Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 12, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Free August 1 i Days wifi Peg me 361 by is Natian newspapers Cdr paly limited 9499331 Equality a dirt rights Liberty Bonab Fol col Publ met John Dafoe editorial Page Murray Burt Himi the Post office settlement Many of shelf ultimate the canadians who buy Stamps and pay feel the inside postal workers got of e than they deserved in the settlement which ended their six week some of the postal workers feet they got too what is certain is that nothing that was achieved in the agreement justified the most to either Side of the Long interruption of postal the essence of collective bargaining is that neither Side should feel completely Happy with the final however painful the process this and however powerful the temptation to find More authoritarian solutions to labor problems in the Post collective bargaining remains the Best Way to Settle the differences Between the Post office and its the major issues in the dispute were settled before the strike the wage settlement which was agreed to had already been accepted by the government the issues which provoked the strike involved principle More than on the most significant the government gave to agreed to a clause which will through a Tion of unemployment insurance and for 1 weeks maternity leave at almost full the agreement sets a precedent which is certain to be invoked again in bargaining throughout the Federal Public service in the private it May As women rights organizations that this represents a worthwhile social but the Post which is already a heavy Burden on taxpaying workers who cannot claim the benefits postal workers was not the place to initiate another clause which May have sown the seeds of future trouble is one which gives workers the right to refuse dangerous no of should be exposed to danger at his workplace but such clauses tend to be used by irresponsible Union not to protect their members but to promote Wildcat the Post office contains an abundance of irresponsible Union time will Tell whether safeguards in the contract can prevent them from abusing that some onion leaders Are claiming if the government had agreed earlier to the contract which was ultimately there would have been no that is the Union refused to negotiate last june unless the government accepted in full the proposals of the conciliation Board chairman and then agreed to discuss even further Union the ultimate agreement represented some thing less than the chairman had that fact should be instructive to those who urge that the right to strike should be taken away from the postal workers and replaced by compulsory binding arbitration would not necessarily have prevented a strike but it might very Well have Given the postal workers More than they got through Hie 1 weeks of maternity after were recommended by an Independent the modified version which was finally accepted was proposed by an Independent it is entirely possible that an outside arbitrator would have come up with or even More at least the members of the Canadian Union of postal workers will be inspired to reflect on whether their gains from the strike were Worth the loss of cup Leader Jeanclaude Parrot is already trying to stir up new resentment among his members and to generate hostility against Michael Warren who will become president of the new Crown but the two year contract agreed to this week will give the new Post office management a year to get its feet wet before becoming involved in a new round of contract and it will give the members of cup time to consider whether perpetual constant confrontation and incessant strikes Are really the Best Way to pursue their Aims of better pay and working irresponsible controllers a courtly tree Cutter the Boycott of airspace by Canadian air traffic controllers has ended but it will be a Long time before the controllers Are forgiven by the thousands of passengers in Canada and abroad whose lives were briefly made a misery by the irresponsible it would be Nice to think that it was Only a selfless for the safety of passengers that led to the Boycott but the Canadian air traffic control association has a Long history of crying Wolf about safety for self serving if has Long since forfeited its More credible witnesses about the safety of skies were the pilots who were flying through them and Landing at they were not anxious to risk their own lives and those of their passengers in an unsafe while catch was reporting scores of incidents which no one else could they were saying the air was Safe and were continuing to the agreement with transport minister Jeanluc Pepin which has brought an end to the Boycott will permit a More objective assessment of the controllers claims of hazardous if the controllers have genuine concerns about the monitoring system provides a sensible Way of dealing with it is hard to avoid the that the air controllers action had very Little to do with safety and very to do with maintaining Solidarity with the out work controllers in the United the controllers Union in the launched a foolish and illegal strike and was the object of draconian retaliation on the part of president Ronald the striking controllers have been Dis they Are threatened with fines for refusing to end a strike which the government claims no longer exists and their Union is threatened with whatever the Justice or the usefulness of that sort of massive the problems of the air controllers Are the business of the United states and have to be settled in Ttye United the Canadian controllers had no business Embr oiling themselves in a foreign faced with firm action by they have now backed by doing they have avoided a Reagan esque solution in this a necessary deterrent the United states government has taken european Politi Cal leaders off the Hook by deciding to proceed with production of the Neutron president Reagan has resolved a political problem for the