(Neville Hamilton was one of about
40 Canadians who visited California
June 4th to 8th to “see for them-
selves” as well as support the
Farm Workers’ Union. He is Public
Relations Director of the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Pulp, Sul-

phite and Paper Mill Workers in
Canada)

Sk:

The CBC special on Sun-
day, June 14th, which ex-
amined the California farm-
worker strike and boycott il-
lustrated one thing, if nothing
else, and that is that there is
a very real need for the CBC
to find some competent labor
reporters to handle assign-
ments such as this.

Commentator Laurie Jen-
nings may have given the ap-
pearance of trying to be fair
about the problem of the strik-
ing grape pickets, but he failed
in his assignment because he
failed to get answers to the
question of why the growers
won't recognize Cesar Chavez’
Union.

Like To Sit Back

He seemed intent on chal-
lenging the sense of Canadian
participation in the problems
of California farmworkers.
Like so many other people
who like to sit back and take
spotshots at the passing scene,
he stressed that there were
greater problems in Canada

and

By NEVILLE HAMILTON

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ae

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

why weren’t Canadians
concentrating on Canadian
problems. I just hope that

after expressing so much con-
cern for the problems of Can-

ada’s exploited that Mr. Jen-
nings is spearheading the
drive to organize farmworkers

in the Niagara peninsular. (If
he is I’m ready to help.)

The point which Mr. Jen-
nings missed, and any good
labour reporter would spot it
as the key to the whole story,
is that the farmworkers of
California have a pretty sub-
stanial organization, that they
are seeking ways to share in
the prosperity of California
agriculture, that they have
been forced to bring economic
sanctions in the form of a boy-
cott against the growers to
win recognition, that Cana-
dians as major consumers of
California grapes have been
asked to support the boycott
and that it is the Canadian
as a responsible consumer
who is being challenged to
get involved in the economic

- struggle which is the centre

of the labour dispute between
the union and the growers.

Another Failing

Mr. Jennings has another
failing. It doesn’t seem pos-

sible that he looked at his own
film footage before he did his
commentary.

If he had looked at his own
film and seen the hundreds of
workers singing “We shall
overcome” he surely couldn’t
have said the workers don’t
support Chavez.

Different View

If, on the other hand, he
had come into the vineyards
of Coachella in the dawn of
morning and talked with the
workers I talked to a couple
of weeks ago, he would have
had a different view of what
the workers want.

Within three-quarters of an
hour I talked to at least 20
workers who were still at
work but who want the Farm-
workers’ Union headed by
Chavez. They were still in the
fields because they are still
scared of the growers, it’s as
plain and simple as that.

Group Action

Without a history of union
solidarity, some of these peo-
ple have yet to learn the real
strength of group action. But
they are learning and you see
small groups of workers leave
the fields every day. I’m sur-
prised that Mr. Jennings

didn’t find any of these people
to talk to.

Finally, if he had wanted to
make some comparisons about
unionized and non-unionized
farms he should have talked
to some workers at the Schen-
ley vineyards where there is
a union contract. The base
rate at the union farm is
$1.90 per hour compared to
the $1.65 per hour wage paid
at the unorganized vineyards.

. Inadequate Job

Although Mr. Jennings and
producer Doug Lower must
accept the blame for what was
an inadequate job, their fail-
ure to handle the assignment
is symptomatic of the contin-
uing inability of the CBC to

properly cover major labor is-
sues.

The real clincher came at
the end of the program when
an announcer reported that
talks between 10 of the grow-
ers and the union had started
but had broken off “late last
week.” While the Country
Calendar program may have
suffered because of some ser-
ious omissions, this last piece
of reportage was just bad,
sloppy reporting. When the
CBC broadcast this report the
talks hadn’t really started.
Both sides were awaiting the
arrival of a federal mediation
officer.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

1st Mill operator: “You say
you’re looking for a cashier?
I thought you hired one last
month?”
2nd Mill operator: “That’s
the one I’m looking for!”
% . rE
Chokerman Charlie says the
food is so bad in the local
cafeteria that he could get
more nourishment from biting
his lip.
Ko Ke ek
Kamloops Katie says that
poverty is often a state of
mind induced by your neigh-
bor’s new car.

A chaperone, according to
Kamloops Katie, is one who
could never make the team
but is still in there intercept-
in sses.

os Ke ek

Chokerman Charlie says a
naive father is one who thinks
his daughter is a good girl
because she always returns
from a date with a Gideon
Bible under arm.

Ki Fk

Kamloops Katie says she’s
got a friend who is so cheap
she talks through her nose to

save wear and tear on her
teeth.

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