From bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net Thu Oct 21 17:03:30 2004 From: bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net (bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net) Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 17:03:30 -0700 Subject: [BC_Labour_E-NEWS] October 21, 2004 Message-ID: <1EFB83EC494285438D10B2CCC120637604A7@bcfednt.bcfed.local> BC LABOUR NEWS NETWORK Electronic News from the B.C. Federation of Labour October 21, 2004 ________________________________________________ To subscribe or unsubscribe, follow the instructions at the end of this message. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE Messages to this mailbox are processed automatically, and are not read by a person. If you would like to contact us, send messages to: < mailto:bcfed at bcfed.com < mailto:bcfed at bcfed.com > Help spread the word - FORWARD THIS E-MAIL to your friends. +++|+++ CONTENTS 1> Union vote critical for Surrey by-election 2> Take a deep breath and push that pendulum back 3> Federation's Training and Apprenticeship Conference 4> THE TYEE - Liberals Bluffing on By-Election -TYEE article by Will McMartin 5> New report advises looking at alternatives to costly P3s ++++|++++ 1> Union vote critical for Surrey by-election With just days left before voters go to the polls in the Surrey-Panorama Ridge by-election, B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair says it's crucial for Surrey union members to get involved. "Residents of Surrey-Panorama Ridge are getting the first chance to send Gordon Campbell a message," says Sinclair. "There are 4,000-5,000 union members in that riding and every last vote is critical for an NDP victory." A poll released last week by the B.C. Federation of Labour puts Jagrup Brar and the New Democratic Party at 44 percent, Mary Polak and the Liberals at 41.5 percent and Adriane Carr and the Green Party at 13.8 percent. "The BC Liberals are pulling out all stops to win this seat," said Sinclair. "They even timed the announcement of the half point reduction in the sales tax - a tax they themselves hiked less than two years ago - to try to sway undecided voters in the riding." Union members interested in helping NDP candidate Jagrup Brar get elected can send donations or volunteer at the campaign office: #104-13630 - 72nd Avenue, Surrey, V3W 2P3. Telephone: 604-587-0014. +++|+++ 2> Take a deep breath and push back that pendulum With just months to go before the provincial election, the labour movement is launching its most ambitious organizing drive ever. The labour movement has in abundance what the right does not - organizing expertise and a powerfully motivated membership. Gordon Campbell has created the conditions for his own defeat, and the B.C. Federation of Labour is rising to the challenge with a co-ordinated political action campaign in time for the May 17th provincial election. "We know we can't compete with the financial power of those who back Gordon Campbell, but we can talk to half a million union members across the province. That's what our movement is all about," says B.C. Federation of Labour Political Action Co-ordinator Janet Routledge. Routledge will help co-ordinate a team of community organizers who will mobilize union members to get involved in politics. "Put very simply, this campaign is about fusing our collective resources to defeat governments that work against the interests of workers," explains Routledge. "But if this works, the labour movement will have won much more than good representation in Victoria." Routledge notes that the BC Liberals' track record over the last three and a half years has spurred union members to get politically active. "Whether it's ripping up signed contracts or selling off our province, the BC Liberals have offended just about everyone," says Routledge. "Working people recognize that the best way to reverse that damage is to defeat the BC Liberals, and that's what this campaign is designed to do." Routledge also recognizes that many unions are already working to get their members mobilized for May 2005, and points out that the Federation's campaign is designed to work in harmony with the preferred strategy and style of each affiliate. Four phases of the campaign have been identified, with the twin goals of building a stronger movement and steering support away from the BC Liberals. The Surrey-Panorama Ridge by-election, set for October 28th, will provide the first and only opportunity to test drive the strategy. Phase I involves systematic membership contact. Regional co-ordinators will organize affiliates to begin contacting their members, identifying those who will actively work to defeat the Liberals, vote against them or believe in the principles of the labour movement, but are not yet prepared to translate that into a vote against the Liberals. Membership contact will start in the most competitive