THE PEOPLE Published every Wednesday by The People Publishing Co., Room 104, Shelly Building, 119 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. Telephone: MArine 6929- Har Grrirrin Kay GREGORY Epiror Manascinc Epiror Business MANAGER Epna SHEARD Six Months—$1.00 One Year—$2.00 Printed at Broadway Printers Limited, 151 East 8th” Avenue, Vancouver, B.C, Legislation To Serve Labor Fp eee will be many important questions bearing on our war effort and the future development of this province before the legislature when it meets next month, but none of greater importance to the working people than the amend- ments to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. The Hon. George Pearsonj provincial minister of labor, has already intimated that the Hart coalition government intends to introduce amendments to the act which he sponsored in 1937 and which, by his own admission, is being used by anti-labor employers to deny to organized workers the generally ac- cepted rights it failed to guarantee. The Industrial’ Conciliation and Arbitration Act was not designed to serve the interests of the trade union movement in British Columbia. Passed by the legislature over the pro- tests of a large section of the labor movement, it was an at- tempt by the Pattullo government to quiet the demand of the trade unions for provincial labor legislation while with- holding recognition of certain fundamental trade union rights. It was never labor’s act, but the employers’ act in their dealings with labor. As a result, company unionism four- ished while workers who organized themselves in legitimate trade unions, particularly in the basic industries, were denied recognition. This weakness in the ICA act is pointedly exposed by the majority decision handed down this week by the arbi- tration board appointed to hear the dispute between Bloedel, Stewart and Welch and their employees at the Red Band shingle mill, organized in the International Woodworkers of America. “Tt will be noted that Section 5 (Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act) provides for collective bargaining, that is collective negotiation. There is no express section in the act providing with whom the company shall enter into a contract. The policy of the act seems to have left the com- pany untrammelled in this respect which, of course, is its position under the law. The undersigned members of the board are of the opinion that the employees have not shown any sufficient reasons why the company should enter into a contract with the union.” T= act which in pre-war years was a retarding influence on the growth of the trade unions, in these critical war years has become a serious obstacle to production. The trade union movement has grown and continues to grow and the IGA act can no longer confine its growth. But the fact that it remains on the provincial statute books unamended is a constant irritant to organized workers, inflaming relations between management and labor whenever there is recourse to it in a dispute. So long as it remains in force in its present form it will continue to be used by anti-labor employers to the detriment of labor-management relations in production. It must be effectively amended. pee immediate question before the entire trade union movement in this province is that of attaining agreement on the amendments to be proposed to the government. Else- where in this issue, leading trade unionists and CCF members of the legislature at our invitation have outlined the points they believe should be incorporated in the amended act. There is reason to believe that the government is pre- pared to give favorable consideration to the question of making collective bargaining compulsory, but it should also be pointed out that anti-labor employers in the province, among them Mackin of Canadian Western Lumber Company, are gather- ing their forces to prevent any effective amendments to the act and are already making their representations to the government. The trade unions cannot afford to lag on this vital issue. If they make their voice heard as one at Victoria they can obtain an act designed for labor. But to do this they should proceed immediately to reach agreement on the amendments to be proposed and present a common front, a front in depth based on a thorough understanding among the rank and file members of all unions of what the act means to war production and the future of organized labor in this province. |_abor A\nd lhe Civic Elections By FERGUS McKEAN IN=2 month a new city council—new only in the sense that it has been given a new term of office—will direct our civic affairs. And again, as for the past several years, there will be no direct representative of labor to give voice and expression to labor’s views. This is the weakness of our city council in these critical war years, demonstrated in a lack of vigor- ous leadership, that it is repre-" sentative of only a section of the citizens, and while labor can con- tinue to prod and advise, it has no direct share in ciyic govern- ment. Yet labor could haye elect- ed its representatives. Had the trade unions rallisd their mem- bers for support ot the labor can- didates, had the entitre labor movement been mobilized and united, labor would now have representatives at the city hall to raise its demands and lead its campaigns for strengthening of the war effort. This is the obvious and important lesson to be learn- ed from the elections last week. The daily press and many of the candidates have already com- mented on the general indiffer- ence of the electorate. Three out of every four registered voters did not go to the polls at all. The proportion of votes cast in this election was the smallest re- corded in any mayoralty contest in recent years. That the labor yote was not mobilized was very evident. An estimated 40,000 trade unionists reside in. Vancouver and, even al- lowing for a considerable number who were unable to vote because of the narrow franchise restric- tions, obviously the majority of those elegible did not vote. The result was a sweeping vic- tory, for the Non Partisan’ Associ- ation, which successfully elected its entire slate for council, school and parks board with one excep- tion, the election of Arnold Web- ster, provincial president of the CCF, who was returned to the parks board at the head of the poll. Se OMMENTING on the election results, Webster, who was 42 federal candidate for Vancouver Burrard constituency in 1935, ex- pressed surprise that no other CCF candidate came even close to being elected. Surely he must realize that the reason is that he himself was the chief proponent of the policies which inevitably resulted in de feat, not only of the CCF candi- dates, but of all the labor candi- dates—a