Labour

Firings mark vote on postal contract

Two union activists were fired by Can- = " * e, TT Brennan said the expansion of the
ada Post while striking technicians in the ‘ bail bef injunction application means the union
* Union of Postal Communications Employ- a = ~] has been effective in slowing the mails, as it
ees were voting on new contract offer from ster ' R So did when pickets converged on the main

post office in Surrey Sept. 9. A decision on
the injunction was expected at 10 a.m.
Wednesday.
Canada Post spokesman Janet Austin
refused to confirm the two employees
dismissals or the reasons, saying that the
corporation only acknowledges that
“some disciplinary action has been taken
against some employees.”
At a support rally outside the main
Vancouver post office on Sunday, Martyn
Hare, president of the Vancouver local of
the Letter Carriers Union of Canada, said
three truck drivers were suspended “‘for
not driving fast enough through yout
(UPCE’s) picket lines.” One suspended
employee was called back after five days,

the Crown corporation.

Regina Brennan, director of the union’s
pacific region, and local UPCE president
Pierre Gleeson, were fired for unspecified
reasons.

Brennan, a full-time employee in public
relations at Canada Post, predicted a close au
vote by the 1,200 striking technicians PALLIANCE =
whom she said were not happy with the 7)
corporation’s response to demands for a CANADA fost
reduced work week. The results were to be TE : : are
known Wednesday. :
a All 5,800 members of UPCE, a compo-
& nent of the Public Service Alliance of Can-
ada, went on strike across the country
Aug. 24. The clerical section of UPCE
: returned to work last week after narrowly

r AUABY PUBLIC SERVICE
oN ALLIANCE

TRI

ee

accepting Canada Post’s last offer.

in the afternoon.

Brennan said she and Gleeson were
verbally informed of their dismissals while
on the picket line at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Their firings were later confirmed, again
verbally, when union and Canada Post
representatives arrived at a court hearing

The corporation is seeking an injunc-
tion limiting pickets at all Canada Post
outlets to five pickets — three at truck
entrances, and two at pedestrian entran-
ces, Brennan said.

| cal B
UPCE members at unity rally Sunday.

Initially the injunction sought to limit
pickets at Canada Post’s Air Mail Facility
at Vancouver International Airport,
where a flying picket squad held up prior-
ity post shipments on Sept. 8.

while the other two are on indefinite sus
pension, Hare said.
Brennan said she and Gleeson weft
likely fired for picket line activities, which
included standing in front of vehicles
entering and leaving the Vancouver post
office and the picket at Surrey and the
Vancouver airport. ;
—

Solidarnosc invited

By MIKE PHILLIPS
Those doubting the Polish government’s
sincerity in seeking a national consensus for
tackling the country’s substantial economic
problems had to take a second look Aug. 31

when none other than Solidarnosc. head ~

Lech Walesa was invited to the bargaining
table.

While standing firm on its refusal to
grant legal status to Walesa’s organization,
the government has said there is a place for
him and other non-communist forces in the
round of negotiations it is planning later this
month on Poland’s future.

The only condition the Jaruzelski
government laid down was an immediate
end to the strikes which began Aug. 16 and
at their peak involved up to 100,000
workers in about 20 enterprises.

The dramatic move exposed divisions in
Solidarnose’s ranks as Walesa faced stiff
opposition from those insisting that he
shouldn’t meet with the government unless
it granted the dissident group legal
recognition — its key strike demand. Soli-
darnosc was outlawed in December 1981.

In fact, it took him three days to talk
shipyard workers in Gdansk and coal min-
ers in Jastrzebie to go back to their jobs.
After his first meeting with the government
Aug. 31 Walesa appealed to strikers in the
10 remaining enterprises to return to work
so that the government’s planned round-
table discussions on political and economic
reform could move ahead.

Government spokesperson Jerzy Urban
had indicated that the ending of the strike
action would signal the beginning of the
talks which some have suggested will be
historic.

forces in the country.

It would be a mistake to assume the
government is negotiating with Walesa and
company from a position of weakness.
After all, more than seven million Poles in
more than 27,000 enterprises belong to
trade unions. Some 23,000 enterprise-based
unions (85 per cent,) belong to the All-
Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ).

That labour central emerged to unite the
independent and self-governing union
bodies created in the wake of Poland’s new
trade union law in 1982. Many former Soli-
darnosc activists and supporters eventually
joined its ranks.

The OPZZ is one of the government’s
toughest critics, but it has input into the
country’s decision making process through
its representation in the Sjem, Poland’s par-
liament.

In the Sjem and directly with the
government, OPZZ and its president Alfred
Miodowicz have taken issue with what they
consider an erroneous policy on prices and
incomes, and have sought a more rational
taxation system.