ridings to ensure union members are contacted in the key ridings first. Each affiliate can choose to contact their membership in those ridings in whatever way they'd like - door-to-door, by phone or in the workplace. "If you're organizing a new group of employees, you need to do that one-on-one, and that's what we're trying to accomplish here - real contact with members to find out where they're at when it comes to electing a government that will work in their interest," Routledge says. Phase II, also a pre-election phase, will mobilize active supporters identified in Phase I to organize follow-up activities for passive and undecided voters. The form and direction of those actions will vary in each community, based on identified sources of alienation and/or regional issues. Phase III is an election stage, and the level to which each affiliate gets involved will depend on how comfortable they are engaging in political activity. By the end of Phase III, the union vote in favour of the NDP will be at its peak. Phase IV starts after the polls close. Routledge explains that it's not good enough to get people to the polls and forget the reasons we worked so hard to get them there. "We have to hold NDP MLAs accountable because they've been sent to Victoria to put forward policies that protect working people," says Routledge. "We also have to articulate that vision to those MLAs because we shouldn't assume they all know what we expect of them." Routledge says that if the campaign works, we will have reached union members where they live, activating workers at a political level not seen in British Columbia for decades. "It's not just about getting votes - we're working to transform and revitalize the labour movement to connect politics with workplace and human rights," says Routledge. "We are building a movement with the capacity to fight big wallets and bad ideas." +++|+++ 3> Training and Apprenticeship Conference About 130 union members attended the B.C. Federation of Labour's Training and Apprenticeship Conference in Vancouver on October 16-17 to hear representatives from within labour, education, government and business circles discuss ways to improve the BC apprenticeship system and address a skill training shortage. Following the panel presentations, participants took part in four workshops to discuss strategies that could work in British Columbia. "It was a really valuable experience for everyone who attended," said B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair. "One of the really important things we learned here is that industry leaders with enough vision to take a long view of the economy and agree with workers that labour can and should be involved in training and apprenticeships." +++|+++ 4> The Tyee - Read excerpts from BC's feisty on-line newspaper and sign up Liberals Bluffing on By-Election - TYEE article by Will McMartin They tell us it won't mean much if they lose Surrey. History says otherwise. Read the full article: < http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/current/LiberalBluffElection.htm > Sign up for e-mail updates on Tyee articles: < http://www.thetyee.ca/About+Us/subscribe.htm > +++|+++ 5> New report advises looking at alternatives to costly P3s A new report released October 21 entitled "Financing Canada's Hospitals: Public Alternatives to P3s" argues that P3s are an expensive way to finance public infrastructure. The author, economist Hugh Mackenzie, makes several recommendations in the report, including the creation of a stable capital investment program funded by all levels of government that would amortize the cost of public projects over the life of each asset. "P3 deals are inherently risky," says John Irwin, a researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "Private partners must pay higher borrowing rates than governments. If and when these companies run into financial trouble, governments end up bailing out projects to the tune of millions of dollars because communities cannot go without hospitals." "The BC government is steamrolling ahead with P3 contracts for the Abbotsford Hospital and the VGH Ambulatory Care Facility even though countless studies show that P3s lead to added costs, less transparency, poorer quality of service, and even longer waits for patients," says Alice Edge, co-chair of the BC Health Coalition. "Not only that, but this government continues to contract out more and more surgeries to private clinics instead of using public facilities that are already built and sitting idle." BC Health Coalition Co-ordinator Lesley Moore says senior levels of government are neglecting their responsibilities, turning to P3 financing to take costs of the books. "One way or another we're still paying for it, the question is whether we want to pay more and get less," says Moore. Download the full report from the BC Health Coalition: < http://www.web.net/ohc/P3economistreportfinal.pdf > ++++++|++++++ To subscribe to E-News, visit: < http://www.bcfed.com/sub.htm >. If you want to unsubscribe or change your options (e.g., change your password, suspend E-News while you are on vacation, etc.), visit your personal subscription page at: < http://bcfed.net/cgibin/mailman/options/bc_labour_enews/ > To get helpful information, send a message to: < mailto:BC_Labour_E-News > with "help" in the subject line (no quotation marks). TO CONTACT THE FEDERATION, send an email to: < mailto:bcfed at bcfed.com > From bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net Fri Oct 29 16:52:23 2004 From: bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net (bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net) Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 16:52:23 -0700 Subject: [BC_Labour_E-NEWS] October 29, 2004 Message-ID: <1EFB83EC494285438D10B2CCC1206376080B@bcfednt.bcfed.local> BC LABOUR NEWS NETWORK Electronic News from the B.C. Federation of Labour October 29, 2004 _______________________________________________ To subscribe or unsubscribe, follow the instructions at the end of this message. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE. Messages to this mailbox are processed automatically, and are not read by a person. If you would like to contact us, send messages to: < mailto:bcfed at bcfed.com > Help spread the word - FORWARD THIS E-MAIL to your friends. +++|+++ CONTENTS 1> By-Election results a victory for working people 2> Restore health care and education services with budget surplus - HEU poll 3> BC NDP's commitment to freeze tuition fees a good first step - students 4> BCGEU calls on Campbell Liberals to put the brakes on outsourcing British Columbians' personal information 5> "Clean Energy" classification provides massive loophole for independent power producers: Burning coal and garbage called "clean" under BC Liberal guidelines +++|+++ PUBLICATIONS - Eye on the Economy - October, 2004 The latest issue of Eye on the Economy is ready to download from the publications section of our website: < http://www.bcfed.com/Where+We+Stand/Publications/index.htm > +++|+++ EVENT LISTINGS - Visit website for details: < http://www.bcfed.com/Coming+Events/index.htm > Documentary Screening of "The Corporation" 10/06/2004 COURSE: Changes to Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 11/16/2004 B.C. Federation of Labour Conference: Young Workers Resist 11/28/2004 B.C. Federation of Labour 48th Convention 11/29/2004 +++|+++ 1> By-Election results a victory for working people B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair says the October 28 victory in the Surrey-Panorama Ridge By-Election is the surest sign that voters have had enough of the BC Liberals. "The Liberals pumped millions of dollars into this campaign and put a lot of credibility on the line to get their candidate elected," said Sinclair. "But the results show voters weren't fooled by Gordon Campbell's empty promises." While the riding was viewed by many pundits as safe BC Liberal territory, voters sent Gordon Campbell a strong message that his reckless and mean-spirited agenda just isn't working. Jagrup Brar, the new MLA for Surrey-Panorama Ridge, won the hotly contested By-Election with 53.5 percent of the vote. Mary Polak, the controversial BC Liberal candidate, received just over 33 percent of the vote. While some pundits were surprised by the NDP victory, the BC Liberals ignored the message voters in Surrey had just sent, and were quick to point figures blaming the labour movement and others for their loss. "If Gordon Campbell is looking for reasons for the BC Liberals' defeat he should just look in the mirror," added Sinclair. "Campbell has governed this province as though working families, seniors, students and their communities don't matter, and this win clearly shows that we do." Surrey-Panorama Ridge by-election results: BRAR, Jagrup (New Democratic Party of BC) 6,662 - 53.5 percent CARR, Adriane (Green Party of BC) 1,052 - 8.4 percent POLAK, Mary (BC Liberal Party) 4,160 - 33.4% OTHER 583 - 4.7 percent Total Votes Cast 12,457 +++|+++ 2> Restore health care and education services with budget surplus - HEU poll Two out of three British Columbians believe the billion dollar budget surplus forecast by the Campbell Liberal government should be used to restore services such as health care and education, according to a Mustel Group poll conducted for the Hospital Employees' Union. Twenty-five percent support debt reduction, while only 12 percent support a tax cut as a result of the surplus. Support for restoring services like health care and education with the budget surplus was especially high amongst women (73 percent). "Nobody should be surprised by the public's clear preference for restoring public services over tax cuts and debt reduction," says HEU's Acting Secretary-Business Manager Zorica Bosancic. "After