ITORI

Let’s not forget the Socred record

», ILL VANDER ZALM'S history. He has

) resigned as Premier of B.C. in total and utter ~, disgrace. Caught in his own web of lies and

/ deceit, Vander Zalm is no longer in power. — His unquestionable conflict of interest in the sale of Fantasy Garden World to Asian investors, has brought the Socred party to an all-time low.

But just because Bill Vander Zalm is out doesn’t mean our problems are over with. Since October of 1986 the Socreds have operated under a series of scandals.

During their time in office, ten Socred cabinet min- isters have resigned either in shame or in disagreement with Vander Zalm.

The Socred Party has gone through three Ministers of Labour in the past four and a half years as each minister has been frustrated to the point where they have been hamstrung by Vander Zalm.

IWA - CANADA members should not forget that it was the Socred government that only 4 years ago introduced Bill 19 — The Industrial Relations Act which replaced the province’s Labour Code. The intro- duction of Bill 19 helped cause the B.C. Fed to go out on a province-wide walkout in political protest. The Socred government through the attorney-general charged labour leaders with“seditious activity” for co-ordinating the protest. The charges were dismissed.

Subsequently Bill 19 was condemned by the United Nations International Labour Organization as in direct violation of “free collective bargaining” rights.

Since 1987 the IWA and other unions have had to live with the Industrial Relations Act which, among other things, has allowed employers to interfere with the union during organizing drives.

And lets not forget that the Socreds have tried to pick apart the public sector unions through a massive privatization program which has included the contracting out of government services, medical ser- vices and highway maintenance.

Besides the reduction and elimination of services and public sector jobs, the Vander Zalm government took on the public sector unions by introducing the Public Sector Bargaining Disclosure Act (Bill 79) in the Summer of 1990 which said that the bargaining positions of union and the public sector employers must be brought out into the open in a “fishbowl” way.

That Act which was largely ignored was recently replaced with the introduction of Bill 82, the Compen- sation Fairness Act, which is the Socred’s re-introduction of wage control legislation.

In protest, the B.C. Teacher’s Federation is consid- ering the cancellation of classes, and job action while joining the BC. Fed in a program of political action designed to elect an NDP government.

What is also disturbing about the Social Credit gov- ernment, in this new post Vander Zalm era, is that it has refused to bring in a budget for fiscal 1991.

Even though the Minister of Finance promised the opposition that there would be debate on a budget or at least an interim supply bill, the legislature was abrogated nine days before the end of the fiscal bud- get year.

BC. is now being managed by a series of “special warrants” whereby over $2 billion of public money is being spent without any debate or approval from elected officials.

The Socred Cabinet is in total disarray and is rocked by internal dissension. Vander Zalm’s succes- sor, the new Premier Rita Johnston was one of his most loyal and unquestioning supporters.

So with a change of face, the Socred’s remain under the control of Vander Zalm’s loyalists.

LUIMBERUORKER

TLE LRT Official publication of [WA-CANADA

NORMAN GARCIA, JACK MUNRO... President Editor GERRY STONEY .. 1st Vice-President NEIL MENARD . . 2nd Vice-President 5th Floor, FERNIE VIALA . . 8rd Vice-President 1285 W. Pender Street ROGER STANYER.. 4th Vice-President Vancouver, B.C. FRED MIRON... 5th Vice-President

V6E 4B2 TERRY SMITH . . Secretary-Treasurer

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Americans defy FTA in snubbing panel’s decision

The United States govern- ment’s recent decision to chal- lenge a bi-national trade dis- pute panel’s decision favour- ing Canadian pork producers has caught the Mulroney gov- ernment flat footed.

In March the panel found inaccuracies in Washington’s International Trade Commis- sions’ decision that Canadian pork producers were subsidiz- ing the industry. As a result, the ITC reviewed the basis of its decision and tariffs against Canadian pork were dropped and refunds were given to the Canadian industry.

But special interests in the US. Congress didn’t like the decision and put pressure on U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills who then launched an “extraordinary challenge” of the binational panel’s rul- ing.

It stunned Ottawa and was welcome news to opponents of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in January of 1989.

International Trade Minis- ter John Crosbie warned the U.S. in mid-April that the “extraordinary challenge” will undermine the FTA and cause Canada to rethink its posi- tion in joining the U.S. and Mexico in the pursuit of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Prime Minister Mulroney told U.S. President George Bush that the pork appeal was an “abuse” of the FTA. In a more feeble manner, Mulroney also said the U.S. was abusing the spirit of the FTA.

Obviously Canada is being taught a basic lesson that it will never be safe from politi- cally motivated interference in trade matters.

No matter what a bi-natural panel says, or if “Canada had won the case fair and square” as Mulroney said to the House

of Commons, the Americans simply do as they please.

After the panel’s decision over 70 members of Congress lobbied Carla Hills to seek the appeal. The Bush Admin- istration knuckled under to the pressure at the same time it is seeking Congressional “fast-track” approval to keep alive the Uruguay Round of GATT talks and negotiate a NAFTA.

John Crosbie said to a New York business audience that at home the Canada-U.S. FTA is already unpopular and the government might come under harsher judgment if the dis-

Canada is being taught a lesson about so called

Free Trade Agreements

pute settling mechanism flies apart.

But on the home front Crosbie has been extolling the virtues of the FTA as a suc- cessful job creator.

Those Canadians who thought the U.S. would be fair and impartial under the FTA are being taught a tough lesson. In the future we are faced with the increasing prospect of U.S. special inter- est groups using political pressure to influence deci- sions on international trade.

The challenge to the pork ruling is highly reminiscent of the power politics behind the 1986 Softwood Lumber Dispute between the U.S. and Canada where U.S. lumber producers got together to threaten Canadian lumber production with countervail- ing duties. The Americans claimed that we were unfairly subsidizing Canadian forest

companies with artificially low stumpage rates.

The Americans were going to slap us with a 30% tariff on our exports until the Mul- roney Government, after much deliberations put a 15% ex- port tax (Memorandum of Understanding) on the ex- ports as a stop gap measure.

The Mulroney Government, in the interests of seeking a trade deal with the U.S., enshrined the M.O,U. into the FTA, which put the industry into a sinkhole where we are unable to exercise sovereignty over the pricing of our re- sources.

Lumber industry officials have been looking at the bi-national dispute panels as a way of getting out of the mess we are in,with the M.O.U. If the “extraordinary appeal” procedure works against the Canadian pork industry, the luraberindustry hasn’t got much of a chance of succeeding against present and future countervail actions in the future either.

As far as a NAFTA goes will we be able to call some of the shots? Derek Burney, Ambassador to the U.S. says the FTA won’t be reopened in negotiation for a North Amer- ican FTA.

The Americans are talking different however. Both Carla Hills, at a congressional sub- committee hearing in mid- February, and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Julius Katz at a Senate hearing said the exact same words that “both the U.S. and Canada agree that the trilateral nego- tiations will give us an oppor- tunity to improve and expand the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement.”

In February,Katz said the FTA will be “subsumed” in a trilateral NAFTA to form a new set of phased in tariff reductions and, lo and behold, a new dispute setting mecha- nism to cover the 3 countries.

4/LUMBERWORKER/MAY, 1991