LS a LA AIL ——— |

Women hit hardest
in PO privatization

Women will be the hardest hit by Tory
plans to privatize Canada’s postal service,
says a study released by the National Action
Committee on the Status of Women.

The report, by Joan Hannant, reveals
that the privatization of the Crown corpora-
tion will have a particular effect on women’s
wages, benefits, working conditions and job
security, while leading to an overall reduc-
tion in the quality and accessibility of postal
services.

According to the report, over 734 existing
urban post offices will be closed as the pri-
vatization plans proceed — eliminating
both jobs and services. “‘Since 1986 all of the
cleaning work in Canada Post facilities has
been contracted out to the private sector.
For the cleaners — the vast majority of
whom are women and immigrants — the
consequences of privatization have been
devastating. Workers previously protected
by a collective agreement and earning
between $8 and $12 per hour, suddenly
found themselves without a union and earn-
ing near minimum wages, with reduced
benefits and little job security,” the report
says.

Rural postal service and franchising are
two other areas the report singles out as
being particularly harmful to women.
While the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers won a victory when the Canadian
Labour Relations Board ruled that fran-
chise owners must honour union contracts,
Canada Post has said it will go ahead with
its plan — opening 971 full-service private
franchises by 1996. Many will be entirely
new Outlets where union successor rights
may not be applicable.

Another problem with the franchising
plan, Hannant reveals, is the location of
many of the new outlets. Marion Dewar,
MP for Hamilton Mountain, complained in
the House of Commons recently that Can-
ada Post is placing franchises in conven-
ience stores and video outlets that sell
pornographic tapes and magazines. Many
women, Dewar said, do not want to patron-
ize stores that sell images degrading to
women and disturbing to children.

Despite such outcries, Hannant writes,
Canada Post has no plan to screen counter
locations, and women, as a consequence,
will have little choice but to patronize such
objectionable premises.

The corporate plan to privatize 269 rural
post offices could cost the jobs of 8,000
women. According to the report: “Out of a
total of 9,312 postmasters and assistants . ..
7,693 or 82 per cent are women ... more
often than not, in rural areas, post office
closures mean permanent unemployment.

“Tt would appear the only winner in Post
Office privatization is big business ... the
growth of privatization threatens to further
undermine the already fragile position of
the least advantaged in our society —
women, the elderly, the poor and disabled.”

The NAC report calls on the federal
government to impose an immediate
moratorium on foreclosures, amalgama-
tion and conversions, and to restore full
postal service to communities that have
experienced a loss of service.

The study also recommends that workers
who have lost their jobs due to the privatiza-
tion scheme be reinstated with full seniority
rights and benefits.

CUPE LOCAL 561

COQUITLAM SCHOOL BOARD AND
MUNICIPAL LIBRARY EMPLOYEES

Sends Season's Greetings to all
British Columbia trade unionists

SOLIDARITY FOREVER

To the friends of labour

Local 1928 (Industrial)

from the members
and staff of

Carpenters Shop

6 e Pacific Tribune, December 19, 1988

Single parents and their children gathered for the second monthly candlelight
vigil over a $50 cut in GAIN payments to some 20,000 B.C. residents, Dec. 1.
The rally at Robson Square in Vancouver, organized by the Child Poverty
Action League and End Legislated Poverty, heard demands for the reinstate-
ment of the money cut because of a redefinition of single unemployable
persons by the Social Services and Housing Ministry. Included at the vigil was
Anita Archembault who with her two young daughters is challenging the cut as

a violation of ministry regulations in B.C. Supreme Court.

TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON

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Season's
Greetings

Nanaimo, Duncan & District
Labour Council

On Behalf of
our members
and staff

we extend
Season’s
Greetings.

United Food and Comercial Workers
Local 2000, 379-12th St.,

New Westminster, V3M 4H2
Phone: 525-8811

Local #472

Unit B, 5261 Lane St.,
Burnaby, V5H 2H4.
Phone: 430-3056