NEWS photo Mike Wakefieid

MEMBERS OF the Grain Workers’ Union, Uragan Antonic (left) and Mike Kalanj, walk a picket line
along with 25 others in front of North Vancouver's Saskatchewan Wheat Pool after union members
at five grain terminals, including North Vancouver’s Pioneer Grain Terminals Ltd., were locked out

this week.

Water restrictions considered

GVWD area plan addresses
critical water shortages

THE GREATER Vancouver Water District (GVWD) has
drafted a plan that would enable the water district to im-
pose uniform water restrictions throughout the Lower
Mainland during severe water shortages.

The move was prompted by
critically low water supplies in the
Seymour and Capilano reservoirs
last summer resulting from ex-
tended dry periods and record
water consumption in the 17
municipalities served by the
GVWD water system.

The GVWD is currently unable
to impose water restrictions in
municipalities .under the Greater
Vancouver Water District Act.
The draft plan, which requires
provincial legislation to amend the
act, would permit the board to

ee

By Elizabeth Collings
News Reporter

adopt a bylaw for water cotserva-
tion.

According to GVWD
spokesman Bud Elsie, water
district officials can appeal to
municipalities to introduce such
measures as sprinkling restrictions,
but those requests are not backed
by legislative authority.

“The intention is to give the

commissioner of the water district
(the ability) to impose water
restrictions if they're really re-
quired,’’ said Elsie.

The water shortage response
plan would address past com-
plaints that sprinkling restrictions
are not equitable throughout the
Lower Mainland region, he said.

Approximately half of the
communities served by the GVWD
water system have sprinkling
restrictions while the other half,
including Vancouver, Richmond
and Burnaby, have none.

All three North Shore
municipalities currently introduce
water restrictions during the
summer :nonths.

The water and = environment
committee will consider the plan
on Thursday before it goes to the
Greater Vancouver Regional
District board of directors on
June 26.

Diamonds’ value much less on street

From page 1

Staff Sgt. Ron Babcock, ‘‘What
caused him to shoot remains a
mystery to us. He didn’t appear to
have been approached by any-
body. There was no need for it.”

Three suspects escaped with
diamonds and gold worth between
$300,000 and $500,000.

The police are attempting to
determine descriptions of the
suspects,

Said Babcock, ‘‘We had a lot of
people coming forth with various
descriptions and we just sat down
the other day and tried listing
them on the board to come up
with a general consensus and it’s
amazing how these vary to certain
degrees. You could be out by 40
years and height could be out by
six inches. All witnesses are going
to give different stories. Now
we’ve got a lot of different
stories.”

Lugaro manager John Wolfe hit
the silent alarm signalling a rob-
bery in progress at 4:57 p.m. Fri-

lay.

He had been at the watch
counter moments before a
majllet-wielding suspect walked in.
One clerk had gone for a break.
Another was with a customer at
the diamond counter. A goldsmith
and an accountant were in the
back of the store.

Wolfe was talking to the ac-
countant near the back of the
store when the trouble began.

Said Wolfe, *‘We’d just started
to talk and all of a sudden
‘smash.’ § look over and there’s
this guy in a baseball cap and
sunglasses and a trench coat
smashing glass with a _ rubber
mallet.

‘The first thing I did was grab
Shelly and pulled her back behind
me. He (the suspect) seemed to be
just concentrating on hitting the
glass. He wasn’t paying any atten-
tion to the customer or staff.

“At the same time I hear the
other guy shouting, ‘Get down,
get down.’ So we got down in the
back. I was watching them on the
monitor, ‘watching him as he
broke the last showcase. And then
the shots went off — all this is
within a minute’s space,’’ Wolfe
said.

The man with the shotgun fired
twice into the food area. Three
men and a woman were hit and
suffered minor injuries. A man
working at Shefield & Sons
Tobacconists, located about 120
feet away from the jewelry store,
suffered an injury to one of his
eyes when shotgun pellets pep-
pered the store.

Added Wolfe, ‘‘Just the break-
ing of the glass was violent
enough to scare the pants off you.
But once the shots went off, |
wasn’t moving and the one lady I
was holding down, [ probably
pushed her further down.”’

Lugaro owner and diamond
wholesaler Steve Agopian said the

thieves focused on pocketing dia-
monds because they can be readily
sold on :he street.

“It’s easier to liquidate dia-
monds. /.nd larger diamonds hold
their value. And gold can always
be melted and turned into fast
cash,” he said.

Agopian believes the suspects
who hit Birks and and his store
may be the same people.

“The trend that I am seeing to-
day, the chances are it’s the same
people,’’ he said.

Agopian is reassessing security
measures at the North Vancouver
store. But he doesn’t think he'll
be getting bullet-proof display
cases,

**A lot of times you take ic then
to another level of violence. Let
them have the merchandise as
long as there is no harm done. A
step further, there would be
hostages involved,”’ he said.

