ana a Teachers by the arbitration board, e : fi ;

Eee eee ome tos trom three to 6-5 percent,

are threatened by recent statements

taken all powers of zoning, from education minister Bill

rezoning and planning from Vander Zalm and the Compensa- municipal councils and made | tion Stabilization Program as the them into just rubber stamps of | saga of education cutbacks and at- the minister of municipal af- | tacks on teachers continues into the fairs. The public protest was so new year.

great that the government had

In astatement the CSP, th no pull in its horns on this one meee

set up to roll back wages in line with the Social Credit’s wage and spen- ding restraints legislation, said Dec. 30 that the maximum teachers in any of the 64 out of 75 school districts that went to arbitration will receive is a three percent hike in 1983.

And Vander Zalm has continued with his style of public brow- beating, making inflamatory Statements promising ‘‘massive layoffs” if teachers are awarded anything above a zero percent wage increase.

So far teachers response to the ministers’ threats has been low- key, mainly because large-scale layoffs have failed to materialize, according to B.C. Teachers Federation president Larry Kuehn.

Kuehn said the salary hikes awarded so far average about four percent. But when one deducts 2.5 percent due to the shortening of the school year by five days under Bill 89, the School Services (Interim) Act, coupled with the rollbacks an- ticipated under CSP commissioner Ed Peck, teachers will wind up with about 1.5 percent, according to BCTF estimates.

Kuehn said the uncertainty of

doesn’t mean that it won’t try again in the next session. It has already eroded the powers of

'

When you add it all up you

Last year was grim, worse

More people will be laid off, the unemployment lines will grow.

At the same time prices will con- t tinue to soar because of price- wage settlements, along with a pro- fixing by the big corporations. vincial election this spring during

The big issues facing us in which the Socreds may grant more 1983 will be to get governments money to education as an appeaser moving to provide jobs, to build to an angry public, and which the affordable housing, to base tax- | Socreds might lose, have con-

tributed to the BCTF’s ‘“‘wait and see’’ attitude. But in other statements the teachers president has said teachers may yet chose strike action if the threat of layoffs continues,

Teachers may need to decide quickly on that option if there is any truth in an internal education

ation on ability to pay and to make the big corporations pay more taxes. The whole economy of B.C. needs to be changed from resource export to manufacturing, to processing more of our resources right here at home before export. :

BRITISH COLUMBIA Teachers’ wages, rights again under Socreds’ axe -

ministry report that came to light Dec. 30. The latest in a seemingly endless series of ‘‘news by leaked documents’’ the report envisions up to 3,197 layoffs next September even if teachers receive absolutely no wage increases.

Playing a kind of Mutt-and-Jeff routine with his own ministry’s document, Vander Zalm has said layoffs can be avoided if teachers forget any wage increase and pro- grams are chopped and ad- ministrative costs are trimmed to meet budget shortfalls.

To take such a path teachers would be contributing to the ero- sion of what bargaining rights they possess under current legislation, and would be tacitly accepting a budget shortfall situation created by the Socreds themselves, when the Bennett government chopped school board budgets twice last year under increasingly austere restraint measures. The result has been an effective budget cut of three percent for 1983, according to the boards’ umbrella group, the B.C. School Trustees Association.

Those actions followed an initial move-early last year when the pro- vincial government stripped boards of their industry and commercial tax base, transferring that power to Victoria, and effectively eroding the autonomy of many districts for which that tax base constituted a large porition of the budget.

Such actions prompted numerous complaints and expres- sions of outrage from the normally conservative BCSTA, and made trustees and teachers natural allies in the groundswell opposition to education cuts.

In this the BCSTA has always been weaker partner, accepting the notion of restraint but complaining of its excessive application to education. Most recently the organization has, in the face of at- tacks by Vander Zalm, reiterated its support for the collective bargaining process and employee consultation on decisions affecting jobs. But it has also asked teachers and non-professional school

employees to ‘‘cooperate’’ in ing. plementing cuts to the system.

