Page Four B.C. LUMBER WORKER No Dictatorship! OST significant development in recent trade union his- tory was the unanimity with which CCL and AFL unions joined in protest against the action of Parliament imposing compulsory arbitration on the railway unions, following the enforced cessation of strike action. The mass protest, demonstrated in large meetings across the Dominion, revealed full recognition of the grave threat to trade union rights. The issue was well stated in the joint call to action issued by the President of the Trade and Labor Congress of Canada and the Secretary of the Canadian Congress of Labour. “The attempts of the railway managements to use the House of Commons to protect the. interests of private capital brings into clear focus the danger to the wholé Canadian trade union movement, whose interests are at stake in the present dispute. “Yet it is not enough for the two Congresses to issue statements. It is important that the whole trade union movement in Canada be unified at once in a process of joint action, in protesting to the Government of Canada against any program that would undermine the hard-won rights of labor and set the clock back in Canada for at least fifty years.” 2 z “Tt may be that only by showing the utmost solidarity at this time will it be possible for the Canadian Labor movement to avert catastrophe. Let the .Government of Canada know that the People’s Parliament is not to be used as a bludgeon in the interests of private corporate enterprise.” Strike leaders addressing an assembly of trade union- ists in Vancouver rightly denounced the actions of the Federal Government, first, on the grounds of dilatory ac- tion to achieve a peaceful settlement, and secondly for heavy-handed intervention on the side of the railway cor- porations. It was recognized by the mass meeting as a crime against labor, which will not be forgotten. Members of the IWA, who have learned to value the advantages of industry-wide bargaining, have been con- spicuous in their ardent support of the general protest. Today the railway unions are the victims on the pre- text that compulsion is necessary to protect the national economy. To-morrow, the same reason can be seized upon to paralyze strike action planned in the B.C. lumber industry. : It is but a short step from compulsory arbitration for transportation systems to compulsory arbitration for all unions who bargain on an industry-wide basis. It is no mere coincidence that the action of the Federal Government has invoked widespread approval in all organs of big business. The financial press from Coast to Coast has chorused a demand for the outlawing of strikes by means of various forms of compulsory arbitration. Compulsory arbitration means the end of collective bar- gaining. The end of collective bargaining means the end of labor’s democatic rights, and the beginning of govern- ment regulation of trade unions in the interests of big business. As the awards of compulsory arbitration are made binding upon labor, they must be enforced. The awards can be enforced over labor’s protest by police action. Such a situation is open incitement to defiance of the law to ob- tain justice. Nothing could prove more destructive of democratic progress. Government arbitrators with power to dictate wage levels and the terms of employment can never prove a satisfactory substitute for genuine collective bargaining. Arbitrators appointed by governments notoriously biassed against labor will inevitably rule on the side of the em- ployer. : An aroused labor movement has the power to mete out political punishment to the perpetrators of this latest vio- lation of labor’s freedom. Shades Of Hitler IKE a voice from the dark and cruel days of early in- dustrialism appeared a display advertisement in a Vancouver daily recently, attacking trade unionism in the name of the River Sawmills Ltd. : The advertisement has significance for the IWA, be- cause it originated with the owner of a plant in which the Union holds bargaining rights. The occasion for the em- ployer’s vituperation was his attempted evasion of the terms of the master agreement negotiated by the majority of the Coast lumber operators, He now faces conciliation proceedings, or possibly something worse, if conciliation fails. ~His abuse of trade unionism in general is seen therefore to be merely the frustration of his desire to strut with the shabby preten- sions of the would-be autocrat. It required the expenditure of over $400 to vent his spleen in this way against the trade union which would bargain for justice on behalf of his employees. It required a mid-Victorian mind to conjure up the empty charges against trade unions. It echoed the doctrines of the British IT WORKED ‘The Editor: I see where Pritchett is back working in the industry that he and his fellow travellers tried to wreck. He is also advocating to his WIUC members that they go back in the IWA. The WIUG members can see for themselves they have been classed as sheep, “do as I tell you at all times”. Seeing that he’s so big-hearted to work in the industry again to help out during the labor short- age, I wonder if he will get big hearted again and see that all the money owing to the IWA is returned, because Forbes and the rest of them have it; it looks now Don’t Let Termites Bore In IWA which cost Union members thousands of dollars in lawyer’s fees, This money would have done more good for members had it been left in the treasury to strengthen their bargaining power, Also remember the phony strike at Iron River that the WI- UC leadership pulled, where brothers battled one another and landed in hospital. They were the real sufferers. Now, fellow-workers, you see one of the real reasons why we need a closed shop to keep such traitors out of the IWA. We must always be on our guard to see that such termites don’t start as if they are going to be left holding the bag. ‘The treacherous break from the boring from within, Faller. Continued from previous column Tories of 1812. It could be suspected that he aspires to be a Canadian Hitler. He speaks with horror of the wickedness of trade unions in exploiting the unorganized workers who have already put in their working lifetime at a low standard of pay. Heaven forbid that the unorganized workers should themselves organize to escape the misery of their lot, They should remain well content with their miseries, says this new champion of their rights, as he lovingly gloats- over his profits. His main theme is that unions are unnecessary, evi- dently because benevolent employers are always ready to pay generous wages, within righteous limits, of course. With amusing ignorance of the true state of affairs, governments and the gullible, apathetic masses. Little does he know how trade unions have had to fight governments corrupted and frightened by the employers into the imposition of restrictions on democratic organiza- tion. Little does he know how the trade unions have striven to persuade the masses to act on their own behalf for their own welfare against rapacious employers. His stirring appeal to rouse the character of the Cana- dian people falls on stony ground. The character of the Canadian people is essentially democratic, and nowhere more democratic than found among the Canadian citizens who form the trade unions. We strongly advise that any further expenditure by River Sawmills Ltd. on such instruction should be devoted to self-instruction in the elementary freedoms of Canadian he states that trade unionism preys on weak, frightened | - Barrister & Solicitor Notary Public 751 Granville Street VANCOUVER, B.C. ‘Telephone TAtlow 5128 SOLICITOR TO THE 1. W.A. Dv ‘YOU EARN MONEY - THE way Don’t lose your pay cheque, Deposit it by mail this easy way, and then you'll have money to use when you come into town. Besides being safe, what you save will increase with bank interest, SAVE IT THIS Vancouver Branch, Dept. B. 3, Vancouver B.C, — “apna eae democracy before attempting public instruction. LOANED ON SUITS 325 CoLumsia St moneY YOUR PLEDGES CAREFULLY STORED AND OVERCOA HORSE SHOE TAILORS & PA