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The eight clauses of the IGTU trade agreement.
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These were collectively negotiated by the Intra-Galactic Transport Union in
conflict with a joint governmental committee representing all the Federal,
Imperial, and Independent worlds settled at the time, all of which then used
the resulting agreement as a basis for new trade and commerce legislation.

It was the second occasion (and still the last one) where all known worlds
have managed to reach _any_ agreement whatever, and it would probably not
have been possible without the preceding general strike, by which the union
almost completely isolated 95% of all settled worlds.  That was the only way
to make _all_ regimes aware that the old legislation made huge unemployment
unavoidable for spacemen, to an extent simply not acceptable.

The eight main clauses of the negotiated agreement are summarized below:

1:  It is now legal to hire any available number of crew in a starport, even
    if this number exceeds the normal complement of the ship currently owned
    by the employer.


2:  It is possible to launch ship with extra crew, beyond normal complement,
    but then each such crew member needs to have a free passenger cabin. The
    cabins are still listed as free, but if you use them for passengers you
    must get more for the extra crew, or fire them.  Else you can't launch.


3:  It is possible to launch ship with less than normal crew complement,
    provided that missing employees are compensated for by passengers.
    These will still demand cabins, as they are paying customers, even
    though they do agree to help out with some of the work aboard. This
    is mainly intended as an emergency measure, to allow a ship needing
    more crewmen to reach a port where these are available.


4:  In order to minimize administrative costs for ship commanders, and to
    avoid unfair wages, it has been agreed that all staff hired after the
    first twenty employees shall each have a salary which is the average
    of what each of those first twenty receive.


5:  To improve job security, it is also agreed that firing of staff must
    occur in reverse order of seniority.  This is handled by each local
    union chapter on each ship, so a commander simply hands the notice to
    one of the elder employees, who then passes it to the correct party
    to be dismissed.  This rule only applies to ships with more than 20
    employees, so that smaller (more sensitive) entrepreneurs can still
    retain some choice of their staff when times are bad, holding on to
    the most valued staff even when forced to let the others go.


6:  To reduce the number of spacecraft accidents and rectify the severe
    unemployment in some places (especially Empire worlds) it is agreed
    that the crew complement of some ships is now raised to those that
    were intended by the original ship designers. The dispensations that
    were given earlier (especially in the Empire) to use smaller crews
    have been proven ill motivated, and are hereby abolished.  This has
    the effect on spacehip crew requirements as specified below:

Spaceship type:         Former crew:    Future crew:
---------------         ------------    ------------
Imperial Courier                 1               3
Imperial Trader                  1               6
Anaconda Freighter               8              10
Puma Clipper                     9              11
Boa Freighter                   10              12
Panther Clipper                 12              15

In all cases the specified crew includes the commander, and due to clause
3 above, also any passengers (if any) that are needed to reach complement.
A ship will not be allowed to launch if the number of people aboard is less
than the complement stated in the "Future crew" column, except for ships
that were outfitted previous to the new legislation.  That exception was
(grudgingly) agrreed on by the IGTU only after investigation revealed that
most such ships lack the necessary lodgings for an increased crew.


7:  As privately owned 'Lynx Bulk Carriers' are now available, these are
    taking over more varied forms of trade than before, handling other
    types of cargo than these ships were originally designed for, which
    was mainly for the shipping of grain and other foodstuffs. For that
    reason it has been agreed to increase the crew complement of these
    ships (despite protests from the Imperial delegates), as follows:

Spaceship type:         Former crew:    Future crew:
---------------         ------------    ------------
Lynx Bulk Carrier               20              25


8:  At special request by the union chapters of the Empire, and with the
    full and unanimous backing of the entire IGTU, it is demanded that
    an investigation be started into the insane dispensations given to
    Empire pilots. Large ships like the 'Courier' and 'Trader' obviously
    can't be handled safely by a single man, and it is strongly suspected
    that bribery and other severe corruption lies behind this situation.

NB: This demand demand gained the unanimous support also of all Federal
    and Independent delegates, so despite the protests of the Imperial
    delegates they too were forced to accept its inclusion as a clause
    of the new agreement.


In regard to clause 8 above, the IGTU issued the following warning:

    If strict measures are not taken against the responsible parties,
    then the Empire must prepare itself for another general strike, this
    time directed unilaterally against them...!

Footnote:
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This has raised hopes among some groups of the Federation Expansionist Party
(aka: 'FEP-Hawks') of a situation that could be exploited to 'kill off' the
Empire, but it is doubtful that even Imperial bureaucrats can be so corrupt
as to let that happen, unless (of course) the Imperial family was directly
involved in the scandal.  (So that is what 'FEP-Hawks' now hope for...)

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