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NEWS photo Mike Waketield

UNIONIZED BC Rail employees, members of the Counci! of Trade Unions
(CTU), man a picket line Tuesday morning in front of the Crown corporation’s
North Vancouver yard. The CTU walked out on strike at one minute past mid-
night Tuesday after contract talks broke down.

‘Reb’ has had a
noteworthy career

September 5, 1990

North Shore Now: 21

56 pages

Strike hits
BC Rail

Contract talks collapse

OPERATIONS AT North

Vancouver-based BC Rail

ground to a halt early Tuesday when the Counci! of

Trade Unions (CTU) made

good on its threat to strike

following last week's collapse of contract negotiations.

Actout 1,800 BC Rai! workers
who belong to seven unions rep-
resented by the CTU are now
picketing all of BC Rail’s opera-
tions across the province.

The company has estimated
that a strike would cost BC Rail
at least $500,000 a day in lost
revenues.

Vancouver mediator John
Thorne booked out of contract
talks last week after he said
there was nothing to mediate as
long as the two sides remained
as far apart as they were on the

150 issues currently on the
bargaining table.
The most contentious issues

include the union’s proposal! for
a 23.5 per cent wage increase in
a one-year collective agreement
and the contracting out of BC
Rail work.

CTU president Ray Callard
said Tucsday that the labor
dispute could be resolved quickly
if BC Rail was to agree to a
CTU proposal on the contrac-
ting-out issue.

Callard also denied tha, the
CTU is seeking a complete con-
tracting-out ban.

“We are not asking for a total
ban on contracting out. What
we're asking for is a contrac-
ting-out clause system similar to
that of the BC Tel workers and
that is not a complete ban on
contracting out,’’ said Callard.

While he said the CTU origi-
nally proposed a wage increase
of 23.5 per cent over one year,
Callard said that figure was only
a starting point for negotiations

But he said BC Rail was not
prepared to negotiate on the
wage proposal.

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

“Our tradesmen have fallen
{1.4 per cent behind wood-
workers. Our 23.5 per cent was
an opening pusition,”’’ said
Callard. **For them (BC Rail) to
Say we're out on strike for 23,5
per cent is just ludicrious.”’

But BC Rail spokesman Barrie

44 Our tradesmen
have fallen 11.4 per
cent behind

woodworkers. ... For
them (BC Rail) to
say were out on
strike for 23.5 per
cent is just

ludicrous. 99
Council of Trade Unions
president Ray Callard

Wall said the CTU gave the
Crown corporation a_ position
paper stating that there should
not be contracting out of any
kind.

He added that it was “im-
possible’’ to say how long the
strike, the second one in 10
years, Will last.

A 30-morth contract: between
BC Rail and its unions expired
June 30.

The fast strike between unions
and BC Rail lasted five weeks.

Cap water supply concerns GVRD

THE GREATER Vancouver Regional District's water and
environment committee will discuss what actions should be
taken to shore up the dwindling water supplies in the
North Shore’s Capilano and Seymour reservoirs at a Sept.

17 meeting.

A special Wednesday meeting of
the GVRD board of directors
called to consider a ban on
sprinkling on the North Shore and
throughout the region because of
the increasingly low water levels in
the Capilano reservoir was
cancelled Tuesday because of the

INSIDE
SPORTS:

By Elizabeth Collings
News Reporter

rainfall received last week.

But GVRD_ spokesman Bud
Elsie said Tuesday that if the hot,
dry weather continues, a special

meeting of the board of directors
could still be called.

In addition, he sed ihat most
of the water anc evvironment
committee members are board
directors, making it casy to con-
vene the beard at the Sept. 17
committee meeting if the water
situation continued to be critical.

The special board mecting had
been calied to consider asking
GVRD municipalities to impose a
ban on residential and municipal
sprinkling.

“Capilano is the primary con-
cern,”’ Elsie said, estimating that
the North Shore reservoir is down
32 to 33 feet.

The level is only eight to 10 feet
above the low-water mark hit dur-
ing 1987, which had the worst
water shortage on GVRD record.

The Capilano reservoir serves
North Vancouver, parts of West
Vancouver, Vancouver, Rich-
mond, and parts of Burnaby.

Though it would be possible to
re-route water to Vancouver from

the Coquitlam reservoir, which,
along with the Seymour reservoir,
is not facing such low levels as the
Capilano, Elsie said it would be
technically complex.

Last week's rainfall on the
Lower Mainland, he said, only
improved reservoir levels slightly.

Elsie said that a minimum of
two weeks’ of heavy rainfall is
still needed to bring reservoirs up to
acceptable levels.

See Minimum Pave 3

7

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