NORTH VANCOUVER - CITY COUNCIL cil | concept Split vote against Lions Gate Bridge replacement idea IN A close 3-3 vote Monday night, North Vancouver City Council rejected an engineering staff recommendation to replace the Lions Gate Bridge with a new five- lane structure, By Stephen Wisenthal Contributing Writer members agreed that the 55-year-old three- lane crossing needs to be replaced, but environmental concerns were enough to sink the five-lane proposal. Coun. Stella Jo Dean con- demned the ‘‘desecration of land on our ‘side as well as across the inlet’? that would be. caused by the five-lane bridge. _ She-said it would mean doubling the width of the Stanley Park: causeway and require major improvements to intersections at both ends of the bridge.” “We should be discourag- ‘ing the use of automobiles and, encouraging the use of bicycles and transit,”’ she ad- ded. - Meanwhile, Coun. Rod Clark said he ' wanted the bridge to remain three lanes wide, -“] do not believe political reality wiil support a wider causeway through (Stanley) park,’’ he said. | Coun. Barbara Perrault called the existing oridge a . “standing museum piece.’’ She added: “In a major earthquake, the survivability of. the bridge is a real ques- tion.’”’ She said the ‘‘clincher’’ for her support of the five-lane bridge was the provision of a special lane for transit and high-occupancy vehicles. But Coun. Bill Bell said there was not enough infor- mation on which to base.a ‘decision, and voted against the recommendation. City council was warned in a letter from Surrey Mayor Bob. Bose, who chairs the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD) transporta- tion committee, that: ‘The continuation of current maintenance and remedial programs is no longer accept- able and a decision on how to maintain a safe and effective crossing of the First Narrows cannot be delayed.” ~ The five-lane bridge was recommended as the best of three options by deputy city engineer Don Bridgeman, who said he chose it based on ‘“GYRD transportation guidelines. Council BC TRANSIT Wednesday, February 10, 1993 - North Shore News - 3 ‘Wildcat strike strands commuters B.C. TRANSIT and the !n- dependent Canadian Transit Union were scheduled to appear before the Labor Relations Board Tuesday morning in an attempt to mediate a labor dispute that resulted in a wildcat strike Monday. By Surj Rattan News Reporter The job action forced hundreds of North Shore transit users to scramble for alternative ways to get home during the rush hour. Gerry Winchester, North Van- couver property representative for the union, said the wildcat strike was sparked by B.C, Transit’s fir- ing of a bus driver on Monday. B.C. Transit chairman Eric Denhoff said the unidentified driver was fired after an investiga- tion showed that he failed to set a parking brake, causing his bus to roll across six lanes of traffic from East Vancouver’s Kootenay Loop, narrowly missing two pe- destrians, before it crashed into a store in the 3500-block of East Hastings on Friday. “Tvs (wildcat strike) .totally about the Kootenay Loop inci- dent. We’re emptying our buses at the end of the line and then bringing them back here empty,” Winchester said Monday after- noon in front of B.C. Transit’s North Vancouver yard. ra NEWS photo Mika Wakaelleld B.C. TRANSIT operators in North Vancouver walked off the job Monday atternoon, sparking a wildcat strike, after B.C. Transit fired a driver whose bus had rolled away from him at the Kootenay Loop in East Vancouver. He added that it was hard to estimate how many drivers took their buses off the road in North Vancouver, but he said the union represents 180 drivers and mechanics in North Vancouver. Legion employees locked out of clubs as dispute escalates Local outlets behind picket lines ROYAL CANADIAN Legion and Army and Navy Clubs on the North Shore and elsewhere around the Lower Mainland are behind picket lines as management locked out employees on Monday morning. Dave Macintyre, director of Hospitality: and Industrial Rela- tions (HIR), the bargaining agent for the veterans’ clubs, Said the lockout was sparked by employees of three Vancouver-area legions and one Army and Navy Club in White Rock going on strike Fri- day. HIR, he said, has been bargain- ing for 17 Royal Canadian Legions and Army and Navy Clubs. MacIntyre said the group told the Hotel, Restaurant, Employees and Bartenders’ Union that its members would be locked out if any of the 17 veterans’ clubs was picketed. He said the labor dispute is over wages. “They’re currently earning in excess of $2 an hour over their counterparts who work in hotels. We said enough is enough. We’re prepared to pay a wage increase, : “ but it has to be reasonable,’’ said MacIntyre. Wages for hotel bartenders, he said, currentiy range between $10.93 and $11.04 an hour, while bartenders at the two veterans’ clubs range between $12.09 and $12.89 an hour. “The membership base of these clubs is people whs are on fixed incomes. The pay increase has to be passed on to the customer, and many can’t afford it,’’ said Maclntyre. But Marie Palmer, shop steward for Local 40 of the Hotel, Restau- rant, Culinary Employees and Bartenders’ Union, which repre- sents Jocked out workers at the Culinary . By Surj Rattan News Reporter Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 118 at 123 West 1Sth St., North Vancouver, said the union is only asking for 42 cents more an hour, half of which would go towards a medical and dental plan, ‘She added that the locked out employees have been without a contract for one year and that HIR has offered the union wage increases of 0 cents, 15 cents and 15 cents over three years. Palmer said customers are now doing the jobs of the locked out employees at the 15th Street legion. ‘*They have volunteer members doing our jobs. They say they’re not getting paid, but {| find that hard to believe. “This is a veterans’ club, and what, they’re (volunteer workers) doing is just wrong,’’ said Palmer. She added that she doesn’t know. what the relationship be- tween staff and customers will be tike when the labor dispute ends. “Pil just ignore them. The Ar- my and Navy has shut down completely, but these people are stil open,’’ said Palmer. A sign posted Monday on the front window of the legion read: “AH services are provided by member volunteers during . the jockout.’* Palmer said not many custom- ers were crossing the union’s picket line on Monday. The two-hour job action shut down all buses, the SeaBus and the SkyTrain systems. Vancouver resident Layne Christensen was on her way to her North Vancouver job and was on yest. pestntmncny & GURIHARY PQUEHS te BARTEMOLRS "yxtor Latal a , "Le Bh Bees the SeaBus when she and other passengers were told there would be na buses to meet them at the Lonsdale Quay. “| had to find my own: way back to Vancouver -” AMPLOVEES ‘de gal Mae usioN t Loca ag NEWS photo Paul McGrath MATT McEVOY and Marie Paliner walk a picket line outside the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 118 in North Vancouver on Monday. Palmer said the employees have been locked out over the issue of wage increases. index fi Classified .... & Doug Collins . Bob Hunter .. i Lifestyles... .. & North Shore Now . 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