TF

The SFU 18 Defence Committee received no commitment from at- torney-general Alan Williams Monday after appealing that all out- standing charges against the 18 be dropped. With spokesperson Billie Carroll (centre) at the meeting with Williams were B.C. Feder- ation of Labor publicity director Tom Fawkes (right), Sheila Perret, AUCE (left), and (not shown) Prabha Khosla, B.C. Federation of Women; and NDP candidate Judy McManus.

About turn on meeting sparks debate at VLC

Vancouver unionists who had hoped to hear federal can- didates voice their party’s policies on labor issues will now have to go elsewhere — the Vancouver Labor Council voted narrowly Tuesday to call off its planned all-candidates forum.

But enough of the delegates were angry at the executive’s decision to cancel that the two- vote majority had to be deter-

mined by a standing count — _

and that only after a 40-minute debate on the issue.

The council had agreéd to hold the all- candidates forum but when president Syd Thompson wrote the - New Westminster Labor Council and the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor seeking assistance in organizing the meeting, he got letters rejecting the idea of an all-candidates meeting as “inappropriate.”

B.C. Fed president Jim Kin- naird added that all-candidates meetings were ‘‘contrary’? to the convention policy of sup- porting the NDP since, he argued, they gave a platform to other parties. Both New Westminster Council president Gerry Stoney and Kinnaird call- ed on the council to throw all their efforts behind the NDP rallies instead.

Fishermen's delegate George Hewison questioned Kinnaird’s position and told the council that there was ‘‘nothing in the convention policy to suggest that all-candidates meetings are contrary to support for the NDP.”

earlier

_titude

He said that labor would “miss the boat’’ if it didn’t get into the election campaign, ad- ding, “if we don’t raise such issues as unemployment — then who will?”’

Earlier, building trades delegates, in supporting the meeting, had also pointed to unemployment as ‘‘an _ issue which only the labor movement will raise.’

Both council secretary Paddy Neale and CLC regional direc- tor Art Kube argued that all- candidates meetings were of no value since the political lines between parties were already clear, although Kube conceded that such meetings might be useful in some local unions “‘where the political level has. not been raised.”’ :

Syd Thompson, although he later voted to cancel, said that he was in favor of all-candidates meetings but added: ‘‘I’ll be goddamned if we’re going to vive a platform to parties which only get 50 or 75 votes.’’ He cited the Rhinoceros Party and the Communist Party.

Just before the vote, Fishermen’s delegate John Radosevic told -the - meeting: ‘Surely we’re not afraid of put- ting a position before uncom- mitted people and having them compare and make a choice.

**Many may have a cynical at- towards working people,”’ he said, “‘but I’m con- fident that when positions are put before them, they'll know how to vote.””

USWA boycott ‘still on’

By DENISE HARPER

KAMLOOPS A. sign stating “‘We’re not on strike here’ in the window of a downtown Kamloops Radio Shack outlet has spurred delegates of the Kamloops and District Labor Council to join the United Steelworkers of America in escalating the Radio Shack boycott.

The sign, seen by a number of Labor council delegates over the Christmas shopping period, was meant to make people think the

boycott is over, USWA labor council delegate Darwin Robin- son said.

Delegates also heard that 78 members of the Carpenters Union Loc. 1540 have walked off the job at Highmont mines, southwest of Kamloops.

The bitter dispute resulted from the refusal of the employer, Commonwealth Construction, to implement an arbitration awarding travel time benefits to the carpenters.

TRIBUNE PHOTO — FRED WILSON

The Saskatchewan Trade Union Act, praised in trade union circles across Canada as outstanding labor legislation in- troduced by an NDP govern- ment, doesn’t look so good right now. ‘

A month-long strike of some 11,000 members of the Saskat- chewan Government Employees Association ended last month after Chief Justice R.W. Johnson of the Queen’s Bench ruled that the strike was illegal.

It all began when two SGEA members filed a suit challenging the legality of the strike. Ted “Malone, leader of the Liberal Party in Saskatchewan, echoed the charge that the strike was il- legal. Some labor leaders in Saskatchewan allege that he in- spired the court action.

The outstanding issue that provoked the strike was wages. The final offer of the govern- ment was a wage increase of something less than eight per- cent over one year, which was unacceptable to the SGEA. The Association pointed out that all of its contracts covering the previous three years were below inflation levels and demanded a 15 percent wage increase.

