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Friday, January 19, 1968
A POST OFFICE
TRIBUNAL
THE Government and the Amalgamated Postal
Workers' Union, like two bulls with their horns
locked, appear committed to mutually unprofitable,
demeaning and escalating combat. Caught in between,
the country is condemned to an intolerable situation.
Birthday greetings and letters from home will be missed
but can be done without. Not so the business orders, the
.cheques, the bills essential to commercial life. Even
•medical supplies have been blocked by the refusal of
.,APWU drivers to carry the mailbags. Perhaps volunteer
-and casual labour can keep some part of the postal
'.service functioning but the only satisfactory solution
• is an early return to work.
The union's latest demands are an extension of
- previous terms. Even if they might have provided the
^basis for compromise, the provocative tone of the pre
amble to the resolution of the Federal executive of the
APWU on Wednesday must have immediately
discounted this hope. If the union truly wants to sec
the Postmaster-General, Mr Hulme, removed from his
„j>ost, it should have reflected that so intemperate an
^attack upon him was his best possible job insurance.
-*-Jn the light of the union's attitude the Government is
Rightly committed to getting the mail immobilised by the
^strike moving again by any practicable means.
Naive demand
The APWU now reiterates two of its original terms
■Wor a return to work, both conceded by the Government
3s long ago as last Friday — that the Sydney driver
liijvho was dismissed in a work-to-rules dispute be rein
stated and that an immediate conference be held on
,.„the question of a $6 wage increase for drivers. An
"--additional condition is that the Public Service Board
submit an offer before the conference ends and, if it
proves unsatisfactory to the union, another conference
^chaired by the President of the Conciliation and Arbitra
tion Commission be called. If this fails a direct con
frontation with the Prime Minister is sought. In effect
,;'the APWU is asking for a surrender on its main claim
bijyefore it will begin to discuss subsidiary issues such as
Ti<'a five-day week for postal employees. Such a naive set
•°Jx>f demands casts doubt on the resources of states
manship available to the APWU leadership.
The Government cannot escape a share of the
blame, even though its present tough attitude, aimed
at getting the mails moving, is correct. A large measure
of the present shambles is attributable to the incongruous
•iv'fact that about 100,000 employees of the PMG's
'•^-"Department, few of them conforming to the normal
-■i-canons of the Public Service, are forced to take their
..wage demands to the Public Service Board or to the
,'.',';"PubIic Service Arbitrator. The board is their employer,
; and probably no more disposed to take an objective look
?—at their claims, at least some of which have merit, than
many other employers. The arbitrator has more than
enough work, of an entirely different nature, on his plate.
Hitherto the Government has failed to recognise
this basic flaw. Senator Gorton's receptiveness to a
suggestion, made at his press conference on Wednesday,
about an investigation into the "malaise" within the
PMG's Department, suggests it might be on the point
of doing so. Had the Government's eyes been opened
years ago it might have avoided the present showdown.
A special tribunal
" As things stand now the APWU executive has all
but painted itself into a corner by imposing unaccept
able conditions and rallying workers, including mail
sorters and railwaymen, to defend them. It seems the
{ Government's only hope of breaking this impasse is to
• take some new initiative. The strike-breaking tactics it
$ias adopted offer no more than a short-term solution.
:|The most constructive policy might be to offer, as a
<quid pro quo for an early resumption of work, a
•prompt study of the problems facing the department
fend a thorough revamping of the wages machinery.
p A solution on the lines of the special tribunal set
,^-aip to handle disputes between flight crews and airlines
f^ast year might suit the postal situation. Introducing
'^legislation for the tribunal, the Minister for Labour and
i&National Service, Mr Bury, remarked that "industrial
-rproblems concerning flight crews are unique ... all
" r:'the effort put into establishing lasting and effective non
statutory machinery to govern the industrial relations
of pilots has proved unavailing". Within the Public
-Service structure the postal employees are sufficiently
(exceptional to justify special treatment; to continue
operating the present system is to store the seeds of
future conflict.
$