The third thing is the collective bargaining machinery. It has taken us almost roughly 20 years to get it on the Canal Zone, but I think the time has come. At the meeting I have attended with Governor Parfitt, he seemed rather honest in his statement and we are taking him by his word. Our recommendation would be that the collective bargaining machinery be made an effective mechanism, something that is meaningful, that the unions could sit together with management and work out the problems. We did not vote on the job action because we had some differences of opinion, but I think that the situation really warranted a job action. We think if we could have collective bargaining machinery for the unions, that some of the reasons which forced some of our people who have years of service in our canal and did not even think about the job action, would be satisfied. We would like to ask the committee to support the idea of a collective bargaining mechanism on the Canal Zone. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. METCALFE. Thank you very much, Mr. Mauge. STATEMENT OF CLYDE M. WEBBER, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, AMERI- Mr. KOCZAK. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Webber, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees asked me to extent his excuses to you, his regrets. He was not able to attend the hearing today. He had previous engagements. Mr. Elwin Lewis, the AFGE national vice president for the 15th district of our union, within whose jurisdiction the Panama Canal Zone falls, has kindly consented to be in attendance today. Many of the technical questions which may be raised fall within his purview. With that introduction I shall appreciate the opportunity of reading Mr. Webber's statement at this stage, as follows. We thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the other distinguished members of this Subcommittee for giving us this opportunity to be heard on this important subject of the status of employees in the Panama Canal Zone. We are particularly gratified to appear before you again because of the hospitality and understanding with which you have always received our testimony. I should like to take this opportunity also to express publicly our deep appreciation to Congresswoman Leonor Sullivan, who has been the Chairperson of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee since 1973. We regret very much her decision to retire at the end of this current session. I shall not repeat the statistics which you already have regarding the numbers and composition of the personnel employed by the Canal Zone Government and Company. These have been presented to you by the Company itself, the General Accounting Office and our own union in previous appearances. Suffice it to recapitulate that there are now approximately 3,800 employees who are U.S. citizens and about 10,200 who are not U.S. citizens. Nor shall I repeat the problems of the past-most notably, those which were created by the imprudent actions of the Department of the Army in trying to impose intolerable changes in salary and wage structure on these employees. You are aware that this scheme would have frozen 3,500 of the 14,000 employees, that is, fully one out of every four, at current pay rates for perhaps up to fourteen years. I should like, instead, to concentrate my testimony on that subject which has been the essence of my testimony for the last four years, this is-let us treat the employees of the Panama Canal Zone Government and Company the same as we treat all other Federal employees working on American territory. Let us show them that wherever the United States Flag flies as the symbol of our sovereignty, there the same rule of law applies to all. On July 22, 1975, I had the privilege of appearing before your Subcommittee to testify on the issue of labor-management and personnel problems in the Panama Canal Zone. Because the issues have not changed yet the problems have become magnified, may I have your consent to place into the record a copy of that statement as an annex hereto. Mr. METCALFE. That statement will be placed in the files of the subcommittee. Mr. KOCZAK. Thank you very much. As you will note, my theme was, and now is, that the best first step to good personnel management and good labor-management relations is to withdraw the 'suspension' by the Secretary of the Army of the application of E.O. 11491 to the Panama Canal Zone. I should like to observe here that, if E.O. 11491 had been applied in the Panama Canal Zone, we would have now only a few of the problems in labormanagement relations which plague us today. Instead, we would have advanced to a more equitable dialog between management and labor. Federal employees working on territory over which the United States holds sovereignty, are entitled to the same rights as, for example, Federal employees working in the District of Columbia, which itself is not a State of the Union. "Therefore, as the single most constructive step, I once again urge your Subcommittee to raise with the Secretary of the Army the issue of withdrawing the suspension of E.O. 11491. Secondly, the Department of the Army should adopt a policy where the U.S. wage base is applied uniformly at all levels of Manual Grade and nonmanual grade within the Canal Zone. Third, the Department of the Army should announce