The Cadre,0ct.23,'1'9'75, page a ' .

Buck “' Page

Previous wages for maintenance workers : - $4700 - $ 8300 Administration's last offer : $6260 - $ 9860 Union's last offer (excluding Friday's): $7300 - $10900 N.B. Both the administration's and the union's lastﬁofL fers are for the period July 1, 1975 to July 1, 1976. The last contract ran from January 1, 1974 to July 1, 1975

Salaries of equivalent provincial civil servants as of March 1, 1974: $5,900 base pay and as of Oct. 1, 1975: $6,500 and after March 1, 1976: $7,200 at minimum

Salaries of professors at U.P.E.I: $11,500 — $29,000 N.B. In all cases, salaries tend toward the lower end of the scale although this is somewhat less true for profs than the other groups.

Total number of workers in I.B.E.W. local 1432: 45 Total number of workers under contract \ : 63

Total wages earned by workers at U.P.E.l. and Civil Ser— vants for the period March 1, 1974 to March 1, 1976. The figures below are base wages.

U.P.E.I. workers (Union offer): $11,350

U.P.E.I. workers (Admin offer): $10,150

Provincial Civil Servants

: $12,100

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Jul 1 : previous - and first - contract between IBEW local 1432 and expires.

Fri Sep 19: talks between union and university begin.

Sun Sep 28: Student Council votes to support workers in_ any action they may take.

Fri Oct 3 : University nakes new offer of 75¢ per hour over the contract's term. This am ounts to an increase of 4.9¢. '

Fri. Oct. 10: Workers vote 100%.to strike. Date unnamed to be decided ab a meeting set for Oct.17.

Fri Oct 17: Workers vote to. s tr ike immed iat ely; Baker leaves town; Faculty Assoc—

UPEI,

iation votes to support.both

Enter One Strike—No More Apathy ' ' .,

It is perhaps worth— while to compare the events of the past week with those‘ of the now forgotten senate elections and General Meet— ing of the week before.

For weeks before those events we heard student union execs, the radio stat— ion, The Cadre promoting them in a tone which a— mounted almost to rant— ing. Posters were spread everywhere; lectures were 'given in almost every manner possible. How many turned out? Two hundred ninety for the election

. and fifty for th meeting. ‘

Immediately afterwards the execs and others be— came highly disillusioned with the student. population, Apathy is rampant at U.P.E.I. Nothing can be done to change that;they're all hopeless.

And yet just one week later, the students turned out for a referendum voting in greater numbers than ever

Inot ‘ ing around the student

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before and for a series of four meetings-each one was larger than any pre— ' vious meeting.

Obviously, it is not true that students are so erratic that they one minute ignore something and the next are willing to shut the university down. The average student does

tend to regardghang—

union offices and looking busy doing such things as organizing a drunk .., searching for a fridge ... backbiting ...as I suff—v icient vital activitks to be worth the headaches in- volved. Perhaps s/he's right. Obviously I don't agree or you wouldn‘t be reading this but there is at least something to be said for an attitude like that. Certainly it is more fun to go to a Pig

& Whistle than to find

a band for one.

Perhaps more impor— tant though,is that the average student realizes that s/he is having an effect upon the most important things in‘ life,what s/he is / doing here and what s/he will do afterwards,and that further s/he has little or no say in how s/he will not have effect,If that sounds a little confusing,what it 4 means is that s/he has little or no power in the decision making process.'Woozy1 Mac- Donald ,not to suggest that he is a power monger, decides which band will play, and s/he p ays admission.

For the first time in our“

lives we are doing something that will have a significant

impact upon the world we live in.Students realize this, at least unconsciously, and so come out in greater numbers than ever before. They understand the jus— tice and their cause and also understand that to support a worker in trying to earn a living viege

".5 05} were.

importance than the two or three markswhich (may ) be lost. I

At least as important it is the fact that, once again,for the first tﬂme decisions are being made collectively rather than being handed down from the exective.Even if the execs.would rather that the students as a whole make decisions,the stru- ctures within which they must work dictate that they make the decisions rather than the general student. body. ,-

During this strike action, all decisions were made cole: .lectively.Whether made at general meetings or at or in a referendum,students are decided directly,what, when,why,and how we

would support this action."

‘ This type of decision' making is one which ' enables all students to participate. Possibly if the student union attempted to find ways to iniated

“it on a grander;scale,

then we find far less 'ap— athy' on this campus.Un- less a person knows that s/he is having a significant

cit-Futon the world as a whole

and is givenga say in the decision making process, then s/he will continue

_to be apathetic. Could it ever be otherwise?

Chronhlogy‘

.ssion takes place, 200

\boycotting classes, raising

'shut down the campus for two

,the wage demands of the wax

kers and the strike action. Sun Oct 19: Student Council votes to have a referendum Wednesday on the question of what nature its Support sho- uld take to be preceeded by two study sessionsion Monday and Tuesday on the question. Mon Oct 20: First study se-. Stu- dents, some faculty, some workers attend. Little gets done. Agroup of about 35 A leave to attempt to form a referendum committee. I Tue Oct 21: Second,study

'session takes place student

vote on items to be placed a on the referendum; Union me~‘ eting held with two students in attendance. A split deve~ lops between internation a1 IBEW rep Meldey LeBlanc and the workers. The former wis- hes students to hold off for< a week’or ten days, the lat— ter for them to strike imme- diately. _ .

Wed Oct 22: Referendum held with the highest turnout ev— er. Students vote 2-1‘to support the union's action by shutting down the campua

money for a strike fund, etq S20. holds referendum meet— img~with over three hundred students in attendance to decide how to implement the recomméndations and vote to

days and to hold a mass ral— ly Sunday to decide further action. ‘ ' 1 Thu Oct 23: University shun (almost) down; about two hundred students (all wor- kers on picket line; a soup kitchen is organized for the picketers; only aboutp10% of classes are held with atten- dance of about 10%; Pig"N' Whistle cancelled; S.U. or— ganiZes benefit concert. - Fri Oct 24: Students again man pickets with workers; classes again almost stop; Faculty Association votes $1000 for strike fund; Baka interrupts his trip to re— 1 turn to campus; workers and ’university return to bar— gaining table with two stu- dents, Rick Huyck and Morrﬁj Rogerson,~acting as mediat' ors at which the union off“? a new figure (not revealed%, 'Sun 0ct.26 ' "' ‘4 ‘ Students hold meeting in Duffy at 6P.M. ' 327 students vote,:strike- To be Continued with in— creased organization;t dance in Barn,proceedings go to support striking Maintenance_wbrkers. Bomb scare in Duffy. I 4 Baker seesaw;