Although the goods lifted in
Friday’s robbery may have a retail
value of as much as $500,000,
Agopian said the thieves will be
lucky to turn the take into $25,000
cash.

“When they try to sell the dia-
monds, often to another thief,
they don't evaluate those dia-
monds. When you are not paying
attention to what you are buying,
a large diamond could be worth
$20,000 and something — similar
could be worth $8,000. All those
diamonds sell for $1,000 on the
street,” he said.

tr i ype nner

Wednesday, June 12, 1991 — North Shore News - 3

Labor dispute

idles N.

Van

grain elevators

Workers, elevator operators
wrangle over hours, wages

BOTH SIDES in a labor dispute that has idled five Port of
Vancouver grain terminals, including two along the North
Vancouver waterfront, are digging their heels in for a long

shutdown.

Earlier this week the B.C. Ter-
minal Elevator Operators’
Association (BCTEOA) locked out
760 members of the Grain
Workers’ Union at the five Van-
couver area grain terminals after a
dispute arose over the issue of
how many hours a week grain
handlers should work.

Union secretary-treasurer Henry
Kancs said that 240 grain workers
employed at North Vancouver-
based Saskatchewan Wheat Pool
and Pioneer Grain Terminals Ltd.
have set up picket lines at the en-
trances to the two grain terminals.

He said the only issue in the
labor dispute is hours of work.

Grain handlers now work eight
hours a day; employees who work
on Saturdays are paid at a time-
and-a-half rate; Sunday workers
are paid double-time.

Kancs said grain elevator
owners wami the union to work in
12-hour shifts with no overtime
paid on the weekends.

“They want to buy a 91 Caddy
and only have a °"90 Chevy to

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

fast year.’’

Day-shift grain workers are now
paid $17.95 per hour: night-shift
workers are paid $18.85 per hour;
and workers on the graveyard
shift are paid $19 an hour.

Harris said that since 1979 the
grain companies have been trying
to get the union to work on a
continuous seven-day a week
system with four days on and four
days off.

“They do work seven days a
week now, but it’s hard to find
people to come in on the
weekends. The union has been
opposed to any workable agrec-
ment,”’ said Harris. ‘‘It looks like
it could be a long dispute.”

He said it was difficuit to

estimate how much money is be-
ing lost in the labor dispute, but
added that the grain terminals
ship about 400,000 tonnes of grain
out of Vancouver each week.

&& The average grain worker earns about
$50,000. With overtime, he earns about
$60,000 a year. The union is now seeking
a 12% wage increase. 99
— BCTEOA spokesman Eric Harris

trade in. They won’t pay the dif-
ference,”’ said Kancs. ‘‘They want
to create two 12-hour shifts, but
don’t want to pay us overtime on
the weekend. We can’t do that,
it’s impossible.””

He added that such working
hours would have a negative im-
pact on the health and social lives
of union members.

‘*When am I supposed to sleep?
Can I come to work in that condi-
tion and look after machinery?
What will happen if I’m tired?”’
Kancs said.

He added that the BCTEOA,
which represents the five grain
terminals, rejected a union pro-
posal that an independent panel
be struck to examine the issue of
working hours.

The union has been without a
contract for {8 months.

Kancs said the union is ‘‘flexi-
ble on wages and everything else,’’
but that it will not accept a longer
work week without proper com-
pensation.

“*Let’s get this thing settled for
the sake of the farmer. Let’s get
the grain moving,’’ said Kancs.
**This is going to be a long one.””

But BCTEOA spokesman Eric
Harris said wages are a key factor
in the labor dispute and question-
ed whether the union is really
concerned about the plight of
prairie grain farmers.

“The average grain worker
earns about $50,000. With over-
time, he earns about $60,000 a
year. The union is now seeking a
12% wage increase,’’ said Harris.
“The union’s wage demands are
very high, especially in light of the
plight of the farmers, some of
whom didn’t even make $10,000

Meanwhile, the Port of Van-
couver is becoming increasingly
congested with freighters waiting
to be loaded with grain. .

Vancouver Port Corp.
spokesman Barbara Duggan said
the grain ships are taking up all
the port’s anchorages and other
ships, such as forest-product
vessels, are now being diverted to
Vancouver Island and the Gulf
Islands.

“Having all of the anchorages
tied up with no turnover is very
serious. We are having a tough
time acconimodating ships in the
harbor,”’ said Duggan. ‘‘Our big-
gest concern is the perception that
will be held offshore. Our cus-
tomers become very nervous when
there is any kind of a labor
dispute, and I don’t biame them.””

Index
@@ Budget Beaters ...... 54
@ Business............ 47
MM Classified Ads ....... 55
Mi Lifestyles ........... 49
@ North Shore Now....19
@ Dr. Ruth........... 50
@Sports.............. 13
MTV Listings......... 38

BB What's Going On... .54
@ Zap

Weather
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