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Exam
Name___________________________________
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
2) Labour boards in most provinces have all but which one of the following remedies available to 2)
them?
A) to subpoena witnesses
B) to order unfairly discharged employees reinstated
C) to enter workplaces to inspect work processes and questions workers and managers
D) to certify a union with less than majority support where an unfair labour practice has
prevented employees' true wishes from becoming known
E) to close down unsafe workplaces
Answer: E
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
1
4) Why have many Canadian jurisdictions moved away from three-person arbitration panels to single 4)
arbitrators?
A) because the use of single arbitrators saves time and money, and the decisions are just as good
B) because of the duty to accommodate
C) because single arbitrators give better decisions
D) to help keep unqualified people out of arbitration
E) because there are not enough arbitrators available
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
5) What would be the best description of the impact the Charter has had (at least up until the year 5)
2001) on Canadian labour relations law?
A) liberalizing
B) restrictive
C) massive
D) minimal
E) variable
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
6) All but which one of the following groups of professionals is excluded from unionization rights in 6)
at least three Canadian provinces?
A) lawyers B) engineers C) teachers D) architects E) dentists
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
7) Canadian labour relations law differs from American law in all but which one of the following 7)
ways?
A) in being relatively voluntarist
B) with respect to "right-to-work" provisions regarding union security
C) with respect to jurisdiction
D) with respect to anti-strikebreaker provisions
E) in the way the law is enforced
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
2
8) Today, the courts' major role in the IR system is 8)
A) issuing injunctions limiting picketing.
B) convicting striking workers on civil conspiracy charges.
C) handling grievances.
D) regulating bargaining-table behaviour.
E) jailing union organizers on criminal conspiracy charges.
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
9) All but which of the following are or may be a result of Canada's legislative fragmentation? 9)
A) frequent innovation in labour law
B) difficulties in determining whether an enterprise falls under federal or provincial jurisdiction
C) a high incidence of strikes
D) a highly decentralized bargaining structure
E) a clear national standard in labour law
Answer: E
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
10) The best description of the nature of industrial conflict under labour relations law would be 10)
A) civilized.
B) non-existent.
C) anarchic.
D) rough, but not out of hand.
E) no holds barred.
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
11) All but which one of the following is an advantage of using labour boards rather than courts to 11)
administer labour legislation?
A) Problems are generally resolved more quickly by boards.
B) Boards have expert staff available to them.
C) Judges generally know more about IR than board members.
D) Boards are more concerned with finding practical solutions to workplace problems.
E) Boards include both management and union representatives.
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
3
12) All except which one of the following would be considered an unfair labour practice in one or more 12)
Canadian jurisdictions?
A) a union kicking people off its executive committee for refusing to engage in an illegal wildcat
strike
B) a union making a financial contribution to an employer's association
C) management promising a 10% pay raise to workers during a union organizing drive
D) locking out employees after conciliation has failed and several weeks have elapsed
E) hiring professional strikebreakers
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
13) From a union perspective, what is the most important potential benefit of first-contract arbitration 13)
provisions?
A) They can help unions achieve certification.
B) They allow ministerial discretion in their application.
C) They offer unions permanent protection against unfair employer labour practice.
D) They can prevent employers from refusing to bargain seriously in order to prevent the union
from achieving a collective agreement.
E) They allow unions to avoid the unpleasant task of bargaining with unwilling employers.
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
14) Why is the P.E.I. freedom to communicate provision potentially of great concern? 14)
A) because it permits direct communication with workers on collective bargaining issues and
could thus encourage employers to circumvent the collective bargaining process itself
B) because it could affect the union status of millions of workers
C) because it could affect certification votes in the province
D) because it permits employers to threaten and intimidate their workers
E) because it's a blemish on an otherwise strongly pro-labour act
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
4
15) Which of the following plays the most important role in administering Canadian labour relations 15)
legislation?
A) labour relations boards
B) the courts
C) the police
D) arbitration panels
E) single arbitrators
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
16) All but which one of the following occurred when industrial activity was carried out in Canada 16)
without labour relations law?
A) a low standard of living for most working people
B) extensive property damage from strikes
C) death and loss of life from strikes
D) frequent grievances
E) inadequate health and safety protection in workplaces
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
17) The major rationale for the exclusion of management from unions is 17)
A) these people earn enough already.
B) to avoid conflict of interest.
C) managers don't want to join unions.
D) the unions don't want them in.
E) non-existent.
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
5
18) A legislative provision designed specifically to address the problem of workplace violence during 18)
strikes is
A) anti-strikebreaker provision.
B) reverse onus provision.
C) technological change provision.
D) expedited arbitration.
E) first-contract arbitration.
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
19) Of the following five provinces, the one with the most restrictive labour act is 19)
A) Quebec.
B) B.C.
C) Alberta.
D) New Brunswick.
E) P.E.I.
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
20) Which of the following has been one of the criticisms of collective bargaining from people on the 20)
left in recent years?
A) It takes away too much power from the state.
B) It wastes too much time in senseless ritual and posturing.
C) It doesn't work very well because power is strongly tilted toward big business.
D) It is an intrusion on individuals' freedom to choose.
E) It takes away too much control from employers and managers.
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
6
21) The reason why unions generally prefer a card count to a vote as a means of establishing 21)
certification is
A) because it's what they're used to.
B) because a card count allows unions to harass and intimidate workers into joining.
C) voting is costly.
D) with a card count, the labour board doesn't have to get involved.
E) because if there's a vote, employers can get involved and influence the process.
Answer: E
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
22) Comprehensive private sector bargaining legislation first took effect in Canada in which year? 22)
A) 1907 B) 1976 C) 1967 D) 1944 E) 1872
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
23) The most important difference between PC 1003 and the American National Labor Relations Act was 23)
A) the latter's use of a vote to verify union certifications.
B) the former's incorporation of compulsory conciliation.
C) the former's establishment of a board to enforce the act.
D) the latter's exclusion of agricultural workers.
E) the former's exclusion of management.
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
7
25) Overall, the most liberal labour act is that of 25)
A) Quebec.
B) the federal jurisdiction.
C) Alberta.
D) Saskatchewan.
E) Ontario.
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.
