pment are, l.-to r.:

ooking over an exhibit. of Argentine documents and
Aztaphs which Prove the fascist character of the present
Milton Kaufman, N.Y. City CIO
gil; Alfred Katz, State, Cty. 6 Mun. Workers (CIO)
NIWA Natl. Educational Dir ector, Leonard oo ldstatih.

'7Jancouver Aeronautical
‘it of Canada,

Ff£ of dues.
faward, made public this
sy Labor Minister Hum-
yMitchell, is based .on the
Ey ruling of the board set
F2r PC 1003 to review the
i demand for a union shop.
?.jority opinion was given
ence Darling, K.C., board
n, and Birt Showler, em-
representative, and in-
the company=to\ sign an
ent under which all pres-
abers of Lodge 756 must
“members during their pe-
‘employment, and all new
-es hired by the company

}oecome union members
\ period of 30 days.’
more significant, the

y is ordered to grant un-
nbers the right to have
ies deducted from their
ks when employees re-
ich a privilege in writing.
. union manitenance and
= eonditions are retro-
o December 30, 1944, the
ien the board application
de to Ottawa.

i award gives us the best
zreement in the Canadian
' industry,” Tom Parkin,
‘g secretary of the union,
i. ‘It’s a big victory for
nbers, representing as it
ome really significant
wages and working con-
brought about almost
* their efforts.
anized labor has grown
she past few years and
zmonstrated its ability
Sire to accept respon-
The granting of un-
aintenance and dues
if indicates an aware-
the important position
756° holds in the indus-
he new agreement will
‘e. our union and make
ore effeetive force both:
ing for conditions and
solve the. big. ‘problem :

ircratt Union | Gains
tion Security Clause

ne of the best union- employ er ‘agreements in the entire
fy is ready for formal signature. by Officials of Lodge

following a federal arbitration board
which orders the inclusion in the new agreement of
covering maintenance of membership and voluntary

Mechanics Union and Boeing

of reconversion te peacetime
production.’

The union’s fight for \the new
agreement opened last November
when negotiations with Boeing
officials brought agreement on
all points at issue, which includ-
ed wages and working conditions,
except that of the union shop.
A conciliator was then appointed
by the provincial department of
labor in an attempt to reconcile
the two points of view. When
this failed, on December 30, a re-
quest for arbitration was made
by Lodge 756. ;

‘JOINT APPLICATION

Meanwhile both the union and
employers submitted a joint ap-
plication on certain wage cate-
gories to the Regional War La-
bor Board, which was approved
by the Board on February 27.
Under this section of the new
agreement, journeymen rivetters
were established as a classifica-
tion with a 10 cent wage in-
crease to $1.00 an hour. Jeep
and’ crane operators also were
granted a 10-cent increase rang-
ing from 75 cents to $1.00 an
hour.

The union made a big contribu-
tion to the job of increasing pro-
duction during the height of the
war years, has established one
of the best-functioning grievance
procedures in any industry on
the Coast, won rest periods and
improved working conditions for
thousands of aircraft workers.

These were some of the. con-
tributing factors leading to the
decision of the arbitration board
to grant a modified form of un-
ion shop. With that victory the
Ajleronautical Mechanics Union
took its place as one of the lead-
ing trade unions in British Co-
lumbia. And labor will hear more
from its membership during the |

treme urgency.

that need, giving it emphasis,
lies the big question of postwar
reconversion. The conference is
going to have its. task with this
in mind. The buck-passing of the
past will have to be done away
with. The constitution will have
to be planned with an eye to the
greatest possible social security
for the Canadian people, under
terms of which the reconversion
from war to peace economy is
undertaken in such a manner that
its effects upon the people will
be cut to a minimum.

SECOND CONFERENCE

This will be the second Domin-
ion-Provincial conference. The
first, called in January of 1941,
ended abruptly when the pre-
miers of three provinces — Pat-
tullo of British Columbia, Aber-
hart of Alberta, and Hepburn of
Ontario, rejected the conditions
under which the meeting was
called, and specifically some sec-
tions of the Rowell-Sirois Com-
mission Report relating to their
particular provinces.

The Rowell-Sirois Commission,
appointed by the Mackenzie King
government on August 14, 1937,
provided the findings upon which
the first Dominion - Provincial
Conference was called and will
vrovide the basis for the coming
meeting.

The Commission was designed
to consider the problem and fact
that there had been no overhaul
of Canada’s machinery of govern-
ment since Confederation in 1867.
Planned for a country of a few
hundred thousand scattered peo-
ple, with primitive communcia-
tions and afi undeveloped eco-
mony,
Act had become, by 1937, badly
eut of order and _. alignment.
There was no clearcut division of
authority between federal, pro-
vincial and municipal authorities,
no uniform scale of ~taxation.
Lack of a proper central autho-
rity had created conditions under
which some provinces were far
behind others in social and eoo=
noice legislation.

Ater hearings lasting over two
years, the, Rowell-Sirois Commis-
sion finally brought down its re-
port on November 25, 1940. Bas-
ically, the report aimed at pre-
serving and strengthening na-
tional unity by providing stan-
dard government services in all
provinces, thus offering all citi-
zens similar advantages in health
services, education, labor legisla-
tion and other matters, while re
vising the taxation structure as
between the dominion and pro-
vincial governments.

