2

Fishermen To .
Hold Convention

United Fishermens F edesal

ference next March 22, at a “critical turning point of the war,
when the people of Canada will be expecting and hoping to see
the opening of an all-out offensive in Western Europe, with our
Canadian troops in the vanguard of the invasion forces,’ accord-

ing to the call issued to union
Burgess.

‘“TJnder such circumstances,” the
call continued, “we not only renew
our pledge to spare no effort for
our country and the cause of vic-
tory for the United Nations, but
we fully realize that the respon-
sibility that falls upon us is heavier
than ever before. Greater efficiency
and maximum production remain
our aims, and our convention will
need to thoroughly consider every
means by which this can be ac-
complished.

“Our union has always been in
the forefront in urging progressive
labor legislation upon both federal
and provincial governments ...
and there is every reason to hope
that before long the provincial gov-
ernment as a result of representa-
tions made to it, will at long last
enact legislation to bring all fish-
ermen within the provisions of the
Compensation Act.”

Delegates will discuss problems
of organization presented by
growth of union membership dur-

British Ford
Workers

Organize

LONDON. — After an intensive
organizing drive in the plants of
the Ford Motor Co. of Great Bri-
tain, one of the few large British
companies which still refuse to
recognize trade unions, more than
a third of the Ford workers have
become union members, and it is
expected that the company will
soon be compelled to deal with
democratically - elected workers’
representatives here as in the Unit-
ed States.

Ford's, employing many thou-
sands of workers and engaged ex-
eclusively in war production, refused
until last week to set up a labor-
Management production committee,
demanded by the workers for over
eighteen months.

1100% Union House PAc. 06347

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for a Square Meal!
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Your Host .. GEORGE DRICOS
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be

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~<a

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Phone 51-M Cloverdale, B.C.

$2.15 per Gallon |

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= |

Union will meet in annual con-

members by secretary William

ing the past year, the need for
strengthening local organizations
of the union, establishment of new
locals in all fishermen’s settle-
ments, the transferring of greater
authority from the Vancouver
office to union locals, and the
growing need for travelling field
organizers to aid in organizing
locals and recruiting new nrembers.
“The strengthening and im-
provement of our union organiza-
tion will be of great help.in ef-
fecting the maximum production

which our country needs today,”
the call emphasized.

Donate To

The telegram, signed by

ammunition.

the country.”

Soviet Trade Unions

Heads of the Soviet trade union movement, in a tele-
gram to Joseph Stalin, announced that 100,000,000 rubles
($20,000,000) was contributed from union funds to the Red
Army on its 25th Anniversary. = |

The money will be used to purchase several squadrons

of combat planes and a number of tank columns to par-
ticipate in the continuing Red Army offensives.

All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions — Wikolai
Shyernik, Claudia Nikolayeva and Soloman Bregman —
and by presidents of 38 important Soviet unions, said:
“The splendid successes of the Red Army inspire Soviet
workers, technicians and office employees to fresh feats
of labor to supply the front with more and more arms and
The men at the front and the workers in
the rear are fired with one determination — to carry out
your appeal to destroy the Germans and expel them from

Red Army

KUIBYSHEV.

the three secretaries of the

of the Japanese, form the bulk of
labor in the canneries, according
to Andy Paull, business agent of
the Wative Brotherhood.

“The living space provided by
most canneries for each family
amounts to a small sized room,”
stated Paull this week, “in which
four or five children and their
parents are expected to eat and
sleep. A small stove is used for
cooking and heating, and all food
must be bought at company stores.
Although epidemics are common,
sometimes there is no doctor or
nurse available in an entire can-
nery town.”

In a letter to Hon. Ian Mackenzie,

federal minister of pensions and
health, the Brotherhood pointed
out that these conditions provide
the breeding ground for tubercu-
Josis, ‘a disease which has raised
havoc with the general health of
native Indians in B.C.... and the
time has come for the removal of
all conditions which breed the
white plague.”
Provision of clean houses and
sanitary facilities, the Brotherhood
felt, should be made mandatory
upon cannery operators.

