i
F

Government

an
Postal —
employees —

on collision »
course

Postal workers picket Toronto’s main post office during last summer’s strike.

HEY say that one of the
main reasons members of
Parliament run so hard for

re-election is that they dread be-
coming ordinary citizens and
being forced to live under the
Jaws they pass. :

Aside from whatever truth
there is in that, there is a pat-
tern of anti-democratic and anti-
labor legislation emerging from
the government benches that is
making it impossible for anyone
to Jive under.

-Hard on the heels of the
double-deal handed out to the
railway - workers, the govern-
ment is stage managing another
crisis which will loom large this
fall and winter. This time they
intend to use this crisis to re-
nege on their promise to allow
postal workers to organize, bar-
gain and to strike. $

On Get. 1, Canada’s postal
workers are to begin formal ne-
gotiations with the government.
The Canadian Union of Postal
workers, whose 11,000 members
make up the majority of the in-
side workers — sorters, hand-
lers, clerks — have already ad-
yanced its main economic de-
mands,

These demands centre around
a flat $1 an hour wage increase
with an extra 16 cents for hand-
lers. The union is also proposing
some classification changes and
other improvements. Mail hand-
lers now receive $1.81 to $2.15
an hour and postal clerks’ wages
range from $2 to $2.51.

In the context of the cost of
living and the substandard con-
ditions under which the postal
workers are forced to labor, the
demands advanced by the union
are quite in line with Canadian
standards.

The government, through

words and deeds, has made it
quite clear that it will see the
workers in hell before the de-
mands are met.

Speculation now is about a
postal strike’ sometime during
the Christmas period. The
CUPW has already circulated a
strike ballot among its members,
and the Letter Carriers Union is
moving in that direction.

Thus the collision course is
set.

There are several elements in
this impending crisis which give
it a significance beyond the
eventual disposition of the de-
mands of the postal workers.
During the period in which the
negotiations between the postal
workers and the government
will be taking place, Bill C-170,
an act which is to regulate em-
ployer-employee relations in the
federal civil service, will come
before Parliament for adoption.

Bill C-170 is a lengthy and
complicated piece of legislation.
It has 116 clauses which in total
appear to eliminate any bona-
fide trade union organization
among government employees.
This legislation has already
passed first reading and is at
present in committee.

With this bill in the works
the government is setting the
stage for a one-two punch to the
postal workers.

First comes the kick in the
teeth: “the postal workers’ de-
mands are inflationary and
threaten to undermine the eco-
nomic and social fibre of the
country and the whole western
world.” —

Then the right double-cross:
“We have a little bit of legisla-
tion here in our back pocket

_ which will avert a postal strike

which is against the national in-
terest. We will give the workers
the right to organize into un-
ions of their choice, providing
they are meaningless and impo-
tent. We will grant the workers
the right to strike providing
they don’t try to.”

While Bill C-170 directly af-
fects about 200,000 federal gov-
ernment employees, it has broad
implications to the labor move-

‘ment as a whole, in as much as

it reflects this reactionary gov-
ernment’s thinking and policy in
relation to the whole skein of
labor relations in Canada.

CR sania oe a cS
By RAE MURPHY

(Ata eo es RRR

_ The bill claims to provide a
series of bargaining steps which
could. lead eventually to a legal
‘strike should negotiations break
down. Yet its Section 63 pro-
vides for arbitration proceedings

if any of the negotiating parties «

so request. Therefore any move
toward a strike could be short-
circuited by the government re-

questing arbitration. So much

for the right to strike.

- The bill creates a Public Ser-
vice Staff Relations Board with’
extremely broad and remarkable
powers. This board not only in-
terprets the rules and enforcer
them but also seems to have
the power to make the rules up
as it goes along. For example,
one clause empowers the board
to: “Receive and accept such
evidence and information on

oath, affidavit or otherwise as in.

its discretion it sees fit, whether
admissible in a court of law or
not, without limiting the genera-

the sham bargaining it 4

‘jong-range political and § ‘
demands — first and for®

lity of the foregoing. The board
may refuse to accept any eVh
dence that-is not presented 10
the form and as of the time pre
scribed.” :

The board also is to havé |
power to make regulations Te
specting the rights and privy
leges that are acquired by the —
union whenever there is a mer
ger or an amalgamation, which —
in effect gives the board the —
right to dictate the constitution
of the unions involved.

Section 35 of the bill enables”
the board to examine the [
cords of any union it deals with,
investigate the election practices
and “the representative chara® —
ter of the officials of that organt
zation.”

The makeup of this proposed
board is also a slap in the ‘face
to the workers. The board is 10
be made up of representatives in
equal numbers of the interests
of the employer and employees 1

|

yet nobody can be appointed 10
the board “if he holds any offic?
or employment under the ems)
ployer or if he is a member ©
or holds an office or employment
under an employee organization
that is a bargaining agent”
Bill C-170 is chock fulll af |
catches like that. Even withil —
lows —
there are many areas that a
excluded. Section 86, subsection
3, reads: “No report of a CON
ciliation board shall contain any
recommendation concerning ©
standards, procedures, OF pro \
ses governing the appointmen?
appraisal, promotion, demotion |
transfer, ‘lay-off, or release Ney
employees.” ‘a }
Other clauses in Bill C-170 i ‘|
to perpetuate the second ©
citizenship of federal employee”
Article 39 prohibits the Ct |.
cation of any union which © é
tributes financially to any P° its
tical party. Thus, in effect -
makes participation in any P A
tical action illegal for-organ™
workers in the civil servic®

The reactionary implicati™
of this bill are almost end
There appears to be a joke!
every one of its tangled ®
complicated clauses. If such

Wy
piece of legislation becomes ote
it wil give any union-bus”

More

-government a field day. “- |)
over, ‘with such a law on il
statute books the pressure 1
mount from employers oun
the government to havé us
hamstringing legislation oe
ened. Thus the clear threat |
the whole labor movement
: i
There is still time to stone
government in its tracks ee
prevent Bill C-170 from be
ing law. But it will take @
campaign by the ~
movement and informed EO
eratic opinion in our county: d
vital component of this ae
paign entails full support {08 ao
postal workers in theit ©) iy

mic demands as well a§ nc

sive

mo

trade union with unfel

rights to bargain and defen”

a

the demand to establish verte
ihe

|
interests of the workers. Ze,