7 empire.

feanys baronial control over
£1,000 employees. For, despite
} high-falutin’ claims of the
fsanys publicity men, the
Psmen’s Cooperative Commit-—
fias flourished at the expense
=:e workers’ interests. It has
pected them to a hidden,
g@ish none the less ruthless,
g of exploitation made even
intense by the conditions
@ ly prevailing in a company
f setup. Wages and working
qt tions are relatively low. So-
# Od cultural activity has been
§i. Real democracy in the
©ct has been almost Swept
under cover of S. G Blay-
#; “benevolent” labor policy.
@ result, the workers of
liters’ have not been fooled
tuch by the shrewd Mr. Blay-

They have, on occasion,
iim remove the velvet glove
tternalism and crack down
#y and harshly whenever his
n of control was threatened
» it has been threatened, in-
ngly and more actively, in
= years, to the point where
i showdown appears inevit-
within the next few months
4 the issue of legality of com-
mionism, brought to the
eat by recent labor legisla-
a the subject.

e :
°H has been written about
he Blaylock company union
@. On the surface it ap-
Simple. it consists of an
al committee, representative
*ry department of the com-
with delegates to the com-
+ elected for one-year terms.
1g8 are held twice-monthly

al with matters of employ-
® bonuses, etc., and supposed-
3; grievances, and there are
is sub-committees appointed
fate independently on special
fs. @o the outsider, such
sme Might appear innocuous
fa. But its ramifications, its
= on the daily lives of the
= workers, has been such
» €arn the hatred of dabor
Bthout the province.

; e

SAVE; said the Workmen’s
foperative Committee stands
ithiess repression. Let the
Speak for themselves. Mr.
‘ck points to the small num-
employer-employee disputes
ving the effectiveness of his
Solicy. The cold, bleak truth
© tear of their job, fear of
tcklist, prevents most work-
wm raising their problems,
3 achieved through the in-
fsounding “open transfer”
, Sometimes referred to by
wrkers as “three times and
nd is the very keystone of
aylock scheme.

rit, men who incur the dis-
‘e of the foremen or super-

By AL PARKIN

j2en the history of company unionism in Canada is

_ written—if such an illegitimate Subject deserves to
$} hbronicled—first place will have to be given to the fancy-
jd Workmen’s Cooperative Committee scheme in effect
| rail, seat of the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Com-~

/tmay well be, too, that the future historian will place the
s) 1943 as marking the beginning of the decline of the giant

visors for any alleged misdeed,
Who talk “out of turn,” or op-
Pose company or company union
Policies, are transferred to an-
other department, usually at a
lower rate of pay. Two of these
“epen transfers’ within a given
period usually draws an enforced
layoff of several days or weeks,
and three times means the em-
ployee is out, discharged.

The net result is to effectively
stifle the raising of any real griev-
ances, or any attempt to develop
initiative or demo¢racy within the
plants, even though the company
union is ostensibly charged with
taking up such problems, It is the
blacklist with all its worst fea-
tures.

e

Be Mr. Blaylock does not de-

pend entirely on the company
union. The municipality of Tada-
nac, adjoining Trail, and where
the plants are located, is a com-
pany town. And like all company
towns, you shop at company
stores, you eat in company cafe-
terias, you live in company houses
or boarding houses —-.and all at
company prices. Employees are
given ample opportunity to run
charge accounts, placing them
continually in debt, and a new
housing development, begun in
1939 and known as “Mickey Mouse
Town”, in which the company sold
the new homes to its employees
on a pay-as-you-go plan, provided
further opportunities for the com-
Pany to maintain its economic
control] over the individual worker.

Employees also pay into a rela
tively high-cost medical plan,
$2.50 a month; lost-time compen-
Sation, $1.00 a month; group in-
Surance, 90 cents. In addition,
there is a pension plan, supposedly
borne entirely by the company.
But the original $1,400,000 con-
tribution to the pension fund was
raised by the company through
mortgages taken on loans to em-
ployees for housing purposes.

@

i eee extreme power exercised

by the giant Consolidated
monopoly, made possible to a
great extent by its suecess in
holding its employees in subjec-
tion through the company union,
has had its effect outside the
actual confines of Trail and Kim-
berley.

One example of this was recently
exposed by H. W. Herridge, CCE
member for Rossland-Trail, when
he told the BC legislature that
the company had illegally evaded
payment of municipal taxation,
thus increasing the burden placed
on workers living in Trail and
Rossland,

Background of this story dates
to 1922 when the company in-
corporated the municipality of
Tadanac, comprising almost all

rail “Empire”
Chaillenge
Democracy :

me

®
—

the areas occupied by the plants,
With full control over the new
municipality through the fact that
all members of the council are
also employees of the “Smelters,”’
Consolidated was later able to get
complete exemption from taxa-
tion for a new $10,000,000 fertilizer
plant for-a ten-year period from
1932 to 1941. -
e

rT UENING again to Consoli-

dated’s labor policy, to which
S. G. Blaylock and Many other
Canadian industrialists like to
“point with pride” as the Solution
to employer-employee relations, a
close examination reveals the
deadly effect it has had on the
workers’ conditions.

