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Grace Hartman is president of
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees, Canada’s largest
trade union. She is also a member
of the executive council of the
Canadian Labor Congress, which

includes more than 70 percent of.
. the organized workers in Canada.

Speaking to a recent labor rally

in Ottawa she said she could

“almost hear the thunder of j4ck-
boots” in the federal government’s
handling of the postal dispute.

Hartman warned the rally that
workers’ rights to free collective
bargaining, and in some cases, the
right to strike, are systematically
being taken away from public
employees.

The fact that Hartman spoke in
Ottawa, where the head offices of
the Canadian Labor Congress are
located, is a direct criticism of the
role of Dennis McDermott,
president of the CLC, and Ed
Broadbent, leader of the New
Democratic Party, in pressuring
the postal workers to end their
strike. Because Hartman is a
member of the executive council of
the CLC, it would appear there is
division over this issue in top
circles of the labor movement.

The nine-day strike of 23,000
inside postal workers was un-
dermined by the fact that the CLC
did not speak out in support of the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
This encouraged the federal
government to proceed with its

strikebreaking legislation, along.

with the threat that workers who
did not-return to their jobs at the
designated time would be
dismissed. Then there were RCMP
raids on key union offices.
According to published reports,
Broadbent and McDermott held
four or five secret meetings with
Parrot and on two or three oc-
casions Parrott walked out,

because he was unhappy with the
proposed conditions for a return te
work. On the day before the strike
ended, Broadbent, working with
the leadership of the CLC and with
the concurrence of the party
executive, madea deal with Andre
Ouellet, Trudeau’s acting minister
of labor. Then, he contacted
CUPW’s executive and pressured
them to accept the deal.

If the leaders of the CLC and the
NDP had come out solidly behind
the postal workers in good time,

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

the strike could have been won.
Instead, the workers were

legislated back to work with only

two minor concessions. First, the

mediator-arbitrator (who will have °

the ultimate say on revising the
collective agreement) will be
joined by two assistants, one from
the union and one from the em-
ployer. Second,there is a vague
commitment from the acting labor

~ minister “that none of the existing

rights and benefits which the union
already has will be negated.”’

In the meantime, criminal
charges have been laid against
Jean-Claude Parrot and four other
top leaders of the union. Charges

have also been laid against scores :
of active union members in a:
number of cities. As the Tribune.
reported last week, 31 CUPW'
members in Vancouver have been‘

charged with violating the back-to-
work law.
On the day following the return

to work, the five top officers of the.

‘of the act.”

union appeared before Justice C.F.
O'Leary of the Ontario Supreme
Court, in Ottawa, and agreed to use
“their best endeavors to ensure all
members and officers of the said
union obey the laws of Canada and
the orders of the courts in
Canada...” This was a condition of
their release pending trial.

Union president Jean-Claude
Parrot also had to issue publicly a
court-dictated declaration as a
condition of release pending trial.
That statement said ‘“... any
declarations, authorizations or
directions to go on_ strike
previously declared, authorized or
given to you have become invalid
by reason of the coming into force
This violates the
concept that a man facing
criminal charges is considered
innocent until found guilty.

The mediator-arbitrator ap-
pointed under the back-to-work law
nan make binding awards on
disputed contract clauses not
settled through mediation. While
the government claims that the
key issue is money, the union
maintains that the main issues are
technological change and the use of
casual labor. The back-to-work
legislation lays down that the
workers must stay on the, job until
December 31, 1979.
~What the workers can expect as
a result of this strikebreaking
legislation is dramatically
illustrated in Vancouver. Lloyd
Ingram, Vancouver local
president, faces’ charges for
contravening the back-to-work

Gov't encouraged by CLC inaction |

work:

As the final moves were being
made in Ottawa to smash the
strike, the B.C. Federation of
Labor held a conference of its
affiliates and mapped out a six-

point action program. The key

legislation. Job steward Brian, decision was for a campaign to

Nelson, along with Chris Brummitt
and Brian Johnson, have been
indefinitely suspended. This means
that their only hope of rein-
Statement is through the lengthy
time-consuming grievance
procedure.

compel the federal government to
withdraw the strikebreaking
legislation and then enter into
serious negotiations with the union.

Another decision called for the co--
ordination of public and trade —

union support of the postal workers

Charges

Continued from page 1

conference of affiliated unions only
hours before CUPW national
president Jean-Claude Parrot told
his members to return to work,
called for the establishment of a
strike co-ordinating committee, a
defence fund, a public and trade
union support campaign and the
demand for the repeal of the
strikebreaking legislation among
other points.

Although the return to work
obviated much of the need for the

“support program, Ingram said that

he was pleased with the
Federation’s continued stand on
the issue which will be outlined in
various reports and resolutions to

PRESS STRIKE

Continued from page 1

The Newspaper Guild has sought
to have the present bargaining unit
maintained for the duration of any
new agreement.