narrow partisan policy of non-cooperation with any other section of the labor movement. At the GCF civic nominating conference Webster personally led the anti-unity forces whose de- mand for rejection of the propos- als submitted by the Civic Labor Committee (a group of prominent trade unionists) for cooperation in the election campaign was up- hela by a vote of 28 to 10. With the labor vote thus divided, the election result could hardly have been different. True, there was some coopera- tion between independent labor candidates and the CCF as a re- sult of the Civie Labor Commit- tee’s endorsation of both groups of candidates, but this one-sided “cooperation” was insufficient to defeat the united forces of vested interests represented by the Non- Partisan Association. Further, the narrow CCF policy, not only of refusing cooperation with the rest of the labor move- ment but of consistently flaunting accepted civic election procedure by running candidates under a party banner, provided the Non- Partisan Association with its chief propaganda weapon and the principal justification for its ex- istence—the claim that it will “keep politics out of the city hall.” So ECGAUSE of the lack of unity in the labor movement, the working people of Vancouver have once again seen candidates ac- cepted by the Liberal and Con- servative parties in this city, backed by business interests, and united through the medium of the so-called Non-Partisan Associa- tion, triumph over a divided labor vote ineffectually mobilized. The fact that Harold Pritchett, independent labor candidate for council, topped all CCE alder manic candidates by a thousand votes and that Mrs. Effie Jones, also independent labor candidate for school board, polled even more, proves conclusively that the CCF does not have a monopoly on the labor vote. And the fact that labor candidates, with a rel- atively weak campaign and with the movement divided, were able to poll two-thirds the vote of suc- cessful WNon-Partisan candidates with their powerful political and financial backing, shows the pos- sibilities for electing a full labor slate to Vancouver's civic admin- istration. It is unfortunate that labor rep- resentatives were not elected, as this would have done much to strengthen labor’s position and, by securing a voice for labor in civic affairs, would have enabled the labor movement to participate more fully in our war effort. However, I do not propose to indulge in recriminations over what is past, but rather to point out the course that labor would be well advised to follow in the future. If the labor movement as a whole, including the CCF, will learn from the recent election what errors to avoid in the future, _ labor will have gained a great deal, even though this election was lost. if the trade union, CCF, and Communist movement start now to mobilize all their forces for a strong campaign for election of a united labor slate, it is quite possible that the defeat of 1942 can and will be transformed into a smashing victory in the civic eleetions of 1943. | eningrad Now a Fortress MOSCOW IW the summer of 1941, when the Germans broke through to Leningrad, there was one more army of half a million strong, an army of fortifications builders, who took part in the grim battle alongside of the Red Army units. Its ranks consisted of scientists, engineers, weavers, students, trade school pupils, collective farmers and housewives. The building sites passed through forests, swamps and sand hills. “Since the autumn of last year the Leningraders have been stead- ily perfecting the city’s fortifica- tions and approaches,” writes a Pravda editorial. “The work has continued without a single day’s interruption. Much has-been ac- complished this past summer. SHORT JABS by OV Biil One View = ORCHY ANDERSON, one | British Columbia’s best kno newspapermen, has been covering 4 the convention of what before the Progressive Conservati Party. Torechy has a keen eye and attentive ear for the tag-ends t escape the average run-of-t mine newshawk and his stori from ‘Peg where a _ politics blood transfusion (or maybe it - merely a shot in the arm) is bt ing attempted on the party o Bennett and Meighen, are illumiz ating. He tells in one story of youn ‘one-pip’ army officers he met on the train, passing on advice to delegates who were on their wa to the convention. They did not want the conditions that obtained ~ before the war, when, as one @ them described it, he “could just make nine dollars a week teaching school in Saskatchewan,’ and 1h moving to Ontario just before the @e 3! outbreak of the war, “got nine gral dollars a day shipping war Mma- &3 terial to the Nazis.” ie Others contributed their share. Said one, “We don’t want people living under tin-can shacks on the river bank in Montreal.’ ‘And, interrupted another, ‘a lot of th boys who were at Dieppe never §& did have a chance to get a job 4 + fan | in civilian life.” f ec e | erty And Another im HESE slants on “after-the je 1 war’ Canadian society, how- ? ti ever, appear to be at variance with [int those of the “big boys” as express=' fra ed in the annual statement of the fr: president of the Bank of Mon- treal, Huntley R, Drummond, ca bank which, Drummond claims {ric “has never failed to pay a divie pe! dend for well over a hundred t years.” The statement appears iz\ gle the same issue of the Provinee as ffe Torehy'’s story. ‘. sit In it, Drummond reiterates “his (ri plea of a year ago that govern fd ment controls and regulations be ‘de removed with all possible spees fy after. the war, so private enter i prise may have the opportunity #1] to convert war factories to the {bh production of peace-time goods”) ff So, you see, the bankers, whe je dominate the policies of the fio “what’s-its-name” party, take & fe different stand from the ‘one-pip &t Canadians who unburdened them fk: selves to Torchy and the advance tha delegates to the Tory convention ~ En mW Press Drive FEEL gratified at the am \ mouncement that the winner y of the prize for turning in the most subscriptions in the press @ drive was a member of Ol’ Bill's | committee, It will be an encour fj agement to other footloose friends — to gather under Ol’ Bill's banner § when we have another drive. If the drive had gone a few fr days more, the totals would have been boosted quite a few points fr in the percentage column. One fo old lady, a fighter from away ft back, came in with a ten-spol raised in a whist drive but toc late to be counted. Another ten # spot donation came from a mine? } who just collected his stake toc late to get in under the wire- And subs—they have come roll- ing in daily since the drive closed. That means that the committer did not die out with the officia whistle, but is still at work, How about you?