a5, Local nurses sign contract The Health Labor Relations Association of B.C., on behalf of The Cassiar Hospital Society, and the B.C, Nurses Union, have signed a memorandum of agreement to cover the nurses at the Cassiar Hospital. The six nurses have been without a contract since April 1, 1982. This is the first contract with The Cassiar Hospital Society and brings the local nurses in line with the B.C.N.U. master agreement. Prior to this agreement, their contract was with Cassiar Resources, as the hos- pital was operated as a private hospital. It became a public hospital on July 4, 1982. Under the new B.C.N.U. agreement, they received an 8% increase during the period of April 1, 1982 to March 31, 1983; 5.196% in the first year and 2.8% in the sec- ond year, On April 1, 1984, they received an additional 2.1% wage increase. The hourly wage for a first year gen- eral duty nurse is $12.84, as of April 1, 1984. “In addition to the coverage by the B.C.N.U. Master Agreement, local Cassiar nurses also get the following benefits: a) Return bus and airfare to Vancouver every 6 months. b) Single furnished accommodation and all utilities, pro- vided by The Cassiar Hospital Society, at a cost of $100 per month. c) Special allowance of seventy-five cents per hour when a nurse on duty is designated in charge of the hos- pital (afternoon and night shifts). d) Weekend Premiums — a premium of an additional 10% of basic pay for all Saturday shifts and an ad- ditional 15% of basic pay for all Sunday shifts. _e) Medical referral for the employee and dependents to Vancouver or Edmonton and up to seven days sub- sistence at $50 per day. aaa f) One extra paid holiday. a) Power and fuel subsidies are still in force for two em- ployees who were employed under the Cassiar Re- sources contract. The present contract expires on March 31, 1985 and negotiations are now underway on the new contract. _ School Budget Falls Short The Chairman of the Board of School District No. 87, Sherry Sethen, says the budget for January Ist to June 30, 1985, announced November 19th by the Ministry of Education, falls approximately $110,000 short of the board’s projected needs. Mrs. Sethen said, “Despite the difference in en- rolment figures (which are down this year), we feel it (the budget) is $110,000 short from the budget we felt we could operate on.” She said the school districts are not allowed to request amounts for their budgets. The districts are told what financing is available. The board must now make a decision on what cut- backs must be made. She said, “We will still try to main- tain our educational programs and try to make cuts elsewhere.” : Extra-curricular activities such ‘as field trips and cultural programs (such as the mime. troupe which visited the schools last year) are examples of areas that could be cut. Mrs. Sethen said the next budget is only for a six ; Continued on Page 24. Gassiar residents send funds to Ethiopia Cassiar residents have donated $2,072.00 to the Ethiopia Relief Fund. The drive, spearheaded by Bruno Artico and Chris Dopp, was completed in a couple of weeks. A cheque for this amount has been forwarded to the Canadian Catholic Organ- ization For Development and Peace, specifying that it must go directly to the Ethiopia Relief Fund. Thank you to the following donors: Cont’d. on Page 18 Cassiar Courier the Voice of Cassiar Country December 1984 ; 10 cents Long Service Awards Long Service Award recipients: | to r Imre Toth, Louis Molan, Irma Tischler, Tony Coran and Bozo Colak. On October 19, 1984, five Brinco Mining Ltd. employees received 20 year Long Service awards They were honored at a fantastic eight course dinner at House 130 for themselves and their in- vited guests. Each 20 year employee was pre- sented with a beautiful jade clock, and their spouses received lovely fresh flower arrange- ments. Those honored were: TONY CORAN Tony came to Cassiar from Thompson, Manit- oba in July 1964 as a pipefitter. He transferred to staff on May 1, 1971, as a Utilities Foreman and was promoted to General Maintenance Fore- man in 1976, a position he still holds. IRMA TISCHLER Irma was hired as janitor in the Administration Office on May 10, 1963 and still has the same job. BOZO COLAK Bozo first came to Cassiar in February 1961. Except when he terminated for short periods, he has worked as a tramline millwright for most of the time. LOUIS MOLAN Louis came to Cassiar on May 29, 1963 from Edmonton. He has worked as a laborer, mill op- erator, mill foreman and warehouse counterman, a position he holds presently. IMRE TOTH Imre (Poofy) has worked at Cassiar since May 1957, with several intervals when he terminated, He has worked as laborer, bagger, tailings oper- ator and at present is mill serviceman, looking after the forklifts. Brinco Announces Third Quarter Loss Brinco Limited has announced that revenues and net earnings for the nine months ended Sept- ember 30, 1984, from continued operations were $62,997,000 and $6,789,000 respectively, comp- ared to $54,073,000 and a loss of $3,861,000 for the same period in 1983. A loss of $1,084,000 was incurred during the third quarter, due to lower sales of asbestos as well as costs resulting from the scheduled vacation shutdown at the Cassiar mine during July. Cassiar mine manager Keith Jones said the company does not expect sales to improve this quarter. He said, “‘Overall demand for asbestos is going down. Supplies are high...This causes prices to go down...We don’t see any improve- ment in prices until 1987 or 88.” ; He added, “The whole asbestos industry is operating at about 80% capacity.” “The Asbestos Information Agency is doing all they can (to improve the public’s attitude towards asbestos...The AIA is promoting the theory that...) it’s better to use a product we have and know than to change to a substitute we know little about. For example, it has been discovered that fiberglass also, has problems.” Two North American asbestos producers recently announced layoffs at their operations. Asbestos Corp. in Quebec announced. an in- definite layoff of employees and Calaveras Asbestos Ltd. in the United States announced a shutdown on November Ist and won’t reopen until April, due to large inventories. The Cassiar mine manager said the Asbestos Corp. layoffs ‘*...will only affect us in that it’s better for them to limit their production than to continue as they were and dump their fibre on the market.” Mr. Jones said the company does not foresee any further layoffs at Cassiar in the near future. Twenty employees were laid off in October. “On October Ist we cutback the mine to a two shift operation due to a change in waste removal requirements at the mine...The volume of waste we have to move has been slowly decreas- ing. The rest of the operation stays the same... Due to the cooperation of employees the new schedule is working satisfactorily,’ he said. The number of people employed at Cassiar has also been steadily declining: from a high of 680 to the present 415 employees.