The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 34

Union Opposition to Postal Reform Started Walkout Evans-Novak nr-v on the President, and Rademaciier, the other union leaders are off the hook with their past record obscured. Lost in the shuffle, for example, is the fact that postal un.on leaders have long er.d unwisely opposed geo-graphical distinctions in pay a major grievance of hard-pressed New York City workers who began the walkout. The result is impasse. With an atmosphere of lawlessnscs pervading the country, there is strong sentiment in both the White House and Congress against capitulation to the postal workers, inviting illegal strikes by municipal workers nationwide. All this could have been prevented had the unions accepted postal reform, but that simple truth is lost la the chaos.

refjs.r.; to irrr.d-r to irr.pia-Ci'i.e union oppos.t.on. T.v- fact, admittf-i privately by realistic congressional lirr.ocrats, Is that there would be no postal crisis today and postal employes would have a more nearly decent wage ha.l the unions rot refu-ed to consider reform. TIIK RKVSO.V for this short-sighted opposition is found the unique nature of the unions. Because Congress itse.f determines postal pay, postal unions, do not engage collective bargaining, but in Capitol Hill lobbying. Their chiefs ar" not really Ubor leaders but highpriced Washington O'Brien's proposal for independent postal corporation would have ended all this, es iki of New York, mouthpiece of the postal un.or.s.

Although the bill called for cnly a 5 4 percent pay Increase, it contained a quietly agreed to by the White House virtually guaranteeing a much bigger boost effects July 1. But l.ke so many union chieftains today, Rademacher had lost his rank-and-file. Just as they were about to get their delayed pay increase, the letter carriers revolted in wildcat strikes and the crisis was born. IT IS A CRISIS for Rademacher as well as President Nixon and the U.S. Officials of other postal unions, having maintained their opposition to reform, bitterly resent Rade- Indeed, with the pressure WASHINGTON" A-tlvwsh.

Democratic me having a field cay blaming the postal crisis on President Njc-en's intransigence, the groundwork lor disaster was laid over tiie past three wars by the stubborn opposition ol postal union leaders to reform. Ever since President Postmaster Genera, Lawience F. OBri'-n, begin pushing basic postal reform in 1907, the union bosses have stubbornly resisted not only reform, but even gutle compromise out of fear it might undermine their power. Their adamant opposition was renewed when President Nixon's Postmaster General, Winton F. Blount, backed reform with en iron tenacity in tablishing wage procedures ending in compulsory arbitration.

Afraid of the unknown, the postal union leaders reflex-KeJy opposed reform with the backing of AFL-CIO George Meany. As the Nixon Administration took office in 1969, coincidental developments contributed to a turmoil in postal politics. The two major unions, the letter carriers and the clerks, had new leadership and their once warm relationship grew frigid. There was feuding inside the C.erks, with the new president and legislative director in conflict. The Senate Post Office Committee had a brand new chairman, Sen Gale McGee of Wyoming.

Most important was the nature of the new Postmaster General. Unlike O'Brien, Biount was no politician willing to bend, but a stiff-backed millionaire Alabama businessman appalled by inefficiency he found in the Post Off.ee Department. IT WAS BLOUNT'S vigorous recommendation last autumn that led to President Nixon's warning that the 11 per cent postal pay hike passed by the House would be etoed. Blount's implicit offer: Pass reform and you'll get your pay increase. Faced with this hardboiieJ ultimatum, President William Rademacher of the Letter Carriers broke the toiid union facade agajut reform.

A compromise pay-reform worked out by Rademacher, Biount, and Rep. Morris Udali of Arizona (foremost Democratic advocate of reform) finally cleared the House Post 01f.ee Committee on Feb. 12 to the amazed chagrin of Its chairman, Rep. Thaddeus Dul- Neat Act Staged In Asia By JOHN' ROCHE A Member of the Gannett Group John A. Sutter, Vice President and General Manager Norman R.

Baker, Vice President and Editor Donald E. Smith, Executive Editor Lewis R. Nichols, Managing Editor NYACK, N. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1970 34 Editorially Speaking And Congress Dallies 'What are you, some kind of Congress may have to dispense with its Easter recess in order to work out a solution to the postal crisis. But things arc tough all over and, if Congress must endure this deprivation, it's a small penalty indeed for the congressional obfuscation and procrastination that brought on the postal rebellion.

