January 12, 1992 44 pages

Office, Editorial 985-2131

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NEWS photo Stuart Davis

NORTH SHORE Sharks goalie kicks out a Maroons shot on goal during 2
game Wednesday evening at the North Shore Winter Club. The Sharks won
the Senior Men’s League game 5-2. Regular coverage of community sports
action appears every Wednesday in the News.

Laid off Versatile employees call for
investigation into shipyard operations

THE PROVINCIAL government

should immediately

Jaunch a public inquiry into the operations of North Van-
couver-based Versatile Pacific Shipyards inc. (VPSI) and
ask the company why it is not paying severance packages
to laid off employees, two former YPSI workers have said.

Joe Brown, 50, who worked at
VPSI for 22 years before he was
laid off, has also criticized the
provincial government for failing
to respond to letters he has sent to
all NDP MLAs over the issue of
VPSI layoffs and severance

By Suzj Rattan
News Reporter

packages.

And an official! from the

Marine Workers and Boilermakers
Industrial Union (MWBIU) has
said it too is concerned over the
lack of communication coming
from the provincial government
over the two issues.

Versatile was forced to lay off
virtually its entire workforce fast
year after the company ran into
major financial difficulties.

In September, the federal and
provincial governments, along
with a local shipbuilding consor-

lium, purchased VPSI’s $60-
million floating Panamax dry
dock for $15.8 million, $7.5 mil-
lion of which went to pay off
VPSI’s debt ta the Hongkong
Bank of Canada.

But Brown, the chairman of an
“action committee’ representing
former VPSI employees, said no
one has addressed the issue of
severance packages for the
displaced shipyard workers.

As a result, he said, many
former VPSI employees are now
on welfare.

“We sent 51 letters to the NDP
caucus on Dec. 13 and we haven’t
heard back from them,’ said
Brown.

He added that fie recently met

with Burnaby MP Svend Robin-
son, who promised to bring the
matter up with the federal NDP
caucus.

fn a letter to provincial Finance
Minister Glen Clark, Brown wrote
that the provincial government
should launch a public inquiry in-
to the operations of VPSI.

“Tt is about time that the truth
about what is occurring at the
North Vancouver Versatile Pacific
Shipyards was brought out into
the open. To watch the company
manipulate the media, the courts,
the various forms of government
and the unions is truly sickening,””
wrote Brown.

See Industry page §

REACHING EVERY DOOR ON THE NORTH SHORE SINCE 1969