Specifically, the report recom-
mended:

@ Assumption by the federal
government of the collection of
personal income taxes, corpora-
tion taxes and succession duties.

@ Assumption by the federal
government of all responsibility
for provincial and provincially-
guaranteed debts; administering
of relief for unemployed employ-

ables; subsidies to primary in-
dustries in cases of national
|emergency.

® Provinces to surrender their
right to existing ‘subsidies from
the Dominion, in return for which
the Dominion would pay an an-
nual National Adjustment Grant

difficult years ahead.

PACIFIC ADVOCATE

to some provinces. Amount of

.

the British North America |

Confronted

Dominion-Provincial Parley

‘ith Major Tasks

When the leaders of Canada’s nine provinces gather in Ottawa some time next
month for the important Conference on Dominion-Provincial Relations, their main job of
writing a new constitution for the nation will be undertaken against a background of ex-

The problem is no longer just the form al one of creating a new constitution. Behind

such grants to be subject to re-
view every five years, while the
provinces would take over respon-
sibility for municipal debts and
borrowing. Future provincial
borrowing to be done through Ot-
tawa.

e Establishment or ‘perma-
nent machinery for the handling
of Dominion-Provincial matters.

On questions of social: security,
the. report recommended that
public works be timed. to meet
emergency needs, a recommenda-
tion which certainly applies to
the present situation..,.The»fed-
eral government should, “have
jurisdiction | ‘in the establishment
and ‘enforeement of national
minimum wages and maximum
hours, though individual prov-
inees would have the right. to
raise ‘such standards. Widows’
pensions, mothers’ allowances,
child welfare and similar services
should remain a provincial res-
ponsibility.

Of importance to B.C. was the
recommendation that the entire
freight rate structure should be
revised. ;

Publication of the Rowell-
Sirois Report-was received fa-|
vorably by the labor movement.
The Trades and Labor Congress |
of Canada, the CCF and the then |
Communist Party of Canada had
each submitted briefs, sections of
which were incorporated in part
in the Comission’s final report.
There was general agreement on |
the need for a stronger central /
government which would make}
posible national minimum wages,

health insurance and improved
social and cultural services gen-
erally. 2
FIRST CONFERENCE
SCUTTLED

But when the ill-fated Do-
minion - Provincial conference
opened in Ottawa in January of
1940, the apparent unanimity

with which the Rowell-Sirois Re-
port had been received went
overboard.

One of the biggest opponents
of the Commission findings was
Premier . D. Pattullo of B.C. On
the one hand, Pattullo took the
reactionary position that central-
ization was “a bad thing,” since
it would threaten the “indepen-
dence” of the provinces. On this
point, labor correctly condemned
him at the time.

But on the question of stan-
dardization of social services,
progressives found themselves
supporting at the time Pattullo’s
claim that acceptance of the
Rowell-Sirois Report “in toto”
would mean the cutting down of
the standard ‘of social ‘serviceg
in B.C. by 28 percent. Since B.C.
had already attained ,the highest
level in Canada in such matters

as mothers’ allowance, work-
men’s compensation and health

' services, Pattullo feared that the

Commission Report would force
the province, through removal of
some of its sources of Income, in-
to lowering the standards of such
services.

There was a further point of
oppositicn—that Canada at that
time was just entering a bitter
war, in the course of which there
would be many changes within
the country, and that the confer-
ence would be dealing with ques-
tions which might be solved or
greatly changed-in the course of
the war itself.

Taken together with the stand’
by Premier Hepburn of Ontario,
and Premier Aberhart of Al-
berta, as well as Quebee Premier
Duplessis’ announced opposition
to the Rowell-Sirois Report, Pat-
tullo’s attack on the plan was suf-
ficient to seuttle the first Do-
minion-Provincial conference, and
the whole scheme was shelved
for the period of the war.

PROBLEMS OF
SECOND CONFERENCE

Now preparations are under
way for the second conference.
All the problems of the nineteen-
thirties, plus the tremendous new
difficulties resulting from six
years of war and reconstruction
of postwar economy, will be on
the agenda for the conferees.

So far as B.C. is concerned,

| the forthcoming conference
should base itself on the general
perspective of a strengthened

central government authority as
recommended in the Rowell-
Sirois Report. _
But the B.C. delegation to the
eonference should attend with
some very definite proposals. For
one thing, provision should be
made so that no province which
has established a relatively high
social services standard should
be forced to sacrifice any of its
ginas. B.C. wants freight rates
equalized. It wants an immediate
public housing scheme and ex-
tensive development of highways,
all undertaken as a means of
taking up the slack during the
reconversion period.

And because B.C. has already
established the highest standard
of labor legislation in the Domin-
ion, the B.C. delegation to Otta-
wa next month should press for
the inclusion in Canada’s new
constitution of national labor
legislation calling for the eight-
hour day, five-day week; a 50-
cent-an-hour minimum wage;
federal labor laws in line with
the U.S. Wagner Act and re-
vision of the Unemployment In-
surance Act.

Resclauw Guneral Dinectars

Broadway at Commercial

Tel. FAir. 3010

304 Bunlevy Avenue

Tel. HAst. 0141