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By Charles Saunders

3H Government Selective Service program designed to
( help stabilize labor within the war industries was never
jint to be used in the manner that it is sometimes used in

shipbuilding industry. We find in some departments
jloying semi-skilled and unskilled labor foremen are re-

Bing to transfer men to higher paid jobs, even when they

e been offered a‘chance of promotion.

"Thus it often happens inexperienced men are brought

the yard and trained for higher paid positions while

erienced workers are kept on in the lower paid jobs. This

stice works to the detriment of both the men and the
ipany. Men who are kept on a low paid job with no
nee of promotion are not likely to take much interest
heir work.

Dbviously men who have been in the yards for six
inths to a year can be more easily trained for higher paid
tions than men with no experience at all. I have heard
Bases of men who have applied for jobs as burners and
fa turned down, while women with no experience have
fo taken on and trained as burners.

Although we have no objection to women working in the
yards, and will fight through the union to ensure equal
and good conditions on the job for them, we are sure
women themselves would object to being used to keep
, on lower paid jobs.

,{f, as some charge hands and foremen have stated, they
fnot get along without experienced men on such jobs as
‘sing and handling steel, then it will be necessary, in fair-

#5 to the men, to establish a wage rate commensurate with

experience and responsibility devolving on these men
) are so valuable on their jobs that foremen state it is
ivisable to let them go.

©

dE question of transportation cannot be over-emphasized

5® and therefore I do not apologize for mentioning it again
,@ week. I have received a letter from a worker who states

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-he dreads the stampede on the overcrowded ferries
nn going to work. at

As he points out, the ferries are crowded to capacity and
aecident or fire aboard would cause a tremendous loss
ife. He comments on a big Imperial Oil Truck which
elled on the same ferry and, as he remarks, if this truck
2 loaded with gasoline it presented a definite menace to
thousands of men aboard smoking and flipping cigarette

cs all over the place.

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[ think, myself, that in the hours when the men are travel-
; to and from work, it would be safer if all vehicle travel
the ferries were stopped. Hither that or else special
‘tes Should be provided for vehicle travel only. This ferry:
tation is one that has been a grievance and a-sore spot
r since the yard started to employ so many men. It is
which the shop stewards and the unions should take up

-#1ediately and with public support demand prompt action.

HIS question of safety is one which concerns every work-
er. We have lately received a copy of the proposed Ship
isttuction Accident-Prevention Regulations pursuant to

»@ provisions of the “Workmen’s Compensation Act,” and

Bpted by the Workmen’s Compensation Board.

When these regulations are adopted we intend to give
“shop stewards a copy of those coming within the scope
3ur union, and believe that all unions should follow suit
ause I am sure that much benefit will result from their

7 oduction into the yards. It is the responsibility of the men

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@mselves through the shop stewards to demand that these

ulations be strictly. adhered to. No job is in such a rush

B: safety conditions cannot be observed.

For instance: there are definite regulations covering
mes and derricks. Clause 47 states “that operators of
mes and derricks shall disregard signals from anyone
ept the designated signalman.” This is constantly ignored
the yards and besides being a cause of accidents also
supts the smooth working of the crew.

These regulations cover practically every occupation in
shipyards and there must be many of them which are not
present observed. The shop stewards themselves should
their unions to provide a copy of these regulations and

ist that they be put into effect.

Stalin Greets
Heroie Red Army

While messages of greetings

to the Red Army winged their

way from all parts of the world, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin,
in an order of the day marking the Army’s 25th anniversary,
called on the heroic Russian fighters to give the Nazis “no

rest by day or night. Death to

Stalin asserted that the Red
Army, since the invasion in June,
1941, “has put out of commission
about 9,000,000 German fascist of-
ficers and men, of which no less
than 4,000,000 were killed on the
field of battle.”

In the last three months alone
“112 enemy divisions have been
routed by the Red Army, 700,000
men have been killed, and over
300,000 have been taken prisoner,
while in that same period the Ger-
mans lost “over 7000 tanks, . 4000
Planes, 17,000 guns,” and tremen-
dous other war material.

Stalin stated that “in view of
the absence of a second front in
Europe, the Red Army alone is
bearing the whole weight of the
War.”

Stalin said that Russians should
not now become over-confident and
assume the Red Army now has
only to pursue the Germans “to
the western frontiers of our coun-
try.”

Axis satellite armies from Ru-
Mania, Italy, and Hungary have
been completely smashed.

Stalin declared the Red Army
was “not created for the purpose
of conquest of foreign countries,
but to defend the frontiers of
Soviet land.

“The Red Army has always re-
spected the rights and indepen-
dence of all peoples.

