2nd Issue, M:

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

ig the Government

trade union move-

will not surrender the
Weapon, District

ent Joe Morris, in a

den © statement this week,

Poseneet Bill 28, the pro-

new Labor Relations
disclosing an inten-

fully to make trade unions

a Subservient to the em-

hee) and the political de-
Ms of the Labor Minister.

ioe hinting that the unions
fo ld resort to determined poli-

7 ‘al and economic protest action
f shorn of their democratic

Tights, he declared:

‘he consensus of opinion
throughout TWA Local Unions
in this provinee is in bitter op.

Position to features of the pro-

Posed Labor Relations Act which

Will destroy free collective bar-

faining,

Bill 28 not only perpetuates
but gives fresh emphasis to
the more objectionable provi-
Sions of the ICA Act. Clearly,
it is based on the assumption
that trade unions are compris-
ed of second-class citizens, who
are unfit for the enjoyment of

“their full rights of citizenship
in a democracy.

Representatives of our Union
will join with those from the

TLC, CCL affiliates and Railway
Brotherhoods in Victoria this
week to demand either the with-

drawal of this Bill or its drastic

revision,
Damaging Consequences
assent to the Bill by Act of
the Legislature would have
the most damaging conse-
quences upon the course of
negotiations which this Union
is about to open on an indus-
try-wide basis.
In fact, it would seem as
“though the Bill had been writ-
ten for the express purpose of
hampering IWA_ bargaining.
The Government’s distrust of
trade unions, expressed in pro-
ions for puni action
inst trade unions, will in-

cite rather than allay indus-
trial unrest. This Bill reverses
the trend found in Labor legis-
lation elsewhere in the demo-
cratic world.

The division of authority un-
der the Act is in itself dangerous
and certain to cause confusion.
Unions will be subject to the
regulations of the Labor Rela-
tions Board until a dispute with
the employers develops, where-
upon they are made subject to
the will of the Minister.

In assuming such extraordin-
ary and dictatorial powers under
the Act, the Minister departs
from established principles of
British law.

| Political Dictatorship

It is generally recognized that
in any field such as that of la-
bor relations, requiring semi-
judicial decisions in a wide range
of problems, the Ministerial
|functions are delegated to ad-
ministrative bodies, capable of a
detached, impartial point of view.

Every Minister, of whatever
calibre, is susceptible to political
pressures. There can be no con-
fidence in the vital process of
conciliation, when the door is
| opened to any possible interfer-
ence under pressures of a parti-
zan or biased nature.

Conciliation to be effective
must be without bias, speedy,
and in the hands of competent
and trained men. Transfer of
full responsibility for the super-
vision of conciliation to the Min-
ister, without provision in the
Act or the estimates fox trained
staff in his Department is a leap
in the dark that causes us alarm.

Strike Action Outlawed

We are not blind to the fact
that the provisions of the Bill
are intended to deprive trade
unions of the effective use of
the strike weapon, thereby plac-
ing us completely at the mercy
of unserupulous employers. ‘The
Minister assumes power to delay
finalization of all requirements
preliminary to legal strike ac-
tion.

ANEY BUSINESS GUID

(Graham

~ “ESQUIRE” MEN’S WEAR

Mowatt)

; Complete Stock of Work and Dress Clothing
IE POPULAR BRANDS”
BRITISH COLUMBIA

“THE STORE WITH TH!
HANEY

DUNCAN BUSINESS GUIDE

“VOGUE CLEANERS

Trick Calls at

Mesachie Lake, Cowichan Lake,
Crofton & south to Shawnigan
Hats Cleaned and Blocked

Press While U Wait
hone 360 DUNCAN, B.C.

J. LINDSAY LOUTET
(C. Bradshaw & Co.)
INSURANCE and

REAL ESTATE
DUNCAN 131 Jubilee St.

LAKE COWICHAN BRANCH:
Old Post Office Buildi:

PORT ALBERNI BUSINESS GUIDE

MacGREGOR’S
MEN’S WEAR
For Evérything a Mon Wears
WORK, SPORT or DRESS
We Can Afford to Sell the
BEST for LESS!

(OODWARD STORES

Family Shopping Centre”
sed Wednesdays All Day”

MacDONALD’S .
PHARMACY

Prescriptions, Drug Sundries,

irst Aid Supplies
Registered Optometrist

Argyle Street Port Alberni

Hours:

He requires that the employer
be given sufficient notice of
strike action to enable him to
introduce strike-breaking tactics
successfully. The Bill prevents
a union on strike from seeking
the co-operation of other trade
unions in the traditional observ-
ance of legitimate picket lines.
It virtually bans industry-wide
strike action.

The intent of the Government
is made clear in the section which
permits the Minister to order the
complete destruction of a trade
union, which may have in the
opinion of a Supreme Court
Judge committed some minor
breach of the Act. A Justice of
the Supreme Court must inter-
pret the Act as written. In this
Bill the Government proposes
that a workers’ organization
must defend itself in court
against the high-priced counsel
of wealthy corporations under
the added disadvantage of a
faulty law to govern the court’s
decisions.

Union Destruction

This is to be followed by
Ministerial action to extermi-
nate the offending union, with-
out mercy.

The fines to be imposed un-
der the Bill are of negligible
consequence to large corpora-
tions, but the same fines will
prove ruinous to trade unions,
usually impoverished by a con-
stant struggle for justice.

