Northern New Democrat MLA Hailing New Arrangement with Unions

Saturday, November 26, 2005 02:27 PM

Only one delegate attending the B.C. New Democrats' annual convention in Vancouver spoke out against the resolution which ends the party practise of giving affiliated unions a block of delegates based on their memberships.

But Cariboo-North M.L.A. Bob Simpson says the new affiliation agreement is a "brilliant compromise". "The labour leaders called it that and Carole James called it that because what it allows us to do is re-invent our relationship with labour to invite more labour members to become individual members."

Simpson says, "It further democratizes our decision-making process by having everybody have a vote." He says, "it is a change in our voting structure, not a move away from unions in anyway, in terms of our representation of worker interests."

For his part, the Forests and Range Critic says he's finding his first party convention a great opportunity to network with the almost 700 party members in attendance. Simpson says it's coming as no surprise that's he's being sought out to discuss the pine beetle epidemic. "There are many people approaching me on their specific community concerns and many generalized concerns about where we're going."
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