PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1979, WHITBY FREE PRESS wwhib I I Voico of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, Pubsher- Mann ng Edtor The only Whltby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Published every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building. 131 Brock Street North. P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. H,'Ite, 8us~ness WOI!by Chari~ Jail Communlty Editor Production Manag Print & Promotiona Manager Classified Ad Advertising Manag MaihnqM Memtb Memble er Mayf Burge •Robin Lyon - carole Bertin er •Karen Thompsn P'rnri No 460 eo guard strike unnecess.ary Th or a trk y alg ardsi hty The four day strike by jail guards in Whitby and across the province has ended. Now that Is has, it is time to start asking some serlous questions. Was the strike worth It? The only answer must be no becatuse they are still not guaranteed to receive what they want and the presidènt of their union will go to jali for 35 days pendlng any ap- peal. What they wanted, a separate bargaining unit was not really worth striking for and could have been negotiated for during the next set of con- tract talks. The strike was not only not necessary but is a black mark on the trade union movement as a whole. Respect for the movement will surely decline because, the guards, at the instigation of their union leaders went on strike, contrary to the law, that everyone, whether an individual, a corporate or a union citizen must obey. The act of civil disobedience must be held for very grave Issues. Having broken the law, how can we expect these men to uphold the law in dealing with those who have broken the law? Surely, they are as bad as their charges. We are in no way, opposing the right to strike, however, most trade unionists came about that right within the bounds of the law. The right of strike, however, has become in- creasingly abused over the last ten years and must be considered a factor in our economic troubles. The guards did not strike to back demands for more money, better pensions or benefits or bet- ter working conditions. These are normally what a union will strike for and sometimes, but not always, with good reason. The guards do not appear'to have any good reason to back their demands for a separate bargaining unit by striking. Perhaps, it would be more beneficial for the guards and the gover- nment to negotiate as a separate unit. But that is not yet known. It must be concluded that the strike was futile, unnecessary and did not improve their relations with the government or improve their standing with the public.. They have broken the law, however wrong It may be, and in so doing have proven that they are t not worthy, to be prison guards, watching over S those-who have broken the law. We now have a situation where the gover- s nment employs law breakers to watch over law w breakers. c It is a ridiculous situation and only proves the f worthlessness of the situation. t a Rison blasts Tory energypolic Dear Sir: Weil, the crunch seems to be here. Years of mismanagement of our oil and other energy resources by the Liberals and row, six months of incom- petence by Conser- vatives are finally cat- ching up with us. Any observer, other than a fanatical con- servation "believer", must be appalled by the recent incon- sistencies in the per- formance of Joe Clark and his energy minister in relation to the matter of 011 supply. In anattempt to keep at least one election promise Clark and his poys have threatened o dismantle Petro Can, he one operation that seems to have some kind of grip on the oil ituation. By meddling Mith this instrument of ontrol, the Tories ailed to close contrac- s which would have ssured us of supplies f zi1 from Mexico and Venezuela. Next, with a stance of pompous posturing, Clark has stated we will not import any more oil from Iran. Meanwhile, his energy minister does not know whether or not we will receive oil from tankers, already on the high seas, which were sup- posed to come to Eastern Canada from Iran. Gulf Oil, which is the agent purchasing the oil from Iran, sud- dely has declared that it cannot guarantee that this oil will reach Canada. Probably Gulf will divet this oil to its parent company in the States Just as Imperial 011 attempted to do this time last year when supplies were tight. So it seems that we will probably be short of this oil. In the light of this doubtful supply, and showing a total lack of understanding of the situation, Clark an- nounced on Tuesday, December 4, 1979,dthat Canada would send ex- tra oil to the United States to help then out during the period of the Iranian crisis. On Thursday, December 6,1979, we heard from Clark that weaare running short of heating oil and sup- plies in the Eastern provinces are down 15 percent this year. If you can see any logic or consistency in the actions of Clark and his government, your name is probably Scott Fennell1 The problem, as I see it, lies In the fact that the government has no idea of what we have in terms of inventory or supply., This information is in the hands f the multi- national oil companies and they, as we well know, do not always, give us the real story. The National Energy Board, which is sup- posed to know these things, apparently gets its information from the oil companies. Hardly I would suggest, a reliable source. Perhaps we could feel complacent about this if we had not been "burned" once before. We ail remember that the oil companies told us in the early seven- ties that we had vast supplies of oil, totally adequate for our requirements for the foreseeable future. Consequently, our government allowed the oil companies to export million of barrels ofm io to the States and make han- dsome profits for the companies. Meanwhile, more recently in Nova Scotia, where the oil shortage is expected to be most severe, we hear of a slight error in accounting by Irving Oil, the region's major importer of oil, which CONT'D ON PG. 5