Saturday, November 18, 1944 — Page 9 Fi rst Unic PRUNGE RUPERT. BC wind has been taken up by the mee Rupert Labor-Progres- Ee Club. "*his question has been laid be- fe the Mayor and Council of since Rupert by the local LPP la jetter suggesting the City ; Prince Rupert contact the Ees of the Alaska Panhandle bh a view to setting up a joint mamittee representing all the Fiamunities on the northwest est. FVELOP NORTHWEST such a committee would con- t investigations as to the jsibility of the project and ske recommendations for joint gion. This would be a step to- frds the international action pded to develop the northwest. iow that the Skeena highway fF been completed, linking Fnee Rupert by road with the “ole continent, the projected Meo ferry would likewise link i-chikan, Juneau, Wrangell, t ._wway and the other cities of Alaska panhandle with the jside world. These cities look s Prince Rupert as their natur- (> jumping-off place, and are - husiastically supporting the P posal. ,ASKA HIGHWAY LINK What lends additional signifi- ice to the proposal is the fact t the Alaska Highway is now nected with the Pacific Coast a stub road running from the +t of Haynes, Alaska, through 3. and the Yukon, to the vicin- E of Whitehorse. 4n auto-ferry irench Govt. hans Racism "PARIS—The French Govern- service from "viet Union, to bring in legisla- ¢n making it a criminal offence © indulge in anti-Semitic activi- eS: ) It has also extended the fran- j Frise to women for the first time | French history. Although lo- q elections have only been held ‘those parts of France not un- ‘rz Allied military control, there "e already 56 women council- €£s and 13 women mayors—most ' them having earned public "nfidence for their part in org- using: underground resistance. ‘litt, int are the first, outside of the- Is Establis Prince Rupert Demonds'| : luto-Ferry Service Link C.—An auto-ferry service link- » Prince Rupert with the cities of the Alaska panhandle is | s@iing urged by the Prince Rupert Daily News, and the de- | Prince Rupert to ) Elagnes. ka, would at once link the Alas- ka Highway with the Righway. This would cut eight | hundred miles from the road dis- tance from Vancouver and Se- attle to Whitehorse. The LPP is urging that con- sideration be given throughout any investigation that may be undertaken to the desirability of building such ferries in the Prince Rupert shipyard. Alas. | Skeena | TOM McEWRN LPP provincial’ organizer will return to Vancouver m time to attend the Second Annual Con- vention of the LPP being held on December 8 and 9. c) In The Yul Thitehorse con WHITEHORSE, Y¥.T.—This awed a union house card appeared for the first time in one of the local restaurants; the first Union House Card to be displayed anywhere in the + Yukon. signed a Union agreement with Iuocal 884 of the Hotel & Rest- aurant Employees’ Union. This is the first Union Agreement in Whitehorse and the first Closed Shop agreement in-the Yukon The terms of the agreement are mainly, Closed Shop clauses, the check off system, and a2 joint ap- plication to the National Labor Board for a wage revision that would call for increases amount- ing to $41 per month, holidays with pay, free transportation, “| ete. t Other ~ owners Teael 1g ett town were also approached to negotiate an .agreement, but declined to do so until the Union is certified This agreement marks as the bargaining agency. Maintenance Aim Of LONDON, Eng. To rescue our country from economic backardness, f the finest in the world, to ensure that it plays its key part 7 world—these aré our aims.’ With these words Harry Pol- general secretary of _ the Communist Party of Great Bri- tain, last week summed up the resolutions and discussion at the Seventeenth Congress of the party. SHARP WARNING The Congress. composed of 754 delegates, of whom 149 were women, listened to a sharp warning from Pollitt that huge tasks lay ahead of the United Wations before victory is won. He said that the Communist Party would not only fight to maintain the present unity of the country but would strength- en it by a fresh declaration of support to the National Gov- ernment. He called upon all la- bor leaders to decide against any break-up of the present coalition until Hitler was decisively de- feated. Lauding the spirit of unity which had brought into -being the progressive governments in Europe against Hitler, he said the united efforts of the British people must be carried into the postwar to solve the problems of unemployment, low wages. long hours, bad housing and social insecurity. COLONIAL PEOPLES The Congress pledged support to