eo

| a

ta : €se are killer mines. They
ys been.” This is the
‘ tit On of oldtimers at Spring-
|. Who recall the first great
; he in 1891 which claimed
EVES,

i Sole Griffin notes in

the aa British Columbia:
rm fople’s Early Story, in
~? When Vancouver Island
nes Were shown to be among
. dangerous in the
» With an annual death
“Of 3.32 per thousand men

ved, Nova Scotia mines
‘, 4 €ven higher death rate

Se mberland mine at
‘ a ill Was one of the “kill-
i. > that contributed to
; Peeling figure.

he almost 80 years it has
M operation it has taken

Ves of more than 1,000
ers,

] Bs Mine was condemned as
Moy ous” by a federal
YY Bue Commission in 1946,
Ips 10 years later, after the
_isaster had added the
be 3 of another 39 men to
fo fath lists, Sam _ White-
Tnitio, miner, reported that
ley; + had steadily de-

a to have to clear
i! Ng é Y the boxes (carts) as
Nay ‘ the coal in. Now those
| ity sae Piled with old props
Hm, bers which should be
bby, Out. To get out in a
| bt i You have to climb in
| he . them or climb over
ig rs, Sometimes there isn’t

“Af
He the 1956 disaster the
Nea Tribune called for
A | on “og investigation.
HNMin, |, {eMands of the United
Ae orkers of America for
these DE Probe should be
eter he present plan for
tl, mal Inquiry into Spring-
Iti, Ud be extended to all
an Bons across the
ap. tt» wrote,
Hy se hearings should be
i Vite the miners themselves
Pix. ® give testimony. Ot-
; Math, pete show that mine
utah second only to
a Wing as the highest
6 ‘s Industrial fatalities
a © country.
ae of eesation for the fam-
: Aeauat who died should
Ty € and generous...
5 the Prevent repetition of
q stration t tragedy the in-
YY rea) Should be followed
simp, ction, policed by the
11, top Mt and the unions, in
! Ni f a drastic improve-
Safety conditions in
inate * et the companies
CONE or suffer the full
es of the law.”

Ww
fh. hat happened? The

commission of inquiry set up
waited a full 13 months be-
fore it reported. -

In December 1957 it found
that the explosion had been
caused by the dangerous loca-
tion of an electric cable down
in the mine’s depts.

It reported that officials of
the provincial mines depart-
ment and the company knew
cf this condition for some time,
but that “no blame could be
attached to anyone.”

Once again an investigation
became a whitewash for the
company which is owned by
the rich Dominion Steel and
Coal Corporation, now con-
trolled by the A. V. Roe inter-
ests. :

Since then Dosco has been
concerning itself not with the
safety of its workers, but with
increasing their productivity.

Continued

‘MORGAN

“Only the fact that there is
no such constitutional provi-
sion is saving Bonner from
impeachment or recall. He has
forfeited public confidence.”

Morgan demanded that all
forest management licences
issued during Sommers’ term
of office should be reopened.

“The LPP warned when the
forest management licence
scheme was first promised that
granting in perpetuity of such
fabulous giveaways would
open the door to bribery and
corruption,” he said. “In view
of what the Sommers case hias
disclosed, the whole policy
should be re-examined.”

H-tests topic
at peace meet

TORONTO — Main topic
for discussion when the na-
tional council of the Canadian
Peace Congress meets here this
weekend will be organization
of a nation-wide campaign
around the issue of stopping
all nuclear tests.

xt xt x

In Downtown Vancouver last
Saturday some 40 members of
B.C. Peace Council and sym-
pathizers demonstrated with
slogans calling attention to
current Geneva discussions of
halting nuclear tests. Slogans
urged passersby: “Protect your
children — Stop the H-tests.”

“People were very sympa~
thetic,” demonstrators reported.

Latest figures show that in
its collieries, output per man
shift was increased from 2.82
tons in 1957 to 2.93 net tons in
the period from January to
July this year.

