‘The Dominion-Provineial Con-
c on reconstruction, held in
- Ottawa, August 6 to 10, 1945,

ited discussions on questions |

utmost importance to the

_ Canadian people.
_ Meeting to hear the Dominion
Government proposals were

representatives of the nine Prov-
“inces in Cenada, dealing with

amendments to the Buitish North}

Anierica Act, Social
_ measures and post-war employ-
_ ment. Unlike the first conference
called, approximatcly five years

ment, it is likely that some pro-
“gressive measures will be forth-
coming, based upon the Royal
Commission.” Commenting on the
conference Prime Minister Me-
kenzie King stated “the proposals
which the Federal Government
is placing before the conference

are directed towards attaining a|

Progressive and secure standard
of living, based on remunerative
employment for all who are able
and willing to work, and expand-
ing markets at home and abroad
for efficient agricultural and
other primary industries”. Fur-
ther, “Above all, we aim at the
maintenance of a high level of
employment and income. In no
field are the interests of the
Dominion and Provinces more
thoroughly ‘one’ than in the
amainfenance at all times, of a
high level of employment?

This conference in direct op-
position to the last, did not enter
on immediate decisions with little
or no thought or consideration,
but was recessed pending careful
consideration and discussion on

Security |

2g0, which broke up in disagree-|

THE BC LUMBER WORKER

Mission Local
Leads Ford Fund

Mission Local IWA 1-867 is
at present leading the I.W.A. in
collections for the Ford strikers.
Business Agent, Shelly Rogers,
brought in over $600.60 to the
B.C. Federation of Labor last
{week from the Canadian Foret
| Products Camp at Harrison Mills.
| About 100 men are employed.
| One hundred percent donations
have been sent in from H. & R.
Camp and severel others report-
ing, have brought the total fo
| this local well over the $1,600.00.
| “This local has hardly started yet.
| Wait until you see the final re-
| turns.”

| Other LW.A. Locals are doin
ja magnificent job in raising

money for this fund. For in-
| stance.

An excellent job is being done
by the, Shop Stewards of Local
1-217 in the collection for the,
{Ford Workers. With the coliec-
tion hardly underway the Local
has already turned over to the,
Strike Committee between, $600.-
00 and $700.00. The following is
}a list of the mills where the col-|
lection is practically completed.
Capilano Shinge Mill, $193.00;
Glaspies Sawmill, $124.50; Cedar
Cove Sawmill, $100.50; Ander-
sons Sawmill, $95.90 These oper-
ations are all fairly small and the
figures shown average out to
approximately $5.00 per man.

Axt Exhibit
November 13:

"The second annual “British Co-
|lumbia at Work” competitive art
exhibition, conducted by the La-
bor Arts Guild in the Vancou-
ver Art Gallery from November
8 to December 2, will be offi-
cially opened by Elmore Philpott,

a
<

the part of all participants with
all nine Premiers of the Pro-
yinees aceepting the Govern-
ment’s proposals (as a basis for
further study).

A steering committee was form-
ed to draft an agenda to expedi-
ate the work of future confer-
ences. A continuing committee of
Dominion and Provincial officials
was appointed to consider the
various proposals in detail.

During the war emergency the
Federal Government of necessity
entered the jurisdiction of Provin-
cial Governments in order to
meet and carry out the various
wartime responsibilities of the
Nation, It is the Federal Govern-
ments’ stated intention to retire
trom the field of Provincial Gov-
ernment as soon as the war re-
sponsibilities and questions per-
- taining directly to war are re-
solved, At the same time, the
Federal Government has ex-
pressed intention to certain con-
stitutional amendments to per-

mit Provincial Governments to
designate certain particulars of
their jurisdiction to the Dom-
inion Government and vice-versa,
‘thereby providing the necessary

xibility of Dominion-Provincial
tions to deal with particular
specific problems. The’ Dom-
Government’s proposals to
erence are divided into
ds: 1. Public Investment.
2, Social Security, 3. Fin-

Vancouver Sun columnist and
SBR news commentator, on Wed-
nesday evening, November 14, at
8 o'clock.

