ait

‘BUDGET, RESTRAINT

Wolfe edict ‘deprives civic voters of rights’

Continued from page 1 CP leader Rush said in a sharp statement. Rush said that it was “no. acci-

_ dent’’ that Section 11 of the Essen-

~ tial Services Disputes Act was pass- ed the day after the budget cuts were announced. ‘‘When the AIB was phased out, premier Bennett said that the provincial government would adopt legislation to impose a wage freeze on unions, especially in the public sector. He is now living up to his promise, because, in ef- fect, they have imposed a wage freeze of five percent on- civic workers.”

The erosion of municipal autonomy in the restriction of their budgets is perhaps the most far reaching implication in the govern- ment’s action, he said, as it would disenfranchise municipal electors by depriving the representatives they elect the right to run their own

financial matters. This is part of the Socred drive to centralize power in’ the hands of the provincial cabinet and deprive local government: bodies of any real power or say in running their own affairs.””

The silence of the NDP is par- ticularly conspicuous, Rush said, ‘‘One wonders where Dave Barrett and the NDP are these days. There is a strange silence on this latest anti-municipal edict, on the pro- clamation of Section 11, and the threatened takeover of MacMillan Bloedel by Canadian Pacific. Out- side of some MLA’s talking around these issues, there has been no for- thright statement of NDP policy.”

“The most important need now is for the widest public fightback against right wing Socred policies. Unity and action now could seal the fate of the Bill Bennett government just as it did to that of Bennett the elder in 1972.”

Bennett postures, CPI renews bid for MacBlo

- Canadian Pacific Investments served notice this week that it would continue its attempt to capture majority ownership of MacMillan Bloedel and that it would send its president Ian Sin- clair back to B.C. for more talks with the B.C. government.

Sinclair will be in Vancouver Friday for an emergency meeting of the MacMillan Bloedel board, of which he is also a member, called to consider the CPI takeover bid.

Premier Bennett continued to posture this week as the defender of the provincial interest, but refused to deny that a secret deal had been made with CPI and MacMillan Bloedel which would involve in- _vestment by the government in MacMillan Bloedel. The premier refused to clarify the position of the government on the grounds. it would create ‘‘speculation on the stock market.’’

The government’s secrecy in the

matter was blasted this week by Communist Party leader Maurice Rush who demanded that Bennett ° make public the full details of his closed door meetings with the heads of CPI, MacMillan Bloedel and Domtar.

“This secrecy on the future of a company which holds a major part of B.C. public forest lands is doing a disservice to the public,’? Rush said. ‘“‘There must be no secret deals cooked up between the Socred government, MacBlo and CPI which would foist greater monopoly control on the forest industry.”’

The CP leader restated his party’s demands that the govern- ment cancel all forest licenses in the event of a change in the corporate structure of MacMillan Bloedel, and that a special session of the legislature be called to consider the nationalization of the giant forest~ company.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 12, 1979—Page 8

gram

is very concerned about it.

have

Gov't cutbacks show nee? for action by Fed, CUPE }

The B.C. Division of the Cana-

dian Union of Public Employees |

held a special, delegated conference on Saturday, January 6 to discuss the implications for CUPE of the recent amendment to the Essential Services Disputes Act.

A five-point program was en- dorsed, as follows:

@ Support to the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor program, adopted at a staff conference on the previous day. Full participation in the nine public rallies to be held in different cities in the period January 23-March 8.

@ Condemnation of the Socred government and reiteration of sup- port to the New Democratic Party “*as the legislative arm of labor.’’

@ Appointment by all CUPE district councils of committees to work with labor councils in organiz- ing the nine rallies.

@ Full financial support to the Federation in its campaign.

@ Endorsement of the principle that in the event of any local union coming into conflict with the Essen- tial Services Dispute Act, ‘‘that local will not take any unilateral ac- tion or any action without prior consultation and approval of the B.C. Division and their officers, the officers of the B.C. Federation of Labor, and the approval of the na-

tional officers of the Canadian

Union of Public Employees.”’

The CUPE conference took place three days after the release of a statement by Evan Wolfe, provin- cial minister of finance, announcing severe limitations on expenditures by municipalities and school boards... As the bulk of CUPE’s 25,000 members in B.C. are employed by municipalities and school boards, the restrictions will, in effect, amount to wage controls for CUPE. For example, no municipal budget is to be increased by more than five percent. With in- flation running at about nine per- cent, this could mean cutbacks in services and layoffs for municipal employees, in addition to wage con- trols.

Cliff MacKay, writing in the Courier January 4, made this pro- jection. ‘‘If he is pushed to the wail, I would guess that Mr. Volrich (mayor of Vancouver) is prepared to tell the unions that wage in- creases imperilling his tax ceiling (4.5 percent) will have to be com- pensated by firings for the stark sake of economy.’’

It should be noted in this connec- tion that Volrich in his inaugural address indicated that he planned a reduction in the rate of business tax. This means that he hopes for wage increases below the increase in the cost of living for civic employees, with possible reductions in staff, while the business interests enjoy a tax cut.

