c2_Castl@@ar News _une1,1900 i The * Welcom, a lethering Place You" 2250 Ook Bay Ave., Victoria, B.C. Phone (604) 598-1413 (Valid only with this ad) . Ce NEW YORK (AP) — Probably the two most used words in SAFE & SECURE FIRST MORTGAGES 16% guaranteed return to investors on small First Mortgages on recreational property. ideal investment for your self- administered RRSP. Contact: GORDON MASON, TRI VISTA REALTY Box 459, Saimon Arm, 8.C. VOE 2T0 Business 832-6027 * Residence 632-4195 business advertising are quality and service. In practice, they might be BUSINESS. June |, 1988 ca IRC remains under siege from unions VANCOUVER (CP) — A year after the British Columbia government announced its creation, the powerful Industrial Relations Council remains under siege from its main constituency — the labor among the most it That fact is clear in surveys of B.C. corporate practices, even though the consequences are well understood by management and labor. More evidence comes in an analy sis of 105 responses to a survey of Fortune 500 companies by organ- izational Dynamics Inc., a man- agement consulting and trajning company based in Burlington, Mass. The survey found executives vir- taully unamimous in their belief that ibility for quality must be Sunfest 88 © June 3-5 Salute to Australia Look for Sunfest Lottery Buttons, on sale at participating merchant's for only ‘\ $3.00, & give yourself a chance tq win a trip for 2 to Australia! heanras CANTAS shared by everyone in the company. Almost all agreed that “everyone in the company affects customer satis- faction.” But in the typical company sur. veyed, just 25 per cent of workers were involved in quality improve- ment. Only 17 per cent of the res- pondents said their company in- volves more than half their em. ployees. The results underscore what many quality improvement specialists have been saying for years, that one of the major quality defects of American industry is the failure to follow through on corporate goals. (FALCON PAINTING & DECORATING 2649 FOURTH CASTLEGAR vin 2st Here’s My Card... Gary Fleming Dianna Kootnikoft ADVERTISING SALES T resiecssvavnere TRAM, 8c. Vir 211 2 2007 CASTUGAR Cv aE TOU Free OFFICE 365-5210 7) CASTLEGAR NEWS 70 CRaMee HAVE YOU DRIVEN A FORD LATELY AVENUE ec 365°3563 A.M. FORD SALES (Tp. JANICE TURNER SALES AND LEASING SPECiALIST Res: 362-5925 It's not the first time an interest group has been at odds with the organization charged with admin- istering and interpreting the province's labor laws. Union leaders criticized the council's predeces- sor, the Labor Relations Board, claiming it was stacked with anti-union appointees by the former Social Credit government of Bill Bennett. Business took swipes at the board in the 1970s, saying it was clearly interested in giving labor the upper hand. But rarely has opposition been so vehement. The B.C. Federation of Labor, with 250,000 members in affiliate unions, has boycotted most council pro- ceedings. By ignoring the council's power, the province's largest labor group hopes to deny it stature and credibility, even though its member unions risk losing cases when they don't appear: The council was created last April under the controversial Industrial Relations Act, which re- placed the Labor Code. During his 1986 election campaign, Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm promised a new era of co-operation in a province known for its labor unrest. Later, he defended the new labor legislation as progressive and said it actually protected workers from wage losses due to strikes, unfair union hiring hall practices and being blacklisted by unions. WALKED OUT But after the legislation was introduced last spring, about 300,000 workers walked out for a day in protest. The council opened for business in July, combining the old labor board with the provincial mediation service. The chairman is Ed Peck, the government's former wage control czar and once a tough labor negotiator for the construction industry. Peck and 11 full-time vice-chairmen oversee a law that cuts deeply into unions’ operating freedom on everything from organizing drives to picketing. It gives the government, through the council, more power to intervene in contract disputes. © “It's quite clear to us that he’s using the legislation on behalf of the government,” federation president Ken Georgetti says of Peck. “He's supposed to be neutral.” The boycott covers all council proceedings except union certifications and i by KEN GEORGETTI BILL VANDER ZALM . . boycott council introduced new cod: “There's no question the law is so dramatically out of step for a neutral adjudicating role, that you could put Solomon on the council and unions would come out on the short end of the stick,” says a lawyer who usually acts for unions. Lawyer Gavin Hume, whose firm has employers for clients, agrees most of the changes come at the expense of unions, but says federation affiliates can take some of the blame. Adjudication hearings are like a day in court, he says, and it’s possible to do the job properly if one side boycotts the proceedings. The federation admits there's a cost. One case highlights its dilemma. Linda Sanders was a flower clerk at a Victoria-area Safeway supermarket. She went to the old labor board complaining her union, the feder- ation-affiliated Retail Clerks Union, hadn't adequate- ly defended her in a grievance after she was suspended, demoted and transferred for running her own flower business that allegedly lured away Safeway customers. The council, which inherited the case, ruled in Sanders’ favor, citing a new section of the law that requires unions to represent their members fairly. Council vice-chairman Robert Arseneau ruled the union ignored evidence that could have cleared Sanders of wrongdoing. Georgetti cites the case as a prime example of the council's bias. Arseneau could have referred the issue back to the two parties to resolve the original grievance. Instead he condemned the union for not fulfilling its responsibilities and ruled he would deal with the grievance himself without hearing from anyone but Sanders. Lawyer Drew Schroeder, whose clients include federation affiliates, disagrees with the Sanders’ decision but stops short of accusing Arseneau of bias. “There's always a problem when you're not there to argue your side of the case,” he says. Critics in the business community have also individual union members. Georgetti says predic- tions the council would have on anti-union bias are being borne out. But labor relations experts say the Industrial Relations Act is such a radical departure from the Labor Code passed in 1974 by the NDP government that anti-union decisions are inevitable. “I don't see any clear evidence of bias,” says Prof. Tony Kiekling of the University of B.C. law faculty, who reads the council's decision regularly. “It’s basically the tools they work with.” Lawyers who must deal with the law agree. d to Labor Minister Lyall Hanson that the council is trying to offset its anti-union image by bending too much the other way. It’s said that in the absence of union spokesmen at hearings, adjudica- tors play devil's advocate. But observers on both sides dismiss the complaints as sour grapes from employers on the losing end of rulings. “T've been hearing the same kind of thing,” says Jim Matkin, president of the Business Couneil of B.C. “The only case they've ever seen is their own. I certainly don’t think you could say there's a pattern that proves a bias or even shows there's a problem.” Hostile bids BIKE SALE The Best Prices of the Year On Bikes Built Right Here in Canada! ROAD BIKES RENEGADE AERO 10-SPEED macro = $ 74999 RENEGADE SPORT 12 Be $1799 PRICED TO MOVEAT......... THAT GIVES YOU MORE! MOUNTAIN BIKES RENEGADE ALL SIZES RENEGADE RANGER 15-SPEED RENEGADE SIERRA. 15-SPEED RENEGADE ASPEN Cro-Mo SIS, Alloy Wheels, Best Buy in Town onan 18-Speed Mountain Bike *399°° ONLY 2 LEFT! 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