26) Why is union certification generally easier in Canada than in the U.S.? 26)
Answer: Several Canadian jurisdictions still use a count of signed members rather than a
vote, as is the case in the U.S. It is generally acknowledged that when certification is
through a vote, employers can have a hand in the process and may well result in the
failure of the certification drive. Even those Canadian jurisdictions which use votes
normally use "quickie" votes which must normally be conducted within five to ten
days of the certification application and hence allow less chance for employer
manipulation of the process than the lengthy campaigns characteristic of the
American system.
Explanation:
27) Why were unionism and collective bargaining slow to evolve in Canada? 27)
Answer: The major reasons for this slow evolution were the country's relatively late
industrialization, its severely fragmented labour movement, the tendency of
Canadian unionists to join American rather than Canadian unions in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, and determined employer and government
opposition.
Explanation:
28) What's different about collective bargaining in the construction industry in Quebec? 28)
Answer: Many provinces have centralized collective bargaining in construction in the interest
of maintaining peace in the industry. But Quebec has carried things a step further,
by requiring all construction workers to hold a Quebec Construction Commission
card and to belong to one of five labour associations legally entitled to represent
construction workers in the province. These five unions bargain sector-specific
issues with five sector-based employers' associations, and more general issues with
a general construction employers' association to which all construction employers
must belong. Union certification as such does not exist in Quebec's construction
industry.
Explanation:
8
29) How much use has the Charter been in striking down exclusion laws on constitutional 29)
grounds?
Answer: Until the Dunmore case in 2001, which struck down Ontario's agricultural exclusion
on Charter grounds, none whatever. In fact, exclusion laws changed far more in the
20 years before the Charter took effect than they have in the 15 years since it took
effect. It will be interesting to see whether the Dunmore case will prompt successful
challenges of other exclusions, such as those of professionals and domestics.
Explanation:
30) What are the provisions which would appear to have the greatest actual or potential effect 30)
on union membership growth?
Answer: 1) Exclusion provisions, because they determine the size of the "eligible" worker
pool from which potential union members may be drawn. 2) Certification
procedures, because they may significantly influence the likelihood that a union will
be certified. 3) First-contract arbitration provisions, because they may increase the
likelihood that a new union will actually attain a collective agreement, which in turn
increases the probability that the organization in question will continue to be
unionized.
Explanation:
32) What's the basis for David Beatty's criticism of LRL and collective bargaining? 32)
Answer: Beatty's concern is that LRL and collective bargaining tend to lead to a "tyranny of
the majority," while taking little account of the needs of the least fortunate members
of society, such as domestics and farmworkers, who are often excluded from
unionization rights under LRL.
Explanation:
33) Though most industrial relationists like labour boards' accommodative approach, some 33)
have concerns about it. Why is that?
Answer: Critics like John Godard fear that, in their quest to be accommodating, labour boards
haven't gone far enough in preventing employers from committing unfair labour
practices. They also believe that existing penalties don't serve as much of a deterrent
against such practices.
Explanation:
34) What's the most compelling reason for having labour relations legislation (LRL)? 34)
Answer: To prevent the suffering, chaos, injustice, and violence that would almost certainly
occur if it did not exist. In particular, LRL's regulation of strikes makes them far less
violent and less likely to result in loss of life or bloodshed than they would
otherwise be and were before LRL existed.
Explanation:
9
35) What are two exceptions to Canadian LRL's general emphasis on processes rather than 35)
outcomes.
Answer: Both provisions allowing for the imposition of a first collective agreement in cases
where the labour board believes an employer has not bargained in good faith with
an eye to concluding an agreement, and provisions allowing a labour board to
certify a union with less than majority support in cases where an employer's unfair
labour practices have prevented the employees' true wishes from becoming known.
Explanation:
37) Why do labour boards generally take a dim view of employers' hiring additional workers 37)
during a union organizing drive?
Answer: Because of the likelihood that such workers are being hired solely or primarily to
vote against unionization, and hence increase the chances that the organizing drive
will fail.
Explanation:
38) Why are decertification provisions a critical aspect of public labour policy? 38)
Answer: Such provisions enhance union democracy by allowing workers to get rid of a union
which has been ineffective, or which has treated them unfairly or in an arbitrary
way.
Explanation:
39) What must a labour board do before it can determine whether a union which has applied 39)
for certification should be certified?
Answer: Determine the appropriate bargaining unit and ascertain the union's level of
support. Normally the bargaining unit is determined first. However, in provinces
with a "quickie" vote, the board will often conduct a vote and then direct that the
ballot box be sealed until after it has decided on the appropriate bargaining unit.
The reason for this is, again, to prevent the possibility of employer manipulation of
the process which might well occur if the vote were not conducted until after the
lengthy process of determining the bargaining unit had been completed.
Explanation:
40) What is the major exception to the general pattern of provincial jurisdiction in LRL? 40)
Answer: Workers in enterprises of a clearly federal or interprovincial nature, such as the
railroads, airlines, chartered banks, or telecommunications companies. These
workers, who together make up about 10% of the country's unionized work force,
fall under the Canada Code rather than one of the provincial labour acts.
Explanation:
10
TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.
41) Institutionalists are mainly concerned with the economic benefits which collective bargaining 41)
confers on workers.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
42) Although the "duty to accommodate" sounds noble, it really imposes few responsibilities on any of 42)
the parties.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
43) It would probably be fair to say that worker-employer conflict can be made more civilized, but 43)
never eliminated.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
44) In Canada, employer freedom to communicate provisions have been decreasing in importance in 44)
recent years.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
45) Grievance processes in Canadian agreements are purely a voluntary affair. 45)
Answer: True False
Explanation:
46) Managerialists primarily resent the loss of control unions and collective bargaining mean to 46)
employers and managerialists.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
48) It would be fair to say that labour boards are generally more accommodative in their approach to 48)
workplace problems than are the courts.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
49) There appears to be no connection between the type of government a province has, or has had, and 49)
the liberal or restrictive character of its labour act.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
50) Within the group of provinces which requires a vote for certification, the certification procedure is 50)
completely uniform.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
11
51) Canadian arbitrators are free to interpret collective agreements however they choose, so long as 51)
they stick to the agreement.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
52) Unfair labour practice provisions apply to unions as well as to employers. 52)
Answer: True False
Explanation:
53) Agreements under Quebec's decree system are virtually identical to agreements negotiated in the 53)
normal way.
