BC At Work, Episode 6, Video

Scott Swanson [00:00:00] I’m Scott Swanson.

Judy Pal [00:00:01] And I’m Judy Pal.

Scott Swanson [00:00:02] And this is BC At Work.

Narrator [00:00:08] Tonight, flying salmon, and Broadway Printers. 77 years of making it work. BC At Work, the inside story showcasing the unions, working people, and the companies that employ them. This week from historic Steveston, here’s Scott and Judy.

Judy Pal [00:00:36] Welcome to the show.

Scott Swanson [00:00:37] Well, Judy, here we are in Vancouver. Or I should say more specifically, in Steveston.

Judy Pal [00:00:41] You know Scott, Steveston is the home port to one of the largest fishing fleets in Canada. Behind us used to be cannery after cannery. But things are changing here now. This has become quite a tourist attraction.

Scott Swanson [00:00:51] Yes, and every morning people come down to these docks to buy fish off the boats. In fact, there’s a lot of federal, provincial, and local money that’s gone into preserving historic Steveston. Steveston now has a bylaw that says there can be no new construction unless it conforms with a heritage theme of turn-of-the-century.

Judy Pal [00:01:08] On a historical note, Clay Perry will be coming to us later on in the show, along with our regular Charlie Farquharson.

Scott Swanson [00:01:13] That’s true, but first, I’m going to go take a look at a family-owned Vancouver-based business that’s been in operation for already 77 years. In 1911, a German professor of languages turned prospector, Frederick Blockberger, founded what is now Broadway Printers to publish his mining newspaper, The Western Canada Post. His son Ben, became a printer and remained a member of the International Typographical Union for 50 years, and was instrumental in Broadway Printers becoming the first print shop in Vancouver to be organized. Being the owner didn’t stop Ben Blockberger from continuing on as a skilled worker on his plant floor. His spirit remains as his son Dick carries on the family tradition at Broadway Printers.

Dick Blockberger [00:01:51] The company, Broadway Printers, was started really as a sideline to keep him busy over the winter months when he couldn’t be off prospecting. The original name of the company was Canada Post Publishing Company, Canada Post being a mining newspaper that my grandfather was publishing. But that was sort of a sideline to keep them out of mischief over the, over the winter months. The summer he was gone.

Scott Swanson [00:02:18] While Frederick was off in the gold fields of Rossland, Ben learned his trade. On becoming the owner, he understood every aspect of his shop floor, and he instilled this in his son, laying the foundation for one of the most harmonious labour-management relations in North America. This tradition of learning the business from the shop floor continues today.

Dick Blockberger [00:02:38] Here I am, I’m the third generation. The fourth generation is working in the company now. My son and my youngest daughter are in the company. So there is a tremendous sense of tradition and family, of passing on to the next generation, something that’s a little bit better than what you inherited. It’s progressed over the years. Our first financial statement was an interesting one. It showed cash on hand and in the bank of $12.47 and there are times I wish we could rise to those dizzy heights again.

Scott Swanson [00:03:16] Broadway Printers with 58 employees is not a large organization, and it is one of the last family-owned printers in the lower mainland.

Dick Blockberger [00:03:23] Printing is, of course, a very stable industry, and it’s characterized by employees who do stay with the company for a relatively long period of time. We have had people who have stayed with us for 40 and 50 years. And we have employees who have retired, I think, in the longest case, with something like 52 or 53 years service with the company.

Scott Swanson [00:03:50] Craig Dillman, Pressroom Foreman, has worked at Broadway Printers for over 35 years.

Craig Dillman [00:03:55] Basically the thing is they all treat us fair, we’re all, we do the work well, we’re treated real well. If we screw up, we’ll be getting in trouble, but they treat us real well. We get all the benefits.  W0e’ve got everything we need here, good wages, and the guys all seem to be happy to work here.

Dick Blockberger [00:04:11] We have had 77 years now without a single work stoppage. To the best of my knowledge, I’m not aware of any grievance. And certainly in my experience, since I’ve been back with the company, which is 30-odd years, we haven’t had a single grievance. At the same time, we have been extremely fortunate in that we are dealing with people down through the years in the unions which we employ, and we have three unions in this plant.  And we are dealing with people who are first of all intelligent, secondly they are knowledgeable and thirdly they are reasonable. We have been dealing with people of goodwill and I maintain if two parties of good will sit across the table and they both want to get a contract we won’t always agree and my goodness we have had some very very strong disagreements at times, but we have always come up with a contract. Because both parties want it and both parties are prepared to work for it.

