Labour After four days on the picket line in a lght to win catch-up wage increases, members of the B.C. Government Employ- es Union were slated to begin a new round of talks with the government Wednesday Under mediator Don Munroe. Ata press conference Tuesday, called just efore a news blackout was imposed, BCGEU president John Shields told repor- Ts he was optimistic that a resolution of € last outstanding issue — wages — Could be found by the weekend. But he added that if a deal could not be struck at this time, “we could be off a very long time,” The Optimism was echoed Tuesday by BC, Federation of Labour president Ken Orgetti who also reminded the Socred 8evernment that Premier Vander Zalm had Slven himself an 11 per cent salary increase at a time when government workers were eld down by wage controls. __ If it’s good enough for the premier, it’s 800d enough for the workers,” he told dele- Sates to the Vancouver and District Labour Ouncil. b BCGEU members across the province gan setting up picket lines in the early es of the morning Saturday after talks Toke down at Friday midnight following a Our bargaining session. Y Monday, all government operations Normally open were shut down, although W0 BCGEU members were maintaining Services deemed essential under the agree- Ment worked out with the government. A umber of others, including child protec- 10n workers, were on standby for emer- Bency services, fi Prison guards also walked out following € breakdown of talks and briefly defied an ANdustrial Relations Council order to ‘urn. But they went back to the job Sun=~ ae night under a Supreme Court injunc- n. The guards’ walkout and the mood on € picket line reflected the demand, put °tward repeatedly by the BCGEU mem- ‘tship, that wage increases must be in the Per cent range over three years to make 1p for what Shields called “seven years of “gislated wage restraint.” In its last offer tabled before talks broke Own, the government refused to move poe -BCGEU presses catch-up demand EMPLOYEES. UNICS BCGEU members on picket line outside Vancouver social services office at 522 Alexander St. beyond five per cent in each year of a three year contract. The BCGEU has insisted that current wage levels keep many members below _ established poverty levels and are substan- tially below those paid comparable workers in both the public and the private sector. Shields also cited the wage increase given forest industry workers as the basis for set- ‘tlement. ’ a “That money, translated into our wage structure, meets our demand,” he said. But before talks hit an impasse Friday, the BCGEU was able to secure what it termed ‘“‘major gains” in job security and contracting-out language covering the criti- cal area of privatization. A bulletin to members emphasized that both sides had agreed that any final settle- ment would include those job security pro- visions already negotiated. On contracting-out, new language will stipulate that any work that takes longer than 60 days will be performed by govern- ment auxiliary workers, rather than tem- poraries. The government had repeatedly hired temporaries from outside the bargain- ing unit for 59 days and then re-hired them again for another 59 days. A new reporting system will also» be introduced to ensure that temporaries are being hired within the union agreement. In addition, some 200 Liquor Board aux- iliary workers who have worked a sufficient number of hours will become regular employees. On job security, new contract language provides that: ®@ Workers who elect to stay in govern- ment service if their jobs are privatized will have several options, including: electing to choose a job in their own area in any minis- try; going for re-training; and gaining access to temporary jobs in all areas until a per- manent job becomes available. ®@ Workers who elect to work for a pri- vatized employer will have increased pro- tection in the event of failure or non-renewal of a government contract. Employees will be guaranteed severance pay and will have the right to bid back into government ser- vice at their existing seniority level. Pension benefits will also be protected. @ A new joint union-government Privat- ization Impact Review Committee will be established to discuss future privatization and how employees will be affected. An independent chairman will have the power to settle any disputes which may arise. TORONTO — The rejection of Bell Nada’s last contract proposal by 19,500 technicians and operators, in a country- Wide vote Sept. 11, ushered in a new stage I the 12-week strike by the Communica- Hons and Electrical Workers of Canada. The CWC leadership and its members Were digging in for a lengthy strike in the Wake of the Bell workers’ solid rejection of _ 4n offer that union officials said might ave been barely acceptable back in June, Ut which was seen as “insulting” after More than three months on the bricks. _ On the surface, the 52.2 per cent rejec- “on vote doesn’t appear to be significantly Tger than the 50.3 per cent garnered three Months ago. But CWC officials point out that this time 8 per cent more members turned out to vote, and roughly 1,000 More workers voted no. Whereas 75 per » Cent of the members voted on the first Offer —which the leadership had recom- “2 per cent. : _ The union had placed no recommenda- “on before the membership but had made Would likely mean a longer strike. The results seem to indicate the mem- bership has gotten more solid after 11 Mended —last weekend the turn-out was” t clear in its presentation that a rejection” weeks on the line, and that as far as they’re ‘concerned, the price of a settlement is going up,” union representative Bill Howes said Sept. 12. Gary Cwitco, another staffer who has worked closely with the strike, summed up the message of the vote: “The members are telling us that while the offer might have been enough to keep us from striking in June, it isn’t good enough to resolve an 11-week strike.” As it stands, Bell’s three-year contract offer takes some timid steps toward the key issues the CWC wanted the wealthy transnational to address. The principle of pension indexing was enshrined in the agreement for the first time, though the formula for calculating benefits doesn’t yet satisfy the union. On the contentious issue of controlling the use of part-time workers, Bell pro- posed to reclassify 900 part-timers and temporary workers to full-time status. While welcoming the proposal as an advance, Cwitco said that at this stage of the fight the members were seeking much firmer job security guarantees. — “It’s good that 900 full time jobs were created. Yet the corporation is still free to hire all the part-time workers they want. Our members want a cap on the numbers that can be hired,” Cwitco said. Money remains an outstanding issue with Bell’s offer of five and 4.5 per cent in the contract’s first two years and a modest COLA in years two and three. Many CWC members, especially those living in Toronto with its punishing housing prices and cost of living, feel the company can shake loose a better deal from the billion dollar profit it has racked up over the past year. At CWC headquarters, in Ottawa the mood is upbeat. ““We expect strike activity to intensify, bearing in mind that we’re ready to go back to the bargaining though Bell hasn’t given us any indication of if, where or when they want to talk to us,” Joe Hanafin, the union’s communications director said. In addition to the key issues that Bell didn’t sufficiently address in its latest offer, Hanafin pointed to “corporate arro- gance”’ as an underlying cause of the rejec- tion vote. “People resent the way they’re pretending everything’s ‘hunky dory’, pre- tending they can run the operation with- out these 19,500 skilled and extremely hard-working people. It’s not true,” he said. Solidarity key as Bell workers stay out This latest strike development will mean that labour’s solidarity campaign in sup- port of the CWC, particularly the Cana- dian Labour Congress’ fund-raising drive on the Bell strikers’ behalf, will now shift into high gear. Praising the CLC’s and president Shir- ley Carr’s “phenomenal efforts,’ Hanafin said millions of dollars in financial assist- ance have already been pledged to the CWC, mostly in the form of interest-free loans, from the rest of the labour move- ment. Last month, Canadian Autoworkers president Bob White announced it was offering the CWC a million-dollar interest free loan, in response to Carr’s appeal. “This sends a message to Bell Canada management that the CWC doesn’t stand alone in this dispute,” White said: In her appeal, Carr called on the leaders of the congress’ 125 national and interna- affiliates “to contribute substantially” to the CWC strike effort. “Our goal is to let CWC members and Bell Canada know that the Canadian labour movement is solidly behind this strike,” Carr said. ““We will make sure that CWC members’ fight for justice will not suffer for want of financial support.” Pacific Tribune, September 21, 1988 e 7