Answer: True False
Explanation:
54) There is some interprovincial variation in the type of expedited arbitration provisions in place. 54)
Answer: True False
Explanation:
55) Becoming a labour lawyer or IR specialist in Canada is a quick and easy process. 55)
Answer: True False
Explanation:
ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
12
Answer: agreements are narrower in scope than standard agreements since they cannot contain provisions having
to do with the activities of any union, employer, or employers' association. Permissible provisions are
limited to wages, hours of work, working days, vacations, and classification of operations and employers
and employees. Once the parties have decided on their agreement, they send it to the provincial labour
minister for approval. Interested parties have a set time period to file any objections they may have. If
the minister believes that the extended agreement is workable, he or she then extends it to the entire
industry, with or without any modifications deemed appropriate, normally for a period not exceeding 18
months.
Other special features of Quebec LRL include a highly centralized system of regulation in construction
(itself a decree sector). All construction workers must hold a "competency card" from the Quebec
Construction Commission and must belong to one of the five labour organizations legally entitled to
represent the province's construction workers. These organizations bargain with the five sector-based
employers' associations over matters specific to those sectors, though the sector-based associations may,
if they wish, hand over bargaining authority to the general employers' association to which all
construction employers must belong. Issues common to all the sectors are negotiated between the unions
and the general employers' association. However, union certification as such does not exist in the Quebec
construction industry.
Because of the decree system, employers' associations play a much more prominent role in Quebec than
they do in the rest of the country, where they are normally found only in construction. There are about
90 such organizations representing some 25,000 employers; many of them bargain directly with unions.
Quebec also has a confederation of employer associations, known as the Conseil du patronat du Quebec, ´
which does not bargain directly with unions but does allow the Quebec business community to speak
with one voice on matters of concern to business. Its major responsibilities are in the areas of legislative
lobbying, public relations, and research.
In addition, Quebec has differed from other provinces in the way it administers LRL. Since 1969, it has
used a labour court along with a three-tier system of certification agents, labour commissioners, and
general commissioners to deal with certification and unfair labour practice cases. While this mechanism
appears to have proven cumbersome and unwieldy and was to have been replaced by a more
conventional labour board under legislation passed in 1987, the legislation had still not officially been
proclaimed (as of 1998), for reasons that remain unclear.
13
58) Discuss the function and powers of labour boards and the type of approach they generally take in carrying out
those functions.
Answer: (suggested):
The major functions of labour boards are overseeing union certification and decertification and policing
unfair labour practice. However, in recent years their jurisdiction has expanded to include the power to
issue directives concerning illegal strikes and lockouts and to determine whether the parties are
bargaining in good faith. In addition, a number of boards, including Ontario's, can arbitrate
first-contract disputes.
To assist them in carrying out these functions, labour boards have been given a broad range of powers.
In Ontario, these include the power to subpoena witnesses and compel them to give evidence under oath;
to require any party to produce documents; to accept such evidence as it sees fit, whether or not such
evidence would be acceptable in court; to enter workplaces to inspect work processes and question
managers and workers; to conduct representation, strike, and ratification votes; and to require employers
and unions to post board notices. The remedies available to them generally include the power to issue
cease-and-desist orders; to certify a union with less than majority support (except in Ontario) in cases
where an employer's unfair practice has prevented the employees' true wishes from becoming known;
and to order unfairly discharged workers reinstated with or without compensation. Most labour boards
also have the power to levy substantial fines, but few tend to resort to criminal prosecutions. Most
boards believe that such a course of action would only embitter the parties even further without doing
much if any good. Rather than using criminal prosecutions, most boards adopt the non-punitive
"make-whole" approach from civil law. This approach requires the guilty party to right past wrongs and
to restore the victim to the position he or she would have been in had the offense in question not been
committed. For example, if an employer is found guilty of unfairly discharging an employee during a
union organizing drive, the employer won't be fined or jailed but will be required to reinstate the
employee with back pay.
Overall, the approach taken by labour boards is accommodative, in comparison to that taken by courts.
In general, the boards are more concerned with finding practical and workable solutions to workplace
problems than with laying down "final" legal solutions for all time. Generally proceedings before a
board are less formal than those before a court, and there is no requirement that parties to a labour board
proceeding have legal counsel, though many choose to. Often when a labour relations officer is first
assigned to a dispute, he or she will try to bring the parties together to help them solve the problem on
their own. Made up of union and management representatives and (usually) third party neutrals
knowledgeable in IR, and staffed by experts in various areas of the field, labour boards are generally
viewed as more even-handed in their approach to labour issues than the courts, and more likely to result
in relatively quick and expeditious resolutions to problems.
14
59) How has human rights legislation affected the grievance procedure and the interpretation of collective
agreements?
Answer: (suggested):
Arbitrators must now interpret collective agreements in the light of anti-discrimination provisions
contained in human rights legislation. In the first instance, this means that women, minority group
members, and disabled people must be protected from sexual, religious, racial, or other kinds of
harassment.
But the "duty to accommodate" arising out of the 1986 O'Malley v. Simpson-Sears case extends far beyond
the prevention of outright harassment. Now the concept of "constructive" or "systemic" discrimination
applies, under which workplace rules and collective agreement provisions can be found discriminatory,
regardless of their intent, if they have a disproportionate effect on an individual employee. The duty to
accommodate has been construed to extend to the provision of special treatment such as the drawing up
of different work schedules for members of religious groups whose beliefs forbid work on certain days,
or the redesign of jobs to allow disabled workers to perform them more easily. The duty to accommodate
may even extend to rewriting collective agreement provisions or agreeing to waive their application.
Exclusions. Liberal provinces exclude only managers and confidential IR personnel; others exclude ag.
workers, domestics, and several different groups of professionals. Can have a significant effect on union
growth since the larger the pool of potential members, the greater the number of members is likely to be.
Certification procedures: Liberal provinces use a card count of signed members; restrictive ones require a
vote. Card count is generally considered more favourable to workers and unions since employers have
the opportunity to intervene when there is a vote.
Duty of fair representation: May increase union membership seemingly paradoxically by giving
potential members a feeling they can do something if their union doesn't treat them fairly. Liberal
jurisdictions have provisions applying to negotiations as well as grievance-handling; moderately liberal
ones have provisions applying only to grievance-handling.
First-contract arbitration: May be of great help to unions since they can deter employers from
"stonewalling" in the hope of preventing the union from achieving a collective agreement. This can be of
15
Answer: particular benefit to small, weak unions in the private service sector. Liberal provinces have these
provisions in place; restrictive ones do not.