The passage of the Bill in its
present form will negate all rec-
ognized principles of collective
bargaining. Collective bargaining
to succeed must place labor and
management as nearly as pos-
sible on an equal footing.

By imposing more severe re-
strictions on trade unions in
their bargaining, and depriving
them of the effective use of the
strike weapon, the Government
clearly intends to make the trade
unions completely subservient to
the will of the employers.

Warning

We will warn the Govern-
ment, that the rights of a free
trade union movement haye
been won at too great a price
during the past century, to al-
low us to surrender these
rights under ill-conceived leg-
islation without claiming for
ourselves the uttermost limit
of political and economic pro-

ICKS WARNED LABOUR WILL FIGH’

Madden
In Local

NEW WESTMINSTER. — Newly-elected offic
Local 1-357, IWA, were installed with appropriate
monies at the membership meeting, March 28, by D
President Joe Morris, who, in the course of his rem
congratulated the Local Union on its striking progr

Installed were:

President, Joe Madden; 1st
Vice-president, Wyman Trineer;
2nd Vice-president, Ted Day;
8rd Vice-president, Robert Car-
lyle; Financial Secretary, Lawr-
ence Vandale; Recording Secre-
tary, Rae Eddie, M.L.A.; Con-
ductor, Ted Wicklund; Warden,
Louis McLeod; Frustee (8-year)
Jimmy Abrams.

The retiring President, Andy
Smith, who declined re-nomina-
tion, expressed his views regard-
ing the future of the Union when
speaking over the Local Union’s
regular CKNW radio program,
March 27. He said in part:

“As an organization, we have
assumed our responsibilities to
the community, but we can and
will strengthen our co-operative
relationship with community and
civic groups, because the policies
and the philosophies we are try-
ing to advance cannot be arrived
at unless we work with men of
good will in other walks of life,
in other economic and_ social
groups, in trying to find the ans-
wer to the problems of the whole
community.

We will progress only as we
work to make progress for the
whole Community, I think that
is the most realistic approach to
the basie problems we face.

Labor and Management must
act on the knowledge that free-
dom has an indivisible value and
there can be no freedom unless
they work together to protect
our free society and make it pos-
sible in a free world. We have
got to prove, not with slogans
but by practical achievement,
that we can work together to
build a world in which you can
have both bread and freedom.

We have always been able to
create full employment, making
the weapons of war, but the basic
unsolved problem that we need’
to find the answer to is: Can we

Electe
1-357

find a way to achieve and main-
tain full employment iM peace.
time, making the good things of
life for people? If we lose our
jobs in any industry, it will start
a chain reaction that will cause
farmers to lose their farms, peo-
ple will lose their homes and we
may lose our freedom. I believe
we can only build prosperity, no!
from the top down, but from #
bottom up, by giving the gr
mass of people, enough purcha:
ing power to buy the things we
produce. That is the problem we
have—and must continue to seek
the answer to. tS

As President of this Local
Union for the past five years, I
have always felt that we have
just as great a responsibility to
owr community as a whole, as to
our direct membership. In that
period of time we have changed
from an isolated renter that was
probably considered a social out-
cast, till today we participate int
all phases of community life,
with representation on the.
YMCA, New Westminster Safety ”
Council, Canadian Arthritis and
Rheumatism Society, Community
Chest, Unemployment Insurance
Commission and the Board of
Trade.

That is why I think that I can
say in all good conscience that
we have assumed our responsi-
bilities as a labor organization in
participation in all phases of
community activities and en-
deavors.”

Draught beer accounted for
only 24.7 per cent of all the beer,
ale, stout and porter sold -by
brewers in 1952, a drop from 27.8
per cent in 1961, 32.3 per cent
in 1945 and 45.3 per cent in 1953.

>

T.B. patients: For every 1000
females there were 1191 males in |
1952 as compared with 1134 in
1951. ;

Labor

OTTAWA (CPA) — Growing unity among Canada’s
major labor bodies is revealed in a comparison of their
annual legislative briefs presented to the government at
the end of 1953. The February issue of the Labor Gazette
describes the “striking degree of unanimity in their re-

quests and recommendations.

The four groups who met with
Cabinet Ministers represented
about 1,250,000 organized Canad-
ian workers. The presentations
were made on behalf of the
Trades and Labor Congress of
Canada, the Canadian Congress of
Labor, the Canadian and Cath-
olie Confederation of Labor and
the Dominion Joint Legislative

No Conflict »

Describing the “striking degree
of unanimity,” the labor publica-
tion notes: “Although some of
the groups omitted demands made
by others, there were no recom-
mendations that conflicted with
those of other labor bodies, Sub-

Committee of the Railway Trans-| jects of a technical nature or

portation Brotherhoods.

pertaining to local conditions or

IRA

PARTS

BECKER & SON

Vancouver Island Distributors

LE. L.
POWER CHAIN. SAWS

*

SERVICE

Campbell River
Phone 94H

odies Show Signs
Of Unity In Purpose

vd,
to special occupations were mem-
tioned in some briefs and not i

others; but nowhere were prin-
ciples in conflict.”

vw

All four groups agreed en ma-

-|jor matters of labor policy, says

the Labor Gazette, “For exampl
all agreed that unemployment i
surance should be extended to

aE

The gals men like within
arms,

In-fact the kind they choo:

Are gals who have those
den charms,