October 14, 1986. Page 4.

The Other Press

 

 

 

Take

In a democracy there is a
way that you select your lea-
’ der, it is called an election. In
communism you also elect
your leader but there is only
one group you can vote for. In
B.C. we are,democratic so we
have a choice of whom we ef-
fect for premier. We have a
choice of basically three
parties, Liberals, N.D.P and
Social Credit.

Our leader for the Liberals
is Art Lee, a very popular
person. He holds the record as
being the most unknown per-
son in B.C. Rumour has it
that once Trivial Pursuit
wanted to ask a question in-

 

A Rebuttal

We wish to respond to
Howard Eaton’s open letter
to students and staff which
was published in _ the
September 29th issue of the
Other Press.

Howard expresses con-
cern over a_ free _ parking
clause recently negotiated
into the Faculty Associa-
tion’s Collective §Agree-
ment: “He. » feels that. tt
promotes inequity among
staff, faculty, and students,
and, moreover, encourages

destruction of the environ-
ment. We think it necessary
to examine these claims and
.the basis upon which they
are made.

At the root of our dis-

agreement with Howard’s
analysis are his  mis-
conceptions about trade
unions in general, and our
Association in particular.
First of all, Howard appears
not to understand *what a

union does when it bargains
collectively for it’s members.
Even though we may want
all who are part of the
college -- be they faculty,
staff, students, or admin-
strators -- to enjoy the same
‘advantages and benefits we
manage to win through
collective bargaining, it is
not the mandate of our
Association to negotiate

your pick...

volving him. The _ only
problem was no one knew the
answer.

Up next is Bill Vander
Zalm. The man who tries to
hide the past, like he tried to
hide education. Billy is rid-
ing high on the “Expo Buzz”.
While the Socreds are riding
off the feeling of, “You can’t
get much worse _ than
Bennett ” Mrs. Vander Zalm
is feeling just fine wearing
her fashionable (???) head
bands.

The last candidate is Bob
Skelly. Mr. Skelly is running
his campaign on the fact that
he MAY lose this election. So

he is trying to take pot shots
at his opponents, and allay-

ing himself with the unions,

who are trying to continue
the British fight for power
over her.

Well now, how do we pick
from such a fine selection of
candidates? Pick the fanciest
name? Tick a box at random?
Maybe we should just put
them in a room by themselves
and the person who comes out
alive wins the election. This
structure would truly change
the structure of B.C. politics.
Who knows, maybe someday
Rambo will run for Premier.

Sigma W

melee ac

ec Nd home Ah ge’s Autonomous Student Newspaper

benefits for other than
faculty. Indeed, we may not
negotiate others conditions

of work. The Association
functions on behalf of the
faculty, and particularly in
the negotiation of a contract
involving wages and _ work-
ing conditions, must
represent that group ex-
clusively. Our immediate
victories benefit only our
members. Historically,
however, the victories of a
specific union may by turn
have influenced the other
unions’ struggles as well as
those people outside the
union movement (e.g. the
8-hour day, minimum
wages, restrictive child la-
bour legislation, health and
safety regulations and so
on). We would hope that
any positive precidents set
by our Association would be
helpful to others in_ their
attempts to better their situ-
ations, but we cannot act on
behalf of others in the formal
negotiation of a contract.
Parking -- both cost and
availability -- is an issue for
all who work at or use the

College. We think that the
faculty should not be
complacent as a result of our
newly won _ benefit, but
rather, offer support in
working out solutions to a
problem that will only
worsen. We reiterate,
though, that this support
cannot _—be expressed

through Collective

our
Agreement.
Secondly, although Ho-

ward may take issue with
free parking, his proposal
for other colleagues,
students, and staff to speak
to. him, other faculty
members, and the College
board is quite out of place.
An agreement has _ been
reached between the Faculty
Association and the College,
voted on by faculty, and
duly signed by the Board. It
has the force of law. It is
quite inappropriate for
anyone other than the
parties to the agreement to
take action to ament or res-
cind it.

If attention is to be direc-
ted at issues that relate to the
“ideals of equity and social
responsibility”, perhaps ~ we
should begin with some that
are a bit more pressing than
parking. For instance, Ho-
ward criticizes the spending
of “scarce educational
dollars” on faculty parking
(a non-educational ex-
pense). The government’s
allocation of educational in-
stitutions, including student
aid programs, might be a
topic that warrants more
attention. In any case, we
would argue that money
spent on parking is a benefit
for faculty in lieu of a wage
increase, and a paltry one at
that. One may even view it
as a return as a return to the

   
  

      
  
  
   
    
   
    
  
    
   
     
   

Other Editorials

  

 

Hoi ca
L~.

 

CFO 1g 36 C.Brow

7

“Keep digging

. pecans . eS St. mint Pace

status quo, since we gave up
free parking with the occu-
pation of the new campus.
Finally, Howard contends
that the provision of free
parking will encourage the
use of the automobile at a
time when there should be a
hightened concern for the
environment. This is a logi-
cal. fallacy. Will exorbitant
parking rates or a dearth of
spaces promote healthful
living and respect for the
environment? We would
agree that cars are major

Come on, pick up a

   
      

   
     

shovel /

 

 

 

By > =

~

polluters, but we would dis-
agree that it makes sense to
get rid of cars or discourage
their use in the absence of

viable transportation  alter-
natives. Taken out of the
context of radical social:
transformation, token  ges-
tures such as Howard
appears to recommend are
ineffectual. -

Gillies Malnarich
Connie Broatch

Faculty Members,
Adult Basic Education

 

 

“The good thing abo
soccer guys is that
don’ t have to wear hats

 

Over the course of the past
two issues, the Other Press
has seen a great increase in
the number of letters we have
recieved from students. Keep
them coming!

There is one _ problem,
however. You see, the
production of this paper is
quite often done in the wee
hours.of the morning (I am in
fact typing this at 3:30 am),
and I find difficult to read
some of your handwriting

    
   
  
   
 

when my face is pressed into
your articles in semi-
catatonic interest. Type them
up, if you can, double spaced.
Please....

As well, please mark them
with a _ general catagory
(sports, entertainment, let-
ter, etc.).

And if your letters didn’t
make it in this issue, there is
always next time.

Jeff House
Typesetting Co-ordinator