Anti-strikebreaker provisions: The existence of strong anti-strikebreaker provisions shifts the balance of
power toward unions by making it very difficult or impossible for employers to continue to operate
establishments during a strike, hence increasing the cost of the strike to employers. Absence of such
legislation may, in practical terms, undercut the union's legal right to strike; in any case, where the
legislation isn't in effect (as at Giant Gold Mines), strikes can often lead to violence or even deaths.
Provinces with comprehensive anti-strikebreaker provisions are considered liberal; those with partial
protection (i.e., prohibition of professional strikebreakers) are considered moderately liberal; others are
considered restrictive.
Employer freedom to communicate provisions: These may undercut the union's workplace role by
allowing employers to communicate directly with individual workers or small groups of workers,
especially when the communication applies to collective bargaining or matters covered by the collective
agreement. Concerns about such provisions are even stronger in provinces which also use a vote to
certify unions, since they could have the effect of allowing lawyers a back-door say in organizing
campaigns. Provinces which have such provisions in place are considered restrictive; others are
considered liberal.
Other provisions discussed in the book include technological change and expedited arbitration; the
effects of these on union membership rates and the union's ability to operate in the workplace would
appear to be less dramatic than the effects of the provisions mentioned above. If you cover these
provisions in class, you may also wish to consider "reverse onus" provisions in unfair labour practice
cases or "conscientious objector" provisions allowing people with a religious objection to joining a union
to opt out. However, it is not clear how great the effect of these provisions is, or even if it is very
significant at all.
An 1877 amendment to the Masters' and Servants' Act meant that employees could no longer be jailed for
striking or leaving their employers' service. More significant was the introduction of conciliation
legislation around the turn of the century. In 1900, the government established a Department of Labour
with a conciliation service. At the same time, it introduced voluntary conciliation, which could be
initiated either by one of the parties or by the labour minister. The idea behind conciliation was that once
the public became aware of the issues of labour disputes from reading the published conciliation reports,
public pressure would push the two sides into settling their disputes. Similar principles were written
into the Railway Labour Disputes Act of 1903. In 1907, the government went a step farther and made
conciliation compulsory through the Industrial Disputes Investigation, or IDI Act. The act stipulated that
no union in a transportation, resource, or utilities industry could strike nor could an employer in any of
these industries lock workers out until the conciliation board's report had been published and a further
"cooling-off" period had elapsed.
Initially, the labour movement cautiously supported IDI, which may indeed have given weak unions
greater legitimacy. But it quickly withdrew its support once it realized that, far from providing unions
16
Answer: with any basic rights such as the right to organize or call a strike, the act simply gave employers more
time to stockpile, hire strikebreakers, or harass and intimidate union activists in advance of a strike. The
act did little to promote union growth. Pressure for comprehensive Canadian bargaining legislation
mounted and grew steadily through the 1920s and 1930s, particularly after such legislation (the "Wagner
Act") was passed in the U.S. in 1935. But not until 1944, faced with a National War Labour Board report
which called for the granting of basic bargaining rights to Canadian workers and a warning that he could
lose the next election to the CCF if he didn't move his government leftward, did Prime Minister
Mackenzie King grant those rights. The bill which did so is known as PC 1003. In addition to providing
workers with the right to join and organize unions and to strike, PC 1003 established the Canada Labour
Relations Board to enforce the legislation. Unlike the Wagner Act, it contained a compulsory conciliation
provision¹an incorporation apparently made at King's insistence. As a result of PC 1003 and the greater
union security provided by the "Rand Formula," developed in 1945, the Canadian labour movement
grew rapidly, particularly in heavy industries such as steel, autos, rubber, and meatpacking. But public
sector workers continued to be excluded from unionization rights, except in Saskatchewan; this exclusion
and the fact that very few private service sector workers formed unions meant that to all intents and
purposes the Canadian labour movement remained a male movement.
In 1967, following years of campaigning by its employees, the federal government finally granted them
the right to bargain collectively through the Public Service Staff Relations Act. This act contained a
then-unique dispute resolution procedure, choice of procedures, under which the union could choose
between binding arbitration and the traditional conciliation/strike route at the start of negotiations, but
would then have to stick with its initial choice through that complete round of bargaining. The PSSRA
set in motion a huge wave of public sector unionization. First provincial government employees received
bargaining rights; then other public sector workers, such as teachers and nurses, did. By the late 1970s,
the vast majority of public sector workers in Canada belonged to unions. There has been no major
change to Canadian LRL since the passage of the PSSRA.
17
Answer Key
Testname: C7
1) A
2) E
3) D
4) A
5) D
6) C
7) A
8) A
9) E
10) D
11) C
12) D
13) D
14) A
15) A
16) D
17) B
18) A
19) C
20) C
21) E
22) D
23) B
24) B
25) B
26) Several Canadian jurisdictions still use a count of signed members rather than a vote, as is the case in the U.S. It is
generally acknowledged that when certification is through a vote, employers can have a hand in the process and may
well result in the failure of the certification drive. Even those Canadian jurisdictions which use votes normally use
"quickie" votes which must normally be conducted within five to ten days of the certification application and hence
allow less chance for employer manipulation of the process than the lengthy campaigns characteristic of the American
system.
27) The major reasons for this slow evolution were the country's relatively late industrialization, its severely fragmented
labour movement, the tendency of Canadian unionists to join American rather than Canadian unions in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, and determined employer and government opposition.
28) Many provinces have centralized collective bargaining in construction in the interest of maintaining peace in the
industry. But Quebec has carried things a step further, by requiring all construction workers to hold a Quebec
Construction Commission card and to belong to one of five labour associations legally entitled to represent
construction workers in the province. These five unions bargain sector-specific issues with five sector-based
employers' associations, and more general issues with a general construction employers' association to which all
construction employers must belong. Union certification as such does not exist in Quebec's construction industry.
29) Until the Dunmore case in 2001, which struck down Ontario's agricultural exclusion on Charter grounds, none
whatever. In fact, exclusion laws changed far more in the 20 years before the Charter took effect than they have in the
15 years since it took effect. It will be interesting to see whether the Dunmore case will prompt successful challenges of
other exclusions, such as those of professionals and domestics.
30) 1) Exclusion provisions, because they determine the size of the "eligible" worker pool from which potential union
members may be drawn. 2) Certification procedures, because they may significantly influence the likelihood that a
union will be certified. 3) First-contract arbitration provisions, because they may increase the likelihood that a new
union will actually attain a collective agreement, which in turn increases the probability that the organization in
question will continue to be unionized.