“But in June, 1941, Hitlerite Ger-
Many perfidiously attacked our
country, violating the non-agegres-
sion agreement, and the Red Army
found itself compelled to launch a
campaign to defend its native land.

“Since that time the Red Army
has become an army of avengers
of the violation and debasement
perpetrated by the German fas-
cist scoundrels against our
brothers and sisters.

“Today the Red Army in diffi-
eult winter conditions is advanc-
ing over a front extending 1500
kilometers (930 miles) and almost
everywhere is achieving successes,”
he added:

“The beginning of the massed
drive of the enemy from Soviet
lands has begun.

“Hitlerite Germany, which forces
the war industry of Europe to work
for it, until recently had superi-
ority in technical equipment. But
during the 20 months of war the
situation has changed.

“Thanks to the self-sacrificing
labor of working men and women,
engineers and technical experts in
the war industry of the USSR, pro-

duction of tanks and guns has in=|

creased during the war.

“The German command will
adopt all measures to cover their
colossal losses. But firstly the
weak spot in the German Army is
the shortage of manpower reserve.

“Secondly, even supposing the

Churchill Praises
Red Army

Speaking on his return from
the Casablanca conference
with Roosevelt and allied army
heads, Prime Minister Church-
ill told the British House of

Commons recently:

‘When I look at all Russia is
doing and the vast achievements
of the Soviet armies, I should feel
myself below the level of events
if I were not sure in my heart
and conscience that everything in
human power is being done and
will be done to bring British and
American forces into action against
the enemy with the utmost speed
and energy and on the largest
scale.

the German invaders!”
Germans scraped together the
necessary number of men, it
would require no short period of
time to get them together and
train them. And time will not
wait.” ,

The Germans not only had an
initial advantage in numerical
Superiority of troops, but also at
the outset of the invasion had
“almost two years’ experience in
conducting large-scale military op-
erations in Europe.

“The Red Army naturally had
not yet had such military experi-
ence.”

But the situation has changed in
this respect, also, and the Red
Army now is “a seasoned army,”
and “tens of thousands’’ of Red
Army commanders haye become
masters in leading troops on the
field of battle, “revoking stupid
linear tactics and adopting the firm
tactics of manoeuvring.”

“There is not the slightest
doubt,” he said, “that only the
correct strategy of command of
the Red Army and the flexible
tactics of our commanders who
executed it could lead to such
outstanding action as the sur-
rounding and wiping out of the
enormous 6th Army of Germans,
making up the 330,000 men of
Stalingrad.”

“The Nazi strategy is defective,
since as a general rule it under-
estimates the strensth of the
enemy and overestimates its own
strength.

“They apply their tactics in ac-
cordance with textbooks. The Ger-
mans are accurate and exact in
their operations when the situation
allows the requirements of the
regulations to be carried out. This
is where their strength lies.

“The Germans becontre helpless
when the situation becomes com-
plicated and requires the adoption
of an independent decision not pro-

vided for in the regulations. It is
here that their main weakness
lies.”

Tim Buck
Cables
Stalin

On the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of the Red Army, the
following telegram was sent to
Joseph Stalin by Tim Buck,
general secretary of the Do-

minion Communist - Labor
Total War Committee:
Joseph Stalin,

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics,

Moscow, USSR.

On behalf of the Communists of
Canada and their tens of thousands
of supporters throughout the Do-
minion, allow me to extend to you
the warmest greetings and con-

gratulations on this twenty-fifth
anniversary of the invincible Red
Army! Under your wise, indomit-
able leadership, the Red Army
singlehanded is inflicting defeat
after defeat on the Hitlerite war
machine, clearing the Soviet land
of the Nazi fiends, and demonstrat-
ing that decisive offensive action
by all the United Nations can now
destroy the threat of fascist bar-
barism. Our Canadian troops in
Britain inspired by the victories of
the Red Army, impatiently await
the moment of invasion of the
Buropean continent and are de-
termined in the spirit of the com-
bined operation against Dieppe to
deliver telling blows to the fascist
enslavers of mankind. The CGa-
Nadian people whose warm feel-
ings of comradeship with the
Soviet people are being unbreak-
ably cemented in the war for free—
dom, are resolved to work ever
harder on the production lines’ and
press ever more resolutely for the
immediate .invasion of Europe on
which depend alike our nation’s
freedom and our national honor:
The Communists of Canada pledge
anew their every ounce of energy
to strengthen our country’s contri-
bution to the liberation of man-
kind through the common victory
over fascism in 1943!

For the Dominion-Labor Total

War Committee,

Tim Buck, General Secretary.

“I cat drive her to Miami, so it'll have to be pearls.”

Draion for Office of War Information

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