A recent article in Canadian
Business declares that wages “are
as high, if not higher, than those
paid in comparative industries.”
But since most of the comparative
industries are in Eastern Canada,
and are working under open shop
conditions, it is obvious that wages

Greek Workers Killed
As Sabotage Continues

ISTANBUL.—_The Hitler-controlled newspapers pub-
lished in Greece cannot hide the unprecedented use of
terror by the occupationists in an attempt to stem out the
growing sabotage in that country’s war industry and.

transport.

- quently there is

According to the newspaper Helephteron Vima, a Ger-
man courts-martial sentenced to death three workers of
a war factory for damage to aviation motors.

A 15-year-old boy, accused of complicity in sabotage,
was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

An order to the population issued by the commander
of the occupation forces in Greece warned that “in case
of sabotage at enterprises working for the German or
Italian army, punishment will be meted out not only
to those directly responsible but also to the owners of the
enterprises who failed to talke the necessary precautions.”

are by no means as high as in
numerous war industries enjoy-
ing union rates of pay.

Housing conditions, in spite of
new housing developments, are
still not of the best. Prices in
stores are consistently higher than
other parts of the province, and
buying outside the municipality
is “frowned upon.” The deadening
effect of company unionism, with
its subtle repression, is also re-
flected in the fact that Trail, with
a population of 10,000, has little
cultural or social activity. In the
So-called civie elections the hand
of the company is openly dis-
played. Every smelterman knows
that candidates must have the ap-
proval of the company and conse-
little interest.
Candidates speak to empty halls.
Hundreds fail to use their vote.

The 25-year period of “tran—
quility and cooperation” has, in
fact, been barren in everything
but rising profits to the-conipany.

4 Pues obvious facts exist to sup-

port the claim of organized
labor that the Trail situation is
@ disgrace, that company union-
ism as exemplified by the Blay-
lock scheme must be Swept aside
before the people of Trail and
Kimberley can take their place as
free citizens of BC.

The first fact is shown by Blay-
lock’s own anxiety to maintain
his control. It was he who led
a delegation of big employers to
Victoria early this month to fight
against amendments to the IGA
Act, particularly that clause affect-
ing company unions. He was re-
sponsible, a few days later, for
sending a delegation from the
Workmen’s Gooperative Com-
mittee to Victoria for the same
Purpose. It is elementary logic,
then, to assume that what is good
for Mr. Blaylock and Consolidated
must, in this case, be bad for the
workers.

(Continued on Page 8)
See TRAIL EMPIRE

The Real Story Behind The
Dispute At Boeing Aircraft

SEATTLE.

ps2 crisis at Boeing, where thousands of workers are dis-

Satisfied with decisions re

garding wage increases made

by the War Labor Board after eight long months of negotiat-

ing, still continues.
During the eight months that

aircraft workers anxiously waited
for the government to recognize
their just demands for Wage in-
creases to meet rises in living
costs of 23 percent, and rises of
food costs of 43 percent, produc-
tion of Flying FWortresses at the
Seattle plant went on. In fact,
it was during this time that Boe-
ing workers won the Army-Navy
“E” for production efficiency. Yet
when the decision of the board
was finally handed down, union
members were shocked to find
that instead of answering their re-
quests for decent wages the Board

had voted them increases of only
four and half cents an hour.

In answer, 20,000 Boeing work-
ers, on February 25, engaged in
a spontaneous demonstration for
the right to increase production.
Marching down the streets of
Seattle, they showed their dis-
approval of the attitude of the
company which, -while operating
on a cost-plus basis, is making
bigger profits than ever before.

@

OEING workers feel that part

of the millions of dollars made
in war time profits can be used
to establish non-profit-making
restaurants, to set up nurseries for
children of war workers, and for
Special bonuses to those depart-
ments, shops and individuals who
make best production records
every week.

In the Boeing plant, no joint
labor-management committees
have yet been established.

While it is true that thousands
left their jobs for several hours,
departments and shops in their en-
tirety made up for time lost in
production. Many workers volun-
teered to work on Sunday for
straight time. Others made up
their production schedule before
they attended the demonstration
or the following day, and pro-
duction of Fortresses did not flag.

pee highly important de-
velopments have taken place

since the Boeing crisis flared into

the open, say union members.

First, union membership and
leadership have never been as
united as they are today. ‘The
campaign to turn union member-
Ship against its officials was
Scorned and rejected. A small
clique of disrupters was Swept
aside,

Second, a great step forward
Was Made in establishing genuine
labor unity. The entire labor move-
ment rallied overnight in sup-
port of Boeing workers, Every:
shop stewards council in every
shipyard on Puget Sound area
greeted and pledged Support of
the Boeing union. The Aeronaut-
ical Mechanics’ Union and the CIO
conducted two joint radio pro-
grams. A United Labor Commit-
tee of AFI, and CIO unions was
set up, three from each labor
federation.

Third, during the Boeing erisis
broader unity was effected be-
tween labor and other sections
of the people. There was an im-_
mediate and overwhelming re-
action to the distortions of the
daily press reports. The people
simply knew the truth; that
wases were too low at Boeings-
that the majority of men and
women working at Boeings were
not only patriotic, but that thou-
Sands of them had husbands, fa-
thers, brothers and sons in the
armed forces, and wanted to pro-
duce swarms of Flying Fortresses
for their country’s need.

=
iz