18
Answer Key
Testname: C7
31) No. Every jurisdiction imposes a "peace obligation" on both unions and employers during the life of the agreement.
This means that while the agreement is in force, unions cannot strike nor employers lock out. Disputes over the
interpretation of the collective agreement must be submitted to a grievance procedure culminating, if necessary, in
binding arbitration. (Note: Refusal to work in unsafe conditions, provided for under the health and safety legislation
discussed in Ch. 7, does not constitute a strike).
32) Beatty's concern is that LRL and collective bargaining tend to lead to a "tyranny of the majority," while taking little
account of the needs of the least fortunate members of society, such as domestics and farmworkers, who are often
excluded from unionization rights under LRL.
33) Critics like John Godard fear that, in their quest to be accommodating, labour boards haven't gone far enough in
preventing employers from committing unfair labour practices. They also believe that existing penalties don't serve as
much of a deterrent against such practices.
34) To prevent the suffering, chaos, injustice, and violence that would almost certainly occur if it did not exist. In
particular, LRL's regulation of strikes makes them far less violent and less likely to result in loss of life or bloodshed
than they would otherwise be and were before LRL existed.
35) Both provisions allowing for the imposition of a first collective agreement in cases where the labour board believes an
employer has not bargained in good faith with an eye to concluding an agreement, and provisions allowing a labour
board to certify a union with less than majority support in cases where an employer's unfair labour practices have
prevented the employees' true wishes from becoming known.
36) Their major functions are overseeing union certification and decertification and policing unfair labour practice. In
recent years, their jurisdiction has expanded to include the power to issue directives concerning illegal strikes and
lockouts and to determine whether the parties are bargaining in good faith. In some provinces, they also have the
power to arbitrate first-contract disputes.
37) Because of the likelihood that such workers are being hired solely or primarily to vote against unionization, and hence
increase the chances that the organizing drive will fail.
38) Such provisions enhance union democracy by allowing workers to get rid of a union which has been ineffective, or
which has treated them unfairly or in an arbitrary way.
39) Determine the appropriate bargaining unit and ascertain the union's level of support. Normally the bargaining unit is
determined first. However, in provinces with a "quickie" vote, the board will often conduct a vote and then direct that
the ballot box be sealed until after it has decided on the appropriate bargaining unit. The reason for this is, again, to
prevent the possibility of employer manipulation of the process which might well occur if the vote were not conducted
until after the lengthy process of determining the bargaining unit had been completed.
40) Workers in enterprises of a clearly federal or interprovincial nature, such as the railroads, airlines, chartered banks, or
telecommunications companies. These workers, who together make up about 10% of the country's unionized work
force, fall under the Canada Code rather than one of the provincial labour acts.
41) FALSE
42) FALSE
43) TRUE
44) FALSE
45) FALSE
46) TRUE
47) FALSE
48) TRUE
49) FALSE
50) FALSE
51) FALSE
52) TRUE
53) FALSE
54) TRUE
55) FALSE
19
Answer Key
Testname: C7
56) (suggested):
Probably fairest to suggest that both started off at about the same place but the Canadian legislation has to a degree
evolved in some different directions (in part because of the European influence brought in through Quebec), although
there are still broad areas of similarity. Canadian legislation is more fragmented (in the U.S., there's just one private
sector law). Because of this fact, experimentation with labour law may have been facilitated here (laboratory of
democracy argument which suggests that decentralized systems can innovate at lower risk). Both countries' laws tend
to be relatively voluntarist and to emphasize processes rather than outcomes, but the U.S. law has remained truer to its
voluntarist heritage, since Canada has compulsory conciliation and grievance arbitration and stronger
anti-strikebreaking laws, as well as other laws like first-contract arbitration which protect workers. Worker protection
is generally greater in Canada; union certification is generally easier here, since many jurisdictions still rely on the card
count rather than the vote, and even those using a vote use a "quickie" vote to try to minimize the chance of employer
interference. Union security is more closely guarded in Canada, where something like the "Rand Formula" generally
applies and where there's no equivalent to the 1947 Taft-Hartley "right-to-work" provisions. In addition, laws against
unfair employer labour practice are generally more strictly enforced here.
20
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“How do you feel this morning?” I asked solicitously of Frau von
Eckthum on meeting her a moment alone behind her larder; I hoped she, at
least, had not been working too hard.
“Oh, very well,” said she.
“Not too weary?”
“Not weary at all.”
“Ah—youth, youth,” said I, shaking my head playfully, for indeed she
looked singularly attractive that morning.
She smiled, and mounting the steps into her caravan began to do things
with a duster and to sing.
For a moment I wondered whether she too had been made brisk by early
contact with the Medway (of course in some remoter pool or bay), so
unusual in her was this flow of language; but the idea of such delicacy being
enveloped and perhaps buffeted by that rude volume of muddy water was, I
felt, an impossible one. Still, why should she feel brisk? Had she not walked
the day before the entire distance in the dust? Was it possible that she too, in
spite of her poetic exterior, was really inwardly leathery? I have my ideals
about women, and believe there is much of the poet concealed somewhere
about me; and there is a moonlight intangibleness about this lady, an
etherealism amounting at times almost to indistinctness, that made the
application to her of such an adjective as leathery one from which I shrank.
Yet if she were not, how could she—but I put these thoughts resolutely
aside, and began to prepare for our departure, moving about mechanically as
one in a bleak and chilly dream.
That is a hideous bridge, that one the English have built themselves
across the Medway. A great gray-painted iron structure, with the dusty
highroad running over it and the dirty river running under it. I hope never to
see it again, unless officially at the head of my battalion. On the other side
was a place called Paddock Wood, also, it seemed to me, a dreary thing as I
walked through it that morning at my horse’s side. The sun came out just
there, and the wind with its consequent dust increased. What an August,
thought I; what a climate; what a place. An August and a climate and a place
only to be found in the British Isles. In Storchwerder at that moment a
proper harvest mellowness prevailed. No doubt also in Switzerland, whither
we so nearly went, and certainly in Italy. Was this a reasonable way of
celebrating one’s silver wedding, plodding through Paddock Wood with no
one taking any notice of me, not even she who was the lawful partner of the
celebration? The only answer I got as I put the question to myself was a
mouthful of dust.