The guidelines announced by Evan Wolfe also call for restrictions on school board expenditures. For example: ‘‘Municipal councils will be requested to meet with local school boards to work out a pro- to minimize local school district taxes.’’ An indication of what this means is spelled out in the following instruction: ‘‘Present pupil/teacher ratios shall be con- sidered as a floor with every effort being made to improve productivi- ty.”” This means more pupils per teacher, followed by layoffs from the teaching staff as well as the non- teaching staff who belong to CUPE and, in a few cases, other unions.

While the five-point program adopted by CUPE makes no men- tion of this so-called austerity pro- gram, there is no doubt that CUPE Its spokesmen, along with spokesmen for the B.C. Federation of Labor, pointed out that public

employees in y C. are now "oil off than they were under the federal anti-inflation guidelines. On the one hand, the government places a ceiling on wage increases. On the other hand; the government gives itself the power, in effect, to pre- vent any strike in the public service, or to break a strike.

As reported in a recent pamphlet published by CUPE, some 15,000 of its 25,000 members in B.C. have already begun contract negotia- tions: They are municipal, school board, library board, university and other public employees.

According to the pamphlet, prices went up 28.4 percent during the three years of AIB wage con- trols. During the same period, wages for CUPE members employed by municipalities and school boards in Greater Vancouver increased by only 17.6 percent. “Our purchasing power is 10.8 per- cent less than it was in 1975,”’ the union emphasized.

LABOR COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

With the new amendment to the Essential Services Disputes Act directed mainly at CUPE, it is in- teresting to study some of the pro- jections made in the pamphlet refer- red to above.

e A laborer employed by a Greater Vancouver municipality or school board now earns $6.76 per hour, as compared with $7.78 for a provincial government laborer.

e@ Aclerk steno employed by the municipality of Vancouver earns 23 per cent less than a counterpart in the provincial service.

e A B.C. Hydro laborer now earns 23.4 per cent more than a municipal or school board laborer.

@ Whereas the IWA base rate was 39 cents an hour more than the base labor rate for CUPE in 1975 (when wage controls were imposed), the gap has now increas- ed to $1.41 per hour.

@ The construction rate for a laborer is now $4.02 an hour above the CUPE laborer.

In view of these facts, the CUPE demand of a wage increase of one dollar an hour is a very modest one. However, it is the intention of the provincial government to hold down any increase to less than one- third of that amount and to en- courage municipalities and school boards to compensate themselves for wage increases by laying off staff.

Indications of what is in store for CUPE members (and members of

- other unions involved) are reflected

in recent developments. The muni- cipality of Richmond has laid off 50 “‘permanent’’ employees indefinite- ly. These are outside workers, who, if they were employed and went on strike, would be considered ‘‘essen- tial’’ workers subject to a back-to- work order under the government

legislation. The city of New J minster has placed a freeze on hirings and layoffs are anticip The district of Maple Ridg nounced 30 layoffs last week. there is the threat of layoffs im couver by mayor Volrich, rel to earlier.

While we can understand strong feeling of the leadersht CUPE and the B.C. Federatié

‘Labor to go all out to ensutt U

defeat of the Socreds in thet.‘ provincial election, we must a the program adopted to date far enough to make that poss. c Frankly, we don’t think soy ; 3 leadership given to date leavest. “ to be desired. a For example, if the rumor & 4 provincial election. will be hel S April or May is correct, does It | follow that the whole labor 7 \ ment should be rallied to sup? > CUPE in its exercise of the right free collective bargaining? HES B.C. Federation of Labot 2 cooperation with CUPE lea mobilized all of its affiliates iff port of CUPE, the _ provi cabinet would find it polill dangerous to invoke the Ess Services Disputes Act; it is no enough for CUPE leaders “take it nice and easy until we an NDP government.’’ That! result in grossly sub-standard agreements, with no guarantet Socred defeat at the polls. © would fall further behind 4 would take many years to cat) =

It must be said that we have! see a forthright statement 0 NDP leader in B.C., Dave Bal that if his party were elect form the next provincial go! ment, the Essential Services putes Act would be repealed) public employees suffer no r@ tions in collective bargainily compared with private St employees. Further, up to they of writing we had seen no state by the leader of the NDP coné ing the recently imposed fin restrictions on municipal school boards. 4

We have said it before and¥ 4 it again: The trade union mové should advance its own demal a situation like this and creat widest possible unity in actid defeat the anti-labor and uné cratic moves by the Socreds. ] nine public rallies are reduced! more than a call to elect the NL the next provincial election, f greatly reduce the effectivené the fight-back and lessen chances to defeat the Socreds.

The situation calls for a cd together of all labor, demot and left forces.who are oppo the regressive policies of thi creds, including trade uf) teachers, municipal .and oS board spokesmen, the unempl@ the underprivileged and ¢ vantaged — a coming togetht protest and struggle. If we back to 1972, we will recall th was precisely such a convelg that played a major role in bri down the Socred government.

g

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