Special opening features will
also include the awarding of $500
in cash prizes, contributed by
British Columbia trade unions,
which will be presented by R. K.
Gervin, secretary, Vancouver and
District Trades and Labor Coun-
cil. Greetings will be extended by
John Turner, secretary, Vancou-
ver Labor Council, and Lawren
Marris,: national president, Fed-
eration~of Canadian Artists. The
well-known Tait Family String
Ensemble will furnish music dur-
ing the evening.

vise and consult with its elect-
ed representatives on such im-
portant matters, especially as
it pertains to important social
and labor legislation. In other
words, what was not fully ac-
complished during the emer-
geney war years in accepting
Tabor as a full war partner,
must be established in the
postwar in accepting labor as
a full peacetime partner.
We are concerned with a Na-
tional Minimum Wage, with the
enactment of a National Federal
Labor Code to guarantee union
security by law, wherein the Prov-
inces through the process of en-
abling legislation proceed all in
the same direction. The establish-
ment of a National Health In-

Continued from Page 1—

Ford Strike

Harold Pritchett, speaking for
the B.C, Ford Strike Committee,
pointed out that the auto work-
evs were spearheading the strug-
gle of labor for, union security,
wages and conditions.

The following resolution was
unanimously adopted by the
meeting:

WHEREAS: More than 10,-
000 workers of the Ford Mo-
tor Company, Limited, Wind-
sor, Ontario, members of the
United Automobile Workers of
America are on strike in an
attempt to establish a collec-
tive agreement providing for
union security, and

WHEREAS: Said company
has refused to comply with the
demands of their employees,
members of ‘a union of their

| own choice in the institution of

an agreement embodying the
principles that many millions

of citizens throughout the
world fought and died for,
THEREFORE BE IT RE-

SOLVED: That this mass pub-
lic_rally, assembled in the
Boilermakers’ Auditorium in
the City of Vancouver, go on
record in fayor of:

1. Full moral and financial,
support to the Windsor strik-
ers, their wives and families.

2. We demand that the Fed-
eral Government immediately
intervene and force Campbell
and the Ford Company to meet
the union and negotiate an
agreement based upon the un-
ion demands.

3. That the Federal Goyern-
ment bring out immediate leg-
isJation to amend Wartime
Order-in-Council P.C. 1003 to
provide for full union security.
W. White, President of the
Boilermakers’ union, introduced
a motion which was unanimously
adopted, condemning the govern-
ment’s action in moving armed
police to Windsor in a move to
break the strike.

The Provincial Strike Com-
mittee reports that’ meetings
have been scheduled for the two
visitors as follows:

Courtney-Cumberland area for
Tuesday, November 6th at 8
p.m.; New Westminster, Wed-
nesday, November 7 at 8p.m.;
Victoria, Thursday, November
8, at 8 pm.; and Britannia, Fri-
day, November 9, at 8 p.m. The
following week meetings will be
scheduled for the mining areas.

Contributions to the Strike
Fund have been coming in rapid-
ly this week from local unions,
and the committee reports that
two thousand dollars has been
forwarded to the Congress of-
fice for distribution.

It is estimated that $25,000 a
week is required to keep the
strike in full swing. Between 30
and 40 thousand people are di-
rectly affected by’ this strike.
The morale of the strikers is as
high as it has ever been, and
intensified financial support will
further gird their determination
to stay out till victory. 10,000
striking Ford workers call upon
the Canadian labor movement to
intensify their activities on be-
half of this great crusade. The
traditionally open-shop, anti-la-
bor Ford Motor Co. must not be
permitted to bring the hungry
thirties back to Windsor and
Canada,
= eae ee
solving of the National problem
or housing, ete,

Labor in Canada constitutes
the major section of the popu-
lation, the voice of labor must be

surance scheme and uniform and
improved Old Age Pensions. The

heard to assure peace, progress
and security, :

1946 Model

Valley Forge

. By ELLIOTT CARLTON

_ _,This is going to be a hard, long winter unless the workingman
is able to take honr2 enough pay to meet expenses. In some respects,
“decent tcke home pay” is the twentieth century equivalent of the
colonial battle cry that “taxation without representation is tyranny.”

