LABOR ones ccna’.

Building Trades members were ready to resume picketing of the Kensington over- pass construction site in Burnaby if the con- tractor attempted to bring non-union workers on to the site despite a ruling at the Labor Relations Board last week that he is bound by a union agreement.

Carpenters district council representative Jeff Roger said May 4 that the Building Trades would be watching the site closely since SGM construction, a non-union arm of another union company, was slated to begin work on the project May 7. “And we may have to start picketing again,” he said.

The Carpenters won an important deci- sion from the LRB which ruled that SGM, a North Vancouver-based firm which had been awarded the contract for decking on the Kensington overpass, was, in fact, under the same control as a union contractor, Armeco Construction.

The board panel riled under Section 37 of the Labor Code that the Malekyazdo family, which had run a construction firm in Iran before incorporating in this country, had set up SGM “with the £xpressed inten- tion. ..to operate in the construction busi- ness On a non-union basis.

“Therefore. ..the board determines that Armeco and SGM are to be treated as one employer. . .Pursuant to this determination, the board declares that SGM is bound by

the provisions of the 1982-84 standard.

agreement currently in force between Armeco and the union,” the ruling stated.

Immediately following the decision, however, SGM announced it was terminat- ing the union agreement — again in viola- tion of the Labor Code.

Although the collective agreements throughout the Building Trades expired Apr. 30, contractors can only terminate agreements by calling a lockout and they are obliged to follow certain procedures in order to do that. SGM did not follow those procedures.

The Carpenters has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the LRB but no hear- ing dates have been as yet.

SGM lawyer, Peter Gall also announced following the ruling that it would be appealed.

Gall’s appearance for SGM follows a growing pattern. He has been the lawyer for Bill Kerkhoff and has also appeared for other non-union contractors.

“It’s certainly more than just a coinci- dence that he’s appearing for all these non- union contractors,” Roger noted?

The Kensington overpass project, although not a major job, is significant in that the municipality of Burnaby awarded the contract to SGM knowing it to be the non-union affiliate of a union company.

In an attempt to get around the problem, the project manager worked out an elabo- rate schedule of delays to ensure that one contractor was finished and off the site before another came on.

The Building Trades began picketing the site last month as part of the Trades overall campaign against non-union contractors.

Unemployed unionists have also been picketing the Kerkhoff construction site in Chilliwack where the right-to-work con- tractor has the contract for a highway overpass.

Some 600 trade unionists and members of community, womens’ and international solidarity groups file down Commercial Drive to mark the annual May Day march in Vancouver last Saturday. Braving a torrential downpour, the marchers moved out of Clark Park for the kilometre-long trek to the rally point in Grandview Park where, due to the wetness of the participants and the grounds, the rally was cancelled. The sunny weather immediately preceding and following the event prompted some speculation that B.C.’s Social Credit government was into cloud seeding. However, the weather held in Kamloops, where an estimated 250 marchers, including 100 International Woodworkers meeting in convention, marked the interior city’s first annual May Day march. i

r

“ ‘Return to democracy’ is the demand that has completely united the people of Chile,” Jean-Claude Parrot Canadian Union of Postal Workers president reported to an overflow May | meeting at the Ukrainian Hall in Vancouver.

“Too often in the field of international solidarity work in Canada we get involved in telling others what kind of government they should have. Everyone is in favor of democracy. Our support cannot be condi- tional,” Parrot told the meeting which was organized by CUPW and Oxfam to coin- cide with May Day.

Parrot was part of a trade union fact- finding mission to Chile to monitor the March day of protest when thousands of Chileans demonstrated in the streets against the fascist junta.

“We had two main purposes in Chile, to see how the people feel about the situation knowing that 1984 isa year when some- thing must happen, and to find out what kind of projects we can initiate in Canada to help. We ask now that Canadians not only raise funds but also send telegrams of

protest with copies to support committees

Chile support is crucial, says CUPW leader Parrot

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone 251-1186

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here. Publicize your support and get our Canadian government to protest particu- larly at international meetings,” said Parrot.

He emphasized that international sup- port was particularly important because of the introduction of so-called anti-terrorist legislation, “which is nothing more than making it illegal to protest in any way and because the CNI (the secret police) had stepped up its activity.

“Tt is no wonder that the whole popula- tion has one common cause, a return to democracy, and that there is agreement

‘that when there is a return to democracy,

then they can worry about what happens next. Everyone is in favor of a general strike in order to gain this end,” he said.

The Canadians met with trade unio- nists, students, educators and cultural workers in many cities. Parrot described the highly organized and the high political consciousness of the people especially where they had conducted a “land inva- sion” to set up squatters camps. One such camp they visited had 4,500 families for a total of 12,500 people, 6,500 of them child- ren. Parrot pointed out that it was spot- less. The families were divided into 220 sections and one delegate from each sec- tion was on the main committee.

Parrot also related the story of a leading television singer who sang at an anti- Pinochet rally. She was jailed, tortured but when she was finally released, she imme- diately went to another rally on the same day and sang again.

“The spirit, the courage, the determina- tion of the people of Chile is unbelievable. We must all do everything humanly possi- ble to help them in their fight for demo-

racy,” Parrot said to prolonged applause.

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UIC’S ‘SUSPEND — FIRST’ POLICY DRAWS PROTEST

The suspension of Unemployment Insu- rance benefits to Cecil McCully (I) brought out an information picket line outside UI Commission regional offices in Terrace last month. McCully’s claim had been suspended and placed under

received a call from an employer whose two job offers McCully had allegedly refused. The suspension was continued even after McCully was able to produce a note from the real employer denying the call and the job offers, but his bene- fits were reinstated following the inter- vention of the Unemployed Action Centre and the Terrace Soup Kitchen. Skeena MP Jim Fulton has written Min- ister of Manpower and Immigration Lloyd Axworthy demanding an explana- tion for UIC’s apparent ‘suspend first — investigate later’ policy, but has yet to receive a reply, unemployed activists report.