(

LABOR’S VOICE FOR VICTORY

I. No. 16

5 Cents

Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, April 24, 1943

ut labor also
tien is not enough —

} Victory.

7 Invest In The.

7» ABOR has made quite clear its demands for the opening
+ of a second front. It is convinced that such military
tion is the only guarantee of decisive victory“over Hitler.
realizes that a mere
that an invasion of Europe calls for
jemendous amounts of war materials and the money to
oduce them. That is why Canadian workers will dig
wwno deep in the weeks following
= jurth Victory Loan campaign over
For the $1,100,000,000 is money to back the attack. It
money to put the finishing touches on our invasion pre-
rations. And The People is confident that all its readers
il do their share in the campaign, will spread the word
stywhere of the urgency to

Second Front

demand for military

April 26, to put the
the top:

take out a bond and invest

| ajor-General Pearkes, of

‘on Sunday, May 2, it has
2 @ nt, Ganadian Seamen’s
Wy and vice-president Ganadian
fy) and Labor Congress, will
r@ 2ak. Canada’s premier Naval
will take part in the cere-
, 4nd other bands will march
‘trade unions and other
| in the May Day parade
will assemble at Cambie
@ srounds, and march from
28 bY way of Cambie Street.
om Hastings to Burrard, along
iad to Georgia, and along
ato Stanley Park.
‘bers of the May Day Com-
were busy this week choos-
n@ Site for erection of a pylon
mute lJabor’s important role
if War against fascism, as a
climax to May Day cele=
here. The pylon, final
of which has net been
Was designéd by Fred
} Member of Allied Arts
«Ss Council and art instructor
sicouver Art College. It will
e=ect high, set on a concrete
Hud constructed of masonite.
sign will feature the three
® forces and four basic war
ies, the whole overhung
iB lags of the United Nations.
' top of the pylon a flame
lighted as a pledge of con-
--€ of labor's fight until the
§ of the Axis powers.
# Day celebrations, which will
 labor’s salute to the open-
| the Fourth Victory Loan
Hen, will be given every en-
s2ment by the city, Mayor
’ Cornett stated at city coun-
ting: this week, moving that
“an” §=6. George Worthington,
committee chairman, see
that the police traffic de-
mt doés ali possible to help.
Snserve vital war materials,

:
>
a5
a
a.

it.

z

i
"|

fay Day Rally To Hear
jajor-General Pearkes

the Pacific Command, has noti-
Vancouver May Day Committee

>@ ition to address the huge labor

of his acceptance of the
rally at Brockton Point
been announced. Pat Sullivan,
the committee has announced that
while banners will be Carried by
Sroups Participating, only one
float, in connection with the Vic-
tory Loan campaign, will be used

For CIO

chalked up at Kimberley

The latest blow at Consolidated’s
open shop empire followed the
company’s attempt to call a snap
vote among the miners in an at-
tempt to head off the union or-
Ganizing drive and reestablish the
company union, and followed by.
only a few days a similar company
union defeat in the Kimberley con-

centrator plant where the vote was
180 to 108 against the cooperative
committee,

“We now have an overall ma-

_jority of the empleyees of Kim-

berley- in the international
union,” declares Harvey Murphy,
international representative of
the union. “The vote taken this
week proved conclusively that the
workers here are through with
the Workmen’s Cooperative Com-
mittee and at the rate we're go-
ing now, we should have almost

100 percent organization wthin
a short titme.”

The union» official's confidence
in early success for the organiz-
ing drive among all Gonsolidatea
employers was further justified by
another stinging ‘setback to Blay-

in the parade.

lock’s company union campaign in

‘

At Kimberley

Majority Vote

Union

TRAIL, B.C.—A new and smashing victory for the CIO In-
ternational Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers was
this week when workers of Consoli-
dated Mining and Smelting voted 570 to 368 to reject S. G.
Blaylock’s Workmen’s Cooperative Committee, thereby throw-
ing the door open to organization under the international union.

the Trail smelter at the beginning
of the week. After stalling the issue
of a “yes or no” vote on the Work
men’s Cooperative Committee for
several days, during which time
ballot boxes were distributed
throughout the plants and meet-
ings conducted~ on company time,
Blaylock’s men in the plant called

a phoney vote. The result was 1977 |

in favor and 1888 against the com-
mittee, for a “majority” of 88, with
28 spoiled ballots.

“Union members immediately
and correctly interpreted the vote
as a defeat for the company setup,
pointing: out that there were no
Scruitineers present and that
every boss employed by the com-
pany was allowed to cast a ballot.

According to the Cooperative

Committee, there were 4,548 em-
Pployees entitled to vote, and this
fact, coupled with the illegal
methods used in the balloting, in-
dicates that the majority of those
eligible have clearly rejected the
company union. -

Harvey Murphy also made it
clear that the international union

(Continued on Page 8)
See KIMBERLEY

viock

What Goes On,
Mr. Pearson?

