Page Two

THE B.C.

OC. Lunsen! Worker

Published Every Second Monday By
INTEENATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (CIO)
DISTRICT COUNCIL NO. 1
22,000 copies printed this week

Subscription Rate: $1.00 per year

Editor: B. J. MELSNESS Advertising: MATT FEE
Room 504 Holden Building—Phone PAcific 4151—Vancouver, B.C.
Authorized as Second Class Mail, Postoffice Dept., Ottawa.

The deadline for the coming issue is 4 p-m.
Thursday, April 4

9384 Hamstrings Labor.

HE IWA program adopted in our 9th District Convention is a
logical and inevitable outgrowth of the economic and_ political
developments occuring in the recent period in Canada as well as the
neighboring United States. It is the application or @ porcy made
necessary by rapidly changing factors. It supplants the wage policy
program which was projected during the war period and which now
is outdated by the conditions and circumstances of the day.

The fight for wage increases and improved conditions which has
been pursued for a year or more by this and all CCL unions in Canada
and by the IWA and the CIO in the United States, takes on new and
more positive aspects by recognition of certain weakness in the
form program. It called for war labor board processing on wage
demands and formal governmental procedures in pursuit thereof.

What are the factors which our union considered merited this
somewhat radical change in approach and procedure? It has been
the aim of our union as well as the rest of the Canadian Congress of
Labor to defeat the purpose of Order-in-Council P.C. 9384 ever since
the latter stages of the war when it assumed the proportions of a
device to frustrate the legitimate demand of the workers. Any pro-
gram which utilized the facilities of the war labor board to achieve
the wage gains labor must have, fell prey to the tortuous processing
of the Board and submission to the terms of wage control Order-
in-Council P.C. 9384. The regulations under which the War Labor
Board operates have and still have, prohibited the approval of any
wage increases sufficient to satisfy the needs of workers today. The
process of the War Labor Board, designed as they are to prevent
the use by workers of economic action, therefore involving’ many
months of delay, cannot be fitted to the urgent needs confronting
our membership, Should we choose to pursue our wage\gains through
the Board’s own absurd and outmoded processes would mean eight
to twelve months of delay. Such a course in the light of events would

be disastrous to our union and a betrayal of the workers.

‘The motives which have impelled us over a period of the past
months to seek wage increases are today more pressing than ever.
‘The workers in our jurisdiction in British Columbia have endured
rates of pay, frozen by the government without regard to rising
living costs and swollen wartime profits of industry without regard
to the increasing needs of the workers caused by accident and health
hazards present in long hours of work, and more strenuous effort
to produce for the war effort. It is estimated by our union that the
cost of living has increased in excess of 35 percent during the war
period. There are still rates of pay frozen at 67c per hour with even
more highly skilled workers receiving a bare 70 or 75c per hour. The
best that can be said for wages in our industry is that they have not
increased to any degree proportionate with the demands made on the
‘workers’ pocket book. On the other hand it is significant that not a
single major employer with whom we bargain and of whom we have
demanded wage increases has contended inability to pay these in-
creases, The manifest injustice of this situation—more than that the
urgent necessity to maintain and improve workers’ living standards
places before our union, the most emphatic need for immediate action
on the wage demands of our union, This picture of gross injustice
will soon be immeasurably sharpened by reductions in the take home
pay effected by lowering of the work week to forty hours or less.
‘There is now a growing unemployment problem in this country which
will soon necessitate a work week of even less than forty hours, Fur-
ther lowering to forty hours will mean an overall reduction in take-
home-pay of some 40 percent. This means not only sub-standard liv-
ing for our workers but a more potent danger to the economy of our

country.

. . .

We submit, that in this day of high labor productivity, it should
not be necessary for workers to put in long hours in the forests and
factories, to earn a decent living. The national purchasing power of
the people must be augmented by raising real rates of, pay. The
economy of the country has been sustained during the war by the
government purchasing huge proportions of the national output and
by the expanded needs of war consumption, All the resources of
Canada were organized to produce in greater and greater amounts,
Industry must now convert this machinery of war production to
satisfy the peacetime needs of the people. The government is no
longer @ customer for the products of Canada’s machines, these pro-
ducts must now be sold to the people of Canada and the production
facilities of the nation will be kept in operation only if the purchasing
power of the people is greater than ever before.

