page 6 - January 28, 1976 - North Shore News Roy Gautier is Secretary-Treasurer of the B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council. Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, he came to Canada in 1953 and settled in West Vancouver in 1956. He became an active unionist almost at once, - spending eight years as an ‘official of the ‘Carpenter’s Union prior to and concurrent with his election to the B.C.Y.B.T.C. He lives in a house he built ° on Marine Drive near Lighthouse Park. Gautier and his wife Shirley have two » sons and two daughters. Roy says he i is 46. Shirley says he is 49. | Although he would probably prefer to ‘spend. his time puttering around i in his workshop or working on his farm on Galiano Is., Gautier spends most of his time negotiating contracts and agreements on behalf of thousands of workers in B.C.’s construction industry. North Shore News: There are a lot of people who supported unionism 30 or 40. years ago who don’t support it any- more. They seem to feel that big unions are just 2s much their enemies as big busi- ness. Is big. labor as insensitive to the general. public as big management? GAUTIER: No. 1 think there’s a iack of appreciation of labor’s invclvement in areas outside contract. writ- ing. There. are many labor people involved with outside.’ 4 projects, Preparing briefs on minimum wage, sions, medicare, denticare — all issues that effect the general public, not just the union worker. - NSN: |» Let's. “get. contract writing. Can the ' collective bargaining system still work? ’ GAUTIER: Yes. . wit NSN: Then why are there so. many strikes? GAUTIER: it’s a _ — good question, Shane. There are a number of things. I think there’s an increasing aware- ness in people that they have a right to a slice of the pie, rather than just taking whatever the companies will give them. NSN: You say “‘a right to a slice of the pie.”? A lot of people feel that this amounts to the unions and companies | squeezing out the consumer. Isn’t this ‘‘right”” just a desire to get while — the getting is good, before the. ., crash comes—simple greed? GAUTIER: I don’t agree with that—there’s an element of : truth in it but it goes deeper than that. On the surface, if you look at wage increases, they certainly seem to increase ahead of the general cost of living. But when times are tough, labor will fall behind, of necessity. When the economy is rolling, labor has to use the opportunity to take up the slack. It runs in a 10-year cycle. NSN: We haven't had a rolling econo for ‘some . & ny . Countsles, it’s a time now. GAUTIER: | Again, cycle. Even after the econ- omy peaks, the. effect of catching up 4s still showing. up. What I’m saying is, you could be two years past a peak in the economy and still see catch-up settlements belng made. NSN: Union negotiators like yoursolf aro paid by union members to ask for highor | wages. Ie it peasible that = union demands are pen-- back. ‘to made for the sake of making demands, becausc a unien official feels he’s not doing his job unless he makes them? GAUTIER: Bargaining de- niands don’t come out of thin air or someone’s imagina- - tion. Some unions use wage _ conferences to decide their goals, while others use a convention to hammer out demands. Say, a group like the IWA, they’d have ‘a fairly large delegated body at a. wage ‘conference, deciding what their targets are. The car- penters use a conyention, where each local decides what their prcblems ‘and needs are, and each’..area ~- sends a delegate to represent them. The leadership carry it - from there. | - NSN: So the rank and file tell leadership what they want, - not the other way around? GAUTIER: Yes. Sometimes . things go the other way. In - the process of negotiations, obviously some things have to be dropped. You give a point and pick up one there, and so on. | NSN: Many poop! Ie “have proposed a labor court, such as they have In Scandinavian . ‘to settle labor’ disputes, What do you think branch .of tho Judiclary to decide what is fair in an Industrial dispute. . GAUTIER: I'd have to say. sed to any form of . Vm op compulsion as opposed to negotiations. NSNs It looks as though most Canadians are resigning themselves’ to the wage and price . freese. Rveryene,© eobans te feel shat, ; ue ey “There’s an — unfortunate _ apathy to municipal affairs.” . plant. _ humber. of men produce an: increasing amount of: goods, : the true productivity. has 3 _ increased. Certainly, it may we should tighten our belts _ — except the labor move- ment. Why do unions remain - opposed. to it? GAUTIER: “Firstly, we re | convinced that it’s a-wage . : freeze. It has failed te control prices, bank interests and profits to any degree. And it. that three-year period runs ‘with the conditions as they are now, I am convinced that the standard of living of working. . people - will. be reduced. NSN: We're told that labor is pricing us out of internation- al markets, that while U.S. unions have cut beck on wage demands, they: have ‘increased their. productivity, ‘whereas Canadian—and es-' pecially B.C.