AN EDITORIAL
A” urgent warning to British
Columbia's labor movement
on the possible danger of a

government scuttling of the
ICA Act was sent out from mem-
bers of the International Union
of Mine, Mill and Smelter Work
ers this week. The warning fol-
lowed despatch of a telegram by
Labor Minister George S. Pear-
son to S. G@ Blaylock’s W ork-
men’s Cooperative Committee,
informing the committee that
in the opinion of his legal de-
partment the clause in the Act
outlawing company unions did
net apply to Consolidated Min-

ing and Smelting Company
since that operation is consid-—
ered =a national war industry

and comes under
jurisdiction.
*Reaction among
the news was one
cern.

All were convinced, however, that
the consequence of such a move
would be to threaten the work
ings of the Act in respect to
other major industries. There
was general agreement too, that
in line with the protests already
lodged by the Mine. Mill and
Smelter Workers Union, the
trade union movement must im-
mediately lodge sharp protests
With Mr. Pearson on his latest
interpretation of the ICA Act.
There is no intention now of al-
lowing the Act, established by
action of united labor, to be
thrown out the back door by
pressure from big industrialists.

federal labor

labor men to
of deep con-

Is The

ost Of Living Index

By BERT MARCUSE

Director, Pacific Coast Labor Bureau

io the Canadian
entitled, “Is the Cost of

criticisms directed against the

unimpressive that the pamphlet
than disprove it.

The method by whith the cost of
living index was first established
is interesting in itself.

In 1937-38 the government made
a study of some 45,000 homes in
12 cities across Canada. From this
survey they picked out 1,439 typicaj
families with earnings between
$600 and $2,500 a year. They then
helped each of these families to
keep a careful record of their liyv-
ing expenses for a whole year.

When the checkup was com-
pleted it was found that the aver-
age of these families contained
4.6 people and that their average
family income was $1,453.00. They
found that $1,414.00 was spent on
things which ceuld be included in
the cost of living, the rest of it
§0ing on such things as gifts and

donations to charities.

pretty weak. As a matter of fact some

government issued a pamphlet
Living Index Phoney?” The idea
behind its publication is obviously to explain away some of the

index. But as a defense it is
of its arguments are so

Seems to prove the point rather

This $1,414.00 was Spent in the
following way:

Food

Housing =

Fuel and light

Clothing 12%

Home furnishings and ser-
LOS el ae -- 99%

Miscellaneous — health in-
Surance, personal care, =
transportation and recrea-
Ligne eee 23%

100%

The government then broke

down all these items into smaller
items and kept careful record of
all changes in price. The cost of
living in August, 1939, was then
adjusted to the index number of
100, and today, on’ this basis, we
find that cn March, 1943, the in-
dex was 1163, or an increase of

16.3 percent since the. war began,

The pamphlet referred to has a
little paragraph in it entitled, “Ay-
erage iS Good.” On the contrary,
any statistician will tell you that
an average is not good.

in fact statiticians, if they are
at all interested in scientific ac-
curacy, seldom use averages in
presenting their picture of any
Situation because it distorts the
picture in almost every way.

Here is a simple example of how
an “average income” can mean
very little as far as giving the
real picture. Let us Suppose that
three men are working in a wood-
yard. One of them, who may be
the boss’s brother-in-law is getting
$80 a week, the two others are
getting $20 a week each. The two
men at $20 join a union and they
tell their employer: “Took here,
most of us in this yard are mak-
ing $20 a week. We think we are
entitled to a raise!” The boss Says:

“No, I won't give it to you." So
they go to arbitration, For the
Purpose of arbitration the boss

hires an expensive lawyer. At the
arbitration the lawyer Says: “We
don’t think these men should get
a raise because the average wage
is $40 a week in the woodyard.”
And he is perfectly right because

Ee re an tila

Phoney?

this average is found by adding
together all the wages, which total

$120, divided by the number of
workers, an average of $40 4
week.

Now obviously this is not a
fair picture, but at the same
time, like the cost of living
index, neither is it a lie. But
it comes dangerously close to
one, é
What the two workers should

have pointed out is that here as
in most cases, what is known in
Statistics as the median, or the
mode, should be used. The median
would show that wage which has
an equal number of wages on
either side of it. The mode would
Show that wage about which are
the greatest Cluster of Wages.

This is what the government
failed to do in its cost of living
index so that its “average wage”

¥Y no means necessarily repre-
Sents the wage received by the
greatest number of worlers.

Indeed, according to figures of

the 1947 Dominion census returns,
95 percent of all male wage earn-

ers in Canada earned less than
$1,000 a year. Furthermore, ac-
paaeAe ee Gabnere =

(Continued on Page 8)
See COST OF LIVING *