Ad - Wednesday, November 2, 1983 - North Shore News

When he took over the
B.C. Federation of Labor
after the untimely death of
Jim Kinnaird, Art Kube bill-
ed himself as a concihator.
That, of course, was before
Premier Bill Bennett unveiled
his post-election restraint
program, triggering the rise
of the Solidarity
Organization.

Yet when the premier went
On television to offer an olive
branch of sorts to the pro-
vince’s vast army of civil ser-
vants in an effort to try to
head off a general strike,
Kube’'s reaction was to com-
plain bitterly that Bennett
was ‘‘trying to defuse a
general strike.”’

Weil, I should hope so.

As for the accusation that
the premier was trying Co split
public sector workers from
private sector workers by of-
fering to delay the firing of
some 1,600 B.C. Government
Employee’s Union workers
and that he was trying to
drive a wedge between com-
munity workers and the trade
union movement, well,

Strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

Now Rubik's Kube

THE NEW LABOR PUZZLE in British Columbia
could be called Rubik’s Kube.

again, isn’t that to be ex-
pected in the real world of
politics?

The trouble with mass

movements ts that they are,

by their very mature, an
amalgam of peculiar
bedfellows. In order to hold

the amoeba together, enemies
have to be defined in the
broadest (and therefore least
realistic) terms.

Art Kube has his work cut
out for him, no doubt. |!
haven’t interviewed him yet,
but 1 did spend enough time
with his predecessor to have a
pretty good sense of the Pro-
crustean Bed upon which any
labor leader must volunteer
to be bound. The relations
between the various factions
in the B.C. Fed have tradi-
uonally been a rat’s nest of
conflicting interests and
loyalties

It is not just that the trades
umons don’t love the in-
dustrial unions which
dominate the Canadian
Labor Congress or that the
left-wing, autonomy-seeking

- CLC 1s always feuding with

NEWS phuote ti t ggerteaun

Ready, set,

recycle...

NOVEMBER 7 marks the start of Nocth Shore

wide curbside
municipalities

pick-up
of West

Vancouver,

for recychap. as

North

the
Vuan-

couver and the city of North Vancouver co-operate

in cleaning up the covironment
ting anccarty start are the Matthews Camaty

and Marcia und children Sarah and € latire
warmed up for the coming of the event

Among those pct.
Bruce

who
Residents

are being encouraged to do everything they Cun to

scparate recyclable

and non ceclyclabbe

refuse and

to prepare recyclable goods tor (he curbside pick

up

the giant AFL-CIO. These
are the everyday woes of
anybody who tries to lead the
274,000-member B.C. Fed.

Jim Kinnaird, not long
before his death, allowed
Privately that the internal

hassles of the labor move-
ment were ‘‘bloody awful.”’

For Kube, the puzzle
becomes Byzantine. Not only
must he maketh boilermakers
to lie down with teachers, but
as co-chairman of Operation
Solidarity, he has taken on
the leadership of a volatile
coalition that is in a sense at-
tempting to make itself into a
parallel opposition party, if
not a government.

There were a lot of us who

weren't amused when a
*people’s government’’
briefly took over the

premier’s Vancouver office.

One of the problems in-
volved in any sweeping pro-
test Movement is that issues

get lumped into the same
sack when maybe they
shouldn’t be. For instance, |
find the Socred government’s
attack on human rights a
matter of obvious overkill,
yet | am in profound sym-
pathy with the need to create
some kind of sanity in the

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
world of the civil service
bureaucracy.

Is the bureaucracy out of
control? Look at the figures.
The BCGEU has 50,254
members, the B.C. Teacher’s
Federation has 30,684,
CUPE has 30,480, the Health
Employees Union 25,190, the
B.C. Nurses Union 16,500
and the Public Service
Alhance 15,458, for a grand
total of 168,566 civil servants
in a province where the work
force is estimated at
1,334,000.

Of that number, 215,000
workers are unemployed. But
public service umons§ still
represent 12.6 percent of the
total B.C. work force. That’s
one worker in eight being
paid out of a shrinking pro-
vincial tax base!

The 1,600 BGEU workers
targeted for the axe by the
Bennett government repre-
sent only a drop in_ the
bucket.

On that issue, Kube pro-
testeth too much.

DR. ANTOINETTE
OPTOMETRIST

wishes to announce
the opening of her

OPTOMETRIC PRACT ICE

128 East Fifteenth Street

North Vancouver

Appointments may be booked
by calling:

987-6554

Now is the time
to plant your bulbs
for spring

Daffodils King Alfred

Rnd |

Pwhile supphes last

reg

10/2 49

10..1”

100 ... 15”

Green Valley

Dolomite Lime

Bulb Food

Oreen Valley
3156

99 &§
20 kg 2 bag
99
$key 2 box

Agrico Winterizer

21015
20 ky

lawn fertihzer

9”, AG

Sony no dotivery on these Itemea

VAS VAN FLORIST

1821 Martine Drive, West Vancouver

)
VINA

mOP2® A171

—1— 922 3968 §

Lower Lonsdale
apartments hit

APARTMENT DWELLERS
in the Lower Lonsdale area
are being urged to tighten
secunty following a rash of
break-ins throughout the
area.

Over the past three weeks,
North Vancouver RCMP
have received reports of 42
apartment break-ins. Ten of
those were reported last
Thursday alone.

In most cases, entry is
gained by someone prying the
door open around the door-
knob and lock area.

Police are recommending
that all tenants install a dead-
bolt lock with a minimum
one-inch long bolt and that
they report to RCMP any
suspicious people seen loiter-
ing around apartments in the
Lower Lonsdale area.

it’s so easy ...

TIME

Of Day

FREE

Call 24 hours
669-2555

CLOCKS

Service & Repair
Grandfathers
Antiques
HOUSECALLS
REASONABLE
PRICES

271-9088

After 5:00 P.M.

framer’s
best advertising .
is word..f mouth

matter of people telling peupte. '
the same way you discover
your own personal tailor. You
find out trom a trend.

I've found my customers keep
cotming Sack to-tne even after
they have moved ... to me, i
means i'm doing something
right

You hear about a good picture
framer by word of mouth, but I
though | would tet you know
myself. After all, what are
triends tor?

124 E 3rd St.
: 988-7312

Park Shore Motors Ltd.

108 Bowser Avenue
North Vancouver
985 9344