Nobody came to walk with me, and unless some one did my position was
a very isolated one, wedged in between the Ailsa and the Ilsa, unable to
leave the Elsa, who, like a wife, immediately strayed from the proper road if
I did. The back of the Ailsa prevented my seeing who was with whom in
front, but once at a sharp turning I did see, and what I saw was Frau von
Eckthum walking with Jellaby, and Edelgard—if you please—on his other
side. The young Socialist was slouching along with his hands in his pockets
and his bony shoulders up to his ears listening, apparently, to Frau von
Eckthum who actually seemed to be talking, for he kept on looking at her,
and laughing as though at the things she said. Edelgard, I noticed, joined in
the laughter as unconcernedly as if she had nothing in the world to reproach
herself with. Then the Elsa followed round the corner and the scene in front
was blotted out; but glancing back over my shoulder I saw how respectably
Lord Sigismund, true to his lineage, remained by the Ilsa’s horse’s head,
reflectively smoking his pipe and accompanied only by his dog.
Beyond Paddock Wood and its flat and dreary purlieus the road began to
ascend and to wind, growing narrower and less draughty, with glimpses of a
greener country and a hillier distance, in fact improving visibly as we neared
Sussex. All this time I had walked by myself, and I was still too tired after
the long march the day before to have any but dull objections. It would have
been natural to be acutely indignant at Edelgard’s persistent defiance, natural
to be infuriated at the cleverness with which she shifted the entire charge of
our caravan on to me while she, on the horizon, gesticulated with Jellaby. I
realized, it is true, that the others would not have let her lead the horse even
had she offered to, but she ought at least to have walked beside me and hear
me, if that were my mood, grumble. However, a reasonable man knows how
to wait. He does not, not being a woman, hasten and perhaps spoil a crisis by
rushing at it. And if no opportunity should present itself for weeks, would
there not be years in our flat in Storchwerder consisting solely of
opportunities?
Besides, my feet ached. I think there must have been some clumsy
darning of Edelgard’s in my socks that pressed on my toes and made them
feel as if the shoes were too short for them. And small stones kept on getting
inside them, finding out the one place they could get in at and leaping
through it with the greatest dexterity, dropping gradually by unpleasant
stages down to underneath my socks, where they remained causing me
discomfort till the next camp. These physical conditions, to which the
endless mechanical trudging behind the Ailsa’s varnished back must be
added, reduced me as I said before to a condition of dull and bovine
acquiescence. I ceased to make objections. I hardly thought. I just trudged.
At the top of the ascent, at a junction of four roads called Four Winds
(why, when they were four roads, the English themselves I suppose best
know), we met a motor.
It came scorching round a corner with an insolent shriek of its tooting
apparatus, but the shriek died away as it were on its lips when it saw what
was filling up the way. It hesitated, stopped, and then began respectfully to
back. Pass us it could not at that point, and charge into such vast objects as
the caravans was a task before which even bloodthirstiness quailed. I record
this as the one pleasing incident that morning, and when it was my turn to
walk by the thing I did so with squared shoulders and held-up head and a
muttered (yet perfectly distinct) “Road hogs”—which is the term Menzies-
Legh had applied to them the day before when relating how one had run over
a woman near where he lives, and had continued its career, leaving her to
suffer in the road, which she did for the space of two hours before the next
passer-by passed in time to see her die. And she was a quite young woman,
and a pretty one into the bargain.
(“I don’t see what that has to do with it,” said the foolish Jellaby when, in
answer to my questions, I extracted this information from Menzies-Legh.)
Therefore, remembering this shocking affair, and being as well a great
personal detester of these conveyances, the property invariably of the
insolent rich, who with us are chiefly Jews, I took care to be distinct as I
muttered “Road hogs.” The two occupants in goggles undoubtedly heard me,
for they started and even their goggles seemed to shrink back and be
ashamed of themselves, and I continued my way with a slight reviving of my
spirits, the slight reviving of which he is generally conscious who has had
the courage to say what he thinks of a bad thing.
The post whose finger we were following had Dundale inscribed on it,
and as we wound downward the scenery considerably improved. Woods on
our left sheltered us from the wind, and on our right were a number of pretty
hills. At the bottom—a bottom only reached after care and exertion, for
loose stones imperilled the safety of my horse’s knees, and I had besides to
spring about applying and regulating the brake—we found a farm with a
hop-kiln in the hollow on the left, and opposite it a convenient, indeed
attractive, field.
No other house was near. No populace. No iron bridge. No donkeys. No
barrel-organ. Stretches of corn, so ripe that though the sky had clouded over
they looked as if the sun were shining on them, alternated very pleasantly
with the green of the hop-fields, and portions of woods climbed up between
the folds of the hills. It was a sheltered spot, with a farm capable no doubt of
supplying food, but I feared that because it was only one o’clock my
pedantic companions, in defiance of the previous day’s experience, would
decline to camp. Taking therefore the law into my own hands I pulled up my
caravan in front of the farm gate. The Ilsa behind me was forced to pull up
too; and the Ailsa, in the very act of lumbering round the next corner, was
arrested by my loud and masterful Brrr.
“Anything wrong?” asked Lord Sigismund, running up from the back.
“What is it?” asked Menzies-Legh, coming toward me from the front.
Strange to say they listened to reason; and yet not strange, for I have
observed that whenever one makes up one’s mind beforehand and
unshakably other people give in. One must know what one wants—that is
the whole secret; and in a world of flux and shilly-shally the infrequent rock
is the only person who really gets it.
Jellaby (who seemed to think he was irresistible) volunteered to go to the
farmer and get permission to camp in the field, and I was pleased to see that
he made so doubtful an impression that the man came back with him before
granting anything, to find out whether the party belonging to this odd
emissary were respectable. I dare say he would have decided that we were
not had he only seen the others, for the gentlemen were in their shirt sleeves
again; but when he saw me, well and completely dressed, he had no further
hesitations. Readily he let us use the field, recommending a certain lower
portion of it on account of the nearness of the water, and then he prepared to
go back and, as he said, finish his dinner.
But we, who wanted dinner too, could not be content with nothing more
filling than a field, and began almost with one voice to talk to him of poultry.
He said he had none.
Of eggs.
He said he had none.
Of (anxiously) butter.
He said he had none. And he scratched his head and looked unintelligent
for a space, and then repeating that about finishing his dinner turned away.
I went with him.
“Take the caravans into the field and I will forage,” I called back, waving
my hand; for the idea of accompanying a man who was going to finish his
dinner exhilarated me into further masterfulness.