Through its chairman, Sir
Roy Dobson, the parent com-
pany reported four days after
the tragedy that sales and
profits were running “a. bit
ahead” of the same period last
year.

Dobson noted that there
were bright spots in the out-
look for coal marketing for
Dosco.

Could this latest disaster
have been averted? In the
opinion of Charles Lipton,
writing in the Canadian Trib-
une of November 3, it could.
He says:

“At Springhill, the coal
seams are 4% to 10 feet thick.
They are separated by shale
ranging in depths from 70 to
100 feet. Much of this shale
consists of sandstone and rock.

“Dr, G. C. Cummings, pro-
fessor of geology at Dalhousie
University, describes the sand-
stone rock in this area as

HEY WERE ALWAYS KILLER MINES’

ho’s to blame for Springhill ?

being ‘very weak.’
“On the spot reporters state:
‘Often a coal seam fractures

C.S. Jackson (above) has been
re-elected for a 22nd term of
office as president of United
Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America. Also re-
elected at the UE convention
in Toronto last week were
Jean Pare, vice - president;
George Harris, secretary-treas-
urer; Ross Russell, director of
organization.

Workers in the four main
Vancouver and Victoria ship-
yards have voted to reject a
conciliation officer’s proposal
for a 6 percent wage increase.
Nineteen unions are involved
in the dispute.

This week, attempting to
justify employer’s refusal to
reopen talks with the unions,
J. W. Hudson, chairman of B.C.
Shipbuilders Federation, as-
serted that B.C. shipyard un-
ions were “pricing themselves
out of jobs and the industry
out of the market.”

He asserted that high wages,
“30 percent above those paid
in the east.” were diverting
nearly all orders to eastern
yards.

Union spokesmen, who. re-
gard the federation’s attitude
as reflecting the employers’
concerted campaign against la-
bor, contend that North Bur-
rard in Vancouver, Yarrows
and Victoria Machine Depot in
Victoria, “have been living. for
the past five years on govern-
ment contracts and doing very
well at it.” The say that al-
though some wage categories
are higher in B.C. yards, la-
bor costs generally are lower.

And they point to the fact

Shipbuilders’ claim
spiked by profits

that Burrard Enterprises, which
owns both Burrard Dry Dock
and Yarrows, has shown a
steadily increasing profit each
year since 1950.

under pressure after coal has
been dug out.’

“Provincial Mines Inspector
Hiram Thompson says: ‘Six
major rock shifts were re-
ceived between mid-March and
the end of August this year
(1958). They caused injuries
to 14 miners.’ Pit No. 2 is
said to be very susceptible to
earth tremors.

“All this an accident?

“No. What is involved is not
an accident, but the blind
greed of the profit system.”

Among the messages from
labor organizations sent to the
United Mine Workers’ local: at

Springhill is this from the na-,

tional executive of the Labor-
Progressive Party:

“In this situation, over and
above the material assistance
which the families of those who
lost their lives, need and
receive, public opinion must
be aroused and won in support
to measures to further
strengthen safety regulations
in the mines, so as to prevent
recurrence of such disasters,
insofar as humanly possible. '

“But in addition, the mining
corporations ought to be com-
pelled by law to establish a
disaster fund for the protec-
tion of the miners and of the
families of those who become
victims of such terrible catas-
trophies.

“Neither the miners nor
their families should have to
rely on charity to meet con-
tingencies such as this. one.
They should be protected, as
far as it is possible to do so
by law, in view of the hazard-
ous nature of their employ-
ment.”

40th anniversary
CONCERT
Majestic Theatre

20 West Hastings Street

Sunday, November 16 — 8 p.m.

Colorful: program of Ukrainian
music, songs and dances

starting at 6:30 p.m.

BANQUET

In conjunction with the AUUC provincial conven-
tion, a banquet will be held at the Ukrainian Hall,
805 East Pender Street, on Saturday, November 15,

Attend these two events celebrating
the 40th anniversary of the Association
of United Ukrainian Canadians

November 7, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3

a