That notion was contained in ‘statement of principles ang priorities”’ recently released by BCSTA executive,

BCSTA president Gary Begj, acknowledged that the truster¢ association could be accused q, “selling out,’’ but claimed the pog;; tion ‘“‘does not mean that w, now endorse the unjust difficulti. which school boards and tha; employees will face as a result 4 1982laws. . . wecannot afford y, dwell on personal or party interes, and, above all, we cannot affo theluxury of continuing to fight battles of 1982.”

Such blandishments will still ng likely appease Vander Zalm, wh; in recent outbursts has talked q removing teachers’ bargaini rights, and has criticized arbitr, tion awards even while the proce, is underway. He has continued make such statements even afty the arbitration board complaing about his interference.

Vander Zalm will undoubted continue to express his redneck se timents until he is countered by - united challenge on the part q; trustees, teachers and the laba movement.

New number at action centre

Vancouver’s new unemploy- ment action centre, which open- ed at the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union hall Dec. 13, now has two new. phone numbers: 688-9001 and 688-9083. ;

The centre, one of several — operating across the province under the auspices of the B.C, Federation of Labor and the unemployed committees of local labor councils, is open from 9 a.m. to 4,p.m., Monday to Friday. .

In New Westminster, the unemployment action centre is — located at 1111 6th Ave. Phone 525-9628. 1

[restraint and economy certainly 3

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

ne ewspapers don’t generally have a moral to them. But anyone reading the business pages over the past few months would have found them to be like a Victorian homily — with the same lesson being one business figure after another. Everyone, from Employers Council president Bill Hamilton to Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca, has been telling us that Canadian workers must moderate their wage demands — and moderate has come increasingly to mean freezing — or they will price Canadian industry out of world markets.

We’ve said before that the lesson is a crock — but now there is an authoritative report from the business world itself to back our conten- tion.

A study conducted between 1970 and 1982 by Citibank of New York and detailed in the current issue of Canadian Industrial Relations and Personnel Developments concluded: ‘‘Canadian industry is com- petitive and over the past ten years the work force has shown restraint.

“It (the Citibank study) states that excepting the United States there is no industrial economy where wages have been less or where growth in hourly manufacturing costs has been less.”’

The study examined 11 major industrial economies including Belgium, Britain, France, West Germany, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy as well as the U.S. and Canada.

It found that over the 11 years of the study, the unit cost of labor rose the least in the U.S. (92 percent) and Canada (102 percent). Ironically, Japan, which is always touted by the business world as the example, registered among the highest increase in unit labor costs, which rose 195 percent from 1970 to 1982, third only behind Britain (334 percent) and Italy (196 percent).

The wage levels — converted to U.S. dollars for purposes of com- parison — are even more dramatically revealing. In 1970, according to

Citibank, ‘“Canadian industry paid the highest wages outside the U.S. with Sweden close behind and most other countries far behind.”

But by 1982, that relative position had almost completely reversed — itself. This year, wages in Japan and Belgium are the highest in the in- dustrialized world and those in Canada and the U.S. are among the © lowest. At an average of U.S. $9.36 per hour, Canadian wages are — lower than thosein the U.S., Japan, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and West Germany.

The Citibank survey underscores the total inequity of the wage con- trol program — a program to which the study itself referred.

“‘Citibank’s findings indicated no lack of competitiveness in ~ Canada’s industry and no particular need to deal with the situation by — options such as the current restraint program introduced by the federal program.”’

The study also suggested ‘‘the commonly held view that Canadian _ workers’ demands are excessive falls short of reality.’’

We couldn’t have said it better.

* * *

R eaders who saw the advertisement here a year ago for Hal Griffin’s _ new book, Soviet Frontiers of Tomorrow but have yet to see a copy of the book, may have wondered whether the shipment got hi- jacked somewhere along the way.

Now they can stop wondering. International mails and Soviet publishing schedules (print runs in the millions are not uncommon) be- — ing what they are, the delay was much longer than expected but the book is now in Vancouver. Autographed copies are availableintheCo- op Bookstore which is handling distribution here. And onethinghasn’t changed despite the passage of more than a year: the price. It’s still $4.95.

We hope to review the book in our next issue.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 7, 1983—Page 2