Scott Swanson [00:05:15] The respect shown between front office and shop floor is illustrated by how Broadway Printers and the three unions representing the workers are dealing with technological change.

Dick Blockberger [00:05:23] When we decided to go away from the old linotype, the hot metal, into computer typesetting, we called a meeting of all of the employees concerned, and we said, “Now look, you will probably hear a rumor that we are going to go into computerized typesetting. We will be one of the first in Vancouver to do this. Nobody is going to lose a job over it. We will retrain everybody who wants to retrain at company expense. And I think I can honestly say that no employee at Broadway Printers has ever lost a job because of technological change. We prefer to look after the people. They’re part of our family. That’s the Broadway Printers family, and we try to look at them as much as we can. I don’t want to sound patronizing, and I don’t mean it that way. It’s not a paternalistic relationship, but it’s a question of loyalty. Again, I want loyalty from my people. They deserve loyalty from me.

Speaker [00:06:20] There were two things I really wanted to do this year. One was to get a job in servicing teachers, which is what I’m doing, and the other one was to teach at the university and I’m teaching a course for UBC so I feel like this is it. I’ve peaked. What am I going to do for the other 40 years of my life?

Judy Pal [00:06:40] Let me guess, Scott, it’s another one of those beautiful heritage buildings.

Judy Pal [00:06:43] That’s right. While we’re here, let’s take a break.

Narrator [00:06:48] Lucy knows everything has to be right because we want our visitors to return. Our work is important to all British Columbians. Nick Worhaug, President of Local 40, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers, 10,000 men and women who make BC a great place to visit and a wonderful place to live.

Rick Heseltine [00:07:07] We would like to make a good impression on our guests, and we are proud of the high standards of excellence we have set.

Nick Worhaug [00:07:12] Local 40, we serve the need of our members and the province. We make the good times better in BC

Art Gruntman [00:07:19] I’m Art Gruntman, Western Vice President of the Canadian Paperworkers’ Union. Our members are hard at work in pulp paper and related industries all over BC. A good example is Scott Paper in New Westminster, where 560 proud members produce a wide range of products using state-of-the-art technology. For 46 years, the CPU has represented the Scott employees. Our union, the employees and the company will continue to work together for a better BC for you and your family.

Judy Pal [00:07:56] How much in your life do you take for granted? If you have MS, multiple sclerosis, you work for every moment. Nothing can be taken for granted. Like many MS sufferers, Larry Bibby had MS for nearly 20 years before it was diagnosed.

Larry Bibby [00:08:13] They think I’ve had MS for approximately 20 years. When we started tracing back in my own life, things that were happening that are associated with MS became clear as to what they were. When you’re first diagnosed, you feel like you’re out in a boat with no oars, that somebody’s just pushed you offshore. Well, the MS Society nurse came forward at that time and suggested things for me to do. She took me into the MS Society, showed me what was going on with them, and it sure helped me, and it’s helped a lot of people in my position. So I’ve gone back, and I’m trying to help other people in the same position. I go three times a week to Pearson Hospital. The physiotherapy is mostly swimming because of the temperature of the water. People with MS can get in there and make their bodies do things they can’t do on dry land. The water is held at 82 degrees and that’s the biggest part. Then we do physiotherapy during the week, exercises as in normal exercising for other people. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system that attacks the myelin in the nerve endings in your spine. Different people are attacked different ways. Every person you meet that does have multiple sclerosis has a different effect from it. Once I was diagnosed, I joined the MS Society of British Columbia and I at that time ask the union for their support.

Harold Dieno [00:10:06] And the CWA is a union that is very much more involved in community affairs. At this point, we have decided, the union’s executive has decided to become a sponsor of MS.