Indian women attending govern-

ment schools are taught the neces-
sity of cleanliness, the appeal
stated, but “after they finish

school they secure employment in
the canneries, and while it is a
Sanitary requirement to be clean
on the job, cannery operators do
not consider it a requisite of clean
production to house workers in

—

Unsanitary Living Conditions
Owners’ Fault Charge Indians

Soviets

‘left a Western port bounc

Clothing —
Sent To ©

blankets and medical sup

Soviet Russia, it was annc
ed here today. All sup |
were donated, or paid for ©

Russia. |
needed,’ stated an attendaz ij
one of the two local clothing ¢ +
this week, “and citizens of
couver have been more than g
ous.” = ;
Bach day men and women,
are themselves not well off,
in clothing they can hardly «
Recently, an old man proudly
Tying a pair of well-worn es
apologized because he had cu
shoe ‘because it pinched a }

Russian who received it wor

be angry. -

All clothing received at qd
is thoroughly disinfected
mended.

turned out,” one-woman wi
stated, “and when we are ab.
procure wool for knitting we —

stockings.

Although officers of the Provincial Board of Health ap-
parently feel that insanitary living conditions surrounding B.C.
fish canneries are to some extent due to “the native Indian
themselves,” the fault lies with cannery operators, who refuse
to replace antiquated, cramped living quarters with decent
accomodation for Indian workers, who, since the evacuation

quarters that are not infested with
rats and insects, and minus proper
sanitary facilities.’

In reply to the appeal, the pro-
vincial health officer, G. F. Amyot,
M.D., wrote: .

“Previous inspections have showl
that the native Indians themselves
are partially to blame for insani-
tary conditions ... We have noticed
... that some of the Indians throw
rubbish, such as pieces of fish
empty cans, etc., on the floor of
the house and out of the doors and
windows.’ This discourages can-
neries, Amyot maintained from at-
tempting to build better sanitation
facilities.

“We feel that the Native Broth-
erhood can do much toward the
improvement of living conditions
of Indians by advocating the prin-
ciples of cleanliness and good san-
itation in their living quarters,” he
adds. :

A one-room shack, in which the
entire family is forced to live, is
no incentive to cleanliness, Andy
Paull told The People.

“Sanitation is impossible when
one water tap must serve several
families and when an outhouse is
considered sufficient for a whole
row of sheds in which as many as
twenty or thirty families are
housed,”

The Native Brotherhood negoti-
ating committee plans to meet with
canning operators before the sea-
son opens, so that living condi-
tions can be discussed and im-
provements made before the in-

flux of Indian labor this summer.

4

DR. W.

207 West Hastings Street

J.
DENTIST

CURRY

Tel. PAc. 1526

UNIVERSAL NEWS STAND
138 EAST HASTINGS STREET

Mail your Order for all PROGRESSIVE LITERATURE

MOSCOW NEWS WEEKLY
“THIS SOVIETS EXPECTED IT” by Anna Louise Strong

L

A “conference committee”

a signed working agreement with

their employees, was branded
“company union” by MHarold J.
Pritchett, IWA president, com-

menting on the yote. Acceptance
of the company-proposed agree-
ment, he added, would undoubtedly
have an adyerse effect on the
labor movement in B.C., and also
on the war effort as a whole.

The IWA, acting for the em-
ployees, asks for an agreement
allowing time and a half for all
work in excess of eight hours in
one day or forty-eight hours in one
week. ,

The company agreement provid-
ed for time and gq half for all
work in excess of forty-eight hours
in one week, but since the majority
of departments in the plant work
only forty-two hours a week at
present, the companys overtime
clause would bring no benefit to
the employees, IWA representatives
stated.

Criticising the way in which dis-

Workers Reject
Company Committe

Employees of McMillan Plywoods Plant last week.
phatically repudiated a working agreement proposed
last fall arbitration board award.

which ‘since the time of

award has been used by the company in an effort to esial

putes and grievances have her
lowed to remain unsettled
“months on end,” a bulletin ir
by the union stated that “two
dred thousand organized wo
in the province of B.C., thr
their elected officials, present
joint brief to the provincial ca
requesting the enactment of a’
bill guaranteeing the right o
ganization and collective bar
ing through representatives 0!
workers’ own choice.”

Vote against the company:
posed agreement was 239 ag
and 198 for, with 51 employee:
sent and 9 spoiled ballots.

{UNION HOUSE PAc. °
Meet Your Friends at the

REX CAFE Lte

“Where All Union People Ez

HOME of TASTY MEALS
J. Mirras, Mer.

6 EAST HASTINGS STREI

PUBLIC MEETING

Invasion
IN

Doors Open 7:30...

“CANADA and the .

of Europe
1943”

— Speakers —

FERGUS McKEAN
Sunday, Feb. 28 — Beacon Theatr

TOM EWEN

Meeting Starts 8 p.m.

Communist-Labor Total War Committee, Rm. 202, 144 W. Hastin:

donations to Canadian Ai,

“A steady supply of clothi j)

and said that he hoped the |

/

“Several quilts a week are ~

age to make a number of pal