ULLAL Tb TT

OTTAWA — Postal workers
emerged from their union’s 16th
triennial convention, April 11,
united to battle for a consumer
and worker-oriented postal sys-
tem and dedicated to the struc-
tural changes in union organiza-
tion at Canada Post, needed to
carry the fight forward.

The centrepiece of the week-
long convention of the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers was the
unanimous adoption of a National
Program of Organization, which
authorizes the Union leadership
to move as much as $3-million
from the CUPW strike fund to
budget an organizational drive
aimed at both bringing unor-
ganized postal workers into the
union (such as the recently or-
ganized cleaners in Toronto), as
well as encouraging mergers with
other unions at Canada Post.

The organization drive takes
place just as the Canada Labor
Relations Board is conducting a

units at the Post Office. CUPW is
moving in'to encourage a volun-
tary restructuring of union rep-
resentation rather than having to
submit to the CLRB’s arbitrary
recommendations when they
emerge.

review of the existing bargaining ~~tants Association hasn’t gone this

postal workers’ wages, conditions the members of both unions and
and rights. under the umbrella of the Cana-
‘The growing threat of deregu- dian Labor Congress.”
lation and privatization, and the The CUPW officers’ report also
intensification of attacks by the focussed on the need to meet the
employer on the rights and real challenge of rapidly developing
wages of all Post Office workers technology, with the demand for
demand a re-organization of the shorter working hours with no
union structure within Canada loss in pay and a program of job
Post so as to increase our collec- creation through expanded postal
tive strength ...’” he told the de-- services.
legates. CUPW’s leadership called on
“The time for greater unity is the union to place more emphasis,
now.” : ‘ton the need to mobilize politi-
The first union to respond, so cally to elect pro-worker govern-
far, has been the union of Postal ments,’’ Political action, the re-
Communication Employees, cur- port stressed must not be re-
rently an affiliate to the Public stricted just to election times,
Service Alliance of Canada. On particularly when the Tories are
the closing day of the CUPW_ pushing for free trade with its dis-
convention the UPCE leadership astrous implications for Canadian
informed CUPW that its national independence and massive job
executive had unanimously ag- loss and the widespread under-
reed to set up amerger committee mining of education and social
to discuss unity with the CUPW. services through federal cuts in
Another postal union, the transfer payments ‘to the
Canadian Postmaster and Assis- provinces.
‘‘Our allies are not found in the
far, but is said to be discussing the corporate board rooms’’, Parrot
pros and cons of merger with told the convention. “‘Our allies
CUPW within its local branches. are to be found throughout the
In an interview with the ranks of working people, be they
Tribune, Parrot said there were poor, elderly, organized, or unor-
no immediate prospects of merger ganized, employed or unem-
talks with the Letter Carriers ployed. Together it is our com-

participating in the labor
ment by addressing the ?
issues affecting our mem
peace and other issues, a5
the bargaining issues.
‘‘T made it clear to the
tion right at the beginning
the delegates wanted to © J
the constitution to limit the?
dent’s ability to lead the uni f
that kind of a broader role}
they’d have to find 4
president.””

the acclamation of the top officers
arid Parrot’s overwhelming elec-
tion victory over challenger Cle-
ment Morel for the presidency.

‘*The election showed some
deep differences of opinion —
with the Montreal local, but not
the Quebec region — on how to
carry this job,’ Parrot said last
week.

“But the vote showed the con-
vention endorsed my position
that as a union we should be

In the officers’ report to the Union of Canada, roughly the mon struggle to build a more
same size as CUPW. But, he ad-

convention, CUPW president

democratic

Jean Claude Parrot stressed the ded, CUPW will ‘“‘continue to society.’

need for unity in the face of the create close ties and co-operation
government-business attack on with (LCUC) in the interests of looking policy was reaffirmed in

and egalitarian

CUPW’s militant and forward-

a:
Parrot ..

. “the time for unity is now”.

ee Z a

Deaths put daycare on public agenda

By KERRY McCUAIG

Time fades the details but they’re the
type of events not easily forgotten. A
neighbor's complaint sends acommunity
service worker to a suburban Toronto
home, she finds 40 children, most of
them infants, lying unattended in a
basement. Within a month another day-
care is closed and its owners charged
with failure to comply with provincial
standards. Under the law, daycare cen-
tres of five children or fewer do not need
a license; this one had 35, overseen only
by the two operators.

Then there are the individual cases —
the caregiver jailed for scalding an
eight-month-old baby; the teenager

charged with abuse of a toddler he baby- -

sat while its mother worked — the list
goes on until it reaches the 384 incidents
of children killed or injured since 1980
while in the care of informal babysitters.