every progressive measure to shorten the war with Japan and called on the British government to extend the provisions of the Atlantic Charter to all colonial peoples. jational british Communist Party inity to make it in the’ reconstruction of the Pollitt. called for the release of Indian leaders and’ reopening of for the setting up of a national government for India. POSTWAR MARKETS The widest postwar trade re- lations were urged with the Soviet Union, Pollitt reminding the delegates that the Commun- munist Party had always urged cooperation between the capital- ist and socialist worlds. the imprisoned negotiations On. postwar markets. he said that despite the great advances by Britain in productivity, com- pared with Canada, America and Australia, she was in a weaker position and in 2 purely competitive and_ restricted world market would be at a disadvantage. He said the present coopera- tion to win the war should not end with an armistice. There meed be no export problem for Britain if the policy of interna- tional cooperation is pursued alongside a progressive policy at home. : PROGRESSIVE) MAJORITY On the kind of postwar pro- gram needed the majority - of labor, communist and progres- sive people in Great Britain are already agreed. The problem was how to en- sure the return of progressive members to the next govern- ment, Pollitt said. “Te is necessary to break the hard core of dyed in the wool Tories . whatever the form or name of the new government. It must rest on a solid ma- jority of labor and progressive members of parliament.” The Home Bakery operated by N.G. See Kan has a new, development in the Trade Union movement here. For the past six months Local 884 has been carrying a campaign to organize culinary workers and has been very successful not only in organizing, but also in gain-— ing wage increases for a good number of its-members. PIRST UNION HALL On Monday Local 884 opened the first Union Hall in the Yu- kon, located at the main inter- section. This Hall has been opened in conjunction with Local 815 of Whitehorse & District Workers’ Union. The two unions have their offices in the same building. Tuesday the first Union agreement in Whitehorse was signed and Wednesday a delesa- tion of ten members of Local 884 appeared before the Western La- bor Board to continue negotia- tions on wage rates which had been started at Edmonton on October 10 when G. P. Belanger, ~ union business agent, submitted a wage schedule. The Board at that time did not make any decisions, but kept the case open until this date. At the meeting at Edmonton, the Board decided to visit White- horse, this is the first time that the Board has visited White- horse, though it established wage rates for this area for the past few years. A decision on the wage rates submitted to the Board is expected soon. Wage Structure Hearings Before Western Labor Board WHITEHORSE, Y.T.— Dur- ing this week the Western Labor Board has conducted hearings in the conference room’ of the NW SC on the wage structure and factors relating thereto as they exist in the Yukon Territory. On November 8 both the: Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, Local 884 (AFL) and the Whitehorse and District Work- ers’ Union, Local 815 (CIO) made representations before the board. Both union delegations expressed satisfaction with the hearing accorded them by the board. 2 RECLASSIFICATION Local 815, Whitehorse and Dis- trict Workers Union submitted a written brief to the board, out- lining in a general way, the need of general wage increases cover- ing all categories of Canadian workers in the Yukon; recom- mending that the practice of hir- ing tradesmen or other skilled labor on a monthly basis be abol- ished; requesting the board to advocate to the WPTB a closer check-up of price spreads in the Yukon, and asking for the elim- ination of the practice of “reclas- sification,” where workmen, hired to do a special type of work at a specified wage, are “reclassified” into a lower wage category. 5 The submission of Local 815 to the Western Labor Board was supplemented by additional fac- tual materials presented by G.- Bolton, - finaneial-secretary of the union, George Stevens, exe- cutive member, and Tom Mc- Hwen, member of Local 289, IUMM and S; Vancouver. The member of Parliament for the Yukon, George Black at- tended some of the sessions of the board, and quoted from Han- sard some of the representations he had made to the minister of labor re the deplorable wage lev- els in the Yukon. Mr. Black’s interest in labor, although quite belated, was welcomed by the union delegation.