The government restriction’ on wages which now are totally
obsolete, must be relegated to history. The action of the workers in
our union and that of the rest of the Canadian Congress of Labor
must make it clear to the nation that the war is over, The patriotism
which influenced the membership of our union to observe wartime
regulations even although they worked to prevent injustices must
now ‘impel our membership to protect its own standard of living as

well as the economy of the nation.

LUMBER WORKER
By Don

Heading Out... 222.

. Since the IWA has established a “beach head” on the problem
of Union hiring, other large International Unions in B.C. are con-
sidering the establishment of Union Hiring for their industry as
well. Such a move on the part of the Unions of British Columbia’s
basic industries will greatly strengthen labor's role in society,

In our Union Hiring Hall far more authentic information can

be had by any member of our organization regarding job condi-
tions of any given operation, because of the proximity of the Union
Hiring Hall to the office of Local 1-71, to which the many job
stewards of the local report regularly. No other Hiring Hall in
Vancouver can have such a reference because their references can
only come from individuals, which never can express the ideas of
the overwhelming majority of the workers on the job.

Any idea of “good customers” for the Union Hiring Hall may
be approached from two angles. One is how the “good customer”
workersithrough their Union Hiring Hall view the “good customer.”
Certainly any infringement on the wage structure so laboriously
built up by our organization does not constitute a “good customer”
in our opinion. Neither does a big turnover in manpower make
good relationship between employer and Union Hiring. Fares do
come out of wages, which, coupled with time loss in changing jobs,
amounts to immense sums of money, and when a worker is dis-
patched to the job, from the Union Hiring Hall, it is always in
the best interests of all concerned that conditions are such in
camp that the worker will be able to stay. In other words, the
“good customer,” as viewed by the Union Hiring Hall, are those
customers that only need men twice a year after the summer
and winter shutdowns and that is no Utopian dream.

Atom Scientists Hit.
At Soviet Spy Scare

NEW YORK (ALN)—Key American scientists this week struck
out at congressional charges that “professional scientific societies”
may be involved in an alleged Soviet spy ring to obtain atom bomb
secrets. The carges, which grew out of an announcement by the
House Un-American\ Activities Committee that it is secretly investi-
gating a “Russian spy ring” operating in the atome project, were
made by two compitfee jnembers, Representatives John Rankin and
Karl Mundt. r

Speaking for over 4,000 work- cha wal ce a ee
‘argon’ tha bomb opialect DE Wal Moe Sone cecg eee eget

thi ie) LS.
A, Higgenbotham, chairman of 7s ee sat ore Policy
the ‘Federation of American | *"" "0" the -UBBE ae ne
scientists, emphasized that| ~~ ea ae bart tere oe
‘jealis" {n.-vitall bofab, secrets|jare’| Pore ccne Nae cake coma oa
if atom bomb secrecy is aban-
military
ha, | toned.
Taking advantage of the Ca-

possible even under
regulations. He/ said that

group has been in touch with
fellow scientists throughout the
world and added: “We never ad-
vocated turning the atomic bomb
over to Russia. We for
international control and if you

had that, there would be no
security. regulations. We pro-
pose this because we believe it
is to the benefit of science and
the country.”

Higgenbotham asserted that
“the most important problem to-
day is to win the peace by ending
war. War has always been im-
moral, but atomic warfare is sui-
cide.” He strongly opposed con-
trol of the bomb by the armed
forces and stated that “scient-
ists must take the lead in mak-
ing the facts about atomic en-
ergy known to the people.” The
threat of military control of
science, Higgenbotham said, “is
also a threat of military control
of labor for it is the beginning
of fascism. Atomic energy must
not get into the hands of those
who can think only in terms of
war.”