all, so many British Columbians have been hurt by this government's fiscal policies." Since their election, the Campbell Liberals have closed hospitals and schools, raised tuition fees, cut funding to women's centres and closed long-term care beds for seniors. They've also fired more than 8,000 health care workers and imposed 15 percent wage rollbacks on tens of thousands more. "The price paid by British Columbians to create this thinly-disguised election surplus has been too steep," says Bosancic. "It's time to deal with the real deficit this government has created in our schools, hospitals and communities." The telephone poll of 507 British Columbians was conducted October 6 to 17. It is considered accurate to within 4.4 percent, 19 times out of 20. The question: The provincial government is forecasting a budget surplus of approximately one billion dollars. Which of the following is your priority? Total polled (507) Reinvest in such services as health care and education 312 or 62 percent Use the surplus to reduce the debt 128 or 25 percent Reduce taxes 60 or 12 percent Don't know 7 or 1 percent +++|+++ 3> BC NDP's commitment to freeze tuition fees a good first step - students BC students say NDP leader Carole James' election platform commitment of freezing tuition fees to current levels is a good first step for British Columbian families struggling to pay tuition fees which have more than doubled in the last three years. "Students cannot withstand yet another tuition fee increase," said Lisa MacLeod, BC Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students. "It is absolutely necessary to freeze tuition fees now to ensure that the accessibility of BC colleges and universities does not erode even further." BC government service plans project revenue from tuition fees to increase from $452 million this year, to $836 million for 2006/07. BC students have already experienced an average 104 percent increase in tuition fees since the freeze was lifted in 2002. "The BC government's expensive television advertising campaign claims the addition of 25,000 new student spaces by 2010, but how the government plans on funding those spaces is not getting any airtime," said MacLeod. "Without an immediate freeze on tuition fees, post-secondary education institutions will pay for those spaces by passing the costs onto students." This year, more than half of Canadian university students are protected by tuition fee freezes, while students in BC continue to experience the largest tuition fee increases in the province's history. +++|+++ 4> BCGEU calls on Campbell Liberals to put the brakes on outsourcing British Columbians' personal information The BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) is calling on the Campbell Liberals to hold off on any plans to contract out the administration of the personal and confidential information of British Columbians in wake of the BC Privacy Commissioner's report released today. "We were right. The Privacy Commissioner's report confirms the USA Patriot Act is a huge threat to the privacy of British Columbians, and validates the concerns we raised. There's no iron-clad guarantee that the FBI won't or can't access our personal information once it's handed over to American-linked companies," said George Heyman, BCGEU President. "Commissioner Loukidelis has set a very high bar for the government to jump over before it can outsource our personal medical and financial information to American-linked companies. It's going to take a lot more than just amending a law or re-jigging a contract to comply with his extensive list of recommendations. "The only rational response for the BC government is to put the brakes on outsourcing. Not only is it a simple, pragmatic solution to the problem, it's more immediate and a lot less expensive than compliance with the Commissioner's recommendations," Heyman said. Heyman praised the Privacy Commissioner for his thorough investigation, which must have been "a monumental task" given the complexities of the issues and the huge number of submissions from civil liberties groups, academics, unions, advocacy groups, the legal community, and individuals concerned about protecting the public's right to privacy. "The Commissioner points out this is far more than just a provincial issue - the protection of personal information from foreign orders is an issue that needs to be addressed at the federal and even international levels. That could take years," Heyman said. The BCGEU was the first to raise the alarm about the implications of the USA Patriot Act by issuing a court challenge over the contracting out of the administration of the Medical Services Plan (MSP) to the Arizona-based Maximus Corporation. The government is also contracting out PharmaCare, government payroll, Provincial Revenue, disaster recovery, and workstation support services. Heyman said the union will continue