My rapid calculation was, as I kept step with him, he looking at me
sideways, that though it was very likely true he had not enough for ten it was
equally probable that he had plenty for one. Besides, he might be glad to let
an interesting stranger share the finishing of his no doubt lonely meal.
In the short transit from the lane to his back door (the front door was
choked with grass and weeds) I chatted agreeably and fluently about the
butter and eggs we desired to buy, adopting the “Come, come, my dear
fellow” tone, perhaps better described as the man to man form of appeal.
“Foreign?” said he, after I had thus flowed on, pausing on his doorstep as
though intending to part from me at that point.
“Yes, and proud of it,” said I, lifting my hat to my distant Fatherland.
“Ah,” said he. “No accountin’ for tastes.”
This was disappointing after I had thought we were getting on. Also it
was characteristically British. I would at once have resented it if with the
opening of the door the unfinished dinner had not, in the form of a most
appetizing odour, issued forth to within reach of my nostrils. To sit in a room
with shut windows at a table and dine, without preliminary labours, on food
that did not get cold between the plate and one’s mouth, seemed to me at that
moment a lot so blessed that tears almost came into my eyes.
“Do you never have—guests?” I asked, faltering but hurried, for he was
about to shut the door with me still on the wrong side of it.
He stared. Red-faced and over stout his very personal safety demanded
that he should not by himself finish that dinner.
“Guests?” he repeated stupidly. “No, I don’t have no guests.”
“Poor fellow,” said I.
“I don’t know about poor fellow,” said he, getting redder.
“Yes. Poor fellow. And poor fellow inasmuch as I suppose in this
secluded spot there are none to be had, and so you are prevented from
exercising the most privileged and noble of rites.”
“Oh, you’re one of them Social Democrats?”
“Social Democrats?” I echoed.
“Them chaps that go about talkin’ to us of rights, and wrongs too, till we
all get mad and discontented—which is pretty well all we ever do get,” he
added with a chuckle that was at the same time scornful. And he shut the
door.
Filled with the certitude that I had been misunderstood, and that if only
he could be made aware that he had one of the aristocracy of the first nation
in the world on his step willing to be his guest and that such a chance would
never in all human probability occur again he would be too delighted to
welcome me, I knocked vigorously.
“Let me in. I am hungry. You do not know who I am,” I called out.
“Well,” said he, opening the door a few inches after a period during
which I had continued knocking and he, as I could hear, had moved about
the room inside, “here’s a quarter of a pound of butter for you. I ain’t got no
more. It’s salt. I ain’t got no fresh. I send it away to the market as soon as it’s
made. It’ll be fourpence. Tell your party they can pay when they settle for
the field.”
And he thrust a bit of soft and oily butter lying on a piece of paper into
my hand and shut the door.
“Man,” I cried in desperation, rattling the handle, “you do not know who
I am. I am a gentleman—an officer—a nobleman——”
He bolted the door.
When I got back I found them encamped in a corner at the far end of the
field, as close into the shelter of a hedge as they could get, and my butter
was greeted with a shout (led by Jellaby) of laughter. He and the fledglings
at once started off on a fresh foraging expedition, on my advice in another
direction, but all they bore back with them was the promise, from another
farmer, of chickens next morning at six, and what is the good of chickens
next morning at six? It was my turn to shout, and so I did, but I seemed to
have little luck with my merriment, for the others were never merry at the
moment that I was, and I shouted alone.
Jellaby, pretending he did not know why I should, looked surprised and
said as usual, “Hullo, Baron, enjoying yourself?”
“Of course,” said I, smartly—“is not that what I have come to England
for?”
We dined that day on what was left of our bacon and some potatoes we
had over. An attempt which failed was made to fry the potatoes—“as a
pleasant change,” said Lord Sigismund good humouredly—but the wind was
so high that the fire could not be brought to frying pitch, so about three
o’clock we gave it up, and boiled them and ate them with butter and the
bacon, which was for some reason nobody understood half raw.
That was a bad day. I hope never to revisit Dundale. The field, which
began dry and short-grassed at the top of the slope, was every bit as deep and
damp by the time it got down to the corner we were obliged to camp in
because of the wind as the meadow by the Medway had been. We had the
hedge between us (theoretically) and the wind, but the wind took no notice
of the hedge. Also we had a black-looking brook of sluggish movement sunk
deep below some alders and brambles at our side, and infested, it appeared,
with a virulent species of fly or other animal, for while we were wondering
(at least I was) what we were going to do to pass the hours before bed time,
and what (if any) supper there would be, and reflecting (at least I was) on the
depressing size and greenness of the field and on the way the threatening
clouds hung lower and lower over our heads, the fledgling Jumps appeared,
struggling up from the brook through the blackberry bushes, and crying that
she had been stung by some beast or beasts unknown, flung herself down on
the grass and immediately began to swell.
Everybody was in consternation, and I must say so was I, for I have never
seen anything to equal the rapidity of her swelling. Her face and hands even
as she lay there became covered with large red, raised blotches, and judging
from her incoherent remarks the same thing was happening over the rest of
her. It occurred to me that if she could not soon be stopped from further
swelling the very worst thing might be anticipated, and I expressed my fears
to Menzies-Legh.
“Nonsense,” said he, quite sharply; but I overlooked it because he was
obviously in his heart thinking the same thing.
They got her into the Ilsa and put her, I was informed, to bed; and
presently, just as I was expecting to be scattered with the other gentlemen in
all directions in search of a doctor, Mrs. Menzies-Legh appeared in the
doorway and said that Jumps had been able to gasp out, between her wild
scratchings, that when anything stung her she always swelled, and the only
thing to do was to let her scratch undisturbed until such time as she should
contract to her ordinary size again.
Immensely relieved, for a search for a doctor in hedges and ditches would
surely have been a thing of little profit and much fatigue, I sat down in one
of the only three chairs that were at all comfortable and spent the rest of the
afternoon in fitful argument with Jellaby as he came and went, and in
sustained, and not, I trust, unsuccessful efforts to establish my friendship
with Lord Sigismund on such a footing that an invitation to meet his Serene
Aunt, the Princess of Grossburg-Niederhausen, would be the harmonious
result.
The ladies were busied devising methods for the more rapid relief of the
unhappy and still obstinately swollen fledgling.
There was no supper except ginger-biscuits.
