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CUPE B.C. TO REVIEW NDP SUPPORT
(This article is from the April 16-30/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
By Kimball Cariou
UNIONS AND LABOUR COUNCILS across British Columbia have condemned the back-to-work law imposed on school support workers by the BC government, and some unions are calling for a review of labour's backing for the NDP.
The legislation was passed with the support of the opposition Liberals at a special session of the Legislature on April 2, a week after CUPE members went on strike. One NDP MLA, Steve Orcherton, former secretary-treasurer of the Victoria and District Labour Council, spoke against the bill before walking out. Two other New Democrat MLAs stayed away from the session.
B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair told the media that the legislation creates "a huge problem" for unions which have supported the NDP, noting that there is "a lot of anger" among the 115,000 members of CUPE.
While the Liberals would take away far more workers' rights, Sinclair pointed out, that does not mean the NDP can count on labour support in the next election, which must take place by the spring of 2001. "Some people may just not go to the polling places," he said.
Barry O'Neill, President of CUPE BC, said that CUPE's annual convention in June will vote on continued affiliation with the NDP and the union's relationship with the government. He also indicated that local affiliations will be reviewed at the local level. O'Neill called upon the BC Federation of Labour and all its affiliates to begin similar discussions immediately.
"It is hard to face your party being hijacked by some of its most influential members - those who represent your party as the government of the day," said O'Neill. "But that is exactly what we are facing with the events of the last few days."
MLAs who voted in favour of imposing the back-to-work order on special needs assistants, school janitors, bus drivers and crossing guards, O'Neill said, "should no longer consider CUPE members their loyal supporters or even supporters at all. CUPE members in BC and school workers in particular have been shafted and humiliated by all the MLAs who voted in favour of legislating school support staff back to work because they should have revolted at the lack of action before the strike became inevitable."
For CUPE BC, that includes Gordon Wilson, whom the provincial union supported publicly during the recent NDP leadership convention, and Corky Evans, backed by CUPE after Wilson stepped down.
Referring to Joy McPhail, O'Neill said, "CUPE reserves a particular sense of betrayal for the Minister of Labour who promised, then refused to deal with an intolerable bargaining situation. As a former labour representative she fully understood the impact of wage controls on the collective bargaining process, yet did nothing to minimize the inevitable impasses that would be reached at local tables."
O'Neill also singled out Minister of Finance Paul Ramsay (former Minister of Education) for criticism. "The Minister has been closely involved with this issue since it began 18 months ago and still he failed to act until his actions were to silence those who have worked long and hard on maintaining the public school system in this province."
"Finally," said O'Neill, "Our new premier can claim the role as manager of this mess since he rejected or allowed his Minister of Labour and his Minister of Finance to reject proposed solutions time after time - that could well have prevented a strike, let alone legislation that has made a mockery of collective bargaining in the public sector."
The 45,000-member Hospital Employees Union, representing CUPE health sector workers in BC, also condemned the back-to-work legislation. HEU spokesperson Zorica Bosancic said her union is wary of how Premier Dosanjh and his advisers have dealt with public school bargaining.
"By failing to address a clearly dysfunctional bargaining structure, the Premier is playing right into the Liberal agenda to severely curtail school board workers' right to strike. Actions like this threaten to create a Bob Rae-style relationship between Victoria and public sector unions here in B.C. That's a road our union will urge the government not to go down."
Labour Councils meeting in early April were also taking up the issue. One of the first was the North Okanagan Labour Council, which passed a resolution condemning the back-to-work order and calling on the government to understand the need for a workable province-wide model for bargaining.
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