Se c. LUMBER WORKER Vindicated month-old strike has completely vindicated the policies pursued by the IWA. The firm adherence by the IWA to the resolution, “no contract, no work”, and mounting pressure of public opin- ion forced the employers to the mediation of matters in dispute. *_ The employers’ attempt to cloak their real intentions behind the ery of “‘illegality” has been torn away by the common sense of the man on the street. Any so-called “illegality” was deliberately staged as a smoke screen to conceal anti-union désigns. The strike has demonstrated that lumber workers have needs so urgent that men and women are prepared to suffer temporary loss of income to secure adequate con- sideration of those néeds. - -It was a great moral victory for the IWA to establish the fact that those needs must be dealt; with fairly and objectively at the conference table, and in proper balance with the claims of the employers. Likewise it has been a great gain for the IWA to prove that the Union possessed the unity of purpose to fight one of the most determined battles waged in B.C. labor history. It has knit the membership of the IWA into a compact fighting force with which the employers must reckon, and which more than ever may be relied upon to defend the welfare of those who pin their faith to the organized strength of brotherhood. A Reward Certain strike which lasts beyond the thirty-day period is a trying experience. No one realizes the truth of this more clearly than the man on strike and the members of his family. It is not easy to budget household expenses on no income, Men and women find endurance to meet this test, when they realize the purposes for which their sacrifices are made. The present IWA strike has written into the history of the working class another example of the steadfast courage with which workers have always won a larger measure of social justice. What the IWA is fighting for and will eventually gain, far outweighs the temporary discomforts of holding a picket line for a few weeks without pay. “IWA members on strike are fighting for their right to decent living and working conditions. They have made the choice of free men. As weaklings, they might have submitted to a form of industrial slavery. As free men they are determined not to work until their work is re- warded as it can and should be. Their present struggle will win better conditions of working and living, as such struggles in the past have always brought the workers richer and brighter living. . Without struggle, nothing would-be gained. The indus- trial system is geared to deal with labor as a commodity, to be bartered for at the lowest possible cost. With struggle, nothing is lost and'everything is to be gained. In the years ahead, lumber workers will soon-forget the belt-tightening discomforts of the days on strike, in the enjoyment of a higher status of citizenship in industry. The Culprits /THE trade union movement of British Columbia has warned the public of a grave strike situation, involving more than fifty thousand workers. It required expenditure for half-page advertisements in the daily press to make the point. ‘ At the same time, the trade unions gave the causes and the remedy, in language that might well be heeded by those in authority. ; The machinery for bargaining and conciliation had broken down. It had been stalled mainly because of the resolve of the employers: to use all their economic power and the might of the law to accomplish their own selfish profit-making ends. = When the organized workers are denied justice because the administration of the law is dominated by the employ- ers, they have no recourse but to use the strike weapon. The existing strike-situation in British Columbia does not exist because of the irresponsibility of the workers, or the reckless or grasping decisions of a few leaders. It exists because the employers who exploited price inflation to the limit during recent years, agreed this year to resist any adjustment of wages to the higher price levels in protection of their own future profits. The remedy asked by labor lies in the field of mediation conducted with justice and equity, and directed to strike a fair balance between the conflicting claims of labor and anagement, - The remedy will be found when those in authority re- alize that one essential factor for expanding prosperity in the province is the expanding distribution of income through wages. : 4 The claim of the workers is a claim against the pro- duction of the province for a larger share of goods and services produced, and which, when more equitably shared, ws & _ MINUS ee LA OTTAWA (CPA)—Stubborn employer resistance to the wage demands of Canadian workers has been reported from all sectors of Canada’s labor front. None of packing- house workers, steel workers, railway workers, nor building trades employees have found it easy to obtain the wage con- cessions to which they feel they are entitled because of the in- creases in the cost of living since their last round of wage boosts and because of the in- creasing productivity of their membership. British Columbia woodworkers have already had to resort to strike action in an attempt to enforce their de- mands for a 35-cent wage in- crease, Longest dragged out negotia- tions are those of the United Steelworkers of America, who are asking a wage increase of 10 cents an hour for 16,000 workers in the basic steel industry. They also want a job evaluation scheme which will increase differ- entials paid to more highly skill- ed workers, Key to these con- tract talks is the Hamilton plant of the Steel Company of Canada, where the union has set a late- Wage Fight Spreads July strike deadline. 40-hour Week The CIO Packinghouse Work- ers are asking a 40-hour week for the same take-home pay as they now receive, plus other con- tract changes, Non-operating railway work- ers, organized in a score of CCL and AFL unions, have joined to ask a wage increase of 45 cents an hour, pointing out that they have had no general boost since the Kellock award of 1950. Settled recently have been an AFL textile strike in Valleyfield and Montreal where workers re- turned to their jobs with an 11- cent wage gain, and disputes i volving thousands of AFL build- ing trades workers in various cities, most of whom obtained substantial increases through ne- gotiations. The international officers of the AFL United Textile Workers intervened during the Montreal and Valleyfield strike to replace Communist leadership of the Ca- nadian section of their union. Some of the new Canadian UTW leaders including Sam Baron, are former top men in the minority Baldanzi faction in the CIO .Tex- tile Workers Union of America. Canada stands at the bottom of a list of 10 countries show- ing real wage gains since 1950, The figures, listing a total of 14 countries, show three which suffered cuts in real wages. The list, compiled by the In- ternational Confederation of Free Trade Unions, is based on an index of 100°for June, 1950, and shows that at June, 1951, Cana- dian workers had a real wage inerease of three-tenths of one percent, A cost-of-living index table, also compiled by ICFTU, shows that at June, 1951, as compared with June, 1950, 13 countries had a smaller increase than Canada and 16 had a larger increase. The real wage index listed Ca- nada at 100.3 in June, 1951, on the basis of 100 for June, 1950. Four countries showed losses— Belgium, 99.8; Dominica, 90.5; Norway, 97.1; and Italy, 97.5. Canada’s Wages Low Other countries listed were: Australia 104.8 Austria 105.3 Ceylon 122.5 Germany 108.7 Japan .. 116.8 Netherlands 101.9 Sweden ..... 103.8 United Kingdom 104.4 United States .. 101.5 Countries which, from June, 1950, to June, 1951, showed the same cost of living index increase as Canada, 11.7 percent, were Cyprus and Lebanon. Countries with less increase were: Brazil, Colombia, Dominica, United States, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, West Germany, Luxembourg, Ne- therlands, Sweden, United King- dom, and New Zealand, Coun- tries with a greater increase were Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, Ma- laya, Thailand, Austria,’ Bel- gium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Saar, BIG STEEL CONSPIRACY The CIO Steelworkers asked the Department of Justice, July 8, to prosecute promptly the “big six” steel corporations on charges of conspiring to violate the anti- trust laws, The union said they had conspired to prevent collec- tive bargaining and to intimidate other firms fronr settling. Five days before the union had filed with the National Labor Rela- tions Board charges of unfair la- bor practices, alleging conspiracy, had asked for immediate injune- tions. 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