Some 200 members had been strongly opposed to the strike from the beginning and two of them, James Jowsey and Shirley Wilkes, launched a court ac- tion, claiming the strike was il- legal, because of irregularities in the voting system. According to all reports, the 200-group are made up of right wing and backward elements.

The SGEA communications director, Sandra Sorenson, was quick to point out that the ac- tion was really a challenge to the Saskatchewan Trade Union Act. She therefore called upon the NDP government to agree to stand as a co-defendant with the SGEA before the court. However, the NDP government did not respond in the affir- mative.

In ruling that the strike was il- legal, Chief Justice Johnson noted that only 60 percent of SGEA members participated in the strike vote and that the ma- jority in favor of strike was 62 percent’ of those who voted. Mathematically, this meant that only 37.2 of the total, eligible voters cast a ballot in favor of strike.

In his judgement, the Chief Justice examined both the union constitution and the Saskat- chewan Trade Union Act. He noted that the act would take precedence only if the constitu- tion did not clearly spell out the question of voter eligibility. He found the union’s definition of eligibility to be ‘‘indifferent’’

and therefore ruled that the Trade Union Act came into force.

The Saskatchewan act states that it shall be an. unlawful labor practice for an employee,

a person acting on behalf of a

labor organization or any other person:

‘*(d) to declare, authorize or take part in a strike unless a ma-

‘Sask. gov't union strike undermined by NDP Act

jority of employees who are members of the trade union selected or designated to repre- sent the employees in* the ap- propriate unit concerned and who are eligible to vote have voted by secret ballot in favor of a strike, but no vote by secret ballot need be’ taken among employees in an appropriate unit of two employees or less;”’

By comparison, Section 81 (1) of the Labor Code of British Columbia lays down the follow- ing guideline in respect to strike authorization:

LABOR COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

‘**No person shall declare or authorize a strike and no employee shall strike, until after a vote has been taken by secret ballot in accordance with the regulations, of the employees in the unit affected as to whether to strike or not to strike, and the majority of those employees who vote have voted in favor of strike”’

This i is in line with established trade union practice across Canada.

It is significant to note that.

the Saskatchewan Trade Union Act stipulates that a quorum for a vote to determine whether a unit of employees is to be represented by a specific union

for collective bargaining pur-

poses is ‘‘a majority of the employees eligible to vote’’ and then states, ‘‘the majority of those voting shall determine the trade union that represents the majority of employees for the purpose of collective bargain- ing.’

If this formula also applied to strike votes, as it should, the court could .not have declared the strike illegal.

While every effort should be made by a union to involve all of its members in a strike vote, the less government interference in such matters, the better. For my money, the trade union movement must fight to-protect itself from an ever-increasing interference in the running of its

‘internal affairs, and also to

restore many of the freedoms it

-has lost.

Donald Ching, a Saskatoon lawyer and former Saskat-

chewan deputy minister

labor, was part of a team t drafted the act. He was recen quoted as saying that the inten tion of the act is that in ca where the union constitution unclear or quiet on the qu tion, the entire membershi shall be considered the eligib voting group. In that case, © strike vote would require ana)" solute majority. :

He added that where a unio constitution so provides, “te” majority of the members pal — ticipating in a vote hold sway” over all, whether they voted 0 not.”’

Larry Brown, execut secretary of the Saskatchewa Federation of Labor, and on time executive assistant in th office of the minister of labo was sharply critical of the ‘all biguity’? of the government legislation. :

Premier Blakeney at ont stage described the case before Chief Justice Johnson ‘arguable’? by both side Then, when the decision ca down, he said he was not SU prised. He also refused to co! sider union demands to amen@ immediately the Trade Union Act to remove the obvious ine quily. 4 The SGEA will be making its. appeal against the Johnso decision in February. In the meantime, it is still without 4

settlement, but all of it members -have returned tO work.

If premier Blakeney were Liberal, Conservative Of Socred, and not a New Democrat, there would be loud and angry denunciations from most of our prominent trade union leaders in British Colum~ bia. Coupled with those denun= ciations would be messages of solidarity and a call to elect thé NDP next time around in ordef to. set things straight. Now there is, in the main, an embar= rassing silence.

This is yet another case tO prove thatthe trade union movement must. never cease 10 represent aggressively the in- terests of its membership, in the economic and political arenas always asserting its independent role as the defender of the working class. It also proves, aS. we have learned in this pro- vince, that the election of an

NDP government is not by itself a guarantee that the trade union movement will obtain the kind ‘of labor legislation it is entitled

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