Apparently Congress takes no potential disasters seriously until they become actual which Is one large reason why they do. To take another for-lnstance: As this is written, a massive "sick-out" by air traffic controllers has been threatened for today, thus raising the prospect of near-paralysis of air traffic at major airports around the nation. Like the postal workers, the air controllers have legitimate grievances that they have leon fruitlessly pressing on the Federal Aviation Admipistration before and since the 1908 episode. They are asking more manpower, so that fatigued controllers won't have to work overtime so often, and they are asking better equipment with whioh to work. But Hie FAA tias brushed off the protests for years and so has Congress, which has both the ultimate authority and the appropriation power to deal with this problem, a-hosc roots are essentially economic.

Then, too, there's the prospect of a nation- Aide rail strike April 11 if Congress lets the present 37-day moratorium run out without providing for a settlement. There are still no sins that this long-playing dispute will be resolved through collective bargaining. This redundant nightmare of a national railroad strike results from the stubbornness Df one small union the sheet metal workers. The agreement they rejected was approved by their own leaders and by the leaders and the members of three other shopcraft unions included in the package plan. President Nixon has proposed that the settlement accepted by the three unions lie imposed by Congress on all four as a means of resolving the dispute.

This would not lie. compulsory arbitration not that there would be anything wro.ig with that route, except that its destination Is unpredictable. What Mr. Nixon has proposed is a settlement already ratified by an overwhelming majority of the railroad workers it would affect. Unless Congress can.

think up something better, it is going to be once more in an indefensible position if a clearly identified and timetabled railroad striks hits tills country next month because of congressional foot-drawing, default and dereliction. All in all, the present and prospective labor crises confronting the public command a far higher priority than the luxury of skipping off for the traditional Easter recess. COL Index Spurring Chaos Victor Riesel ASHINGTON My information is that recently President Nixon directed one of his aides to ask a government specialist to react to this column's charge that there re-rlly is no cost-of-living index and that constant reports of its skvrocketing are giving this nation the jitters, spreading hysteria among some five million workers who ill be bargaining for new contracts this year and spurring chaos nn the strike front. I have seen the correspondence dispatched to the White House. In effect, it says there should be an "empirical study." There certainly should.

Especially since the "COL" meaning cost of living is an artificial figure which really says little but will be the red hot, gung ho issue on the labor front from now on. IT MI ST FIRST be noted that this COL really Is the CPI Consumer Price Index. I Now iTs Official call it the consumer's appetite inc.ex. Everytime it goes Up a few tenths of a percentage point, wages go up a few pennies an hour in many industries bringing the hourly rated employes perhaps some 80 cents a week. But it does one more thing.

It whips up the rank and file and it creates such resentment that agreement after agreement made by labor leaders is rejected by the membership. Fact is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index is loaded with luxurious Items and insulated against the many facts of life in the outside World. Officially, according to Geoffrey Moore, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ihe CPI "represents prices paid by urban wage earners and clerical workers for the bundle of goods they purchased in the 1960-61 period when the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed their expenditures. With that as a base the index rises and fallsmostly rises, OKAY. But it must be added that this refers to what they buy and that does not mean they buy what they need.

Let no one give the impression that they buy only necessities or what is needed for modest comfort. The index indicates that this stratum of society lives very well indeed and the time has come for someone to point this out. The so-caEed cost-of-living index shows swift upsurging in Reading the news from Cambodia the student mobs burning the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong embassies, the "Victs go home" banners, the demand that Hanoi pull Its tioops out of Cambodia, the of Prince Sihanouk, the Cambodian chief of state one appreciates the stubborn, valiant nationalism of the mi Khmer state. Surrounded by traditional ethnic enemies, Cambodians have been counting on the American presence to keep them from being gobbled up. Since we seem to be Inertly watching the map of Laos turn Red, the Cambodians obviously decided to take a hand In the game.

The Khmer capacity for bold oction In defense of national interest should not be underestimated. In 1954 at the Geneva Conference on Indochina, the Cambodian delegate absolutely stone-walled the great powers. THE ISSUE WAS the establishment in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia of regrouping zones for the Communists and anti-Communists, a polite way of saying de facto partition of those states. The Cambodians flatly refused In any way to lepitimatize the claims of the "Khmer Route" (Hanoi's local branch), and the exasperated great power delegations yielded rather than prolong the debate. Now the Khmers have decided to sock it to the Communists again, and the operation has been neatly handled.

