A; , ’ ._. ' The Cadre,March l6,l976,page 3

, Sufppor’t Staff‘Dye'serVer as Much Respectxas the Rest. of Us

Within its short history-

as a nation, Canada.has exp- _

erienced an inordinate amo- unt of labour unrest and ou— tright violence, much of it' in the public sector. This unrest has been most serious in such vital areas as, rail and postal services, educat- ion, transportation, medic- ine, and police and fire pr- otection. 'In 1974 about one out of every 10,000 Canadian workers was involved in a work stoppage, and only It- aly surpassed Canada in num-- bers of per capita man hours lost to strikes. .This is surely an unenviable record, aside from having-traumatic: effects on an already tenu— ous Canadian economy.

Many members of government and representative of the business and administrative segments of the population tend to lay the blame for this situation at the doors- tep of the worker, especia- lly the unionized worker. A share of the responsibility can be placed there, but in doing so one must question the reasons for this unrele— nting unrest. Most people will attribute it to general

greed. The more an employee gets in both wages and bene4 fits, the more he wants. This attitude is reflected r in the recent wage-price le- gislation, which is so vigo- rously opposed hy organized labohr. It is crucial for

' one to look beyond this @90-

.simplistic explanation for the answer: Wh f are work- ers generaliy_so discontent and why does productivity continue to decline while la— bour costs-increase?

‘The answer, this writer believes, can be found in the alienated relationship which exists between workers

and management in the public-

sector. Employees who are .potentially conscientious

and highly motivated receive little or no encouragement or reward, while incompetents often rise to the top of the bureaucracies and public in- stitutions. ,Along with this incompetence goes an almost invariable insensitivity to

-the aspirations, abilities

and general working environ— ment of those "below". Any innovations or the questio- ning of judgements are rar— ely taken seriously by those

Mail’s Our Bag continued

the Spanish Inquistition and Hitler's Germany. Surely the IVCF is not advocating a re- turn to anything ressembling any of these.

A As for Marion McGaughey,‘ I will not be too hard on her as she is a woman. I no— tice, though, that she took, exception to my violent at- titude. As she does not know me, how can she know that I am violent? This is obvious- ly a typically overemotional and irrational woman. She says that apparently I can- not understand the concept of love. I love atheism but, contrary to her expectations, I would not bore the campus with the truths oi atheism. Atheism. Atheism may be a religion but I Would not de— grade it by cheap advertis- ing. I love it tob much.

'In conclusion, I must say that these trite letters k have been amusing. I can on— ly say that I look forward to somewhat more rational replies in the future.

Yours in Love, Ponchy P.

Get Fatts Straight.

_Dear Sir: - In the Guardian on Monday March8, there was a repert I 0f a Student Union meeting oPposing tuitition and resi-

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dence fee increases.

In the report, Mr. Gerald MacDonald, president of the Student Union, is quoted as saying, "It is disturbing to the students of U.P.E.I. the increases were announced to the press before they were approved by_the Board of Gov— ernors and before the stud- ents directly affected by . the increases were informed." In fact, no such decision has been made, and no such deci— sion has been released to In the Guardian _ of MarchZ and March 3, there are stories of interviews with me in which I said,

"I am unhappy that we will. almost certainly have to in— crease the residence fees" and in which I "expressed pe— ssimism about the prospect for keeping tuition fees at their present level," I thought that was in fact warning the students of pos— sibilities rather than refu-

sing to inform them. Moreover, on_March 3, the

Association of Atlantic Uni— versities issued a press st— atement which said among ot- her things that "the univer— sities had been reconciled to increasing room and board since food and services have gone up dramatically. They now reluctantly face the pr— ospect of increasing tuition

‘

|pect.

‘in authority, while breaches

of tradition are ofttn sus— Jhis has a‘decidely demoralizing effect on those

yho try tofdortheirjjob in .a competent manner.‘ As a'

result_they tend to say, "What the hell" and do as :L~ little as possible. while

’"Eetting-back" at the empl—

oyer or authority figure in the only manner they can, that is, at the bargaining table. ._ Consequently‘bargaining situations have become adve- rsarial contests instead of forums for mutual discussion and exchange of ideas on an equal basis. rest and employee disgrunt-. ulement are to be averted, a 'just wage is a necessary ,

but not sufficient condition.

'The attitudes of both part— ies must change. Employers

have to learn to acknowledge.

the potential of their own abilities and responsibili— ties. If these attitudes prevailed,nnrale would be higher and this would resu- lt in greater productivity. ,Many grievances could be 'averted through effective

'fees."

I sympathize with the co-

ncern about fees. I would suggest, however, that the Student Union get its facts straight.

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If labOur un‘ ‘ :ision-making bodies.

;tenance worker strike. .support staff are people too, [and deserve more considerat- -.ion.

delivery to any residence 50¢ ' guaranteed hot icod pizza, lasagne submarines and sandwiches

labour—management committ— ees,-as they have been in other countries such as Sweden and Japan.'

Ifi the university envir- onment it is necessary , and would be beneficial, if the support staff had some input into the decisions which so vitally affect them. This contribution, if not numer- ically-equal, would be on an equal social basis as those of other segments of the un- iversity community (adminis- tration, faculty, students). At the present time there is no representation of support staff on any university_dec- Other- segments tend to forget that

‘ the support staff exists un-

less they are conspicuous by their absence, as was the case during the recent main- Qur

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