that it is withdrawing in toto the imprudent salary and wage proposals which precipitated the recent crisis. I think these three actions would create a climate where all parties could begin immediately to develop plans for resolving the remaining problems. Because I wish to concentrate entirely on the most important steps which can be taken administratively, with the least difficulty, I should like to limit my suggestions at this point to these three issues. All of them can be activated at once with the greatest administrative easethey require only the signature of the Secretary of the Army. None of these would need any legislative action. Even so, I believe it would be unrealistic for us to assume that the Department of the Army would be inclined to take these suggestions without the involvement of your Subcommittee, exercising its oversight functions. For this reason, I hope that you will enter into a phase of relations with the Department of the Army to focus Congressional and public attention on accomplishing these three objectives. Thank you very much. Mr. METCALFE. Thank you very much, Mr. Koczak. I skipped over Mr. Lewis. Do you have a statement you wish to make? Mr. LEWIS. No, sir, Mr. Koczak presented our testimony. Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. Glenn Richard Heath has gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to make a presentation. Mr. METCALFE. You are reading my mind. I was just going to invite Mr. Heath to come and make his statement at this particular time. Mr. METCALFE. Mr. Glenn Heath. Will you identify yourself, please? STATEMENT OF GLENN RICHARD HEATH, CONTROL HOUSE OPERATOR, SUPERVISOR, GATUN LOCKS, CANAL ZONE; BUSINESS MANAGER FOR LOCAL UNION 677, IBEW, REPRESENTING THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF THE PANAMA CANAL; ELECTED WAGE AND GRIEVANCE REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE CANAL ZONE METAL TRADES COUNCIL, AFL-CIO Mr. HEATH. Mr. Chairman, honorable members of the committee, my name is Glenn Richard Heath. I am a control house operator, supervisory capacity, Gatun Locks, Canal Zone. I am also the business manager for Local Union 677, IBEW, with offices in Gatun and we represent the Northern District of the Panama Canal. Along with these duties, I am the elected wage and grievance representative for the Canal Zone Metal Trades Council, AFL-CIO. I am most appreciative of the opportunity to testify before the Panama Canal Subcommittee today. Mr. Chairman, deviating a bit from the prepared statement, I would like to endorse Mr. Graham's statements. Since I feel that I do represent a cross section of the U.S. citizen employee working there, and in so doing and in presenting this, I would like to describe the home I live in and the reason for doing this. I have 14 years' Federal service. I believe I am a loyal employee and, above all, I know a dedicated American citizen. My quarters are located in the townsite of Gatun adjacent to the Gatun Locks installation. This housing consists of a three-bedroom wood structure raised off the ground on concrete pillars. It is over 30 years old. The house has had a relivability program which means it has been reconditioned to include a small bathroom on the first floor as well as the old bath on the second floor. Inasmuch as my family consists of a wife, three daughters, and a son, the second bath is greatly appreciated. Now through the years large cracks have appeared in the ceiling which is small strips of tongue and groove wood, but every 4 or 5 years fresh paint is applied to the interior of my home so the cracks are covered up for at least 3 or 4 months after this application of paint. The outside walls are also of tongue and groove construction and consist of 8-inch wide sections of wood. All beams are showing, but the cracks here have been filled with a wood filler and painted adequately. The livability program covered my kitchen floor with a vinyl tile which does prevent the water from running through the floor when the upstairs bath or the kitchen sink leaks. There have been reports about how well my yard is kept. The grass is cut quite frequently by the Company as is all grass cut in all of the communities. Let me go on record that the purpose of keeping the grass cut short frequently is to maintain a rapid flow of water during the intense tropical rainy season 9 months long. If this were not done, the infestation of mosquitos, insects, and snakes would present an unbearable health problem. At the present time, yellow fever along with malaria in the Canal Zone is eradicated. The typical workweek is 40 hours with a rotating shift around the clock. Mandatory overtime is involved periodically when the shipping schedule exceeds the capabilities of our manpower. With the Chairman's permission, I would like to direct a statement to Mr. Snyder. I don't drink rum and coke. I am a bourbon drinker. Mr. SNYDER. God bless you. Mr. HEATH. All bourbon has to go through the Panamanian Government and I have to pay $1 tax on it. Possibly you could look into this. Mr. SNYDER. I want to say I have tried that Panamanian bourbon and it is inferior. Mr. HEATH. Thank you, sir. When I came to work for the Panama Canal Company, I gave up my equity in Frostproof, Fla., of a three-bedroom, CBS, ranch-style home. At that time, I was employed as an instrumentation electrician