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NEWS phofo Stuart Davis

Pirates of Caulfeild

DRESSED UP as Captain Cringe, Linda Carson gets new recruits, Brad and
Corey Lundahl, to grow! like buccaneers. Carson had just finished painting
their faces as part of Cauifeild Village’s Family Festival and Bike Rodeo held
lasi Saturday.

Versatile denies charge that
$60M dry dock up for sale

FEARING THAT North Vancouver-based Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Inc. (VPSD is set to sell its $60-million-dollar

Panamax floating dry dock,

the Marine Workers and

Boilermakers Industrial Union (MWBIU) has launched a
full-scal: campaign aimed at keeping the dock in the port.

But VPSI chief executive officer
Peter Quinn denied Tuesday that
his shipyard has the dry dock on
the market.

Meanwhile, North Vancouver
MP Chuck Cook said VPSI has
no choice but to sell the dry dock,
which is the only one of its kind
in Vancouver.

And he said the union should
accepi that VPSI is *‘going down
the drain. *

Union president George Mac-
Pherson said Tuesday that his
union, which is spearheading the
campaign, will ask the provincial
government, municipal govern-
ments and other unions to lobby
the federal government to stop
VPSI and its Toronto-based
parent company, Shieldings Inc.,
from selling the dry dock.

The union is distributing a six-
page newsletter entitled A Proud
ladustry Shipwrecked.

The publication outlines the
‘history’? of VPSI and how ‘‘the
Conservative government reached
a private arrangement with the
owners of the Versatile Shipyards
(Shieldings Ine. of Toronto) to
close the North Vancouver ship-
yards completely.”’

Operations at VPSI’s North
Vancouver yard are now at a
standstill, and the company has
until July 15 to restructure its fi-
nances and satisfy its many cred-
itors or face bankruptcy.

The MWBIU wants either Ot-
tawa or the Vancouver Port Corp.
(VPC) to take over the operations
of Versatile.

MacPherson claims VPSI_ has
pur the Panamax floating dry
dock up for sale and is trying to
sell it in Japan for $12 million.

“That dry dock should remain
tight here,"’ said MacPherson.
“ft's the only floating dry dock in
the Port of Vancouver and it is
paid for by taxpayers’ money."’

The union’s newsletter states
that Versatile purchased the
floating dry dock for $60 million
in 1980 and that two-thirds of the
money to buy the dock came from
the federal government.

MacPherson said Shieldings
bought Versatile in 1989 for $16.5
million and struck a separate deal
to buy the shipyard’s lands in the
name of a numbered company.

Yersatile’s Jands, he said. were
worth about $30 million in 1989

and are currently valued at about
$50 million.
“We

believe that this sean-

Bees Weg hi Nise Saha a conan

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

dalous story must become an issue
which decision-makers cannot ig-
nore,”” said MacPherson. ‘*We are
not resigned to the loss of our
jobs and the destruction of the
shipyard industry in North Van-
couver.”*

But Quinn denied that Versatile
plans to sell the floating dry dock
and took exception to some of the
information contained in the
union's newsletter.

“‘There are no negotiations to
sell the dry dock for $12 million
in Japan. | know nothing about
that,’’ Quinn said. ‘Maybe
George MacPherson wants to buy
the dry dock.

“Tread his newsletter, which is
interesting, but has a_ distorted
view of history and that's all it is
is history. George is playing with
rumors. He didn’t read the docu-
ments carefully.”’

He added that VPSI is working
“damn hard’? to restructure its
finances so it can satisfy its cred-
itors before the July 15 deadline.

But in an interview from Ot-
tawa on Tuesday, Chuck Cuook
said chat if VPSI can get $12 mil-
lion for the floating dry dock then
the company should sel! it.

“YT think it’s marvellous if they
can get $12 million for it. That is
a reasonable price because a good
deal of that would be distributed
to. Versatile’s creditors," Cook
said.

He added that the Port of Van-
couver did without a floating dry
dock until! 1979 and it can do
without one now.

Saying VPSI should sell the dry
dock and ‘tcut its losses,’? Cook
added that the MWBIU should
realize that the shipyard industry
on the West Coast is dying.

“Those guys (VPSI employees)
have been getting hit over the
head for years. I've been telling
those silly buggers for vears to get
the hell out of there and find a
job,”’ Cook said. ‘ti know that

statement won't gel me any
votes."”
North Vancouver District Ald.

Ernie Crist, a former VPSI
employee before he and others
were laid off, said municipal gov-
ernmients should show ‘ead-
ership’’ in lobbying Ottawa to
keep VPSI’s floating dry dock in
Vancouver.

SS eas

so

REACHING EVERY DOOR ON THE NORTH SHORE SINCE 1969