to pursue the matter through the courts and is considering a range of legal options, including seeking an injunction to stop the signing of any further contracts with US-linked companies until the government fulfills the recommendations contained in the Privacy Commissioner's report. Personal information at risk through the outsourcing of Provincial Revenue functions alone includes everything from name, address, telephone number, social insurance number, family history, employment history, income, credit card and bank account numbers, and even charitable donations and mortgage details. The contract to administer MSP and PharmaCare includes access to an individual's medical reports, psychological and mental health reports, x-rays, photographs, details of surgeries, prescription history, doctors' names, and any restrictions on individual doctors prohibiting them from writing certain prescriptions. +++|+++ 5> "Clean Energy" classification provides massive loophole for independent power producers (IPPs): Burning coal and garbage called "clean" under BC Liberal guidelines Independent power producers are exploiting a massive loophole in the BC "Clean Energy Guidelines" by developing proposals to burn dirty fuels such as coal and garbage, says the BC Citizens for Public Power, a BC Hydro watchdog group. "Projects throughout the province are being classified as 'BC Clean' despite the fact they propose to burn all kinds of polluting fuels, including coal," says Mark Veerkamp, Executive Director for the BC Citizens for Public Power. One example is a project currently under development by Compliance Energy Corporation (CEC) near Princeton, BC. The Similkameen Spotlight reports that Compliance Energy plans to convert the Similco Mine site into a 50 MW wood waste/coal fired thermal plant ("Thermal Plant Planned", October 15, 2004). According to a February 2004 news release posted on the Compliance Energy website, "by using wood waste from the area the project would have positive environmental attributes and would meet the classification of "Clean Energy" under the provincial government's recently released Energy Plan, while utilization of Compliance's new coal mine for the remainder of the fuel requirements is a natural fit." On page six of the Ministry of Energy and Mines BC Clean Electricity Guidelines (April 2004), "clean energy" includes biomass defined as "energy derived from organic matter, such as wood residue, agricultural waste, or other organic wastes. BC Clean includes the energy derived either at dedicated biomass combustion or gasification facilities, or the energy component related to biomass utilized in conjunction with combustion of conventional energy sources." In the document, coal is defined as a conventional energy source. "Clearly IPPs have gotten the message that if they propose to burn wood waste, the plant will meet BC Clean standards, despite the fact they plan to also burn coal," said Veerkamp. "This is an outrageous loophole that defies logic." "The 'BC Clean' designation is a dirty little secret that mocks the idea of green power," said Veerkamp. "If this is the government's idea of a New Era for clean energy, we're in big trouble." Another example is a project by Green Island Energy in Gold River on Vancouver Island. This project, promoted by folk singer Jewel, was originally conceived as a 45MW plant to burn wood waste. This project has been deemed a 'green' project and is being considered in the Vancouver Island call for tenders. Now, Green Island Energy has submitted notice that it would also be burning Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), also known simply as garbage. Green Island proposes to burn 480,000 tonnes of RDF annually and will use coal as the backup fuel (letter to Regional Waste Manager dated June 30, 2004). Burning RDF has raised concerns about release of dioxin and other toxic pollutants. Both the Green Island Energy and Compliance Projects are staging development and as a result will most likely avoid environmental assessment (which kicks in for projects with output above 50 MW). "Not only does the government intend to promote independent power producers at higher cost to the public, but now they have left a nice big loophole that will mean more pollution," said Veerkamp. Under the BC Energy Plan, 50 percent of new power is targeted to come from 'clean' sources. +++|+++ ++++++|++++++ To subscribe to E-News, visit: < http://www.bcfed.com/sub.htm >. If you want to unsubscribe or change your options (e.g. change your password, suspend E-News while you are on vacation, etc.), visit your personal subscription page at: < http://bcfed.net/cgibin/mailman/options/bc_labour_enews/ > To get helpful information, send a message to: < mailto:BC_Labour_E-News > with "help" in the subject line (no quotation marks). TO CONTACT THE FEDERATION, send an email to: < mailto:bcfed at bcfed.com > cope 15