For a couple of years Sihanouk has been telling the North Vietnamese that if they played too hard with Cambodia'6 neutrality, it would break that if they kept pushing, taking over Cambodian provinces to pro-ide a sanctuary' for Communist forces in Vietnam, the Kiimer people simply would not tolerate it. THE COORDINATION was peifect: Prince Sihanouk left for Europe and zap, anti-Viet-n a students started marching in Pnom Penh. As best as anyone can discover, when the students burned the two Communist embassies, the 8rmy watched with interest. Then came the public demand that Hanoi pull all its forces out of Cambodia within 48 hours. The Royal Khmer government, documenting wtrat the Americans have been say ing for four years, accused Hanoi of taking over the provinces, whore Cambodia, Laos and South Vietnam join.

Hanoi obviously began worrying about the possibility of Cambodia inviting American ti oops in to clean out the com-p'ey of Communist base camps. For Hanoi this wouid be a military disaster that would imperil all its operations- in the Delta and the Saigon region. THEN THE SECOND stage ignited: Sihanouk arrived in Moscow demanding help in prelecting his country's neutrality. The wily prince repeated ail the stock denunciations of American imperialism, but in effect put it to the Russians: "Call off your dogs, or I w'U not be responsible for the consequences." The Soviets kept him around Moscow talking to people for several days but it remains to be seen how much influence they have in Hanoi. Meanwhile, back in Pnom Penh, Sihanouk got neatly dumped, a major escalator' step in the war of nerves.

In fact, it was a little too neat it had an almost prearranged quality. A Sihanouk-watcher might even wonder if it was not designed to strengthen the prince in Moscow and Peking. HE HAS A GOOD record on the high wire. No one even moderately perceptive uld have doubted that Sen. Charles Goodell would seek election to a full six-year lease on the seat he inherited by interim appointment after the death of Robert F.

Kennedy. Sen. Goodell's formal announcement merely makes it official. With Gov. Rockefeller's endorsement, Mr.

Goodell appears to be off to a promising start. It was no small matter for the governor to support the erstwhile congressman from Jamestown. At the time of Mr. Goodell's appointment, his record was variously regarded as moderate to occasionally conservativ e. Since Joining the Senate, however, he has affected a more liberal stance that he claims is not a change In philosophy but simply an accurate representation of his broader, statewide constituency.

However that may be, it is possible that Mr. Goodell may face a primary challenge from one or more Republicans of more traditional hue not to mention the prospect of a challenge on the November ballot by a standard-bearer for the Conservatvie party. In addition to all this, of course, Mr. Goodell has to reckon with the possibility that the Democrats will field a strong competitor against him. In this chancy situation, Se.n Goodell ran indeed be grateful for the firm support of Gov.

Rockefeller, who, hile he odviously disagrees with some of the senator's positions and may even deplore some of his antics, holds to the view that diversity Is the strength of the Republican party. Without the governor's support, Sen, Goodell's candidacy would be a gone goose if indeed, under such circumstances, his candidacy were even possible. Senators Tough on Saigon Clayton Fritchey medical, surgical and hospital costs. Certainly a private hospital room in a big city goes $75 to $125 a day. And Sen.

Barry Gcldwater predicts th.T. this will go to $500 daily. But does the index reflect the fact that today's Industry carries a heavy proportion of today's welfare costs? Just look at tens of thousands of contracts and see who pays the medical and hospital insurance costs. The auto industry even provides some free psychiatric care. CERTAINLY RENTS have zoomed.

But what of the mil-l ens who live in rent-con-ti oiled apartments, frozen since the big war? What of the millions w-ho own homes and pay three and four per cent interest charges but the index has the rent component in the consumer's basket at seven to nine per cent? Certainly hamburgers have up faster than the price of cars, "percentage wise." But there's a difference between noting a 100 per cert increase in a hamburger which has gone from 45 cents to 90 and a car which has gone up 50 per cent, or a total of say $1,000. And note this: Also used as components are such items as "alcoholic beverages away from home," and the cost of motorcycles, fur coats, fur stoles, scarves and muffs, dress for formal and semifor-mol wear, ladies' brunch coats, dress shirts and walking shorts and Bermudas for men. cigarettes, fees for Indoor sprrts, fees for golf, film developing, operating expenses for boats, motorcycles and scooters. AND NOTE THIS, of all things: The index also includes handymen, gardeners, g-ass cutters, garage con-stiuction, general home remodeling, fence or retaining wall costs, new walks and pa tio installations, centra! air conditioning, awning installation, new bathroom construction, recreation room construction, new lawn developing, landscaping, planting of treos and shrubs. There also Is a long list of fine appliances.

Certainly prices have gone up. Certainly food prices and clothing go up and down too. To someone should make a noise and a study to determine what it costs to live, what it costs to live comfortably and what it costs to live bettet than mr-st of the civilized world. THEN THE COL and The Oid Devil index won't become a propaganda weapon and we'L know exactly what all the shouting's about across the bargaining table. Need Is Relative $10,000 to $15,000 range are necessarily much belter off than families in lower brackets.

