“ig B.C. LUMBER W

ve
RKE

R

tive at the recent IWA District Convention, conveyed a
warning to the rank and file members of the Union, that
organized labor must prepare to meet anti-unionism in its
most reactionary form, both in Canada and the United

States.

The veteran of the labor move-
ment was accorded an ovation by
the delegates, when he proved by
the vigor of his presentation that
length of service to labor had not
diminished his fighting spirit.

He said in part:

“The forces of reaction are ac-
tive and determined on both sides
of the border. It suggests to me,
when I read the press and hear
your resolutions read and hear
the discussions, that there is a
very definite, clearcut understand-
ing between the corporate forces
of the United States and of Can-
ada, and that there is a definite
understanding in the plan of ac-
tion of approaching and dealing
with organized labor.

Anti-Unionism Rampant

The anti-unionism that I hear
expressed here is precisely the
same as the anti-unionism south
of the border.

This spirit on the part of the

corporate interests of antagon-
ism against the right of work-
ers to organize, and to improve
their conditions of life, is a
challenge to every member of
organized labor, because it
points out clearly and definitely
that the scheme is on, perhaps
more so in the United States
at present than up here, to take
the organized labor movement
on for a showdown and as‘ the
press has so often said, and as
corporate spokesmen have said,
put labor in its place.

Those of you who attended the
Convention of the International
Union at the Vancouver Hotel
may remember that I pointed out
that insthe United States, accord-
ing to an outstanding authority,
one who is high in the councils
of the General Electric Company,

{there are today 58 billionaire

corporations.

‘WHAT WILL HAPPEN
THE COMMON PEOPLE’

‘These 58 billionaire private cor-
porations are alleged to have
gross assets of around $150 bil-
lion, and they are growing con-
stantly, They are absorbing small
businesses, either forcing them
out of business in one way or
another by fair and foul means,
or absorbing them by purchase,

Against that we have in the
United States another danger sig-
nal, a warning against democ-
racy. We have in the United
States for the last several years
a movement on foot to decentral-
ize the government and distribute
greater power to the 48 states of
the union.

Now, I ask you to ask your-
selves in what position will the
people, the common people of the
United States, be if this growing
empire is to continue to become,
if industry is to be more central-
ized into fewer and more power-
ful hands, and the government is
decentralized and weakened, what
chance will the people of the
United States have to protect
their democracy and live as we
are taught to live according to
our Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the Unit-
ed States?

How can a decentralized and
a weaker federal government
deal with a growing industrial
empire? It is a tendency to-
wards Hitlerism and Mussolini-
ism, and we have people even
im the Congress of the United
States. who have all the ear-
marks of a Mussolini and a
Hitler,

Warning to Members

I am bringing this out to your
attention, as I am doing and as
others in the CIO are doing in
the United States, for the pur-
pose of impressing upon you, in
the hope .that you will take it
back to the rank and file, and
point out what is in the making
so far as our unions are con-
cerned,

While the empire, the indus-
trial empire is growing, there
are forces in the labor move-
ment who would weaken the
labor movement by various de-
vious means,‘ And it is well

that we give recognition, seri-
ous recognition, to the sugges-
tion contained in the resolution
on political action that we use
the ballot on election day as
we do our unions on the picket
line. If there is an identity of
interest of the workers in a
union, surely there is an iden-
tity of interest among the
workers at the ballot box.

And I want to say that we in
the States are beginning to learn
that.

It has been unfortunate, it is
not a glorious history, that in the
States, in our federal elections,
a small percentage of the citi-
zens who have a right to vote
exercise that right. It is true, in
the last Presidential election, we
had a larger percentage, some-
where in the 50 percent, In the
1948 elections, only about 48 per-
cent of the people went to the
ballot box.

The result, in the last election,
was that we had more, more ene-
mies of organized labor in our
government. The Cabinet is made
up of millionaires, formerly iden-
tified, many of them, with large
corporations, a part of ‘the bil-
lionaire corporations.

Bad Weather Ahead

I repeat, and I can’t repeat too
often, that all these things are a
warning to the workers wherever
you have that political situation,
and that industrial situation.

I ask you again, how can you

expect, how can you expect di-
vided workers, organized in divi-
sions, to meet on an equal basis
with the international brother-
hood of finance?
Al Hartung pointed out to you
correctly yesterday that there
are concerns in the United States
who own outright industrial es-
tablishments in Canada, and there
are concerns and financial inter-
ests in this country who own out-
right industries in the States.

Just a few weeks ago, the press
reported that in the oil industry,
the world oil industry, the Unit-
ed States has $4%% billion invest-
ed abroad in oil interests. Four
and one-half billion dollars, not
in Canada alone, but in foreign

180 West Hi

INDUSTRIAL FIRST AID CERTIFICATES

Approved by The Workmen’s Compensation Board of B.C.

Classes and Correspondence Courses for Beginners and for
‘Renewal of Certificates,

Industrial First Ald Attendants Are Invited to Membership.
For Further Information Write to:

The tndustrial First Ald Attendants
The Intrusion, Tasca Bret
lastings Streat, Vancouve:

B.C,

ADOLPH GERMER

lands across the sea. And what
is true with oil is true of steel,
is true of automobile, is trie of
various other industries, and they
can only be met, only be met by
organizations=of labor through
the unions and at the ballot box
internationally. In order to ac-
complish that international soli-
darity of labor, we have set up
the International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions, of which
the United States, Canada, Eng-
land, and other countries, free
countries, are a part.