Larry Bibby [00:10:19] I’ve had support from my fellow members, my brothers in the union, they’ve helped me find this place that I’m living in, they moved me in, and they’ve set it up. The suite itself that I live in is totally accessible, it has a shower area, it has ramps in it, it’s huge, it’s accessible for wheelchairs, and that’s the big thing. With people in wheelchairs, they need the accessibility. This building was built by, funded by, the Carpenter’s Union through their pensions. And in the end, they named the building the Kinnaird Place after Jim Kinnaird, who was, of course, a carpenter. So it is special to me. It’s unions looking after their own people type thing.

Scott Swanson [00:11:19] Judy, the Steveston Post Office is exactly what I was talking about. It’s one of the original buildings.

Judy Pal [00:11:24] Well, Scott, we’re supposed to be introducing Clay Perry here.

Scott Swanson [00:11:28] You’re right. Here’s Clay Perry.

Clay Perry [00:11:41] I don’t know what’s behind the curious assumption that if you decrease people’s security, if you make them more subject to layoff or cut away at their unemployment insurance, that they’ll all react in the same way, all rush out and work harder and longer at whatever the employer wants them to do. Some people of course do that. Others break down entirely under the strain. Some just become a little less efficient. Some show their initiative. You always find the mechanic who knows how to repair an important piece of machinery and becomes less enthusiastic suddenly about teaching others how to do that. You ask him where the tools are. Then he says, “Oh, gee, I don’t know. They’re around here someplace or another.” They show their initiatives. I’m reminded of that every Thanksgiving Day of the initiative showed by some folks a long time ago, during the thirties, about how to get turkeys for their families, although they’d been unemployed for years, had no money. How would you go about it? Well, this group worked out near Colony Farm, near Essondale. And the colony had an abundance of turkeys, but they were all behind a high wire fence. So they borrowed a Chinese technology. As I understand it, the Chinese used to put a grain of rice inside a straw. The pheasant would come along and try to eat the rice, get confused, be readily caught. The adaptation that my friends adopted to get turkeys in their initiative way was that they would put a kernel of corn on a fish hook, attach the hook to the line, throw the baited hook over the fence. The turkey would grab at the corn and it would be hauled over, fetched over the fence to provide a turkey dinner for the family. “Yep,” my friend said, “Fishing for turkeys in the thirties, you had to use your initiative.” And that’s Perry’s Logbook.

Scott Swanson [00:14:07] Never wanted to be Prime Minister or… ?

Speaker [00:14:09] Hell no. Those bunch of goofs? Associate with those kind of people? Never, they don’t work.

Judy Pal [00:14:22] Hey, Scott.

Scott Swanson [00:14:22] Hi, Judy.

Judy Pal [00:14:23] You know, these buildings are pretty authentic. They really look like they were built around the turn of the century. Yeah, they’ve done a nice job.

Scott Swanson [00:14:28] You know what Clay Perry told me?

Judy Pal [00:14:30] What?

Scott Swanson [00:14:30] He said that Richmond sits on Lulú Island.

Judy Pal [00:14:33] That’s right.

Scott Swanson [00:14:33] That’s right. And so I got you a Lulu Island Muffin.

Judy Pal [00:14:37] I guess I know what that means.

Scott Swanson [00:14:39] That’s right. We’ll be back in just a minute.

Narrator [00:15:46] If you’re shopping for a home, this is not the place to start. A Royal Bank Report on prearranged mortgages. It’s hard to know what you can buy until you know how much you can borrow. That’s where the Royal’s prearranged mortgage can help. You’ll know exactly how much you can borrow and what your monthly payments will be. You’ll know what price range to look at. And the Royal will guarantee the interest rate for 60 days. It’s like having the cash before you start house hunting. Royal Bank pre-arranged Mortgages.

Judy Pal [00:16:17] For more than a hundred years, one union in North America has been on the cutting edge of new mechanical technology. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is celebrating 100 years of keeping North Americans on the move. Almost one million men and women in the United States and Canada belong to the Machinists Union, of which 10,000 live and work in British Columbia. The Machinists Union is one of the most progressive unions in North American. A union with a conscience, the Machinists were among the first organizations to establish employee assistance programs for members disabled on the job. The union established the IAM CARES program to assist these members to retrain themselves and find new employment. But the program is not just for union members. It reaches out to the community as a whole. Ron Jackson explains.

