DN AGP EF CP acne

Office, Editorial 985-2131

Test drive the
Ford Taurus

Automotives: 23

Display Advertising 930-0511

Distribution 986-1337

ANGRY PUBLIC Service Alliance workers took their message to the office of North Vancouver MP Chuck Cook on Tuesday afternoon.
The civil servants were legislated back to work by the federal government Thursday, following a bitter labor dispute.

THE FEDERAL government: wants to sink the B.C. ship-
building and ship repair industry, a shipyard union presi-

deat charged Taursday.

George MacPherson, president
of the Marine and Boilermakers
Industrizil Union, made the com-
ment one day after Ottawa
awarded a $450-million contract
for the construction of 12
minesweepers to a Halifax-based
shipyard.

The federal government origi-
nally announced its commitment

re

REACHING EV

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

to build the minesweepers in July
1988; among those vying for the
contract was a shipbuilding con-
sortium invoiving North Van-
cauver-based Vancouver Shipyards

ERY DOOR ON THE N

Co. Ltd. and Allied Shipbuilders
Ltd.

The consortium, which included
three eastern shipyards, initially
submitted an unsolicited proposal
to Ottawa for 12 minesweepers in
late 1987.

Under the proposal four of the
vessels would have been built on
the West Coast: two at Allied and
two at Vancouver Shipyards.

But the contract was awarded
Wednesday to Fenco Engineers
Inc. of Ontario; the subcontract

to build all 12 hulls went to
Halifax-Dartmouth Industries Ltd.

MacPherson said he was ‘‘ex-
tremely upset’? about the move.
He also criticized Capilano-Howe
Sound MP Mary Collins and
Nerth Vancouver MP Chuck
Cook for failing to lobby for part
of the $450-million contract.

‘*They’ve (Ottawa) done
nothing for the industry out
here,’’ said MacPherson. ‘I don’t
even know why we sent them to
Ottawa; certainly not to represent
the people.”

Cook denied MacPherson’s
charge that he has not been lobby-
ing for shipbuilding and ship

ORTH SHORE

repair work for the West Coast.

“That’s a load of crap,’’ said
Cook. ‘‘Constantly, all B.C. poli-
ticians are lobbying for work.”’

But Cook said he, too, was
upset about the minesweepers
contract: ‘‘I think what the feder-
al government did stinks. George
can blame the local repre-
sentatives, but he should fook fur-
ther at the federal government.
They’ve written off the ship-
building industry here.”’

Vancouver Shipyards genera}
manager Tom Ward also criticized
the move to award the
minesweeper contract to the east.

Ne

here i,

ee.

_