This time, however, the enemy is hidden—hidden behind the
accumulated wealth of the war years; hidden by the big words
on the virtues of so-called free enterprise.

But the enemy is there—and he must be captured ALIVE so
that he can work for the good of all of us.

The enemy is TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE because he is on
the wrong side, the side of TOO GREAT PROFIT. i

Work this out yourself: An article—a car, for instance—is manu-
factured in less time than it took in 1941, but the amount of profits
remains the same.

Who benefits?

The answer is easy, of course, for anyone will agree that the
employer benefits in that his rate of profit gozs up because jhis
turn-over is greater and his investment is therefore, less.

But who loses?

The answer to this question is just as easy: We're the losers be-
cause investment will outstrip consumption—until the crash,

At that point the breadlines will start forming on the right.
Each street corner will have its full quota of apple-sellers.

To top it off, the National Association of Manufacturers will
announce that “Prosperity is around the corner.’

And while Prosperity is playing hide and seek, the unemployed
will look for a scapegoat.

They will be aided by our Lunatics without Portfolios: the na-
tive fascists who, in turn, will be assisted no end by the loose change
of Big Business. 2

The scapegoat will be found.
He will be the Negro.

He will be the Jew

He will be the Catholic.

Then, when he refuses to bow before the native fascist Leader
as God, he will be the Protestant.

He will, of course, be the workingman. That goes without
saying.

He will, in short, be YOU.

Luckily, this can be avoided—but only if we take prompt action.

Support Labor’s drive for adequate take home pay in every way
you know how.

Labor is attacking the fortress of too great profits—and
needs the help of every. workingman.

Your help must not be too little and too late, for it’s up to you
and your brethren to run up the flag of FAIR SHARE FOR ALL.

V’s the flag of economic and political democracy in this century
IT’S YOUR FLAG, TOO.

Labor

Is It Union Made? .

(By S. LePedes, National Representative, U.G.W.A.) .

Readers of this.paper, when purchasing garments, should mow
some of the facts.connected with producing the shirts, trousers or
overalls we wear.

Report No. 26 of the Dominion Department of Labor (Wage
Rates and Hours of Labor in Canada, 1943) is a shocking condem-
nation of the low wages prevailing in the work clothing, and shirt
industry. :

The national average wage rate for work clothing machine
operators is $17.77 per week and drops as low as $14.76 in Quebec
towns for a 48-50 hour work week.

On shirts, the sewing machine operator’s national average for
the whole of Canada is 34c per hour with a drop to 25c per hour
in other Quebec centres for a 48-50 hour work week. d

Now the Government also tells us that these wage rates of
25c and 34c per hour include a 40.8 increase for work clothing work-
ers and 35.9 increase for shirt workers since 1939.

Just figure it out—what magnificent wages we had in 1939!
Getting back to normal will mean returning to starvation wages.

Now, we all agree that there is very little to be proud of in the
wages paid to shirt and work clothing workers or their working
conditions.

Millions of garments bought and paid for by union men and
women are being produced under inhuman sweatshop conditions.

The assenbly-line production system is now being introduced
and will still further increase the profits of the Manufacturers.

Members of labor unions and women’s auxiliaries can help
immensely by insisting on the Union Label whenever purchasing
shirts, pants, overalls, windbreakers and leather jackets.

It isn’t enough to ask, “Is it Union Made?” Ask to be shown
the emblem of free labor, the Union Label.

Your «well-being as citizens of Canada depends on the earnings
of other people and,'as long as there are many thousands of Cana-
dian working people who work for a pittance, your own wage
standards are in danger. :

If Union Label “stock” does net gp up ,your wages will come
down. d 1