ion | a |

_ CANADA

Continued from page 1

The tentative pact struck last
weekend under mediator Bill
_ Kelly contains none of the con-
cessions sought by the Crown
corporation in its drive to cut
jobs and services.
Eliminated in the agreement
“are any cutbacks in lunch and
break times for letter carriers,
Meaning the letter carriers
fought off the attempt to
impose a “straight through”
work shift — a key element in
the post office’s plan to cut jobs.
Gone too is a Canada Post
demand that workers use their
Own vehicles on the job.
Earlier in negotiations Can-
ada Post dropped a demand
that starting workers be per-
manently paid less than current
corporation employees.
Instead, the starting rate will
be frozen at $13.25 an hour. The
gradual rise in salary to the top
rate will take place over five
years, instead of the current two
years for new employees. Wages
in the 31-month agreement will
rise by three per cent on Aug. |
and three per cent one year
later. There will be no retroac-
tive increase to cover the seven-
month old expiry period.
Andrus said the Letter Carri-
ers Union retained its job pro-
tection clauses, meaning no

— acrucial victory, considering

Canada Post’s drive to cut 8,700

jobs by the end of the decade.
Letter carriers fired for “picket

contracting-out and no layoffs :

Jobs secure
in post pact

line activities” — the number is
somewhere around 100 — will
be reinstated and handed sus-
pensions, which the union can
grieve.

Canada Post for its part won
increased use of casual labour,
allowing casuals to be called in
for absences of more than five
days, replacing the former 20-
day limit.

But statements by Canada
Post officials made it clear the
corporation will continue its
drive to wring more concessions
from its employees.

Canada Post negotiator Har-
old Dustan said that while the
new contract may only margi-
nally increase the number of
“points of call” per route, the
corporation. will press its objec-
tive of an increase of 30 points
of call in future negotiations.

Canada Post spokesmen say
the corporation remains com-
mitted to eliminating its operat-
ing deficit by March of next
year.

Andrus expressed the hope
that by the time the current
agreement expires, the Conser-
vative government of Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney —
which suffered badly in an opin-
ion poll where more than 50 per
cent of the respondents held
Ottawa accountable for the
dispute — will be voted out of
office-and a new plan for Can-
ada Post will be introduced.

Andrus called the tentative
pact “a clear victory for the let-
ter carriers.”

‘Time to break
chains’, Erasmus says

Continued from page 1

from here.’ The. opinion of the
vast majority was the time for
compromise was over it was
time to assert Aboriginal rights
even if it meant direct confronta-
tion with Canadian authorities.

“Those who are in control must
change, or those who are chained
will say this is enough and break
the chains themselves,’’ Erasmus
charged in his emotional address.
Other Indian leaders such as
Miles Richardson of the Haida na-
tion and Konrad Sioui, regional
Quebec chief echoed the need for
action.

The fallout from the First
Ministers’ Conference and the
denial of Aboriginal participation
in the Meech Lake accord gave
the Assembly an air of bitterness
but not of helplessness. Delegate
after delegate took to the floor to
denounce the role of the Mul-
roney government in Aboriginal
negotiations and its dangerous
trend of passing on Aboriginal
jurisdictions to the provincial
governments.

The Assembly noted how the
federal government was attempt-
ing to shove Native self-govern-
ment off the table in Canada by
cutting off all constitutional fund-
ing. The end of funding has al-
ready meant the demise of the
Inuit Committee on National Is-
sues offices in Ottawa while the

promise, is over.

Native Council (representing
‘non-status’ Indians) and the
Métis Council have had to slash
their staffs. The AFN was unani-
mous..in.its _determination...to
stand up to the Canadian gov-
ernment’s intention of ‘starving’
Native organizations out of exis-
tence.

Joe Mathias, representing the

~ AIDS comment catches Devine

GEORGE ERASMUS (in Vancouver, 1981) ... the time for com-

Squamish of B.C., captured the
mood of the Assembly in an im-
passioned speech that brought the
delegates to their feet.

‘*We must find out what we can ~
do to block a bridge, to stop a
train, to block a road. Freedom
fighters is the word we must
brainwash our children with.”

