| oe

rms race
cuts jobs
—Watkins

— page 1] —

Friday, February 18, 1983

Newsstand Ets
price
40c Vol. 45, No. 7

CALL IT SEPARATISM
IF YOU LIKE...
WE SEPARATE YOu FROM
20% OF YOUR PAY.

day.

mmenemenen

There was grumblings at post
Offices across the country Tues-
day over the second rate hike in
less than a year, and not just from
the customers.

_ The Vancouver Local of the
Canadian Union of Postal
Workers has called the six percen

Increase a ‘‘consumer rip-off”’
Which only benefits bulk mailers.

‘The only beneficiaries of the
Tate increases are major corpora-
tions. Large volume mailers will
receive special incentive rates and
special services, but the ordinary
citizen is facing longer line-ups at

oUR FAULT

A MESSAGE FOR YOU
- pROM THE.
CANADIAN, UNION |

oF POSTAL WORT

EVERT HOOGERS WITH LOCAL CUPW MEMBERS. .

the post office, less efficient servi-
cing of their mail, and now, ad-
ding insult to injury, a completely
unjustified rate increase,’’ local
CUPW president Evert Hoogers
said Monday.

Hoogers urged the public to
join the union in a “‘concerted
campaign’’ to force Canada Post
to expand its services.

Hoogers said Canada Post was
made a crown corporation in
response to demands for better
service. ‘‘But after more than a
year of expectation, we have seen

nothing but deterioration of ser-
vices. (Canada Post president
Michael Warren’s) public ut-
terances on this subject are simply
acover up for the real objective of
his administration — financial
self-sufficiency built on the backs
of ordinary Canadians.”’

The union charges that 1,000
wicket clerk positions are slated to
be eliminated and the service con-
tracted out to corner drugstores
“at minimum rates and at one-
quarter of the service.”’

On Tuesday the Vancouver
local held an information

: protesting decline in service to public.

demonstration at Postal station
“K”? urging members of the
public to protest the increase
which has almost doubled rates
from 17 cents to 32 cents, since
the postal corporation was
created in December, 1981.
CUPW is urging citizens to
write to postmaster-general An-
dre Ouellet at the Parliament

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Buildings, Ottawa, ‘‘demanding |

an explanation of postal services,
including wicket advance services
to justify the unfulfilled promises
made by Canada Post Corpora-
tion since it was established.”’

PQ gov't
slammed
for union

, busting Act |

Striking Quebec teachers and school support staff face |
“the most oppressive single piece of legislation against the }
trade union movement in recent history,’’ Larry Kuehn, |
president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said Wednes-

Kuehn told the Tribune
Wednesday that his organiza-
tion is prepared to continue its
support for the school |
employees, who at press time

| had just voted 65 percent to defy |
Bill 111, the latest strike- |
breaking legislation from the |
} Parti Quebecois government.

That legislation, tabled in the |
National Assembly Tuesday |
after the 73,000 teachers and
17,000 non-teaching staff ig- |
nored a previous back-to-work |
order against the Common }
Front public sector workers, is }
among the worst ever used by |

| any government against public |
employees. :

Under it the government |
threatened to fire teachers who |
did not return to work by Thurs-
day, or ‘‘hindered”’ others from
doing so.

Those who ignore the legisla-
tion face fines double those
under the Quebec Labor Code, |
ranging from $50 to $100 per |
day for individuals and $2,000 |

/to $10,000 for union officials. |

For the union itself, fines of }

$50,000 per day may be levied.

Running roughshod over ex- |
isting contracts, the Act pro- |

vides for a loss of three years |
seniority each day a teacher
stays off work after Thursday,

and chops a day’s pay for each |

| day missed once teachers return |

to work, up to 20 percent of §

| regular salary.

A 20-percent rollback for t
| three months for all public sec- |

tor workers, increased hours for

| the same pay and the layoff of |

| 6,800 teachers in September

i were the main features of a |

} three-year settlement imposed
} by the government under Bill
} 105 when contract talks broke
| down last November. That Act
} made the PQ the author of the
j most draconian cutback legisla-
| tion ever to come froma provin-
}cial government determined to
jmake workers pay for an
| economic crisis, surpassing the

| See TEACHERS, page 12 4

GTO

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