FHE VOICE OFN

oe

November 24, 1991

")

Versatile workers claim the company.
union and feds have abandoned them

LAID-OFF Versatile

Pacific

64 Pages

Shipyards Inc. (VPSD

workers have been [eft high and dry by the North Van-
couver-based company, their own union and the federal
goverament, 2 former VPSI employee has charged.

Meanwhile, a VPSI official has

id the shipyard company, which
avoided bankruptcy earlier this
year after creditors approved a
restructured business plan, is
working hard to keep its North
Vancouver yard open.

But he said the future of the
ard hinges on ote shipyard union
agreeing to sign a collective
agreement,

REACHING

By Surj Rattan

News Reporter

Versatile was virtually forced to
lay off its entire workforce this
year after the company ran into
major financial difficulties. Only
about eight workers remain in the
North Vancouver yard.

SUNDAY

Carol Crenna on
holiday gift-giving

Fashion: 16

tribution 986-1337

News photo Cindy Goodman

DAVE DAWSON is currently taking advantage of the Pacific Marine Training
Institute’s net-mending course. The school, located at 265 W. Esplanade,
North Vancouver, provides in-depth training in port and shipping industries
and oceanography. For more information call 985-0622.

showdown

September, the federal and
provincial governments, awong
with a local shipbuilding consor-
lium, agreed to purchase VPSI
$60-million floating Panamas dry
dock for $15.8 million, $7.5 1
lion of which went to pay off
Versatile’s debt to the Hongkong

nk of Canada. The remainder
will be used in the operation and
marketing of the dry dock,

Bur Joe Brown, a former VPS
worker who was laid off, said no
one hay addressed the issue of
severance packuges for the
displaced workers, As a result, he
said, many former VPSI

employees are now on welfare.
Brown blamed VPSI. the
Marine Workers and Boiler-
mekers’ -ndustrial Union
(MWBIU) and the federal gov.
erament for passing che buck on
the severance package issue.
Brown, who is not a union of-
ficial) but is the chairman of
“action committee’? representing
former VPS! workers, vowed she
displaced employees will now take
matters into their own hands.
Earlier this week some former
VPSIT workers demonstrated ot
side a downtown Employment and
Immigration office.
“We never got any
package, it was a snow job on the
union's part. [f we wait for the
union executive to do something,
Kt be ting for a fong time,"*
said Brown. ‘As short a time ¢

severance

as January 1991 we w promised
three ars of continuous
employment. A litt: more than a
month futer the yard clased its
doors, throwing us out of work,
many of us with 25°) and more
years service.

“We were promised severance
pay and nothing bas been forth-
coming .""

Brown added that most of
VI staff and supervisors have
already received zenerous  sever-
ance packages, in) some cases,
ssorth ap to $200,000,

Brown doothe
workers hi kept) quiet until
now, “because we were told we
would be taken care of. We have
been fied to and cheated out of
our livelihood. Even old ships get

shipyard's

See Workers page 3