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B.C. Tel rejects settlement
TWU members brace for battle
Eleven thousand B.C. Tel workers, members of the Telecommunications Workers Union, are bracing for an all-out battle with an employer that has one of the worst anti-union records in the province.
Owned by General Telephone and Electric of New York, B.C. Tel has had such lush profits in recent years that it was even forced to return $7 million illegally obtained during wage controls.
But for the second time in two years, the company is adamantly refusing to share any of that wealth with the workers that created it.
TWU vice-president George Yawrenko said in an interview Sept. 25 that 550 key employees have already begun strike action in an effort to force B.C. Tel to negotiate.
Those on strike are the computer experts and business telephone workers whose jobs generate the most money for the company, Yawrenko said, and
their job action has a minimal impact on the public.
The TWU has been 11 months without an agreement. The deadlock seemed broken, however, Sept. 4, when conciliation officer Ed Peck brought down a non-binding recommended settlement which the union thought neither side could reject.
Although the report failed to meet many important union demands, the TWU bargaining committee recommended acceptance and was upheld by a 91 percent vote.
But before the ballots could even be counted, B.C. Tel rejected the Peck report and made a new offer far below Peck's already marginal proposals.
Peck proposed a 75 cent across-the-board raise retroactive to Jan. 1, five percent retroactive to July 1 and 10 percent effective July 1, 1981.
The company threw out the across-the-board raise and also demanded the union give up important jurisdictional rights
Peck had granted. The effect, Yawrenko said, was to cut the proposed increase to lower-paid workers by $2.85 during the life of the agreement and rekindle the company's longstanding attack on union jurisdiction.
Once again, B.C. Tel workers are facing a major confrontation to win modest gains from their U.S.-based employer. Wherever GTE has operated, it has attempted to eliminate its unions, Yaw renko said.
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Southern catches
Salmon landings down 47 percent
Lindsey Doerksen photo
• Seiners fishing in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Johnstone Strait are hoping fall chum runs materialize in enough numbers to compensate for slim catches during the summer. Above, the Vic Isle completing a set near Port Neville.
UFA WU protest
U.S. boats fish, we conserve
A heated protest by the Eraser River District Council of the UFA WU won gillnetters a day's fishing iriArea 29 Sept. 17 after the fisheries department had overruled a two-day fishery proposed by the International Pacific Salmon Eisheries Commission.
The department imposed the closure after US. fishermen at Point Roberts had hammered away at the same stocks, landing 3,800 springs and 18,000 coho in the first week of September. The Canadian closure was ordered to conserve stocks already harvested by the U.S.
In a telegram to fisheries minister Romeo LeBlanc Sept. 12, union business agent Kill I'roco-pation demanded "immediate action to correct this mismanagement by allowing a minimum of 24 hours a week fishery from now until the end of November in order to allow a fair share of harvest of all species.
"If further conservation of stocks is needed, then it has to be shared by all exploiters of the resource," Procopation continu-
ed, "including Americans, who do not appear to be co-operating with Canadian fisheries."
U.S. fishermen have built up a sizeable lead over their Canadian counterparts in convention waters catches. Poor catches in the openings that were allowed
did not close the gap.
In the Area 29 fishery for the week ending Sept. 21, 170 gillnetters took 15,500 sockeye, 2,635 coho and 8,051 springs for a boat average of about 150 fish.
In a news release Sept. 12, the council noted that the commis-
Jobless rate climbing, not dropping — CLC
Recent government claims that the unemployment rate is dropping are a fraud, says the Canadian Labor Congress. The decline is entirely the result "of thousands of unemployed Canadians becoming so discouraged they did not bother to look for work."
The rate of employment — the number holding jobs — shrunk in seven provinces and stood steady in the other three in July, says the CLC. But the unemployment rate also declined because many more people just gave up.
"If anything," the congress says, "the situation is worsening. At a time when jobs should be opening up, total employment is falling as massive layoffs and plant closures are being announced almost daily."
sion "had proposed a two-night fishery for District 1 in order to harvest sockeye by Canadian fishermen who are still some 40,000 fish behind the Americans.
"The local department has rescinded this proposed opening, saying the area must remain closed to conserve spring salmon and coho stocks now migrating into the river."
The closure "will place further undue hardships on the backs of the river fishermen," the release continued, "who have had very little fishing time or earnings to date."
Procopation said the continued U.S. pressure on Canadian stocks, both in the Fraser area and the Alaska Panhandle area, indicates the danger of agreeing to an interception agreement that permits permanent U.S. interception of Canadian fish.
U.S. fisheries at Point Roberts are allowed regardless of stock condition, he said, because the U.S. bears no responsibility for the survival of Fraser runs.
Only a strong fall chum fishery can save this salmon season from complete disaster, and while early signs indicate the chum run may be strong, it is unlikely to make up for a dismal summer.
Fisheries department statistics to Sept. 6 show landings south of Cape Caution this year are 47 percent below last year's levels, with trollers and net fishermen bearing the brunt of the collapse almost equally.
In the north, landings have increased a little, but not enough to alter the bleak picture facing fishermen with only a few weeks of fishing time left.
Total troll landings to Sept. 6 were 6,433 metric tons, less than half the 13,997 recorded in southern waters to Sept. 8, 1979. Net landings in the south have crumbled to 11,998 metric tons from 21,027 last year.
In the north, total troll lapd-ings were 3,617 tons, up somewhat from the 2,810 last year. Net landings increased to 15,793 tons from 13,544.
Coastwide to the end of the first week in September, troll catches declined to 10,050 tons from 16,807 last year. Net catches are down to 27,791 tons from 34,571.
Most of the decline in the south came in pinks and sockeye, with chums registering the only increase in landings for net fishermen over last year. The off-cycle pinks dropped to 3,470 tons this year, compared to the 10,089 landed by net fishermen in 1979. Trollers saw their pink catch drop to 437 tons from 6,044.
Net sockeye catches are down 2,700 tons at 5,145 tons and trolls sockeye catches were slashed to 93 tons from 1,047. The bright spot, for both trollers and net fishermen, is a chum total increasing to 2,415 tons for both fleets from 1,560 in 1979.
The fact that the fisheries department statistics do not differentiate between B.C. salmon and Alaskan salmon delivered to B.C. ports indicate the true situation is even worse than the statistics suggest.
Where net fishing continues, catches remain poor. In the week ending Sept. 14. gillnetters and seiners recorded some chum catches in a one-day opening around the Queen Charlotte Islands.
In Area 2E, 124 gillnetters landed 11,500 chums for a 92-fish average in a 12-hour fishery. Forty-four seiners in the area managed only 5,400 chums. In Area 2W, 90 gillnetters brought See CATCH—page 2