Native’s case TERRACE, B.C. Phyllis Johnson, Native cannery worker and member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, has won a settlement for $1,250 after a long and involved case resulting from the accidental death of her husband in 1951, which the UFAWU and counsel John Stanton have been fighting since the woman applied to the union for aid early in 1955. Mrs. Johnson’s husband was killed in an accident Decem- ber 24, 1951, leaving her vir- tually penniless with three small children. No criminal charges were laid against the driver of the truck which struck Johnsor, but a civil action on behalf of the widow was launched and later a deal was apparently made to pay her $1,250. More than two years passed before Mrs. Johnson, having failed to receive her money, appealed to the UFAWU for help. Union counsel John Stanton immediately began a lengthy battle to cut through the red tape and have the files of the case brought out of mothballs. Under terms of the settle- ment the children’s money has gone into Dominion of Can- ada bonds, to be held with ac- cumulated interest by the federal department of citizen- ship and immigration_till the children reach the age of 21 years. Mrs. Johnson sent the fol- lowing letter to union counsel John Stanton, asking that it be published in the union paper: “First of all, I ant going to tell you how happy I am. I received the chequé you sent and what else can I think of to say to you except to thank you for all the trouble you’ve been. through, “Why do you do this? It is because the union got you to work for it and another thing I want to say about it: I am ever so happy and thankful that I am a member of, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’. Union.. I promise that whenever I start working again, maybe next year, as this is the second summer I did not work at the cannery, I will continue to pay my dues. “For the rest of my life I will not forget this, what hap- pened to me during the sad and helpless life I’ve been leading ever since I’ve been alone with my children trying to bring them up. “It is like my prayer has been answered since writing to you in January, 1955, since you got it in your hands. “You can also tell Mr. Alex Gordon for me that I am well satisfied about all this and I have nothing else to say ex- cept I thank you and him very much for doing this for me.” Mrs. Zucco asks women to back her fight While Mrs. Bea Zucco con- tinues her sitdown campaign on the steps of the parliament buildings in Victoria, the com- pensation battle of silicotic ex-miner Jack Zucco moved into the Supreme Court of British Columbia as lawyer John Stanton started suit against the Workmen’s Com- pensation Board to establish BCE acts first and asks later NEW WESTMINSTER, B. C. B.C. Electric in a letter to city council here politely re- quested permission to lay a gas pipeline across a road leading from Columbia Street to the Great Northern station —but a few questions revealed that the pipeline had already been installed ! : Noting that the BCE had gone ahead without receiving permission, Mayot F. H. Jackson instructed the city solicitor and engineer to investigate. Ald. Elizabeth Wood flayed the methods used in breaking up city streets to lay gas mains, and said that “once the pavement is broken up no re- pair can restore it to former standards.” Miner's wife on Victoria sitdown By MYRTLE BERGREN VICTORIA, B.C. It was cold and the fog was dense in Victoria the morn- ing I walked down to the Par- liament Buildings to meet Mrs. Bea Zucco, a_ silicotic miner’s wife who is conduct- ing a sitdown on the cold steps of the parliament buildings in an attempt to compel the gov- ernment to reconsider her husband’s compensation claim. As the immense grey build- ings loomed out of the fog I found her, a thin young wo- man huddled on the huge steps. I shook her hand, and ex- pressed my admiration for her courage. This is the plucky woman who gained provincial recognition and became a thorn of embarrassment to the Bennett government some months ago by staging sit- downs at the Workmen’s Com- pensation. Board office in Van- couver and the parliament buildings in Victoria in an ef- fort to obtain a WCB pension for her sick husband, Jack Hospital in Vancouver. “There*is indisputable evi- dence that my husband has silicosis,’ Mrs. Zucco told me. A young CCF candidate in the elections was talking to Mrs. Zucco when came up, and during the next hour, as we discussed her case, several people strolling by stopped to shake her hand and ex- press admiration for her cour- age and wishes for her success. “I went to see Premier Ben- nett the day of the great PGE opening,” said Mrs. Zucco. “He lost his smile when he saw me, and when I asked for an interview said the case was being investigated, and he had to hurry to catch a train.” Mrs. Zucco is the mother of four children, Margaret 14, Johnny 12, Sylvia 7, and Dor- othy 4. They are at present staying with friends in Cast- legar. Mrs. Zucco has not been well herself this past summer, and on her slim resources it will be difficult to regain her health. . But she has barn- Zucco, a patient in Pearsonstormed the province, speak- Sing to labor audiences and bringing the plight of silicosis victims to the attention of people everywhere. The night before I saw her she had slept in the back seat of her car in front of the par- liament buildings, but she was planning to spend succeeding nights at the home of one of Victoria’s many citizens who had offered her sleeping ac- commodation. . “T am not satisfied with the government’s so - called in- vestigation,” she told me. “I haven’t swallowed Labor Min- ister Wick’s bucket of white- wash, “If there’s one thing I’d like you to do, it is to appeal to the women of this province to help fight this case. Remind them that they could be in the same position some day. If anything happened to their husbands, the government can find plenty of loopholes in the Workmen’s Compensation Act, the way it stands now. It is time the act was re- written,” Union wins Supreme Court battle opens to wi compensation for silicotic ex-miné Zucco’s claim for silicosis com- pensation. The statement of claim de- scribed Jack Zusco as “a wholly disabled miner’ now in Pearson Hospital, Vancou- ver. On March 20 the WCB “de- cided that the plaintiff (Zuc- co) did not suffer from sili- cosis and accordingly disallow- ed a claim made by him for disability.” Zucco appealed the decision in May under Section 54A of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. On July 4 Dr. Arne K. Mathisen, a _ specialist duly appointed to act under Sec- tion 54A, certified that Zucco suffered from silicosis and is totally disabled thereby. Section 54A of the WCA says that in such cases the specialist’s certificate ~“shall be conclusive as to the mat- ters cértified” but in Zucco’s case the Workmen’s .Compen- One voter who conducted her own election cut the steps of the legislature was Mrs. Bea a staged. a sitdown to draw public attention 4 fight for compensation. (See stories on this P# SEPTEMBER 21, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIB ‘peal and of reversing the @ 7M will not disabled. ° “(This) unlawful deeisil had the immediate effett disallowing the plaintif’s™ | * tification and of disallo the plaintiff's application a silicosis pension,” Say® statement of claim. # y At the trial Zucco’s cal will ask the court to set@, the WCB decision, ordel | board to accept the specl# certification as binding direct it to award guee silicosis pension. il tht Sh may begin operating ° Stikine River next yeah: lowing, a_ survey conde, this year by the fedet@ ig partment of: fisheries suggestion of the Fishermen and Allie ers Union. - se 0 ge.)