A comment about AIDS and the Na-
tive community in Saskatchewan has
Premier Grant Devine in hot water. Dur-
_ ing a recent meeting of cabinet ministers
with women’s group representatives, the
premier blurted out at one point that ‘‘if
AIDS ever gets into the Native com-
munity, it will be hell on wheels.”

Aboriginal leaders have called the
statement an indication of racist thinking
in the leadership of Saskatchewan's Tory
party. Cumberland’s NDP MLA Keith
Goulet, a long-time activist in the Native
struggles, has led demands for an apol-
ogy from the premier, with no success
yet. :

During a heated exchange with NDP
leader Alan Blakeney in the Legislature
June 25, Devine refused to deny the
comment, or to apologize, but con-
tinuously claimed he was referring to “all
age groups and categories and demo-
graphic people,’ (sic). ae

Goulet helped kick off last winter s
brief legislature session with a devas-
tating attack on racism in Saskatchewan,
which he says has intensified under the
Tories since 1982.

Speaking first in Cree, then in English,
Goulet hammered home fact after fact:
while Native northerners had over 50 per
Cent of the jobs at the Key Lake uranium
mine, the figure has since dropped to 20
Per cent today; northern fishermen and
trappers face government harassment

From Regina
simi tamal

Kimball Cariou

and restrictions; valuable lands are
clear-cut without compensation; the To-
ries subsidize the cost of transporting li-
quor to the North, but have removed
transportation subsidies for food, mak-
ing it far more expensive than in the
south: the people of Sandy Bay, who did
most of the back-breaking labour build-
ing the Island Falls dam many years ago,
had to wait 30 years before their com-
munity got electricity — even though the
hydro project was only two miles away.

During question period June 25, Gou-
let returned to another theme raised in
the last session, the question of constitu-
tional rights for aboriginal peoples. “*Will
the premier explain,” he asked, ‘‘why he
accepted the principle of distinct society
in the case of Quebec, and did not accept
the principle of self-government as put
forth by the Indian, Métis, and the
Inuit?” :

Devine replied by placing the blame
for the situation on aboriginal peoples
themselves. If their organizations had
had a united position in 1985, their

constitutional rights would have been
enshrined then, he said.

What he avoided answering was why
he refused to support the principle in
1987, when unity of the aboriginal or-
ganizations was much stronger. The
Premier also indicated that he was ‘“‘in-
clined not to have public hearings’’ on
constitutional rights for Aboriginal peo-
ples “‘because we can debate it here”’ in
the Legislature.

Goulet pressed Devine further on the
results of the Meech Lake accord, point-
ing out that it involves a clear shift in
power from the federal to the provincial
governments. “‘Many people, especially
treaty Indian people,”’ said Goulet, ‘‘are
concerned that with increased provincial
powers the bilateral treaty-making pro-

cess will be jeopardized. Will the premier '

honour the existing rights of treaty
Indians?”

Devine replied that ‘‘I would in all re-
spects say, of course I will honour the
rights.”’ But the rest of his answer was
vague: ‘*... under the constitution, if we

have exclusive rights, then by definition
they’re our rights, and if somebody is
going to spend in our area, they have to
come out and talk to us about that.”’ The
Premier appears unwilling to make a
commitment to live up to the full letter
and spirit of obligations to treaty Indians
if the province’s jursidiction and powers
are expanded. :

The direction the Tories would like to
go came out clearly during the same
question period and in the media in re-
cent days. Major cutbacks to Native-
oriented social programs and to or-
ganizations such as the Métis Associa-
tion have been a prominent feature of the
new Tory budget.

Devine stuck to an earlier statement
that his government is spending ‘‘a mil-
lion dollars a day on Native people,”’ but
was unable to provide figures to prove
his claim. The province’s grant to the
Métis Association (AMNSIS) was elim-
inated entirely, with a smaller amount of
money instead being allocated for funds
for Native small businesses, in an effort
to weaken the united voice of the Métis
people while simultaneously encourag-
ing ‘Native capitalism.”

Clearly, the Devine government’s
consistent racism will be near the top of
the political agenda both inside and out-
side the Legislature as mass opposition
to the Tories continues to grow.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 8, 1987 e 3