a = pie ca

ebruary 20,

Labor leader unimpressed b

1987 News 985-2131 Classified 986

NORTH VANCOUVER-Burnaby MP Chuck Cook has
predicted that Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. wili definitely
get the $400 million Polar Class 8 icebreaker contract.

In the wake of Versatile Corp.'s
sale of Versatile Farm Equipment
Ltd. t¢ Ford New Holland Inc. for
$180 million, Cook said, “} am
now convinced Versatile will get
the (Polar 8) contract.”

But continued predictions have
failed to impress the local shipyard
industry.

“We've been having that con-

2 oi

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

tract since June.’ Marine Workers
and Boilermakers Industrial Union
(MWBIU) John Fitzpatrick sitid
Thursday. ‘Like { told you before,
I've given up. IIb only be convine-
ed (Versatile has the contract)

y MP's

_ album

on show
PAGE 20

released
PAGE 25

LP GETAE

prediction

RECASTS

when they come out here and an-
nounce it."

The sale of Versatile’s money-
losing farm equipment subsidiary
follows the sale of  Versatile’s
Eastern Canadian shipyards to
Marine Industries Ltd. at the end
of January,

Both sales are intrinsic in solving
the financias problems faced by
Versatile Pacifie’s parent company
that resulted in a $42.20 million
Versatile Corp. loss in the third
quarter of 1986 and have postpon-

jo

ed the announced awarding of the
Polar 8 contract.

But Cook said that even with the
financial realignment of Versatile,
the choice of Polar 8 design must
sull be finalized before any
icebreaker contritct announcement
will be made.

That decision, he said. is still
weeks away, ‘tso don't hold your
breath."

Fitzpatrick pointed out thay
icebreaker construction would not
begin at Versatile until 18 months

after any contract was awarded.

Options for area shipyard
workers after a year on
unemployment insurance, he said,
would be to leave the industry,
look for work in Eastern Canada
or go on welfare.

Over the last two months, Ver-
satile Pacific has cut its trades
workforce by one sixth, its office
staff by 37 per cent and laid off 23
of its upper management personnel
_in North Vancouver and Victoria.