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B.C. LUMBER WORKER

Shabby Trick

ATTORNEY-GENERAL WISMER has stooped to one of

the shabiest of political tricks to cast suspicion upon
the purposes of the B.C. trade union movement in its
recent mass hospital insurance protest.

In a statement to the daily press he insinuates that the
trade unions were not so interested in helping the people
as in helping the CCF. He dismisses the outburst of angry
protest agamst the increased hospital insurance costs as a
political manoeuvre engineered by the CCF.

The chief law-enforcement officer of the Crown in this
province has been accused of many things, but never of
stupidity. More than any other member of the Coalition
Capinet he is aware of the political facts of life. Informed
trade unionists will recognize the old familiar “red her-
ying” which he hopes to draw across the trail of the
Coalition Government, and divert attention from its sins.

Within twenty-four hours of the announcement that
the premiums would be increased and co-insurance intro-
duced, the ranks of labor were sponstaneously in revolt.
An aroused and irate rank and file membership was
clamoring for action from their officers.

Eyen if the CCF had the means to influence trade union
opinion so extensively (which it hadn’t), nothing could
have touched off widespread denunciation of the Coalition
Cabinet more effectively than its own stupid and callous
actions. No opposing political party, however well
organized, could nope to equal the political damage caused
the Coalition by its self-intticted knifing.

Hon. Mr. Wismer overlooks the fact that the entire
trade union movement in the province was united in the
protest voiced by the petition. By no stretch of the imagi-
nation could it be said that any desire to enhance the politi-
cal prestige of the CCF was ever’ potent enough to weld
all sections of organized labor into one fighting whole.

Throughout the trade unions, as well as the general
public, men and women who had voted for all the recog-
nized political parties found comnion ground in combatting
injustice, without thought of partisan considerations. Mr.
Wismer’s innuendoes cannot obscure this simple fact,
known to all in the trade unions.

‘HE Attorney-General complains that the Members of
the Legislature have been condemned before they haves
been heard. They were heard in the Legislature. They
voted for amending legislation which is now on the statute
books. They rejected labor’s petition out of hand when
they might have given it consideration. The decisions
which they endorsed cannot now be rescinded until next
year’s session. The shoe is on the other foot, Mr. Wismer.
The majority in the Legislature passed- judgment on
labor’s views, without proper enquiry into the evidence
presented by labor.

The injustice having been perpetrated, it is the peroga-
tive of the trade unions to condemn it, and those respon-
sible for its imposition. Under responsible government,
it is quite appropriate that the M.L.A.’s should now be
called upon to explain their actions to their constituents.

Under the procedures of democratic government, the
electors delegate responsibility to their representatives in
the Legislature. If this responsibility is not discharged to
the satisfaction of the electors, the sensible course is to
prepare for better representation at the polls.

Members of the Legislature who deliberately or blindly
rejected organized labor’s plea for.a fair deal on hospital
insurance and other vital matters have no cause for com-
plaint if they must, now face workers whose confidence
they have forfeited. Organized labor has ample justifica-
tion for seeking other and more reliable representation.

Organized labor has been motivated only by the belief
that government should not trample on the rights of the
governed. If this attitude embarrasses the Coalition, it is
because the Coalition has forsaken the principles of good
government.

Safety Week

NE hundred percent co-operation from every IWA

member in the 78 sawmills within the B,C. Lumber

Manufacturers Association can ensure the success of
Safety Week, May 14-18.

Safety committees are being alerted for one week’s
special effort and are responding with enthusiasm. In-
dividual workers will also have constant reminders that
their vigilance is an essential factor in the attainment of
an accident-free week.

Every mill that can keep the accident-free flag flying
for the week will have proven something of inestimable
value to the workers.

Management and labor will have proven that by co-
operation and vigilance the causes of needless accidents
can be eradicated. They will have demonstrated that it
requires only the will and the effort to make sawmills safe
places to work, and thus wipe out the incalculable suffer-
ing and misery that follows in the wake of accidents.

What is more—if it can be done for a week by these

Famous Last Words

as a

The Editor: z
There are many members in
our Union, the IWA, who would
like to know just what the policy
of our directors is with regard
to the union’s business and our
political status.

the other make front page news
in our Lumber Worker. Now I
may be wrong in the following
contention, but my firm opinion
is that at least union matters
come first.

Take a copy of our paper,
April 5th, for instance; here we
have a picture almost completely
across the front page of the
Executive and Committees of the
CCL Council. On Page Three a
picture of the IWA District
Executive Board 1951.

Why is this so? The reason is
obvious, if we must bring up the
political side at least make it a
secondary consideration. Let me
make myself clear on this issue,
once and for all. I’d suggest that
no matter how important a politi-
cal issue is it should not show up
in preference to Union business.

There was quite a lot of contro-
versy at the last conference with
the operators when the last
agreement was formed. Mistakes
were made of which a good ex-
planation was given by the Presi-
dent of the IWA, Bro. J. Stewart
Alsbury, over the radio on Green
Gold.

Other speakers also gave their
views at that time, but there is
not much on record in the Lum-
ber Worker. You see what I
mean? Matters dealing with our
daily work under an IWA con-
tract are straight issues whereas
the political side is full of com-
plications.

‘Therefore, the Lumber Worker,
being the official organ of the
IWA, representing the organized

SAILORS’ LIEN

In Quebec, Canada, a superior
court tuled that a sailor whose
wages are not paid up has a legal
claim on his employer’s ship. The
decision indicated that a gypped
sailor or his union could take over
any ship that proved incapable of
paying off its men.

ANS

methods, it can be done the year round.

tig:

“Put IWA First” Says Critic

these items should be kept in the
rear. This goes for editorials as
well.

workers in the wood working in-
dustry, should be kept as such
and not as a political sheet. I
don’t mean that no political news
should be printed but just that

Austin Bourn,
c o Box 595, Courtenay, B,C,

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