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Fighting to keep his pigeons in the city PAGE 3
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Chicken refusal triggers campaign Janaya Fuller-Evans staff reporter
Gordon World, an advocate for backyard chickens in Burnaby, has announced his intention to run for Burnaby council in the next election. “Mark my words, I will run for council,” he said in an interview Tuesday morning. World made the decision after appearing at Monday night’s council meeting to discuss the possibility of reviewing council’s decision on backyard chickens. Burnaby council voted unanimously last June not to amend Burnaby’s bylaws to allow backyard chickens in Burnaby. But Coun. Nick Volkow suggested looking into the issue again in a year or so, after seeing what problems Vancouver ran into by allowing hens in the city. Vancouver amended its bylaw to allow the hens, with many stipulations on care and handling of the birds, on June 8. World brought Duncan Martin, who builds chicken coops for Vancouverites, and Dan Chauvel, who owns chickens in Vancouver, as part of his delegation to council. The two were instrumental in the fight for backyard chickens in Vancouver, World said. Chauvel had lived in Burnaby as a child, he said, and his family had chickens here. It was an important aspect of his childhood, he added. “I’m a city kid who benefited from World Page 3
Larry Wright/burnaby now
Counter argument: Jim Pearson, left, the head shop steward for CMAW Local 1928, and picket captain Larry Bauer, right, stand in front of fellow workers of Cove Tops Ltd. who have all been locked out from work since two days before Christmas.
Lockout going into third month Janaya Fuller-Evans
staff reporter
Cove Tops Ltd., a countertop manufacturing company based on Venture Way in Burnaby, has been in the midst of an employment dispute for more than two months. Cove Tops’ plant employees – members of the Construction, Maintenance and Allied Workers Union, local 1928 – were locked out on Dec. 23, according to picket captain Larry Bauer. “We’re having some challenges,” said Bauer, who has worked for the company
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for 27 years. “Morale is bouncing around.” Strike pay is fairly reasonable, he added, in comparison with other years. Wages drop by two per cent per week of being off, according to the union. Employees are losing about $600 per month, according to Bauer’s estimates. Benefits and pension payments are not being made by the company. “It’s hurting us in the back pocket.” “It’s been cold but not as nasty as it could’ve been,” he said of the weather conditions. Since the employees are locked out and not on strike, the energy level is very dif-
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ferent, he said. “If they were on strike they’d be more aggressive.” Negotiations began in June, after the employees’ four-year contract ended on May 31. At first, the union offered to roll over any decisions for a year and to enter negotiations this coming June instead, when the economy is better. But the company later came back with two options. The first offered no wage increases for the first year, a one per cent increase the second year, a two per cent increase for the third year, and a three per Lockout Page 5
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