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QUEBEC — Quebec’s hospital workers, who launched a defiant
strike, Nov. 19, are back at work pending a study of the offer by their
employer, the Parti Québécois government of Rene Levesque. The PQ
rushed legislation through the National Assembly making the strike
illegal, and a number of charges have been laid.

The accompanying open letter issued Nov. 19 by Montreal locals of
the hospital workers’ union offers an insight into the situation which
workers are protesting, and points to obvious solutions to the medical

care crisis in Quebec.

“Tomorrow — health’’, wrote

Nothing truer, for today, health
is ill.

For whole pages, the govern-
ment and the information media
are accusing the unions and their
members of taking the population
hostage: lying publicly as we
shall see.

The government accuses the
workers of the health unions of
sponging off the public purse.
False again! Since 1972, the cost
of medical services has increased
118% while the funds granted by
the government were cut from
25.7% to 22.9% in the same
period. From these funds, 6,000
doctors, 6% of the workers in the
hospital sector, extorted one-
fourth (25%), $700-million. ;

How can a worker who earns
$197 a week (before deductions)
be accused of exaggerating his
need of an increase while the Se-
nate Commission of the Canadian
Government itself considers $265

aweekas the minimum income re-
quired by a family with two chil-
dren? It’s only a question of a
more equitable redistribution of
the budget.

In 1976, there were 4.8 beds per
1,000 inhabitants in Quebec hos-
pitals. As of 1981, the government
foresees having reduced this
number to 3.2 (the lowest in the
western world). The immediate
effect of these cuts will translate
into the elimination of 6,176 beds.
Add to this the closures ofa series
of different departments in the
hospital centres. Already, 2,000
beds intended for short-term care
have been transformed into beds
for the chronically ill. For any
purpose it may serve, it signifies
the loss of 2,000 beds devoted to
the active care of the population.
In addition, this wave of cuts has
already cut off 2,027 jobs; 2,000
moreare stillto go. Thisinaddition
to having repercussions on the al-
ready unacceptable rate of un-
employment, will considerably
reduce the quality of care. The

fewer the number of workers in
health care, the more their tasks
grow, the more their services
slow down and the lower the level

* of quality of care. In the month of

February, 1979, 20,357 persons
were waiting for care in Montreal
alone. -

Attack on All Unions

In addition to defending their
job security, their freedom of
union action — the only guaran-
tee that their contract will be re-
spected—inadditiontofightingfor
the preservation of their real pur-
chasing power, the struggles
which the workers in the hospital
sector are conducting, far from
looking for hostages, works in the
interest of the population.

To withdraw the right to strike
from the workers from the public
sector is a direct attack on the
entire union movement. It is to
authorize the government to deny
once again the rights of the popu-
lation. It is to take from the work-
ers the only means they have
when a government or an
employer refuses to negotiate. It
is to extend the abolition of the
right to strike to the entire union
movement. One needs only to
think about the decree applied to
the harbor workers ...

However, look what the Parti
Québéquois did with its Bill 62, a
‘*preventative’’ bill which allows
the government to hide its bad
faith in negotiations. PQ House

leader, and cabinet minister,
Claude Charron revealled this. On
his own admission on the CBC
program Black on White, the gov-
ernment deliberately did not put
on the table any seriqus offers. It
had deliberately ..prolonged
negotiations with the aim of
‘‘favorabley influencing’’ the by-
elections and not diluting the re-
ferendum question. Despite the
government pretence of ruling
quickly after the expiration of the
work contract, it has already been
eleven months since the negotia-
tions were opened.
A Coercive Law

Bill 62 is an unacceptable pre-
cedent. Even under Duplessis,
even under Bourassa, the bill
came after the strike. Never had it
preceded it. Worse still! Under
the cover a preventative bill, the
government decrees a coercive

. law aimed at disorganizing the

unity of the workers. A law whose
long-term effects hint at the pos-
sibility of regulation after the re-
ferendum.

The government’s principle in
these negotiations is to take ev-
erything they can and give the
least possible. In view of this in-
disputable divergence of interests
between the state-employer and
its employees, how could un-
ionists tolerate the fact. that this
same state, through the mouth of
its government, directly inter-
feres in the life of the workers,

that it intends to dictate to th
their mode of operation? Fu
ermore, it attacks workers’
idarity in advocating local settle
ments at the local union le
The old tactic of the carrot
the ‘stick. Some are given m
than others. %

For the population, to endo
such a bill would mean that
giving the go-ahead to the g
ernment to cut to the bone
other sectors concerning it.
means that through taxes it wi
able to take more from us ino
to give more to the corporati
which provide only 5.1% of t
government’s revenues while
workers provide 88%.

The population will not tole
the government’s continuatio:
hacking away at its right to
decently and in health. The
people see that the governmen
really the one which holds th
hostage, the more the populati
will see that its interests coinck
with those of the workers in
health sector .. . If not, good
health care.

