T flE MC G I I L TRIBU N E
Volume 5, Number 4
Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
Tuesday, October 1
McGill Puts Scabs In Flight
Bourassa
Vision of Youth by David Schulze The man Jean-François Viau called "the one politician we can count on for the youth of Québec" addressed ap proximately 150 students at M cGill on Tuesday afternoon. Viau, who is the youngest member of the National Assembly was introducing Robert Bourassa to his audience. "If I'm back in politics, it's not to be prime minister again," the former premier and Liberal leader said. "There is a distortion between our means and our needs which I don't accept as an in dividual. I'm back in politics to correct that disequilibrium. The most important thing is to increase the level of invest ment.'' Specifically, he referred to his pro posal to expand the James Bay hydroelectric complex and sell power to the United States. This proposal for $25 billion in new investment has been explained in Bourassa's recent book, Power From the North — a book he lau n ch ed in W ash in g to n , D .C ., because, he explained, that's where the consumers are. Bourassa, told his audience that much of his party's newfound support comes from youth. "O ne of our principal challenges is to merit youth support — not with generalities or nice words, but with very concrete measures." Bourassa reiterated the Q uébec Liberal Party's promise to maintain the freeze on tuition fees at Québec univer sities and cégeps. He also repeated the L ib e ra ls ' o b je c tio n to c u rre n t discrimination in welfare payments: in Québec, those under 30 receive only $160 per month, while those over 3 0' get $440. Bourassa credited the Liberal youth commission with persuading the party to adopt these policies. However, his answers to question on education issues, posed by Luc JoliCoeur, McGill StudSoc V.P. External Af fairs, were not as clear. Bourassa said
the PLQ was still finalizing its proposals on the problem of university underfun ding. He said the loans and bursaries program needed more flexibility, and a Liberal government would "modify" the amount and the conditions. (Viau added that a tax-deductible investment fund for parents and students to save for university was envisaged.) Concerning differential fees for foreign students, Bourassa .simply pointed out that the Liberals had objected to fee increases, made by the Parti Québécois govern ment two years ago. Viau has promised to set up a meeting for Joli-Coeur with Claude Ryan, the Liberal education critic. Bourassa also avoided committing himself to making Québec a nuclearweapon free zone, a promise made by Parti Québécois leadership contenders Pauline Marois and Luc Gagnon. He told a member of the audience who raised the question that this was not Québec's jurisdiction:"W e could make representations, but the federal govern ment should decide." In any case, Bourassa said, he couldn't take a posi tion on the matter without further in vestigation. On constitution matters, Bourassa assured a young anglophone from Sher brooke that what he called "exaggera tions" in Bill 101, Québec's language law, would be corrected. As an exam ple, he cited West Island Businesses prosecuted for having bilingual signs put up indoors. Bourassa said he was convinced these problems could be corrected without endangering the French culture in North America and without social confrontation because they were "common sense" issues. He also said that under a Liberal govern ment, Québec would sign the 1981 constitutional agreement if certain con ditions were met, such as the right to name Supreme Court judges and a con stitutional veto on immigration matters.
by Alison Fripp and Stephen Hum Air Canada may have hired scab labour through Powell Student Services at M cGill during the recent strike by its flight attendants. Posters aimed at students appeared at the Canada Employment Centre on M cGill Campus in late August. The posters offered student temporary employment with Air Canada, filling in for the striking attendants. The job description specified a one week train ing programme, followed by an in definite term of employment, ending no earlier than October. Air Canada was apparently digging in for a long dispute. Air Canada official Don Carlyle defended the action as a necessary precaution designed to maintain an adequate level of services to airline customers. "It was within our legal right," said Carlyle of the posters, "W e don't consider it 'scabbing'. In fact we don't recognize the word. It's used by the union." Carlyle asserted that the posters went up as part of an Air Canada contingency plan put into operation when a strike by the Canadian Airline Flight Attendants Association (CALFAA) became immi nent. "The posters went up a week before the strike began on August 19." Said Carlyle, "I'm not even aware we openly went out to get students after the strike began." He said that it is standard practice at Air Canada to hire students during the summer. Canadian Univeristy Press (CUP) reports that 600 students were hired by Air Canada during the month of August. However according to Lyn Levesque, part-time and summer placements of ficer at the M cGill employment centre, the request to place the Air Canada posters on display was received by her office on August 26, after the strike had begun. But the poster went down again, three days later on August 29. "Either they had more than enough applicants by then, or perhaps they got wind that the strike might be settled so o n ." Levesque speculated. The posters were barely there long enough
undergraduate students for a period of six academic years. Full-time graduate students would pay $3 per semester. The plan will be presented to students in a referendum October 30. StudSoc VP (Finance) Marie Davis opened the debate with a presentation outlining exactly how the deficit of close to $800,00(5 had been incurred. The breakdown indicated that $369,303 was in the form of fixed assets, mainly food dispensing equipment for the food and beverage operations. The remain ing $395,216 is the accumulated deficit for Studsoc between 1982 and 1984. Davis was quick to point out that last year's council had turned a profit, the first in some years to do so. Davis stated that the accumulated deficit on opera tions was the combined result of high inflation and static student fees over the
departmental regulations" said Bellrive, "W e had no choice." CALFAA has taken a hard line against student strikebreakers. Suzanne David, a CALFAA official, told the Tribune that the back-to-work protocol will include a provision requiring the permanent blacklisting of the strikebreakers. "W e want it made clear that we will never employ any of the strike breakers." Commenting on a CUP story stating that the union planned a two year boycott of the scabs' services, David stressed the perpetual nature of the ban. She said tha CALFAA will attempt to ex tend the ban into other unions affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress. Only Wardair would be exempt from this ban because the union accepted the fact of scab labour in a back-to-work protocol there during a strike several years ago. However, scabs who remain ed at Wardair after the strike are shunn ed by other workers, and a two-tier salary and benefits system exists at that airline David reported. David doubted that the airline would attempt to contest the ban at least not immediately. "They might go to the human Rights Commision" she said, but David forecast storm clouds ahead if the corporation attempted *o overturn the protocol. David condemned the use of students as strikebreakers, blaming the federal Tories for the practice,"Take it to the top," David asserted. "Flora Mac Donald helped scab. I guess Mulroney doesn't know about that either."
