B.C. LUMBER WORKER

2nd Issue, January

-IWA DELEGATION AT 1954 CONVENTION

UNIONS FIGHT

QUEBEC

QUEBEC CITY (CPA)—The Quebec Legislature this

LAWS

week passed two bills giving the Duplessis government
stronger powers for taking action against trade unions in
the province. The bills, both passed by a large majority,
would decertify unions involved in public service strikes

or those led by Communists.

Premier Duplessis said that
strikes in public services were
anti-social acts which he likened
to revolution or sabotage. They
were, he said, “. . . like a soldier
turning a gun against a general
«+» equivalent to treason”. Du-
plessis said the Quebec govern-
ment recognized the right to
strike so long as it was not a
strike against the people.

Teachers Target

Opposition Leader Georges La-
palme said that Liberal opposi-
tion to both bills centered around
the fact that they could be ap-
plied retroactively. Several Lib-
eral members charged that the
bill giving authority to the Pro-
vineial Labor Relations Board to
decertify unions in public services
which call, or threaten to call,
strikes, was aimed at the Alliance
of Montreal Catholic Teachers
that called a strike of 2,000
teachers in 1949 and was later
decertified by the QLRB. The
courts, up to the Supreme Court
of Canada, ruled the decertifica-
tion illegal and the Quebec gov-
ernment now has appealed to the
Privy Council in London for a
reversal.

The opposition members also
criticized the other bill charging
that it hurt unions generally and
not the communists at whom it
was aimed. The bill allows QLRB
to decertify unions which ‘toler-
ate’ communists in their ranks,
Labor Minister Barrette stated
that the bill was introduced be-
eause the people of the provinces
wanted it and also to assist
Unions in ridding themselves of
communists. Premier Duplessis
‘said that under the new law only

unions tolerating communists
would be affected.

TIMBER
CONSERVED

STOCKHOLM (CPA)— Swe-
den’s forest industries need
never fear a shortage of raw
materials if the present stand-
ards of conservation are main-
tained. More new timber is
growing every year than is be-
ing cut by workers of one of
the country’s major industries.

Forests cover about two-thirds

of the country’s total land area
but in the north, over-cutting
had brought about the danger of
deforestation. Due to strict for-
estry control, however, the 1952
inventory showed that the timber
supply in south and central Swe-
den was on the increase, while in
the north the regrowth equals
losses from cutting and decay.

Quality Higher

Spruce and pine make up the
bulk of the coniferous tree timber
volume. Growing period for Swe-
dish spruce and pine is, on an
average, twice that of the same
trees in southern Europe and the
southern part of the U.S.

CREDIT:

UNIONS

GROW

REGINA—As at September
30, 1953, the combined assets.
of Saskatchewan credit unions
totalled $27.2 million, an in-
crease of more than $4 million
in the six months prior to that
date, according to a summary
of financial and statistical re-
ports of Saskatchewan credit
unions, released by the provin-
cial department of co-operation
and co-operative development.

Individual membership rose
4,048 to a total of 65,315. Share
capital increased by nearly $3
million to $18.5 million while de-
posits showed a gain of about
$740,000 to a total of $6.5 million.
Loans made during the six-
month period totalled over $10
million, bringing the total amount
loaned since the first Saskatch-
ewan credit union was organized
in 1937 to nearly $71 million,

The report noted marked pro-
gress in resources and operations
among many of the older, well-
established credit unions, with 57
credit unions having assets in ex-
cess of $100,000. Three credit
unions had assets of more than
$1,000,000; six had over $500,000;
17 over $200,000; and thirty-one
from $100,000 to $200,000.

Compared with September 30,
1952, there were increases of

three percent in the number of
credit unions, 14 percent in total
membership, 88 percent in total
assets and 28 percent in total
loans granted.

HEADS

Champion of All Lightweight
@ Caulked Boots ~ ©

LIGHT
CRUISER

Featuring
High Carbon Steel Oil
Tempered Boot Caulks
FOR SURE GRIP

Another Favorite . .. HEAD’S famous

“SAFETY TOE BOOTS”
for Mill Workers /

W. J. HEAD BOOT
21 East Hastings Se.

(PA, 4844)
“HEADS YOU WIN”

FACTORY LIMITED

Vancouver, B.C.

“WE PAY TOO MUCH’

By MORDEN LAZARUS

TORONTO (CPA) — When
a big bank president makes
statements that sound as
though they came from a hard-
pressed housewife, they are
news—they may even be ac-
cepted as fact.

James Muir, president of the
Royal Bank of Canada, never
spoke truer words in his life
when he said that in terms of
what it will buy in Canada, the
Canadian dollar is third-rate.

Condensing Mr. Muir’s state-

ment into a sentence, he said that
Canadian consumers are being
charged exorbitant prices, busi-
ness in Canada is loading on all
the traffic will bear and the aver-
age Canadian buyer is getting
a poor run for his earnings.

Exorbitant Prices

Mr. Muir said a lot more. He
charged in effect that the pur-

pose of expanding consumer cre-
dit in 1952 was to encourage the

+] average family to pay exorbitant

prices by buying on credit when
they would have balked at buy-
ing for cash.

Figures show that wholesale
prices have dropped 8 percent
since 1951 but prices have not
followed. Wholesale farm prices
are 20 percent lower but consum-
ers are paying only 3 percent
less for food.

Finally Mr. Muir, sounding al-
most like a “labor agitator” said
that high wages are a good thing,
provided industry is efficient and
does not resort to restrictive
practises to keep prices up.
“Prices are kept down wages up
through high and- efficient pro-
duction... .” and he said that
labor itself realizes that “it
stands to benefit from any pro-
gram that improves the efficiency
of Canadian production.”

STRIKE VOTE SCORED

WASHINGTON. — A surprise proposal in President Hisen-

hower’s Taft-Hartley recommendations—for a government-conducted
strike vote in every strike—brought immediate and strong protests
from organized labor. In general, labor agreed that the improve-
ments offered in the President’s 14 proposals were slight, some of
the provisions were more anti-union than the present. law, and no
relief at all had been offered from the really objectionable feature
of T-H.

labor

always gets
a square deal...

The Province

The Vancouver Province is 100% Union Produced