The letter is signed by:

Union of the Louis H.
taine Hospital Workers, 740
Hochelaga, Montreal, :

Supported by the Union
Nortre-Dame de Lourdes He
Workers, and

The Union of the Pierre J
Triest Reception Centre Worke

Saskatchewan public workers
hold out for wage increases

By GORDON MASSIE

REGINA — The strike of
12,000 government employees,
members of the Saskatchewan
Government Employees Associa-
tion, entered its second week in
good shape. Despite attempts by
management to encourage work-
ers to go through the picket lines,
the union reports the strike is over
99% solid.

To date the government has of-
fered only 7% increases in each
year of a two-year contract, well
below the inflation rate. SGEA
has reduced its demands from
26% to 18'2% in a one-year con-

tract. For the union these negotia-
ome represent a catch-up situ-
ation. The union points to wages
lost due to the wage-controls
period and ever spiralling inflation
which has put the SGEA workers’
wages behind those of workers in
the Crown corporations.

As the strike progressés ex-

pressions of support are continu-
ing to pour into the union office.

Labor bodies expressing their
PACIFIC TRIBUNE— DECEMBER 7, 1979—

support include the Canadian
Labor Congress, Canadian Union
of Public Employees and the Na-
tional Union of Provincial
Government Employees: Roy
Whyte, vice-president of the
NUPGE, speaking on behalf of
the Alberta section of the union,
stated at a press conference ‘‘that
the Alberta union has pledged its
full support for the SGEA, and all
that implies, including financial
aid if that becomes necessary.
NUPGE ppresident Bill
Jackson, pointing to the similarity
of the Saskatchewan Govern-
ment’s bargaining position to that
of the governments of other west-
em provinces in trying to main-
tain a situation of “‘wage control-
s’’ below the inflation rate, said he
saw documents in 1977 that
showed that the four western
provinces held meetings at the

ministerial level. Flowing from
this a western alliance within the
NUPGE was formed, and is giv-
ing the SGEA full support.
Brown, chief executive

officer of the SGEA, at a press
conference Nov. 22, issued a call
for a Day of Protest to all govern-
ment workers, to be held Nov. 29.
Brown also outlined discussions
with other union leaders. ‘‘In
talks with other unions,’’ Brown
said, *‘we will also be discussing a
provincial shutdown of Crown
corporations for that day.” ~

The Saskatchewan conference
of the Communist Party of Cana-
da, held in Regina Nov. 18,
unanimously passed a resolution
in support of the striking workers
and called on the government to
return to the bargaining table with
an offer acceptable to the union
and its membership.

TORPORATE PROFITS

WE CANT GIVE YOU A RAISE
175 /NFLATIONARY /

Quebec teachers reject PQ’s offer

MONTREAL — Officials of
the Centrale de l’Enseignement
du Québec (CEQ) are predicting
an overwhelming rejection of the
government’s latest contract offer
as ballots cast by Quebec’s
teachers are counted.

With more than half the votes
counted, the tally was running

more than 80% in favor of reject- -

ing the government’s offer, and
Officials were confident that the
final total would exceed 88% vot-
ing “‘no’’.

The CEQ vote follows a
settlement between Quebec’s
62,000 non-medical hospital
workers and the government
which will see the minimum wage
Page 8

for hospital workers reach $252 a
week by the end of the three-year
contract. The hospital workers
were able to win an acceptable
settlement only after defying
government legislation. which
deemed any strike “‘illegal’’. To

‘date, 26 locals of the hospital

workers’ union and Norbert Rod-
rigue, president of the Confedera-
tion of National Trade unions,
have been charged with violating
the government edict by going on
strike.

Both wages and working condi-
tions are seen as major factors in
the apparent CEQ rejection of the
government offer. The 200 page
government proposal, which was

given to the teachers only after
the. legislation was passed, will
see those teachers with the most
seniority lose approximately 10%
in earning power over the three-
year life of the contract. However
the main objections to the prop-
osal lie in changes which would
weaken job security by making
senior teachers available for
transfer, and lack of action in re-
ducing class sizes.

In addition to the CEQ, which
represents most of Quebec’s
teachers as well as sizeable sec-
tions of the teaching staff at the
CEGEPs (junior colleges), both
the Provincial Association of Pro-
testant Teachers and sections of

the CNTU are also voting ©
contract offer, with the Prote
teachers urging a strong
vote and the CNTU witho
any recommendation.
One of the things w
most angered the teach
fact that Quebec’s finance ®
ter Jacques Parizeau, W
taining prior to the action }
hospital workers that th
simply no money to
wage demands, announce
mediately following the
ment that while it would ¢-
government an additio
million to pay for the ©
neither taxes nor bo
would increase. :