europeans that has dogged them since Jimmy Carter was in in he has made it possible for them to have their cake and eat it they will get the deterrent Power of a weapon that they feel they without having to convince their electorates to allow it to be stored on their own they can posture in Public about fears for upset arms negotiations while fervently thanking the Reagan adminis in for cutting the gordian the Neutron warhead is designed to be used on artillery shells and in Short Range Battlefield its purpose is to discourage the Warsaw pact from using its thre Toone preponderance in tanks to attack Western Europe through West opponents deplore it for being designed to kill people rather than destroying this is muddled the Neutron warhead is a tactical nuclear weapon it kills just As All nuclear warheads kill at ground everything and everyone would be destroyed by a Neutron just As they would in any nuclear warhead the difference is that Neutron warhead destruction occurs Over a Small area in a still limited a great burst of radiation passes through tanks and eventually killing human beings but inflicting minimal physical Neutron warheads do not do this As an expression of misplaced values of capitalism they do i because a Large area of irradiated rubble is As impassable for nato defenders As it is for soviet they provide a Stark deterrent to the soviets by eliminating the main value of tank armies the ability to project mass fire Power most european nato members agreed in 1977 to product and deployment on their of the Neutron their Deal with Jimmy Carter was that comply with the United states decision but would adopt a Low profile on what they saw As a potentially divisive Domestic when european Public opinion proved to be vocally and the soviets wept Crocodile tears about this capitalistic president Carter backed off he blamed european leaders for not doing what he had known beforehand that they could not do publicly bless the Neutron warhead and ask for it to be deployed on their he then ordered the weapon to be developed but not produced or Reagan has ordered that it be produced but held in the United this is a contradict for the Only Point of producing it is to deploy it in Central Europe to deter Warsaw pact it less of a contradiction than what Carter because the soviets now know that the Neutron warheads can be airlifted into Europe in Neutron like other tactical nuclear Are meant to be used Only if nato armies Are their use would constitute a dangerous escalation that could quickly Lead to a strategic nuclear the alternative is for european governments to accept the social and financial costs of employing huge standing As do the european leaders have rejected this there the Neutron or something will always be required to deter the russians from crushing Europe with a Surprise conventional a slightly stooped Wear ing a bottle Green suede walked slowly along Poplar Avenue in Boundary and stopped As we he enquired about the address of a cot Tager and we chatted for a he has an interesting classic Fea White Pale Blue eyes and the courtly air of a victorian his name is Charles he told me his Mission i promised id Cut Down some remarkable Cosman is a remarkable i divid he appears weighs 120 is five feet seven inches and walks with a Limp As a result of Chipping his Pelvic Bone when he slipped on the ice running to a store six years he is 89 and at this Ripe old cuts Trees with a Buck saw or a swede i observed him at his work on one perched on the tight second last rung of an eight foot it was an awkward spot to saw the 15foot trunk of an Ash tree that had splintered in a he had to Wield the swede saw above his but he Perse never give he Cosman cuts Trees for cottagers at no his Reward is his exercise and the he Cut it into four foot and then again in three sections for his Wood Hes the Best Cutter in the says his neighbor Frank Rit less than half his there is a warm relationship Between the Ritchie and the Ritchie family has been living on the same site on Prospect Street since cos mans cottage has been next door since i lived in his House As a says now he lives in my he keeps an Eye on a sometimes i get a bit says it May be 85 to 90 and Hes sawing and sawing All Day Cosman has worked hard All his and is known to Many Winnipeg Gers for he ran a furniture store on Carlton opposite the free now operated by his Val Werier Cosman was born in a Village in Romania where his father was a Mer chant and had Timber rights in the nearby it was Charles initial love affair with he split Spruce and Cedar into he emigrated to Canada in 1912 and found work in immigrants got the toughest jobs at the lowest he Laboured in a steel 60 hours a at 15 cents an hour at Back breaking dipping Long lengths of Angle Iron into Black he moved to Winnipeg a year worked for the car loading scrap Metal by then he got a Job at Camps Sheet Metal Plant soldering cans four cents a for half pints six a Hundred pints eight a Hundred it was exploitation he cleared about for a 60hour with horse and he tried then he got on at the car Transcona shops for a 14hour counting time to and from i was a Hustler he i wiped the dumped started the engine fire and went out for a test ride with the furniture store it was in 1916 that he went into partnership in a secondhand furniture in a three Storey wooden at 328 Carlton rented from the free press at a two years later he bought out his in the meantime he married his sweetheart Meta and began to Competition was he would scan the secondhand ads in the morning paper and Knock at doors As Early As 2 then he would lug the furniture to the and he recalls one Day in 1920 when he swung a 65ppund Rocker Over his head and carried it More than two Miles from a Home on Strathcona in the Depths of the in he bought the building across the Street and started Selling new As Well As secondhand without secondhand he you run a at one time All furniture stores took Trade sometimes he made More in