Rally set stalling on post ~ to protest pact SS ; icati i il truck at Vancouver's main post office. The Memb f Union of Postal Communications Employees stand in front of mai in. Brana Sean Aug. 24th when Canada Post refused to budge on the issue of reduced hours for technicians. UPCE Van- Couver spokesman Janet Routledge says the union is asking the public to boycott the mails. Picket lines have gone up at the main post 'ce by striking clerical and technical Motkers. The ‘Tribune is honouring the Picket line. he result is that the Aug. 24 and Aug. 31 €s have not been mailed to our subscrib- 8. Once a settlement is negotiated, we will Mail all back issues to subscribers. Sse the meantime, for those in the Van- the 3s area who wish to get their copy of Tibune close to publishing day, we are Providing additional copies at the People’s ion” Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive ext 4ncouver. For out-of-town subscribers, ~ ta Copies have been sent to local press Tectors. N Shoutd the strike not be settled by our eDe’'7 Issue, we will be co-ordinating a cent tO-door delivery system in the major tres around the province. issy lran - Iraq ceasefire raises new problems — page 5 ——- a Co-ops engender major debate in USSR — page 6 August 31, 1988 50S Vol. 51, No. 32 A mass rally in front of Treasury Board president Pat Carney’s consti- tuency office on Howe Street in Van- couver has been set for Friday to bring home the message that postal workers want justice as the week-old national strike by members of the Union of Pos- tal Communication Employees (UPRCE) continues. The rally, set for noon, is part of a picket line “escalation” that was also to involve a “picket line party” Wednesday evening at the main Vancouver post office. As far as the union knows, no scabs have yet been brought in to do the jobs of 7,000 clerical and technical workers on the line over the issue of a reduced work week for the technicians, who service Canada Post’s mail sorting machines. UPCE picket lines across the country represent the third strike at Canada Post in 15 months, and the first for the union, a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which has represented post office employees for some two decades. At the Vancouver post office off-duty members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Letter Carriers Union of Canada have been joining the UPCE picket lines, as have other unions in an effort organized by the Vancouver and District Labour Council’s strike support committee. Members of the United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union, the Hospital Employees Union and the B.C. Teachers Federation are among those who have been bolstering the picket line. Televised reports Monday said the Victo- ria post office was threatening letter carriers and CUPW members with disciplinary action if they joined the picket lines. Under agreement the other two unions members continue working during the dis- pute. But unionized mail truck drivers. kept their vehicles at crawl speeds as, urged on by supervisors under the watchful eyes of security guards, they edged through picket lines at the Vancouver office Monday. The tactic is to slow the trucks down. Pickets placed themselves in front of vehi- cles entering and departing the terminal, slowing trucks for as long as 15 minutes. Specially hired agents guided traffic around the trucks and formed a buffer group between the vehicles and the pickets. The post office has also contracted a pri- vate security firm as was done in the pre- vious bitter LCUC and CUPW strikes. Picket captain Chuck Baker said the union believes there has been an increase in contracted couriers entering the terminal since the strike began. Several such vehicles crossed picket lines Monday. So far no scabs have been brought in, although some were believed hired through newspaper advertisements placed by a con- tracted agency in some cities, said UPCE spokesman Barbara Loveys. No such ads were placed in Vancouver at press time. Marion Pollock, president of Vancouv- er’s CUPW local, said postal sorting machines were continually breaking down and while small repairs have been per- formed by management, eventually the machines would break down completely. A backlog of mail is apparently piling up in postal terminals. A Vancouver picket reported that inside workers were saying the scene inside the block-long Vancouver ter- minal resembled the Christmas rush. Other news reports said many letters are being hand-sorted. Loveys charged that Canada Post is try- ing to play divide-and-conquer with postal communications union, whose members have two separate contracts negotiated jointly. She said the Crown corporation is See PICKET page 8 |