Personal Experience

It wasn’t my fault that I was
born when I was, I had nothing
to do with it. But I was thrown
in the class struggle when I was
a boy. I was forced into coal
mines, and there I learned, I
learned something of the struggle
between the money power and
‘the workers.

In the States, when I was a
youngster, we had no protective
legislation for injury or death
of workers.

In my case, I reported a dan-
ger repeatedly. I continued to
work, and had I not, I would have
been out of a job. I had been an
agitator, a trouble maker. So I
was injured, and when I asked,
they did hire a horse and buggy

lold Firm amd Hold Fast” . . Germer

Stirring address by Adolph Germer, CIO representa-!

|—this was the horse and buggy
days — they hired a horse and
buggy to take me home, prob-
ably at the cost of 75c or $1.00.

When I recovered, and became
sick as an aftermath of the in-
‘jury, and recovered from that,
after two months of idleness, I
went to the headquarters of the
company, saw the President, and
asked if he would at least pay
my doctor bills which, as I re~
call, amounted to some $30. And
he said, “No, we are not liable.
‘You reported the danger repeat-
edly, we have a record of it. You
assumed the risk, you continued
to work.”

Labor Acted

And that was a practise, and
that was the law in those days.
Then, when we began to elect
people to the Legislature, who
were friendly to labor, and intro-
duce bills in the legislature pro-
viding for what is now known as
the Workmen’s Compensation
law, that fixes a value on limbs
and a value on life, and even on
health in some cases.

I still have the recollection,
and when I think of it I can hear
the echoes of the speeches made
by the lawyers and by the lobby-
ists in the corporations. If I
should be in the Illinois Legisla-
ture, I would hear them, and see
them raise their hands to the
holy heavens: “If you pass this
law and place it on the statute
books, you will destroy the in-
dustries of the State of Illinois.”

Now, what else has organized
labor done? It has got us the
shorter work day. We fought for
months and months and months
and months, your humble servant
and about a thousand others, 1200
others, slept under trees for three
weeks picketing until we got
some of the scabs out. We won
the strike after that. The orga-
nization was established. What
did we get? We got shorter
hours, from 10 and 12 and 14
hours, we got 8 hours. We got
legislation passed.

We had factory inspection laws
passed. We had more rigid mine
examination laws passed. And
that was true, not only in the
mining industry but other indus-

tries that would apply to all
workers.

More recently, in the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America,
when I came out here in 1940
charged by joint agreement be-
tween the two factions of your
organization, a charge of the Or-
ganizing Department, wages were
low, 62%4c I believe, was the low,
minimum wage. Well, now it
runs up to around $2.00 an hour.
But we got something else in
addition to that. We got vacation
with pay. And I remember dis-
tinetly When at one meeting I
suggested the idea that we de-
mand vacation with pay. And an
old-time logger, a good trade
unionoist, said, “Who in hell ever
heard of a logger getting vaca-
tion with pay?” Unbelievable. It
was fantastic that we should get
vacation with pay, paid by the
employers.

Abramsen &
Optometrists
Eyes Examined
734 GRANVILLE STREET
MArine 0928 MArine 2948

Ground Floor,
Vancouver Block
Hours: 9 to 6:80 p.
Wednesdays, 9 to 1

‘THE UNIONS WON BE-
NEFITS Now ENJOYED?

And so it will go on in the
future, if we build up our own
organization, and take back to
our membership a story of the
coming struggle, the coming

and the labor movement.

So, in conclusion, I just want
to appeal to you to hold firm and

hold fast. There is only one
course of protection. There is
only one harbor of safety that
labor has, and that is in the or-
ganized labor movement. In this
coming crisis, in this coming test,
it is our sacred and solemn duty
that we arouse our rank and file
to the actualities of the storm
that is brewing, and make out
of each member an active soldier
in this great army for the com-
mon.good. We are the many,
they are the few. We have the
ballots. Let us use the ballots to
support our union, Let us use
our organization to support the
ballot, and .with ‘these two arms
united, labor need-not fear of
the consequences.

The future belongs to us, but
we must play our part, from the
lowest level to the highest of the
labor movement, in order to pre-
serve democracy. Thank you.”

CHECK-OFF
OPPOSED

“TORONTO (CPA) — Ifethe

voluntary revocable check-off
of union dues became law, it
would spell the beginning of
the end of collective bargain-
ing, the Ontario section of the
Canadian Manufacturers Asso-
ciation said in a recent protest
to Premier Frost.

The CMA described a check-
off bill recently introduced in the
provincial legislature by T. D.
Thomas (CCF Ontario) as “un-
warranted interference with free
collective bargaining.”

There was no more reason for
check-off legislation, said CMA,
than there would be for a’ law
removing welfare benefits from
collective bargaining. “If the pro-
cess of removing bargaining is-
sues from collective bargaining
is begun, the tendency will be
for it to’ continue until there is
no real collective bargaining.”

The check-off, if it became law,
maintained the CMA, would de-
stroy the fairness of the Ontario
Labor Relations Act by discrim-

showdown, between corporations inating in favor of trade unions.

labor

a square
in

always gets

deal...

The Province

‘ancouver Province is 100% Union Produced