Trade ins than in new a woman in Holland purchased a Walnut dining set in and turned the six chairs in on a new Purchase 25 years the big profit was on the Walnut chairs All furniture sold was crated and Cosman took great Pride in that he had no Peers in this he knew his Woods Well Cher Rock Maho Gany and love affair he retired in 1973 and a couple of years at the age of renewed his love affair with at Boundary Park he is available to anyone who wants to Cut a tree that is diseased or too close to the he leaves to the professionals Trees where ropes Are required to Lead them away from Over head wires or it demands skill to fell a tree so that it drops without damage to nearby Cosman carefully exam Ines the Trees and saws at an Angle to make it come Down in the there is no raucous noise of a Power just the muted rhythm of his swede i really have no says except on my but i have Strong heart i can Cut All Day without drawing a Long his children respect and Admire his spirit and Independence of Alberta of Winnipeg a nurse in Victoria Herbert of Ottawa a Gen Star executive in Cosman says it has been a Good for he has already Cut about 20 a doctor told him on his latest examination you have the blood pressure of a Young keep on whatever you Are those who know the courtly tree Cutter at Boundary Hope he will be around for a Long says Ritchie admiringly he can take a tree and drop it within an Inch of his its an concerned pilots i would like to comment on the statement by Carl representing the Canadian air traffic control association catch in the augusts edition of the free his opinion that pilots Are More with their salaries than air safety is not Only but does Little for the already strained relationship that exists tween at and i cannot help but remember the Many occasions that air safety was compromised during the at work slowdowns of past it seems to me hat there was Little concern for the safety of the Public during those Peri i believe those slowdowns had something to do with t does not take much of an aviation expert to see hat the Success or failure of the american controllers strike will affect our own controllers1 i do not represent my company or my Canadian airline pilots Assoc a culpa when i thank god the people who do represent these organizations have More class than Fisher when making Public it is to believe that a professional organization such As catch could have a spokesman who makes such ignorant contrary to your opinion of us we Are concerned with air safety More so it appears than your in the unlikely event of a major pilots passengers have a lot More to lose than if and when american airspace does become j am sure we will quit flying through until i Hope the con trollers do their Job As competently As As leave the flying Sharpe professional Pilot Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to commercial pilots Are on sided i would like to Point out the Lack of credibility in the guerrillas kill five on free july the article stated according to an army leftist guerrillas in Al Salvador opened fire on a Busload of the left in Al Salvador is largely made up of it seems unlikely that the left would randomly open fire on the army is at War with the left and would obviously attempt to discredit it in any Way the article shows that either the free press is biased in favor of the Al salvadorian or that it has Little concern about the reliability of its sources of Jennifer Steele Winnipeg not i am a postal worker and i resent being compared to a Hairdresser Mickres free August before i was hired a year i underwent two hours of written 15 minutes of Finger dexterity tests through a computer and a one Andone personal interview staffing i was not surprised later to meet coworkers who were University students in accountancy and not to mention those who had previously held very responsible jobs training was not easy it required a great Deal of concentration and it took me three months to reach the requirement of coding letters per hour at 99per cent colleagues in the Winni Peg City floor had no coding but were required to memorize approximately Points of delivery City we postal clerks do not work in three piece High heeled manicured or air conditioned dust is our constant companion and working conditions could vary from very hot to very col some phases of our Job May require heavy pushing of carts and most of just the exposure to mechanized sorting machines notwithstanding the noise we have to Cope with makes a postal clerk by instinct More after i have been through As a pasta Al cleric i feel i deserve the wages i receive now Winnipeg i sickos i am shocked with the judgment handed Down by judge mime a in the Charles Heathman this Man is a convicted and still practising sex offender of Small in less than two years this monster will be walking the streets again and the next child he picks on May be yours or i think the time has Long passed when these sickos should be let Loose again and again to Hurt our put them and put them away fore Garrett Winnipeg child molester i work with children from age four and As soon As they enter the Nursery we stress we have programs concerned with the safety of a Safe environment is a place where children Are free from but How Safe Are our children when a child molester such As Charles Heath Man cannot be punished because of a technicality our Laws Are based on com non but i do not see the sense of letting a child molester Back on the streets in a few surely the court system can Stop this Roan from further hurting one of our Little Betty Mcgugan Winnipeg no pavilions Fol Lorama 81 is an outstanding Suc As usual the entertainment and hospitality at the various pavilions is i have one question for the directors Why Are no pavilions located in Elm East North Kildonan and Transcona Over people reside in the Northend quadrant of surely something could be done to rectify this Russell Doern la for Elmwood Winnipeg whats a hunger strike i ;