in the phosphate industry, Polk County, Fla. I feel that I may be referred to the normal, skilled, professional U.S. citizen employee. My reasons for continuing to live in the Canal Zone is primarily the excellent school system which has been available for my children. This is provided for the Company employees and the U.S. Army dependents. While I belong to various clubs, I do not play golf. I am a veteran, and belong to the VFW, Elks. a boating club and shoot skeet with my children at a gun club. All of these activities and clubs are supported by my employee dollar along with other members. The television station that we watch is SCN-TV. That's the Southern Command Network, owned and operated by the U.S. Army. It is the only English TV station in Panama. If for any reason you become upset with their news releases, such as I have and you call the station you will be informed that it is for the information and education of the Armed Forces only. It is an impossibilty for the U.S. citizen to have truthful news input. Along with other organized labor leaders in the Canal Zone, I tried unsuccessfully to prevent a sickout which occurred recently. But when Mr. Veysey was reported to have referred to the citizens of the Canal Zone as "gutless sheep" the workers became incensed. Then, when the proposals were presented that for all practical purposes meant that no more MG-10 journeymen U.S. citizen workers would leave the United States to work in the Canal Zone, the labor leaders lost faith and credibility with their peers, and a loss of faith in our Governor. This loss of faith was entirely due to Mr. Veysey's hard stand and uncalled for remarks about the Canal Zone workers. The zonians are after all nothing more than U.S. citizens from all nationalities and walks of life. What the sickout really was was protesting, it was protesting the treatment that has been received over the past few years from Mr. Veysey's office. We have asked repeatedly for assurances from our treaty negotiators, what information they can give us to answer the vicious rumors that we read daily in our local newspapers. The U.S. citizen employee is really quite knowledgeable, and we do feel that Ambassador Bunker failed us in Vietnam and is now failing again. The combination of the "austerity program" along with Mr. Veysey's quotes were too much. The Atlantic side employee to reach his hospital drives over a highway which is now controlled by Panama's Guardia National. Now due to this "austerity program we were informed they are cutting out the Atlantic Side Hospital Coco Solo, reducing the stock in our commissary of food and household goods, and please in the future if you get seriously ill or you become involved in a bad accident, you will be driven across the 40some miles of Panamanian controlled highway or take a train to Gorgas Hospital in Balboa. Mr. Chairman, that was the straw that broke the camel's back or put the backbone in the "gutless sheep." The resulting sickness was not an imaginary thing. Mr. Chairman, that sickness still prevails. There was no walkout due to union demands or organized labor protest. The American workers had their backs pushed against the wall in much the same manner as the patriots of the United States of America when they reacted to Great Britain's demand for taxes and turned the Boston Harbor into a tea pot. Governor Parfitt during that time of stress I personally believe acted with an outstanding knowledge of human rights along with the dignities that the working class of blue-collar Americans have come to accept as their inalienable rights. However, due to Mr. Veysey's stand, the Canal Zone workers lost complete faith in our Governor along with the credibility of the labor leaders. It is due to the repeated efforts by Governor Parfitt and his labor-management office that the labor leaders were able to prevail upon the workers to go back to work and allow the Governor and labor-management the opportunity to plead for them with Mr. Veysey. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I will be most pleased to attempt to respond to any questions you may have. I ask your indulgence, sir, to let me insert in the record our deepest feelings that the Canal Zone worker has for Hon. Mrs. Leonor Sullivan. The interest she has taken and displayed through the years for the Canal Zone workers well-being and efficient operation of the canal itself can never be forgotten. I say this, sir, because it is my understanding that she is retiring from public office. Thank you, Mrs. Sullivan. Mr. METCALFE. Did you say you wanted to insert something in the record, or did you? Mr. HEATH. Yes, sir, I did. Mr. KOCZAK. May I request permission to insert into the record a statement that Local No. 29, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO would like to present to you? They were not able to send a representative today from the Canal Zone, but they should like to have permission to enter their statement into the record. Mr. METCALFE. Hearing no objection, it is so ordered. [The document above referred to follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, AFL-CIO, LOCAL NO. 29 Madame Chairman and Members of the Committee: Canal Zone teachers, members of American Federation of Teachers Local 29, have had serious grievances for a number of years, problems that we believe have not been |