Zooming food costs were mainly responsible for
Vancouver's cost-of-living index jumping another 3.5
-pomts in July to hit an all-time high of 188.8 as
against 169.0 just one year ago.: ~

Harassed housewives, unable to afford beefsteaks
(which sell for uranium prices these days), unwill

to the beef shortage) and faced with rapidly rising
costs of other essential foods, are seeking a way to
fight back against the profiteers,

Milk—that basic food now selling for 19 cents
a quart—may soon retail at 26 or 27 cents if dis-
tributors are allowed to’ pass on to the overburdened
consumer the dairymen’s demand for a boost of $1.50
for each 10 gallons.

A fight-back conference against high prices, spon-
sored by Congress of Canadian Women, will be
held on Friday, August 31, at 7.30 p.m. in the
Electrical Workers Centre, 111 Dunsmuir Street.
More than 750 calls to the conference have been
mailed to trade union locals, community organizations
etc., and delegate credentials are beginning to come
in. Five citizens, anywhere, can send a delegate,
and interested individuals will be welcomed as ob-
servers.

Among the organizations which have already
elected delegates are: Lithuanian Literary Society,
Bricklayers Union, Women’s Auxiliary of the Bro-
therhood of Railway Trainmen, Lettish Organiza-
tion, Civic Employees Union, and a group in Trail.
A group of West End women are meeting next
week to elect delegates and set up a branch of Con-
gress of Canadian Women.

Victoria Old Age Pensioners organization has
written wishing the conference every success, and
regretting inability to finance a delegate. Delegates
are expected from Steveston and Langley. Prairie
as a result of correspondence with these places. In-
dications are that the conference call will result in
large delegations from many provincial points.

At the prices parley the following program will
be submitted for discussion:

® Producer subsidies on essentials such as milk.
® 100 percent Excess Profits Tax (everything
above 4 percent)—take the profit out of high prices
—provide the money for subsidies.
@ Revision of the basis of the cost of living index.
@ Embargo on beef to the United States: no
meat out of the country until our needs are met.

“This program is not hard and fast,” emphasizes
the conference call. “It is, however, considered to
be a good general basis for action on the problem.
Any proposals which will be of assistance in the
fight to change the present trend of steady lowering
of our living standard will be welcomed.

“The main thing is—action is now overdue. Let
us get together and agree on a constructive course of
action in our common interests,’’

ing to eat horsemeat (the government’s feeble answer -

People fight profiteering,
parley to plan campaign

i ther
‘= ? - 160,270 votes to top eight 0
= foe contestants. She won a Lang
= MAV E cedar chest as first prize.
0 Other contestants finished in the
#102, 0087 following order: .
‘ \

Five thousand a
attend annual |
labor picnic =

Morning showers and threaten- —
ing skies kept early crowds away
from the annual United- Labor
Picnic in Confederation Park last
Sunday. At noon scarcely 1,000
people were on the grounds. TWO
hours later the crowd had swell-
ed to 3,000 and when the sun
finally peeped out from behind #
cloud at 4 p.m. there were fully
5,000 citizens jamming the mid- —
way and gathered around the
wrestling ring. . ee

“The best labor picnic in years;
is the way manager Elgin Rud-—
dell summed it up.

Crowned “Miss B.C. Labor” for
1951 was Miss Audrey Brandon of
North Vancouver, who polled

Miss Woodworker (Doreen At -
senault), 104,000 votes; Miss But
I} rard (Sylvia Friedman) 92,664
Miss East End (Margaret Rud-
kevich), 87,542; Miss South Van-
couver (Freda Lehan), 80,504;
Miss Hastings East (Grace Stev-
‘ens), 62,088; Miss Labor Youth
(Mary Thomas), 50,773; Miss
Burnaby (Pamela Noel), 49,892:
and Miss Shipyard Worker (Bat-
bara Stewart), 46,700. All the
girls received consolation prizes-
Picnic awards saw first prize
an electric refrigerator, go to H.
Seland, 6 West 11th; a wool blan-.
ket, L. Peabody, 423 East 17th;
twin lamps, J. Barrett, 938 West
16th; folding umbrella, Russ Lat
son, 599 East Broadway; and #
crib board in leather case, Pat
Anderson, 3874 West 16th.

Mak acmee eae

—

Let's keep it

President Ed Smith of Local 28, Vancouver
Civic Employees Union, isn’t
Trades and Labor Congress convention in
Halifax next month with a chip on his
shoulder — but he isn’t
either.

a =

When Smith delivers his appeal on the
convention floor against the Suspension of

the union, and also appeals individually for
_ the reinstatement of 113 suspended members,
he’ll be talking straight from the shbdulder,

“mercy.”

This week the union's executive board is-
sued a call to a rank-and-file job conference
to be held this coming Saturday, August 18,
Purpose of the parley is to establish “Protect
the Union” ‘committees on all jobs, in order

TLC convention.

'Union leaders are fully aware that the

going to the. mend reinstatement.

Local 28 to set up|
‘Protect Union’ groups

TLC executive council is not likely to recom- =
That body has already —
set up a dual union, frozen $13,000 of Local
28’s bank funds, hired full-time organizers
going cap-in-hand, to try and build their splinter group and is-
sued company union literature.

“If our suspension becomes permanent,”
notes the ‘conference call, “the union will
Mo longer be an affiliate of the TLC, This
will mean that our employers will raise the

ng s question of our certification with the Labor
asking for justice but not Pleading for. Relations Board, which will,

lead to decertification,

we will simply re-sign
lecting a small initiation
that would normally pb,
month, and apply for re-certification.

In fighting mood, the
to guarantee that the union will remain as continues:
an organized body of workers, regardless of Deginning, and maintained
any unfavorable decision arrived at by the Years, by the workers on

: started with the workers
to the workers on the j
with the workers on the

most likely,
Should this happen
our members, col- ?
in place of the dues

e collected in that

nie c union statement
This union was organized in the

a)
: COM eck

these past 40 >
the job. The union
on the job, belongs
ob and will remain
job.”

~C A 1)

rolling along

Hichory, dickory dock,

Our sub sales hit the top.
An extra 10 we'll get again—
Now’s no time to stop!

From next week until the end
of September, every sub turned
in will be included in the drive
for 1000 new subscriptions and
renewals by that date. Far from
slipping back, the weekly total —
must bound upward. This week
we hit a high mark of :

Ne
| | 3 |

RE SDT IE ee

Street sales will count, too, in

the sub drive. Every bundle of
25 subs ordered by press clubs
for street sales or house-to-house
canvassing will be credited as @
sub. Our aim is to increase our —
press run by at least 1,000 in the
next six weeks, and more subs

and street sales is the way to do
it.

Ship and Steel, with 4 subs,
and Kitsilano with 3 led the press —
Parade this week. Other city —
press clubs on the scoreboard are
Fairview, Building Trades, North
Vancouver, Niilo Makela, Victory —
Square, Norquay, West End, Elec-
trical, Grandview, Waterfront
and A. E. Smith.

Provincial press clubs sending
in subs were New: Westminster,
Trail, Salmon Arm and Websters
Corners. :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 17, 1951 — PAGE oF