The labour body was a key factor in the
government’s decision to thoroughly over-
haul the economic reform package that was
rejected last November in a country-wide
referendum. It had also consistently warned
the government of growing discontent
among the workers and increased social
tension over the deteriorating economy and
glaring income disparities.

Of 169 original proposals, 85 were
revised due to public pressure and parlia-
mentary criticism, 20 new points were
added and six were discarded altogether.

to bargaining table ©

high technology into the economy, is now
entering its second phase and running into
problems. ;

At its central committee meeting Aug.
27-28, Polish United Workers Party
(PUWP) delegates focussed on the prob-
lems of bureaucratic interference with the
reforms at the plant level, which they said
was stifling initiative.

The economic malaise has created prob-
lems such as a severe housing shortage —
which hits hardest young people and young
families — resulting in legitimate grievan-
ces that the political parties, the unions and
the government recognize. Hence the call,
primarily from the PUWP, for a council of
national accord involving anyone who sup-
ports the Polish constitution and is willing
to participate in solving the country’s prob-
lems.

This inevitably raises the issue of. how to
address these problems. On the one hand,
the government proposes a unitary process
involving all of the willing social and
national forces. On the other there are those
who have little more to offer the reform
process than paralysing strike action by
numerically small but strategically placed
workers.

The government estimates that it was los-
ing $3.1 million in coal production for every
day the mines were on strike. The country
earns much of its foreign hard currency
from coal sales, so. many Poles fail to see
how strike action in the industry will further
the workers’ long-term interests.

Significantly, except for the demand for
legalization, Solidarnosc isn’t advancing

any economic demands that havé
already been projected by the OPZZ.

In fact Solidarnosc is a political m0)
ment and as such has been disqualified ff
legally registering its locals as unions.
trade union laws ban organizations wh!
statutes run against the Polish constitul!
or other laws of the land, especially if
oppose social ownership of the means
production, fail to recognize the PUW
leading role as defined in the constitul
and infringe on the country’s system
alliances.

Neither Walesa nor Solidarnosc hé
ever kept their political aims and inte
tional connections hidden, despite the
that Walesa isn’t as expansive in his p
for Ronald Reagan and Margaret That
as he once was.

By inviting Walesa into the national
sensus the government is giving Solidar?
a chance to demonstrate its willingnes>
put the country’s interests ahead of a p?
cal agenda tuned to Western liberal,
ultimately capitalist, designs. The gov,
ment’s attitude is realistic and constru
given Solidarnosc’s rather modest influ®
on the Polish labour movement.

Perhaps these latest efforts at concilial
and the government’s open attitude
cause Canadian labour leaders like
president Shirley Carr to set aside sl!
ments such as her recent compariso®
labour’s fight against fascism in Chile
Poland’s struggle over economic refor™
and instead, take a more penetrating.)
objective look at the new situation am!
new politics emerging there.

eee

Whether Solidarnosc representatives

- : : The unions were instrumental in seeing § aE
actually participate will depend entirely on diyten
nA do Sse ees ean ne that planned price hikes were moderated. g {=i / at 1 JINSE :
period. Walesa’s threats for more strike The government had wanted to increase § a
: >, food prices by 110 per cent, but these were § EEL IER LEELA LALLA LL LY
action Sept. 7 to enforce the group’s k 40 f ak ith
demand foe lecalrecamnition wontimpmess <0! 8. 40 pet cent alter consultations with: : § Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
the government. It has clearly stated that the unions. t Vancouver, B.C. V8K 125. Phone 251-1186
any resumption of-strike action by the ille- _.. Nevertheless, shortages and a sharp 1 “Name. .:..ccsscec-20csccenessceccrsssecccst nesses ent nws
gal organization will shut down the negotia- _increase in prices generally have aggravated i Wikdioss: (20 6-08 See, Sse nn ead SE eee Be
tions. an already precarious economic situation ee. ie ee p ES f c d sf
What will be tested in the period ahead _ for Poland and justified worker discontent. Seo ostal Code ......-..--- BEER, x d
lamenclosing 1yr.$2010 2yrs. $350) 3yrs. $500 Foreign 1 yr. $32

~The country’s massive $48-billion foreign i
debt hangs heavily over the economy. The i
government’s current economic restructur- é
ing program, aimed at expanding the con- i
sumer goods sector and introducing more

will not be the government’s sincerity
toward the renewal process, but Solidar-
nosc’s. Poland’s economic problems are
real, and they can anly be solved with the
total co-operation of all national and social

READ THE PAPER THAT FIGHTS FOR LABOUR”

8 e Pacific Tribune, September 14, 1988