THE B.C.

LUMBER WORKER Des

e in stabi

e

first and most fundamental
change necessary, is the guar-
nteeing by law of the workers
right to bargain collectively
through the union of their own

oice. It is long past time for
an Act. Canadian labor leg-

‘on our statutes. In British Colum-
‘bia today, the basic principle at
stake in practically all disputes
‘coming before Boards of Arbitra-
“tion is that of union recognition.
If our labor legislation provided
‘that employers must bargain with
unions, arbitration cases would be
reduced very considerably. It
_ should not be necessary, we feel,
to arbitrate this point, especially
"when an overwhelming majority
"of the employees in any given plant
“have, by paid-up membership in
"any given union, designated it as
their bargaining agency. On this
point, Canada is far behind all the
other democratic countries in the
world today. Labor in the United
States, has been protected by the
Wagner Act since 1936, while New
Zealand, Australia and Great Bri-
tain have had similar rights since
the beginning of the century.
@
4 hea recent dispute at MacMil-
lan’s plywood plant is a good
example of what could be avoided
if companies were forced to recog-
nize as bargaining agent the union
of their employees’ own choice.
The company has now offered to
their employees, through the com-

By BERT MELSNESS, Assistant District Secretary

Realizing that the major task of today is to defeat fascism in the shortest possible t
a ing labor relations in the post-war period. Therefore, labor must make ce!
ployers can evade the issue and stall as they have been doing in the past.

'pany controlled committee, a con-
tract embodying all the_conces-
jsions which the union asked for
jJast summer. Had MacMillan been
forced to bargain with IWA, many
months of negotiations with a sub-
sequent loss of vital production
could have been avoioded.

ESIDES insuring collective bar-

gaining by law, the new Act
must necessarily provide machin-
ery for determining what is the
“union of the employees’ own
choice.” The simplest method
would be the conducting of a
secret ballot under the auspices of
the government's labor depart-
ment. Another simple method
would be establishing the proof
of paid-up membership in the
union of a majority of employees
in any operation. Again, we could
cite Plywoods and its notorious
seven-ballot story, which must by
now be familiar to all, or the
more recent Fraser Mills dispute
which has not yet been satisfac-
torily concluded. In every case, the
delay, caused by the employer's
stubborn refusal to recognize the
employees’ choloce of a bargain-
ing agency, has resulted in the loss
of production, This loss of produc-
tion in the woodworking industry
has not been caused through
strike action, but through the lay-
ing-off of skilled workers and the
lowering of the morale of the
workers in general. If the energy
wasted by the employers in at-
tempting to smash the unions was

Hitler Doesn’t Want The ICA Act
Amended, Labor Relations Improved

BERT MELSNESS
Assistant District Secretary

diverted to the task of setting up
“Production for Victory Commit-
tees,” nothing could stop Canada
from attaining that absolute maxi-
mum production which democracy
so vitally needs today.
e

OMPULSORY collective bar-

gaining, while it would be a
definite step forward, cannot alone

solve the labor-relations problem.
There must necessarily be further |

Ditration are allowed to take in
handing down a decision and the
elimination of the compulsory con-
ciliation procedure, In our experi-
ence with a considerable number
of Conciliation Proceedings, we
have not seen anything accom-
plished during the period of con-
ciliation which could not have been
done in direct negotiations between
management and labor representa-
tives. The long-drawn-out, 16-
month-old dispute of the Queen
Charlotte loggers is but one ex-
ample of the stalling some em-
ployers will engage in.

‘THE recent dispute at the Bloe-

del Stewart & Welch Red
Band Shingle Mill has made ap-
parent another weakness in the
present Act. In this case, the Com-
pany sought by an injunction to
stop the working of the Arbitra-
tion Board after it had been set
up by the Minister of Labor. It is
our opinion that an’ Arbitration
Board granted and constituted by
the Minister should not be subject
to restraint by the order of any
Court,

CO)
RGANIZED labor must be
aware of the clauses which

employers are attempting to have
placed in the Act and be prepared

legislation which will enable it to'to fight against them. It is under-
become effective and accomplish! stood that some employers are de-
its true purpose; that is the stabil- manding to have trade unions in-
izing of all labor in all industries.! corporated, which could be used to

The out-lawing of “company;
unions” is one point that we feel |
must not be overlooked. Employers
have for years used the establish-
ment of these so-called unions to
hinder and retard the growth of
real legitimate trade unionism.
Company unions must be dealt
with if workers are not to be dom-
inated and intimidated and we |
believe that severe penalties should
be imposed on any employer who
fosters them or aids in their es-
tablishment, This problem is a
serious one. A short time ago it
was announced from Toronto that
a “company union” on a national
scale was being organized. Its
name was to be the “National
Association of Employees.” We
cannot afford to allow this type
of organization to place a strangle-
hold on Canadian labor.

°
Wye we are dealing with the
question of company unions,
and unfair labor practices, we must
make mention of the question of
discrimination. The new Act must
deal harshly with employers who
persist in carrying on union bust-
ing tactics, such as discrimination,
blacklist and the hiring of indus-
trial spies and thugs.
t @
THER CHANGES in the Act,
which are necessary if it is
to be effective, are the shortening

of the period which Boards of Ar-

tear asunder the whole labor move-
ment as it has been done under
Hitlerism. The incorporated union
could be dragged into Court sim-
ply because one member had been
guilty of damaging property, and
the result would be that employ-
ers could smash every union in
the country financially.
e

NOTHER danger which must

be carefully watched is the
possibility that the Act may be
amended as to make the accept-
ance of Arbitration Awards com-
pulsory. This would rob labor of
the right to use economic pressure
to force employers to recognize
and grant legitimate requests.

°

‘HE International Woodworkers

of America have for years rec-
ognized the inadequacy of the pres-
ent Industrial Conciliation and
Arbitration Act and have submit-
ted to the government proposed
changes. Due to the pressure of
organized management, our at-
tempts to amend the Act were un-
successful. Last summer when it
became apparent that the Act
would be amended the TWA im-
mediately called a conference to
discuss the proposed changes.
From that conference we were able
to obtain a clearer picture of what
our membership desired in the way:
of labor legislation. Since that

Page Five

BILL NEEDED TO GUMANTEE WORKERS? RIGHTS AND
AID PRODUCTION TO DESTROY HITLERISM

ime, we cannot, however, minimize the effect that this legislation will
rtain that the amended Act does not leave loopholes through which

ttime, we have jofoned with other
labor bodies in British Columbia
and presented to the provincial
government a brief outlining the
proposed changes which we have
outlined in this article, We are
confident that Minister of Labor
Pearson who has recognized the
inadequacy of the present Act, to-
gether with his colleagues in the
provincial legislature, will amend

‘the Act, and we hope make it a
‘real “Bill of Rights” for labor.

e@
T the present time, Ontario’s
Minister of Labor, the Hon.

Peter Heenan, and the government
of that province are also consid-
ering the enactment of legislation
very similar to that which 1s pro-
posed for British Columbia. It is
the duty of every organized work-
er in Canada to support whole-
heartedly these changes, so that
we can have the same legislation
on the Federal Statutes also.

Let's Organize!
In Unity Is
Our Strength

Unorganized labor cannot be
represented anywhere; it cannot
protest anything; it cannot fight
for anything; it takes what is
handed to it; it is helpless in the

face of modern industrial might.

.S

‘The ‘union has led the way.
That is why every wage earner
belongs in the union, and that is
why thousands are getting into
unions all over the nation. Union
membership means industrial en-
franchisement!

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