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MAILBOX

Displaced shipyard
workers want fair

severance

An open letter to Michael Wilson:
Despite repeated assurances
from your ministry that the gov-
ernment of Canada has ‘‘primary
concern”’ for shipyard workers af-
fected by the downsizing of the
shipbuilding industry, no material
assistance whatever has been
forthcoming for workers displaced
by the closure of the North Van-
Division of Versatile
Pacific Shipyards.

1992 finds the most senior of
these employees, those with 20 to
40 years of service, unemployed,
out of unemployment insurance
benefits and applying for social
assistance,

Meanwhile the employer,
Shieldings, which was brokered
into ownership of the Versatile
assets by your ministry, is
avoiding the payment of a paltry
severance package (one day's pay
per year of service) by claiming
that the plant closure has not yet
been achieved.

This group of money managers,
which has manipulated the Cana-
dian taxpayers through your
ministry to rescue it from
bankruptcy, has skimmed $2.2
miliion from a workers’ pension
plan to which it contributed
nothing, and is now using the
to-year limit on retention of se-
niority to deny long-term
employees a pittance of severance.

It is apparent that Versatile has
benefited greatly from the
assistance it has received from the
Canadian taxpayers. The monies
provided have squared away Ver-
satile’s debts to the local business
community and made the
Panamax Floating Drydock
operational under its new owner,
Vancouver Drydock Co. Ltd.

Versatile now has a refurbished
shipyard in Esquimalt where a
large part of the new superferry is
. under construction. That yard has
been re-named Yarrows Lid.,
with a branch office on Esplanade
Avenue in North Vancouver. This
is also the home of Integrated
Ferry Constructors, a wholly-
owned subsidiary of Shieldings,
which is presently acting as gener-

‘al contractor for the ‘‘S" class
ferries for the B.C. Ferry Cor-
poration.

Most Canadians would expect
that fair treatment of displaced
workers would be a pre-condition
set by government before handing
millions of doilars of public
money to any business. Versatile
has closed its North Vancouver
shipyard at the behest of your
government’s rationalization poli-

Response to
Collins poll
misleading

Dear Editor:

‘ Your recent poll attempting to
suppert your chief staff bigot was
somewhat misleading.

While 35.6% of your respon-
dents read Collins regularly, 65%
of the respondents believe he does
not abuse freedom of speech. If
they do not read the column how
do they know?

ican seldom read a full column
ef Collins without quitting in

_ disgust. He cannot be said to in-
variably misuse freedom of
speech, but it is certain that he
does so frequently.

David Muir
North Vancouver

package

cy and has received its financial
reward.

Surely it is now appropriate that
a solvent Versatile provide sever-
ance and other benefits to its
displaced employees as was done
in Ontario and Quebec where
yards were closed in response to
the same government policy and
the displaced workers treated with
some measure of dignity.

Your repeated assurances aside,
Mr. Wilson, those displaced North
Vancouver workers are destitute;
their Industrial Adjustment
Committee has sat for one year
with no success while Shieldings
has used millions of taxpayers’
dollars to consolidate its owner-
ship of prime waterfront property
and control of the superferry pro-

ject.

William Scott

Marine Worker's and Boiler-
makers’ Industria! Union
Vancouver

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CAP WEEK

+ Writer's Series
The 1992 B.C. Writer's
Series continues at Cap on
Thursday, Feb. 20, with
Jeanette Armstrong. The
presentation starts at 7:30
p.m. in the C Building
Theatre and admission is free.
Sponsored by The Canada
Council, the Leon and Thea
Koerner Foundation, and the
Capilano College English
Department. For further
information, call 984-4957.

Be- China Lecture
On Thursday, Feb. 27,

human rights, the democratic
movement and China's role
in world politics will be the
focus of discussion at this
presentation on socio-political
issues in China. Guest
speakers include Richard Lee,
vice-chairman of the
Vancouver Society in Support
of the Democratic
Movement, and journalise
Michael Martin Day, who
made the news when he was
expelled from China for
involvement with ‘‘a counter-
revolutionary poem" and had
to leave his wife behind. C
Building Lecture Theatre,
12:30-2:30 p.m.

D> Portfolio Workshop

Interested in the Graphic
Design & Iflustration program
at Capilano College? Attend
the Portfolio Workshop on
Saturday, Feb. 29 and learn
about portfolio presentation
— what to put in, what to
leave out. Talk to instructors.
Meet graduating students and
see their portfolios. Check
out the facilities and get
answers to your questions. For
information and registration,
call the Art Department at
984-4911.

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Merchandising

Capilano College’s
Merchandising Management
Department prepares students
for challenging and rewarding
careers in fashion promotion,
sales, advertising, visual
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are now being accepted for
the 10-month Accelerated
Diploma program which
begins in July, and the two-
year-Diploma program which
starts this September. Call
984-4960 now for more
information and an interview.

CAPILANO
COLLEGE

2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver
British Columbia

986-1911