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- BUSINESS, Page 45Business NotesSTRIKESCatfight In Canada
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- Besieged by inflation, recession and unemployment as well as
- his pit-level approval rating (12%), Canadian Prime Minister Brian
- Mulroney is trying to regain ground by attacking "fat cat"
- government employees. Last week 110,000 members of the Public
- Service Alliance of Canada (who typically earn $450 a week)
- countered a Mulroney pay freeze, which wiped out their promised
- raise, with a countrywide strike.
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- Shipping, airline flights and even auto manufacturing in
- some places were halted. An additional 46,000 PSAC employees
- deemed essential -- and barred from striking -- "worked to rule"
- in places like customs checkpoints, where backups ranged up to
- 12 hours. Mulroney's newest sally is a bill that Parliament
- debates this week. Besides a no-strike provision for PSAC
- employees, the hardball legislation would effectively ban
- collective bargaining for two years for workers in a far broader
- range of government-related jobs. While the battle rages, the
- Ottawa exchequer is saving $7 million a day in strikers'
- salaries.
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