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Labour

BCGEU set on wage hike, job

By FRED WILSON

The B.C. Government Employees Union has pinned its survival on the coming round of negotiations for its master agreement with the provincial government.

“The survival of this union rests on the outcome of these negotiations. We know that. Bill Vander Zalm knows. that,” BCGEU president John Shields told about 200 delegates to the union’s wage and con- tract conference April 23 at Richmond’s Skyline Hotel.

The day long conference ended with reso- ers Setting out primary bargaining goals of:

e “A significant salary increase and other improvements on the basis of com- parability and an end to poverty level wages;””

© “Increased job security.”

Another strategy resolution anticipated the use of Bill 19 against the union and affirmed the union’s support for the B.C. Federation of Labour’s boycott against the Industrial Relations Council and the Indus- trial Relations Act.

Shields told the conference that in the face of adversity “workers need assurance from the union that they will be protected. This is their expectation.”

That theme was picked up by several BCGEU leaders who called on delegates to carry back to the membership the message that the union is determined to meet its goals.

“This is our year. We must deliver and we will deliver,” union vice-president George Heyman told delegates.

Job security issues and privatization are the likely areas of confrontation with the Socreds, and the most critical to the union’s

survival. Shields told the conference that union membership covered by the master agreement is at a historic low of 29,000, down from a high of 40,000 in 1982.

The union has been fighting the govern- ment’s privatization program with Article 24 of its collective agreement which prohib- its the contracting out of work if it results in the layoff of union members. A key union victory was the Supreme Court interpreta- tion of Article 24 in the recent Verrin case, which upheld the right of union members to maintain employment with the government in the event of privatization.

Still to be tested is whether Article 24 can protect a member from being laid off due to being bumped by another member directly affected by privatization.

Article 24 will clearly be at issue in the negotiations and heading the BCGEU’s demands for job security is the strengthen- ing of that clause. Citing the recent Mack- enzie Commission Report into contracting- out in the forest industry, and an Economic Council of Canada report on the same sub- ject, the union will seek new provisions in Article 24 to prohibit contracting-out of jobs (including privatization) where the only cost saving factor is cheaper wages.

The union also wants protection against “contracting-in” — a practice of hiring temporary employees not covered by the union agreement. That employer privilege has been abused, the union argues, to bring in temporary employees who are in fact replacing full time workers, and paid signif- icantly less. The Ministry of Health recently informed 117 keypunch operators that they will be laid off, and simultaneously another ministry let a one year contract with a per- sonnel company to have keypunch opera-

tors provided as temporary personnel.

Other union job security demands are:

@ New union rights for consultation on any and all significant changes in the struc- ture of government programs and minis- tries;

® Improved severance pay;

@ Protection for recall rights of auxiliar- ies;

The union will also be seeking to reverse the decline in real earnings suffered by BCGEU members over the past 10 years, and’to achieve an average 15 per cent increase in wages.

Shields told delegates that the BCGEU members trail the public and private sector by 15 percent and are “the worst paid union- ized workers in B.C. for similar work.”

The union has two main arguments on wages. The first is its claim of poverty level wages for the lowest paid classifications, and the second is for “comparability” or parity between similar classifications in other unionized sectors.

The poverty level for a family of four is $22,000 per year or $12.33 per hour, and one-third of the BCGEU membership earn less than that, Shields said. Accordingly, the union is setting out to win wage increases to bring all members to the poverty level.

Union researchers provided a survey of wages and benefits comparing BCGEU contract provisions with those of 14 other private and public sector unions with sim- ilar classifications.

BCGEU workers in administration were found to trail the average unionized rate for similar work by $3.13 per hour. Clerical workers were behind by $1.53 per hour while labourers fell short by $1.83 per hour.

“We will not take to Victoria a picnic

JOHN SHIELDS ... BCGEU wages lowest for comparable work.

basket or wish list,” Shields said of union demands for job security and wage increases, “We will take a sharpened sword. Every item in our basket is a must-get item.”

Negotiations are expected to commence in May and the master agreement expires July 31.

TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON

Privatized Health Care... the threat is REAL

good reason

to STOP Privatized

It will cost workers their jobs. It could cost British Columbians their lives.

| Health Care

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES’ UNION LOCAL

180

THIS MAY DAY IT’S TIME TO STAND TOGETHER TO STOP PRIVATIZATION

Pacific Tribune, April 27, 1988 e 5