Significantly, wages and other
economic issues have not yet been
discussed in negotiations between
Pacific Press and the press
council.

With the Sun and the Province,
Vancouver’s two daily
newspapers, off the stands, Pacific
Press employees intend to produce
their own newspaper, the first
edition of which is expected to
appear Friday morning.

‘rhe Express, as it will be called,
is to appear three mornings a
week, Monday, Wednesday and
Friday, for the duration of the
strike-lockout. 3

hang over postal workers

the upcoming Fed convention
slated to open in Vancouver Nov.
20.

CUPW president Jean-Claude
Parrot is scheduled to address the
convention Nov. 21.

The Federation has also en-
dorsed a public rally which the
Vancouver local _ is organizing for
Nov. 17. The location has not yet
been named but speakers are
expected to call for support of free
collective bargaining for public
service employees including the
right to strike and the withdrawal
of all charges against CUPW
members. a

The charges against the union,
particularly those laid under the
strikebreaking legislation, the Post
Office Continuation Act, have done
much to deepen the bitterness of
postal workers since their return to
work last Wednesday night.

In addition to criminal charges
lodged by the federal government
against Parrot and other national
leaders, charges of taking part in
an illegal strike in contravention of
the strikebreaking legislation have
been laid against Ingram and 30
other Vancouver CUPW members.

Significantly, the 31 Vancouver
unionists were the only CUPW
members charged specifically
under the Post Office Continuation
Act although so far, only three

people, Ingram among them, have

actually been summonsed.

The Vancouver CUPW president,
who was ordered to appear in court:
Nov. 15, said that th union has
approached the federal” depart-
ment of justice to inquire as to
whether more summonses will be

issued and the case pursued but

_has had no reply.

According to the post office, the
justice department has put a
“hold’’ of further summonses but
has made no indication that they
will be dropped.

“T think they’re going to continue
to hang them over our heads,”
Ingram said, adding that the
laying of the charges was largely
attributable to the militance of the
Vancouver local and the support
given it by the B.C. labor
movement.

The punitive approach of the
federal government has also been
reflected in the actions of post
office management in Vancouver
who moved swiftly following the
return to work to suspend three
unionists and have already
provoked more than 250
grievances.

Chris Brummit, Brian Johnson
and Brian Nelson, all local shop
stewards, were suspended in-
definitely, allegedly because of
their actions on the picket line
during the strike.

Other returning members found
AWOL written in red across their
time cards — adding general insult
to the hundreds of grievances
which stewards were forced to
lodge in the week following the
resumption of work.

Ingram said that supervisors
had reportedly been instructed to
make the return to work as smooth
as possible but that order ‘was
ignored by the Vancouver post
office.”

One of the grievances which the
local has already sent to Ottawa
for action is that involving the

Suspension of the three stewards..

“It’s up to the national office now
to press for adjudication.” 2

In the meantime, however,
Brummer, Johnson and Nelson
have been put on Vancouver
_CUPW staff, an action which the
CUPW executive expected would
be overwhelmingly endorsed at a
membership meeting set for
Wednesday night.

A number of executive
resolutions, including that
Proposal as well as _ the
arrangements for the public rally
Nov. 17 were slated to go before the
meeting as CUPW emphasizes the
need for a continued campaign

against federal government
restriction of public sector
workers.

“As we said before, collective’

bargaining for public service
employees is on the line,” Ingram
said, ‘‘and the whole labor
movement has to respond.” __

-JEAN-CLAUDE PARROT .. . pressured to accept CUPW return to.

a

to help them achieve a decent
settlement. *

If the CLC and NDP leadership
had taken such a principled course
of action, the government might
never have introduced its
strikebreaking bill. If the govern-
ment had proceeded despite such
action, strong support for the
strikers would have created an
unfavorable political climate for
the enforcement of the unjust law. —

The labor movement in this
province has a long and militent
record of opposition to unjust
legislation. Without such defiance”
in B-C. (for example, opposition to
the Socred Mediation Commission
Act) and similar defiance across”
the country, organized labor would
never have won the right to
organize in unions, free collective
bargaining and the right to strike.

The trade union movement
should. demand the dropping of all
charges against officers and
members of the Canadian Union of
Postal Workers. It should also
condemn the federal government
for its strikebreaking and mobilize
to defend the right of public em-
ployees to engage in free collective
bargaining.

The top leaders of the CLC and |
the NDP~should be sharply -
criticized for their actions which
objectively helped the federal
government to smash the postal
strike, thus endangering collective
bargaining rights for all- public
employees, and for all workers:

The lessons of the postal strike
should be brought home to every —
local union, to every labor council
and to this month’s convention of
the B.C. Federation of Labor.

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