Bi-weekly Bulletin Published by The B.C. District Council, International Woodworkers of America, Affiliated with Cungress of Industrial Organizations

VOL. 9. No. 19.

VANCOUVER, B.C., WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1940

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LEWIS REPORTS GAINS AT CONVENTION;
STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZING

ATLANTIC CITY, Nov. 18.—Over | -—Over 500 delegates, meeting here in

- Pritchett Is
Resigning In
Interests Of
Organization

VANCOUVER, B.C., Nov. 26—The
resignation of Harold Pritchett from
the office of President of the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America, was
announced from the Seattle Head-
quarters of the Union today.

In a special release to the B.C. Lumber
Worker this morning, Pritchett, who is
at present on an organizational trip
to the Courtenay district, stated, “Hav-
ng been unjustly thwarted in my at-
tempts to return to the United States,
I have tendered my resignation, believ-
ing it to be in the best interests of the
membership, and knowng that the
leadership of the organization will be

0. M. Ortin

H. Pritchett

in good hands, In the person of Acting
President, O. M. ‘Mickey’ Orton.”

Orton, who was formerly Vice Presi-
dent of the IWA assumed the respon-
sibilities of President at the tme of the
Conyention last month, when President
Pritchett was refused a re-entry permit
to the U.S. Pritchett’s formal resigna-
ton was submitted during the CIO Na-
tional Convention last week at Atlantic
Cty, and Orton subsequently seated on
the CIO Executive Board, representing
the International,

Pritchett, who until his election to lead
the CIO Woodworkers Union, worked as
a shingle sawyer in Vancouver, was the
only Canadian president of an Interna-
tional Union. As one of the top-rankng
CIO officials and elected leader of more
than 100,00 woodwokers, he has achieved
@ brililant record in the labor field. The

_ drive which he lead to organize lumber
bitterly assailed by the powerful
yer interests, and as the results of

convention to mark the fifth year of

CIO, heard President John L. Lewis

report that CIO’s affiliates and membership have not only withstood
severe attacks rising from the world crisis but have made substantial

new organizing progress as well.

“This convention of the CIO is held in a period of severe testing for
all our institutions,” Lewis wrote in the introduction to his report. “We
meet under the shadow of a world crisis, which threatens to engulf this

country.

“All around us we see war and imperialism in their most hideous
aspects. We are confronted with the necessity of defending our country
against these dangers, of preserving our liberties against assaults from
without or within and proving to the world and to the people of America
the virtue and validity of our institutions.”

How well the CIO has proved its

value to the people is seen in the
record of the past year’s progress in
organizing, in defending progressive
social legislation, in pushing forward
an economic program of security and
well-being, and in preserving civil
liberties from the ferocious assault
rising out of war hysteria.

The report cited the record of CIO
victories in Labor Board elections—
standing at three to one for CIO in
the past year—as solid evidence of
the way American workers prefer
CIO’s militant, progressive brand of
unionism to all others. In addition,
progress is cited in the aviation
drive, in the campaign to organize
Ford, Bethlehem and in the lumber
industry as major evidence of CIO’s
growth.

In the legislative front, CIO’s suc-
cess in holding back tory drives
against labor laws is reported by
President Lewis, with the warning
that defense of existing standards
and new progress requires the CIO
“to move forward and meet the
critical days before us with a com-
prehensive program that promises a
solution to our fundamental prob-
lems.”

Similarly the economic section of
Lewis’ report, while noting the
dangers in the increasing switch of
the U.S. towards a war economy,
calls for a program of jobs, full in-
dustrial production, better distribu-
tion of purchasing power, and other
steps to utilize our resources for the
common good.

Other sections of the report, deal-
ing with such subjects as social se-
curity, press and publicity, housing,
health, government contracts, legal
and court work, international affairs,
etc., emphasize the note of CIO’s con-
tribution to the welfare of the work-
ers and the people and set forth a
program of action for greater im-
provements,

Throughout the report, the basic
program of industrial organization
is stressed as dominant in all hopes
and plans for social betterment in
the nation.

3 Just 27 more
“Chopping” Days till the

ELECTED PRESIDENT
AT C.1.0. CONVENTION

PHIL MURRAY

JOIN UNION, GET
4000% DIVIDEND

BRISTOL, Conn.—Does it pay to join
the CIO? Ask any brass worker in the
Connecticut Valley who joined the Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers and you'll get
an answer—it pays 4,000 per cent on your
dues investment.

Here’s how it figures out: The Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers have won 10
contracts in the brass industry. Pay in-
creases amount to $420 per worker per
year. Dues amount to $13 per year.

A dividend of $420 on an investment
of $13 is 4,000 per cent, which is a nice

|return even in these days of skyrocket

arms profits,

Axbitration Board Grants Loblaw

Employees Trial Weekly Half Holiday

TORONTO.—An arbitration board has
granted employees of Loblaw Groceter-
jas, members of Canadian Retail Em-
ployees Union, a Wednesday half-holiday
for a three-month trial period from Jan-
uary, 1941, Continuance of this holiday,
only allowed in summer monthse hereto-
fore, is conditional upon the union ob-
taining its acceptance by other chain
stores.

Meatcutters
May Strike

Employees of the Pacific Meat Co.
Ltd., Marpole, will go on strike if the
company refuses to accept the report
of the arbitration board, released to-
day.

This statement was given by Pete
Christie, secretary of the Meat Cutters
and Packing House Employees’ Union,
who disclosed that the board's report
recommends:

I. A 10 per cent increase in wages
for all employees of the company;

2. One week’s holiday with pay after
one year's service;

8. Union recognition;

4, A seniority clause under which old-
er employees would be the last to be
let out in the event of a layoff,

About 90 employees are involved.

Christie declared the union executive
was “very well satisfied” with the report
and: would recommend™its adoption by
the union membership.

Judge A. M, Harper was chairman of
the arbitration board, R. L. Norman rep-
resented the company, and Alex Fordyce
the employees. H. A, Bourne was coun-
sel for the company. The employees’ case
was presented by John Wigdor, econo-
mic counsel of the Pacific Coast Labor
Bureau of Canada; Dave Bryce, presi-
dent of the union; Hubert Draper, vice-
president, and Pete Christie, secretary.

Pledges of support for the Meateutters
Union have already come in from a num-
ber of lumbering and mining centres,
who have been receiving reports on de-
velopments in negotiations. Recalling the
inconvenience caused in the camps a
couple of years ago over the Burns
strike, the B,C, District Council of the
I.W.A. have written on behalf of their
membership, to the management of this
meat-packing firm whose products are
used exclusively in the logging camps
such as Kelly's, Allison's Carstair’s, You-
bou, Pacific Mills, Powell River, B.C.
Pulp, etc. urging a peaceful settlement.

PROFITS AND LIVING
COSTS INCREASING

Dividends for the 11-month period
ending November 1940 were $240,000,-
000, This exceeded by $12,000,000 the
1939 11-month total of $228,000,000.

As December is a month of heavy
dividend payments it is expected that
the 1940 dividend total will be further
increased substantially over 1939,

The index for the retail cost of
living at September 1, 1940, was 5.6
per cent higher than at September 1,
1939.

This does not fasta deductions
such as the National War Defense tax,
nor does it take into account the
lowered exemptions for Personal In-
come tax,