[BC_Labour_E-NEWS] October 21, 2004

[bc_labour_enews at bcfed.net]

BC LABOUR NEWS NETWORK
Electronic News from the B.C. Federation of Labour
October 21, 2004
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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
 
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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.
 
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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."
 
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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."
 
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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 >
 
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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 >
 
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