If they really were that much better off, the need for loans wouldn't arise in the first place. Sen Charles Goodell, "has been a great public relations success, but it is not a true policy of disengagement. We have not Yietnamized the war. We have cosmetized it." Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, ho is emerging as the Democrat's leading contender for the White House, voices a concern that is widely shared in Congress.

"Given the prospect of our indefinite stav in Vietnam," he says, "Saigon has no incentive to improve militarily or to bargain away its own power at the peace table." The sharpest criticism of President Thieu railroaded a legislator, Tran Ngoc Chau, to prison earlier this month, Sen. Pham Nam Sach, chairman of the judiciary committee, said, "President Thieu has torn up the constitution." "big business men and Catholics," have told him they, too, would vote for the Cong, if there were elections. Three U.S. presidents. Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, tried in vain to force reforms on the Saigon generais, in the hope of establishing a sound, democratic government capable of sustaining itself politically and militarily.

Nixon has fared no better. President Thieu jails his opposition, shuts down the press, ousts a civilian as premier and installs a general in his place, tolerates corruption, stalls land reform and arrests peace advocates. This is the situation that has inspired Sens. Alan Cranston, D-Cal; Thomas Eagleton, and Harold Hughes, D-Iowa, to introduce a new aense-of-the-Senate resolution calling for the prompt withdrawal of U.S. troops if the "Saigon generals do not immediately reform their government." Vietnamization, says Cranston, "as now practiced will not end the ar.

It will keep the fighting going. More killing, more bloodshed, more sorrow, and for what? For a corrupt government which makes war on its own people." "METNA-MIZATIONV says WASHINGTON Sixteen years ago, ihe U.S. government set out to "save" Indochina (embracing Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) for "democracy." Today Laos is being overrun by the Communists; Vietnam is under the thumb of militarists; and in Cambodia a right coup has just toppled the neutralist leader, Prince Sihanouk. So, after hundreds of thousands of American casualties, and the expenditure of over $100 billion, all that the U.S. has to show for its vast effort in Southeast Asio is the dominance of one form or another of authritarianism.

With Sihanouk out. and Sou-vanna Phouma (our man in La os i hanging by a thread, what will happen to our other man in Saigon. President Nguyen Van Thieu? Will he be the next domino to fall? That possibility is what makes Washington so uneasy. Sihanouk himself has no illusions about his next door neighbors. He has always said Vietnamazation would not work.

MOREOVER, the prince predicts, once the U.S. leaves, the population of South Vietnam would vote "massively" for the Viet Cong. He says old Saigon friends of his, including President Nixon's proposal for stepping up loan assistance to college students in modest or needy circumstances are well justified, but the emphasis on low -income families may be overdone. As visualized by the Nixon message, most of the assistance would go to students whose families' Incomes were under $10,000 a year. The present criterion is $15,000.

The effect of the revised program would apprently be to give the students preferential treatment, including directly sub-sized interest rates as low as 3 per cent. Students from families above the $10,000 level would also be eligible for loans but at market rates of interest, less whatever discount a lender might give them because of federal backing making for a net of perhaps 7 per cent. The dividing line of $10,000 family Income is not entirely realistic. Low-cost loans tailored to the present dividing line of 515,000 would correspond more closely with the farts of economic life. It Is appropriate that subsidized loans at minimal Interest rates should be made available to as many needy students as possible, but it's a mistake to assume that, where today's college costs are concerned, families in the THK JOl'RVMi NF Errniiw Jrwrnel F.sblihrd IBM Daily Vwi 1913 Coiuolidalrd 1931 Published doily encept Sunday at 53 Hudson Avenue, Nyock N.Y.

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MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL The Associated Press is entitled to the use for republication ot all the locai news printed in this newsoooer os well as ali A.P. news dispatches. All rights of republication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Subscription rates by moil bevond city postal delivery zone, one year, six months, thru months, one month, Single copy 10 cents.

Subscription rote by carrier 50 cents per week. Second class possage paid at bock, N.Y. ELmwood 8-2200 Elmwood 6-3550 HAvtrstraw 9-4 904 THIEU, however, brushed th aside, as he has the feeble, pro forma protests that the U.S. makes from time to time to keep up public appearances. Thieu knows that Nixon cannot abandon him without admitting Vietnamization is a fa.lure.

The best thing about the Cranston-Eagieton-Hughes resolution is that it offers the President a way out of this dilemma..