The Bolton Tragedy

The most recent is what has become
known as the “‘Bolton tragedy’’, four
children under five who died in a fire
along with their 49-year-old babysitter.
An autopsy revealed a mixture of alco-
hol, anti-depressant and anti-obesity
drugs in the woman’s system at the time
of death.

The’events in Bolton were forecast by
the daycare movement and the statistics
which have been staring governments in
the face for the past 20 years. Over 60 per
cent of women with children under six
are in the workforce. In Ontario alone
this represents almost a half million chil-

- dren. Only 33,000 are cared for in gov-
ernment-approved childcare settings,
the remainder must rely on what has be-
come known as “‘underground’’ daycare

—unregulated, unsupervised and as Bol-
ton demonstrates — unsafe.

The inquest into the Bolton blaze
didn’t come forward with any ground-
breaking recommendations. It suggested
that the full cost of daycare be tax deduc-
table; that the province provide more
formal daycare spaces in the region; that
it distribute pamphlets on home daycare
services with safety tips and provide free
home fire inspections.

Underground Childcare

The coroner’s jury did affirm however
the large numbers of children in informal
child care settings and placed the respon-
sibility for remedying the situation
squarely on the government.

The jury did not mention the babysit-
ter’s alcohol consumption in its findings.
This is significant, according to an article
in the Ontario Coalition for Better Day-
care newsletter (OCBD): “‘five years ago,
a large portion of the blame would have
been placed on the shoulders of Mrs.
Bulpit; and the rest on the parents of the
children for placing them in insecure.
situations’.

The parents involved had few options,
there are only two community daycare
centres in the region to serve a popula-
tion of 28,000. Licenced home-care pro-
vides 710 spaces, but there is a waiting
list of 626 names.

The shortage of licensed spaces forces
parents into the underground network.
But there is also the cost factor. Private
daycare averages $60 a week, a daycare
centre costs $100.

While not discounting that parents can
make suitable private arrangements, a
study done by the OCBD found that 80
per cent of parents with children in in-

formal settings were dissatisfied with the
level of care provided.

It is an indictment of this system that a
sizable body count must come in before
governments are moved to act. But even
then it is painfully slow.

Katie Cooke Report Released

The Katie Cooke Task Force, com-
missioned by the federal government re-
leased its 400-page report on March 7
stating that a ‘child care system for Can-
ada should be as comprehensive and as
universally accessible as medicare and
public education’’. Cooke rejected
commercial (profit) centres and informal
care, instead calling for an expanded
non-profit system funded by federal and
provincial governments. The report calls
for immediate federal grants to non-profit
centres to stabilize the system and allow
wages for childcare workers to rise. It
contained exactly what the daycare
movement has been demanding all along.

The one flaw in the report, which may
be the only one the Mulroney govern-
ment decides to act on, recommends that
in order to meet short-term need, Cana-
dian Assistance Fund (CAP) financing be
made available to commercial centres in
the nine provinces which currently do
not permit this. Only Ontario and the
North West Territories allow CAP fund-
ing (federal transfer payments for wel-
fare) to be used to subsidize spaces in
commercial centres.

Daycare activists have objected to the
use of welfare funds as the financial basis
for daycare, maintaining that a direct
funding mechanism outside of CAP must
be found. Welfare demands that a means
test be applied to users.

Yet in a current review of Ontario day-
care policy now in progress by the Minis-

try of Community and Social Serv™

set on utilizing CAP to access more f
eral dollars. It has hinted that it would
willing to loosen up the criteria for
sidies to allow more parents to qu
but it must be noted that this will
useful if the province plans to ©
more provincial funding to daycare
Ottawa’s Responsibility
While not absolving the provincial
municipal levels of responsibil
implementation of the Cooke repo!’
mains in Ottawa’s hands. In fact, frig
ened off by the: previews of the Tr
the Mulroney government move
dampen its impact by announcing 2**
cial Parliamentary Committee on
care. It was introduced with an ackn@
edgement by health minister Jake
that it was unlikely the federal g°
ment would be prepared to in¢
childcare funding. Ba
But that’s not the message it’s °
receiving since it hit the road in @
April. During three days of hearing®
Vancouver and Victoria it was pres®
with 160 briefs, the majority info
the Tories they were expected to P™
leading role in providing none
affordable and accessible childcare
ities. 4
As Kim Zander, co-ordinator f"
Vancouver Unemployed Action C&
told them, ‘‘the dollars are always
able for a task force such as this ©
dollars are available to pay for an é
Unemployment Insurance investig4
and dollars are always available tO b
megaprojects that leave us with ,
debt — the dollars can-be made av#!
to provide the essential service &
care for all Canadians”’. ;

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 23, 1986