Ron Jackson [00:17:08] IAM Cares will be assisting people, not just members of the Machinists Union or members of other unions, but everyone in the community who has a problem with getting back into the workplace or in fact getting into the workplace for the first time.

Judy Pal [00:17:26] Another program of which the Machinists are rightly proud is the International Guiding Eyes Program, which provides guide dogs for the blind. It is programs such as these that set the Machinists apart from other unions and earn it respect from the community, the labour movement, and employers alike. In British Columbia, Machinist Union members are employed in a large range of occupations. At Simon Fraser University, Machinists build new experimental equipment for research, as Don Smith explained.

Don Smith [00:17:56] Well, we make up the equipment that they just can’t go out and buy. Anything that’s needed in research that can’t be bought, you know, just off the shelf, we make it up here.

Judy Pal [00:18:06] Machinist Union members play a major part in the economy of Kelowna. At Western Star Trucks, the vast variety of machinist skills are utilized in building these trucks from the ground up. At the Vancouver International Airport, the machinists do everything from rebuilding jet engines and landing gear on the largest jets to making sure those jets are clean, mechanically sound, and leave on time. In the forests, equipment built by machinists keep the province’s number one industry on the move. All across British Columbia, Machinists Union members have worked to keep our province on the go. From the family car to the shipyards and railway shops of this province, and even to outer space, machinists have been keeping all North Americans on the move for 100 years.

Angela Schira [00:18:52] Our union is dedicated to improving the lives of the disabled in the province. It’s our contribution to the community. And what better way to celebrate 100 years of progressive unionism? The Machinists Union in British Columbia are challenging the future with a century of pride.

Judy Pal [00:19:22] Steveston, home port to one of the largest fishing fleets on the west coast. The average British Columbian eats fish at least once a week. Often that fish is salmon. Most people know how important fishing, fish processing, and related industries are to British Columbia and Canada’s economy. But how do we ensure this resource is not overused and depleted? As a renewable resource, we can increase fish stocks in a number of ways. Controlling the amount of fish harvested, the seasons for different fish, and more recently, fish hatcheries. Jeff Till works in the docks at Steveston, tracking salmon from fish hatchery caught by commercial fishermen.

Jeff Till [00:20:01] Well, we work for Fisheries and Oceans and we sample salmon as they come in and have been caught in a commercial fishery. The reason for this program is to ascertain the success of the hatchery program.

Judy Pal [00:20:20] Once fishing boats have docked at the processing plant, the cargo is vacuumed out of the hold and pumped into the cannery. Jeff and his crew count all the fish and remove those which are hatchery stock. He then checks the hatchery tag to determine where the salmon was raised, weighs the fish, and takes length and tail fin measurements. The belly is then slit open to determine its sex. All this information is recorded on a master sheet, which correlates with the scale card. To ensure accuracy, two scales are removed from each fish to determine their age. When the card is filled, it’s given to Camille Gosselin, a biologist with the Department of Oceans and Fisheries for further study.

Camille Gosselin [00:21:06] It’s important to determine the age of returning fish so that they can be related to the brood year that those fish are from. It’s used for determining production levels.

Judy Pal [00:21:19] An acetate impression is made to make observation easier and to obtain a permanent record of the scale. There are three hard body parts that determine age of the salmon. The fin, the ear bone or otolith, and the scales. All this information goes into determining the length of seasons, the remaining salmon stock, and the effectiveness of the hatchery program. Since fishing and related industries depend on a constant source of supply, it’s imperative that enough mature salmon are allowed to return to their spawning grounds. Under a projection microscope, scales of salmon look like a fingerprint, but contain the same information that tree rings do. The age of the fish is easily determined by examining the distance between rings. Growth patterns and any stresses are also revealed by the scale. Commercial fishing is no longer a matter of going out, catching all you can, and selling it. Through effective resource management by fishermen, the industry, and government, it’s hoped that this valuable Canadian resource will not disappear.

Scott Swanson [00:22:31] Stay tuned, Charlie’s fishing for another story.

Speaker [00:22:38] Send an ambulance! It’s my dad. I think he’s had a heart attack.