“You can’t expect it,” said Edelgard, when I asked her (very distantly)
about it, “with sickness in the house.”
“What house?” I retorted, pardonably snappy.
I hope never to revisit Dundale.
CHAPTER X
“When a lady,” I said with great distinctness, “has cooked for fourteen
years without interruption—ever since, that is, she was sixteen—one may
safely at thirty leave it always in her hands.”
“Monstrous,” said he.
At first I thought he was in some way alluding to her age, and to the fact
that he had been deceived into supposing her young.
“What is monstrous?” I inquired, as he did not add anything.
“Why should she cook for us? Why should she come out in the wet to
cook for us? Why should any woman cook for fourteen years without
interruption?”
“She did it joyfully, Jellaby, for the comfort and sustenance of her
husband, as every virtuous woman ought.”
“I think,” said he, “it would choke me.”
“What would choke you?”
“Food produced by the unceasing labour of my wife. Why should she be
treated as a servant when she gets neither wages nor the privilege of giving
notice and going away?”
“No wages? Her wages, young gentleman, are the knowledge that she has
done her duty to her husband.”
“Thin, thin,” he murmured, digging his fork into the nearest sausage.
“And as for going away, I must say I am surprised you should connect
such a thought with any respectable lady.”
Indeed, what he said was so ridiculous, and so young, and so on the face
of it unmarried that in my displeasure I moved the umbrella for a moment far
enough to one side to allow the larger drops collected on its metal tips to fall
on to his bent and practically collarless (he wore a flannel shirt with some
loose apology for a collar of the same material) neck.
“Hullo,” he said, “you’re letting the sausages get wet.”
“You talk, Jellaby,” I resumed, obliged to hold the umbrella on its original
position again and forcing myself to speak calmly, “in great ignorance. What
can you know of marriage? Whereas I am very fully qualified to speak, for I
have had, as you may not perhaps know, the families scheduled in the Gotha
Almanach being unlikely to come within the range of your acquaintance, two
wives.”
I must of course have been mistaken, but I did fancy I heard him say,
partly concealing it under his breath, “God help them,” and naturally greatly
startled I said very stiffly, “I beg your pardon?”
But he only mumbled unintelligibly over his pan, so that no doubt I had
done him an injustice; and the sausages being, as he said (not without a note
of defiance in his voice), ready, which meant that for some reason or other
they had one and all come out of their skins (which lay still pink in limp and
lifeless groups about the pan), and were now mere masses of minced meat,
he rose up from his crouching attitude, ladled them by means of a spoon into
a dish, requested my umbrella’s continued company, and proceeded to make
the round of caravans, holding them up at each window in turn while the
ladies helped themselves from within.
“And us?” I said at last, for when he had been to the third he began to
return once more to the first—“and us?”
“Us will get some presently,” he replied—I cannot think grammatically—
holding up the already sadly reduced dish at the Ilsa’s window.
Frau von Eckthum, however, smiled and shook her head, and very luckily
the sick fledgling, so it appeared, still turned with loathing from all
nourishment. Lord Sigismund was following us round with the potato puree,
and in return for being waited on in this manner, a manner that can only be
described as hand and foot, Edelgard deigned to give us cups of coffee
through her window and Mrs. Menzies-Legh slices of buttered bread through
hers.
Perhaps my friends will have noted the curious insistence and patience
with which we drank coffee. I can hear them say, “Why this continuous
coffee?” I can hear them also inquire, “Where was the wine, then, that
beverage for gentlemen, or the beer, that beverage for the man of muscle and
marrow?”
The answer to that is, Nowhere. None of them drank anything more
convivial than water or that strange liquid, seemingly so alert and full of
promise, ginger-beer, and to drink alone was not quite what I cared for.
There was Frau von Eckthum, for instance, looking on, and she had very
early in the tour expressed surprise that anybody should ever want to drink
what she called intoxicants.
“My dear lady,” I had protested—tenderly, though—“you would not have
a man drink milk?”
“Why not?” said she; but even when she is stupid she does not for an
instant cease to be attractive.
On the march I often could make up for abstinences in between by going
inside the inns outside which the gritless others lunched on bananas and
milk, and privately drinking an honest mug of beer.
You, my friends, will naturally inquire, “Why privately?”
Well, I was in the minority, a position that tends to take the kick, at least
the open kick, out of a man—in fact, since my wife’s desertion I occupied
the entire minority all by myself; then I am a considerate man, and do not
like to go against the grain (other people’s grain), remembering how much I
feel it when other people go against mine; and finally (and this you will not
understand, for I know you do not like her), there was always Frau von
Eckthum looking on.
CHAPTER XI
T HAT night the rain changed its character, threw off the pretence of being
only a mist, and poured in loud cracking drops on to the roof of the
caravan. It made such a noise that it actually woke me, and lighting a
match I discovered that it was three o’clock and that why I had had an
unpleasant dream—I thought I was having a bath—was that the wet was
coming through the boarding and descending in slow and regular splashings
on my head.
This was melancholy. At three o’clock a man has little initiative, and I
was unable to think of putting my pillow at the bottom of the bed where
there was no wet, though in the morning, when I found Edelgard had done
so, it instantly occurred to me. But after all if I had thought of it one of my
ends was bound in any case to get wet, and though my head would have
been dry my feet (if doctors are to be believed far more sensitive organs)
would have got the splashings. Besides, I was not altogether helpless in the
face of this new calamity: after shouting to Edelgard to tell her I was awake
and, although presumably indoors, yet somehow in the rain—for indeed it
surprised me—and receiving no answer, either because she did not hear,
owing to the terrific noise on the roof, or because she would not hear, or
because she was asleep, I rose and fetched my sponge bag (a new and roomy
one), emptied it of its contents, and placed my head inside it in their stead.
I submit this was resourcefulness. A sponge bag is but a little thing, and
to remember it is also but a little thing, but it is little things such as these that
have won the decisive battles of the world and are the finger-posts to the
qualities in a man that would win more decisive battles if only he were given
a chance. Many a great general, many a great victory, have been lost to our
Empire owing to its inability to see the promise contained in some of its
majors and its consequent dilatoriness in properly promoting them.
How the rain rattled. Even through the muffling sponge bag I could hear
it. The thought of Jellaby in his watery tent on such a night, gradually, as the
hours went on, ceasing to lie and beginning to float, would have amused me
if it had not been that poor Lord Sigismund, nolens volens, must needs float
too.