Labor Unites
in Seeking ICA
Wowwemnnn ACt Changes

: nen In Nova Scotia Shipyard Joint Delegation
Interviews Cabinet

Commending Labor Minister Pearson for his “recognition of
the inadequacy of the ICA Act in meeting labor problems in
British Columbia,” a brief asking complete revision of the

act “to embody the necessary fundamental principles that
will end the delays and confusion now existing” was submitted

LAEOR’S VOICE FOR VICTORY

Stewards
Will Meet

Commission

There were few new develop-
ments this week in the dispute
between the national executive
of the Canadian Congress of

4 new Pictou, N-S., shipyard has 300 women workers like
te one pictured here and is the first shipyard on the con-

/ nent to employ them in actual ship construction work.

Yommen workers range from “teen-age girls to grandmothers.

ter-general that, despite this

eS pitifully inadequate postal
fice, no street mail delivery will
established.

1 present post office was built

pre-war years, before men
kKed by the hundreds to work
rowing war industries and the
jreak of war with Japan made
fice Rupert an important mili-
- centre. Now, with twice the
jiber of citizens to serve, the
tal system has proved inade-
te to cope ‘with the situation.
#ub=post office has been prom-
| for the industrial area,
Offers little hope of imme-
je relief.
1 the meantime, war workers
ing off shift have to wait half
hour in line for mail, since two
eral delivery wickets are ex-
fed to-service thousands of peo- !
After reaching the end of the
5 workers often find that, al-

; been sorted.

but |

hupert Post Office
acilities Inadequate

Special to The People

, PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.—While thousands of war workers
god in line before Prince Rupert general delivery post office
fikets, and local statisticians calculated the number of man-

irs wasted each week, citizens learned through a letter sent!
4Prince Rupert Junior Chamber of Commerce by the post-

though the present post office staff
is working hard to keep up with in-
coming mail, letters have not yet
Women, rainsoaked
and loaded with parcels, have been
known to faint in line, and sgol-
diers stationed nearby find it hard
to understand why it should take
more than an hour to buy stamps,
send mail, or purchase a money
order.

Besides being a sore spot with
citizens, the postal service has
become a major bottleneck in
Prince Rupert. With most of
the population engaged in vital
war worl: it is a common occur-
rence for letters to arrive bearing
stamps showing that they were
received several days earlier, and
even when postal boxes are used,
letters arrive as much as a
month late. Vital communica-

(Continued on Page 2)
See RUPERT

to Premier John Hart this week!
when a joint delegation represent-

couver and Victoria visited the cap-
ital.

“For the first time in British
Columbia—and I think in Canada
—labor has united its ranks te
present a powerful petition in
which we ali concur,” Birt Show-
ler, Vancouver Trades and Labor
Council president, stated. “We
had a very good delegation, and
-i feel confident that the out-
come will be. favorable’ Pe Se
Delegates from the mainland
were Frederick HE. Griffin, chair
man, British Columbia executive,
Trades and Labor Congress of
Canada; T. L. Hansen and W. T.
Burgess, B.€. executive members;
Birt Showler, president, and C. W.
Pritchard, secretary, Vancouver
Trades and Labor Council; E. E.
Leary and H. J. Pritchett, presi-
dent and secretary, Vancouver
Labor Gouncil; and George Price
and Nigel Morgan, representing the
legislative committee of Vancouver
Labor Council.

Vancouver Island was repre-
sented by Percy Lawson, Island
Labor Council, Robert Noble, Vic-
toria Labor Council, George A. Wil-
kinson, Victoria and District Trades
and Labor Council, while Bob Mez-
ger and J. J. Walker represented
Vancouver Island Joint Labor Con-
ference, embracing unions of CCL,
AFL and ABWE€E affiliation.

The proposals were submitted,
the brief declared, “not only as cor-
rective measures in the present
Act but with a sincere belief that
these proposals if enacted will
bring the utmost degree of har-
mony in British Columbia’s indus-
try allowing for the fullest possible
contribution of our province to our
country’s war effort and providing
a sound basis for labor legislation
in the post war period. It would
strengthen the determination of
the workers to produce for the de-
feat of fascism and demonstrate
the sincerity of your government
in acknowledging the right of labor
as a partner in our war effort.”

Proposed amendments include:
1. Collective bargaining through

unions of the workers’ own choice

and recognition by the employ-
ers of such unions irrespective
of the date of their organization
should be guaranteed and en-
forced by law. The distinction
between unions organized prior
to the end of 1938 and after
that date should be eliminated
from the present act. Collective
bargaining and union recognition

(Gontinued on Page 8)
See PROVINCE

ing trade union centers in Van-|

On Delegation

BIRT SHOWLER

President Vancouver Trades and
Labor Council

EE, E. LEARY

President Vancouver Labor
Council

Labor and the membership of
the Boilermakers and Iron
Shipbuilders, Local No. 1, here,

as members of the new execu-
tive the CCl has so far refused
to recognize, shop stewards’ offi-
cials, now carrying on the union’s
work, and union members awaited
arrival of the three-man commis-
Sion named last week “to inyesti-
gate the situation.

Two members of the commission
appointed at the CCL national ex-
ecutive council meeting last week-
end are expected to arrive in: Van-
couver this Saturday, Pat Conroy,
CCL national secretary, by plane,
and J. E. McGuire, secretary of
the Canadian Brotherhood of Rail-
way Employees, by train. The
third member, ©. H. Millard, na-
tional director in Canada of Unit-
ed Steelworkers of America, is now
in Washington to discuss with GLO
leaders the strikes involving 12,500
at Sydney and Trenton, N.S, and
at Sault Ste. Marie, and will not
be here until next weelkx.

Earlier this week, following an-
nouncement that the commission
had been appointed, J. P. Lucas,
chairman, and Thomas G. Mac-
kenzie, secretary of the MBoiler-
makers shop stewards’ working
committee, sent the following wire
to the Congress’ President A. R.
Mosher and Secretary Pat Conroy:

“The shop stewards’ working
committee of the Boilermakers
Union, entrusted by the member-
ship with the job of conducting
the union, welcomes appoint-
ment by the executive council of
the investigating committee.

“This is a measure for which
we had asked and one that can
help to open the way for smooth

and efficient functioning of our
union. We personally wish to wel-
come Brothers Conroy, Millard
and McGuire to Vancouver and
assure them of our fullest co-
operation in the reestablishment
of democratic processes in our
union, which our members are
determined to preserve.

“To this end we offer for their
convenience the use of any of
the several Boilermakers’ offices
and reading room. We invite
them to meet with the full body
of the Boilermakers’ shop stew-
ards and to attend a full mem-
bership meeting of our union
to see and hear for themselves
the true situation, so that the
effects of the false information
apparently emanating from A. A.

McAuslane and D. O’Brien, upon
which previous unwise and harm-
ful measures were passed, may

(Continued on Page Two)
See SHIPYARDS