pg. 3 Arctic Policy Conference convened. . pg. 4 A House of cards, the ASUS.................. pg. 5 pg. 6 PGSS does a quick shuffle................ pg. 9 Redmen pull off a victory....................pg. pg.1010
Students at a Premium by Adeeb Khalid International students at M cGill are paying more this year for their com pulsory health insurance. The premium for a Blue Cross insurance plan for single students went up by almost 20 percent this fall while some benefits were cut. The hike will affect about 1500 international students who par ticipate in the group plan. And since this followed the imposi tion of a 9 percent provincial sales tax
Debt Repayment by Patrick Hill The question of who shall pay for Studsoc's deficit is now in the hands of McGill students after last Thursday's council meeting where the finalized dept repayment plan was approved, as well the call for a student referendum to decide upon the issue. At the same time, however, a motion that would have extended the proposed levies beyond the six year time span in order to create a capital improvement fund was soundly rejected. Also, the issue of tiered fees for Post Graduate Student Society members arose yet again, as Studsoc bowed to PGSS demands that they pay lesser fees than undergraduate students as part of the debt repayment scheme. The plan calls for a per-semester fee of $4 to be levied on full-time
to be noticed she said. Levesque, a union officer herself, ex pressed surprise that there was little pro test beyond someone writing "D O N 'T SCAB" in bold print across one of the posters. "I didn't see who it was, but I wouldn't have stopped anyone." she said. Levesque said about four M cGill students made out applications for the Air Canada jobs. Officials at Employment and Immigra tion's regional office in Montreal said that Quebec's anti-scab legislation, passed by the PQ in its social democratic phase, could not be invok ed against the posters. Said Employment and Immigration's regional office in Montreal said that Quebec's anti-scab legislation, passes by the PQ in its social democratic phase, could not be invok ed against the posters. Said Employment and Immigration official Raymonde Bellerive, "A ir Canada is a crown cor poration working within the Canadian Labour Code. The Code doesn't recognize scabbing to exist. It doesn't cover it." Bellerive said Departmental regulations compelled employees at employment centres to post the adver tisements even if they disagreed with the content. Bellerive confirmed that CALFAA ask ed uniop members at the Canada Employment and Immigration Commis sion not to process the application forms of potential scabs for Air Canada. "O u r president endorsed the position, but reminded members about letter of
past few years. Moreover, she said, incomefrom food services was highly un predictable before the introduction of a management firm in 1984. StudSoc President James Green was vocal in his support of this scheme. Ad dressing "council he stated that if the referendum was accepted an agreement with University Vice-Principal (Ad ministration and Finance) John Armour would allow Studsoc to forgo the $50,000 payment already allotted as debt repayment and to earmark it for other services. He said that if the proposal wasn't ratified by students council would be obliged to pay back its loans from the University with interest, a prospect that would raise the annual payments from the current $50,000 to approximately continued on page 8
on all insurance policies last March,the total outlay for a single international stu dent went up from $365 to $473 per an num, an increase of almost 30 percent in one year. Students with family coverage now pay $965. International students are not eligible for health insurance benefits available to Canadians through government pro grammes. Therefore, University Senate regulations require all international students to participate in a group in surance plan negotiated by M cGill. A Senate subcommittee on Interna tional Student Health Insurance with student representation invites bids from different sources, but a stable working relationship has been maintained with Blue Cross. "Foreign students are a high risk group, " Cathie Sheeran, Administrative Officer at the Dean of Students 'Office said in recent interview. "W e have had very high claims figures and Blue Cross often pays out more than it earns on the plan." For this reason, the Blue Cross claims office has tightened its fist lately e s p e c ia lly on c la im s fo r n o n prescription drugs. "Student with family coverage submit the biggest claim s," Sheeran said. Therefore it is quite likely that the premium for family plans might rise substantially next year. In fact, other Québec universities, which form a pool for the purpose of negotiating insurance plans for interna tional students, raised the family plan
premium to $2009 while keeping the single plan at $365. M cGill will probably follow suit next year. "W e did not raise the family plan premium this year because negotiations with Blue Cross cannot finish before June. By then it is too late for returning students to alter their plans or their budgets,"Sheeran said. But important changes may be in for next year. A decision will be made this year on whether to abolish the In surance Committee altogether and join the pool. "Historically, M cGill has not been part of the pool because we felt that the large numbers of international students we had justified separate negotiations,” Sheeran said. "If we join the pool, we'll have to go along with what the others decide. The committee that negotiates for the pool has no student representa tion as M cGill has. W e could be locked into the agreement for at least two years." But M cGill students do not take ad vantage of their representation on the insurance committee. "It's a committee nobody wants to sit on. It's like pulling teeth,"Sheeran complained. "There's no limit to the number of students who can sit on it. The more the better, but sometimes we don't get even two." Sheeran would like to see more stu dent interest in the committee this year as important issues like substantial in creases in premiums and indeed the possible abolition of the committtee itself will be under consideration.