Responder [00:22:42] Listen carefully. I’ll tell you how to do CPR. Put the heel of your hand

Paramedic [00:22:48] No breathing, no pulse.

Speaker [00:22:50] I just got home when I came in here.

Responder [00:22:52] Give point five epinephrine.

Narrator [00:22:54] Saving lives is only one of the jobs your ambulance paramedics do for you.

Responder [00:22:59] I’ve got a pulse here.

Speaker [00:23:01] It’s okay, Dad. You’re gonna be okay.

Narrator [00:23:04] You’ve got the best, except nothing less.

Narrator [00:23:09] On February 15th, 1986, 19 cars derailed in Fort Langley carrying toxic chemicals. For the people who live nearby, the most important person in the world was Rick Hawes, a member of the BCGEU. Rick Hawes was first on the scene to protect people by checking the water, soil, and air for contamination. It could have been a disaster. Instead, it was just another hard day’s work for Rick Hawse.

Narrator [00:23:35] The BCGEU. Partners in your community.

Narrator [00:24:02] This challenge to your attitude toward older people is from University Hospital because we care about caring for the aged.

Scott Swanson [00:24:10] Well, we’ve reached that point in the show where we get a visit from Don Heron as Charlie Farquharson.

Judy Pal [00:24:14] Scott, look what Charlie sent us. Two for you and two for me.

Scott Swanson [00:24:19] Thanks, Charlie. Hi.

Charlie Farquharson [00:24:35] I always know there was something fishy about farming, but I never realized you could make a living at it, ’til the wife and I took a vocation down to your Prince Edward’s Island, where we has relations. They got farmers down there, does nothing but breed with fish. I couldn’t figure out how them fellas could stay underwater that long. But that ain’t the way they does it. They cultivates their clammy muscles and oysters on long strings. I suppose so they won’t get away for their own shellfish purposes. I never cared much for a fish that’s built like a nut. I’m not too partial to something slimy, served up on an ashtray. Especially if you can’t tell it’s a he or a she or maybe both at the same time. But back home here, I started thinking about farming for fish. As a fisherman, I got two qualifications. I got a lot of patience and I got worms. Mind you, this last summer was so dry around our parts we was starting to spray the trout for ticks. The wife thinks we should head for your BBC, Beautiful British Columbia, where we also has relations, and maybe we can spawn upriver with our cousins out your way. These Gulf Islands cousins have been salmon farming for donkey’s years and they’re what you call your dung hole conversationalists. I suppose they’d plant them sockeyes about three row apart. But now with the free trade coming up they say the big money is going to be turtle farming. Not your little snapper but them big terry pins about the size of a folksy wagon. The idea is to train these huge turtles to lie still in the waters of your gulf and then sell them off to the Americans as offshore islands.

Scott Swanson [00:26:11] Well, that’s it for this week’s show.

Judy Pal [00:26:13] You know, Scott, we picked a great day to be in Steveston, didn’t we?

Scott Swanson [00:26:15] Oh, we certainly did. Let’s hope the weather continues to cooperate with us. While we’re in the lower mainland, we’ll be coming to you from a different location each week.

Judy Pal [00:26:22] Next week we’ll be hosting the show from Queen Elizabeth Park.

Scott Swanson [00:26:25] So from the heart of the west coast fishing fleet, good night.

Scott Swanson [00:26:51] If you have a good story about a BC union, worker, or company, write to us at BC at Work, Suite 411-1200 West Pender, Vancouver. The producers of BC At Work would like to thank the following companies for supplying goods and services. Our show hosts travel BC In the luxury of a 28-foot motorhome provided by Okanagan Manufacturers. The crew vehicle for the show is a 1988 Chevy S-10 Blazer, compliments of Westminster Auto Leasing. Our fuel expenses throughout BC Have been provided by the Petro Canada dealers and agents. Our energy is Canada. While on the road, the cast and crew of BC at Work stay at Coast Hotels, the choice of the frequent traveler. Everyone on the show can stay in touch no matter where we are in the province thanks to Auto-Tel and cellular equipment complements of Cellular Express and BC Cellular. Aerial footage made available through the services of Vancouver Helicopters. This week’s show has been made possible in part by contributions from Labour Canada, CUPE BC, and CU & C Health Services Society.