Meanwhile, behind the smoke-
sereen of the Canadian spy
scare, a conspiracy is shaping up
to retain atomic secrecy despite
the United Nations’ decision.
Backed by army brasshats who
favor rigid military control of
the komb and a secret bomb-
building program, the plan has
the support of isolationists in
Congress, in the State Depart-
ment and other important places

are

nadian spy scare, Winston Chur-
chill’s proposal for a military
alliance against the Soviet Union
and the general drive for a war
on the USSR, the House Military
Affairs Committee voted to bring
up an atomic energy bill which
would vest complete control of
the bomb in a few military offic-
ers, place restrictions on scien-
tists and thus enable the build-
ing up of a secret armry.

Maj. Gen. L. R. Groves, in
charge of the bomb project, told
the Committee recently that the
$2,000,000,000 bomb project must
be maintained at near capacity
and that the U.S. must “be pre-
pared to go into an aggressive
war at the drop of a hat, at
somebody's say so, and without
even waiting to assemble Con-
gress in special session because
it would take too long.” The
army has at the same time tried
to block political statements on
the atom bomb by scientists,

A second atomic energy bill,
backed by Dr. Robert 3. Oppen-
heimer, the nation’s leading nu-
clear physicist, Secretary of Com-
erce Henry Wallace, former Sec-
retary of the Interior Harold L.
Ickes and organizations repre-
senting 90 percent of the atom
selentists, would povide for ci-
vilian control, Whether these
groups, backed by labor, are
strong enough to overcome the
hate Russia hysteria which is
being developed on a grand scale

throughout the country, remains
to be seen.

Hello Boys:
T always thought the best union

men were found only in the TWA,
put I have changed my mind,
the other day as I was mooch-
ing along Cordova street (tend-
ing my trapline) I noticed the
Fishermen were having a con-
vention, and when Billy Steele
(he is the caretaker of the Fish-
ermen’s Hall at 188 Cordova St,
E,) asked me to sit in awhile as
a visitor, I accepted. My bunions
were bothering me quite a bit at
the time.

‘One delegate, in his report, said
he had been in the labor move-
ment for 40 years, and in that
period of time had missed exactly
two meetings of his local union.
This delegate was not trying to
make out he was a super trade
unionist, which made his state-
ment all the more remarkable,
Anyway, I left the convention
shortly after, knowing I had seen
and heard a great man,

The Editor tells me he is going
to print in this issue a letter that
appeared in the Vancouver Sun
on March 20, signed by Brothers
Parkin and Walsh of Local 1-405.
Read her boys, for that letter
shows just who you will be fight- q
ing in your struggle for a better
standard of living. It's going to
be “root hog or die.” Deporting
Pritch to the USSR, as some of
the Sun editorials have lately
been suggesting, makes one real-
ize the 1946 agreements are open
for negotiations, and that letter
from Local 1-405 is as pungent
as “tell it to Sweeney.” That old
gag got a pretty good play about
1919,

Here is one that is still older.
In 1816 nine Stockport hatters
were sentenced to two years im-
prisonment for belonging to a
union, Nine Stockport hatters
were sentenced to two years im-
prisonment in 1816 for conspiracy.
The judge (Sir William Garrow)
in summing up, remarked, “In
this happy country where the law
puts the meanest subject on a
level with the highest personages
of the realm, all are alike pro-
teeted, and there can be no need
to associate... a person who like
Mr, Jackson has employed from
100 to 180 hands, common grati-
tude would teach us to look upon
as a benefactor to the com-
munity.” Stockport is in England,
Pritchett's native land. Could be
some of those. hatters were
Pritch’s ancestors, Anyway boys,
you got an association, organiza-
tion or trade union now, and you
decided in convention last Janu-
ary on the points you want in the
agreements for 1946,

The strike vote gives the Dis-
trict Negotiating Committee a
Pretty good idea of how many
have their minds made up, but
lest there be some who think the
boss .can’t afford to pay the 26¢
an hour increase, they had better
take a gander at the rate of
Profits of some of the companies —

Any alternative to the conven-
tion demands offered at this time
by anyone is out of order, Offer
ing an alternative is like the guy
Who took his girl into a restau
rant and the only meat on
menu was tongue. The girl
“Oh, I couldn’t eat anything that
came out of an animals mouth.”
And the waiter trying to be ht

q