6 B.C. LUMBER.WORKER

Negotiators Report To Union

Interest was at a high pitch at the huge membership
meetings held in the Exhibition Gardens, Vancouver, and the
Arenex, New Westminster, when members of the District
Policy Committee attended to report ‘on the proposed settle-

ment, and faced a barrage of questions.
wielded the gavel in New Westminster.

President Stuart M. Hodgson.

President Lloyd Whalen, Local 1-217 presided over the
Vancouver meeting, and President Joe Madden, Local 1-357,

In action for the Policy Committee were District President
Joe Morris, Ist Vice-President William Gray, and 2nd Vice-

Extend Benefits
Demand Unions

LOSE to 75,000 workers were receiving supplementary
Unemployment Insurance benefits at ‘the end of

March, Labor Minister Gregg reported in the House of |

Commons recently. Some of these received their last
cheque on April 15; others on April 24.

Mr. Gregg also stated that the government had no
intention of extending these benefits. “The government

is not considering any/action at this time to alter the i

date fixed by parliament two years ago for the termina-
tion of these special benefits,” he said.

The day previous, the Canadian Congress of Labor
and the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, in a joint
statement, pointed out that a “desperate” situation faced
workers cut off from supplementary benefits. The CCL-
TLC statement called for the extension of these benefits

“in ae of the large number of workers still looking for
worl

The number of people receiving supplementary benefits
this year reflects the nation-wide critical unemloyment
situation. This provision of the- Unemployment Insurance
Act was added in a few hours in 1950. .

At meetings with labor groups, government spokes-
men have maintained that the unemployment is not
“critical”, although ‘National Employment Service figures
indicate that 14 percent of Canada’s workers are unem-
ployed. The government’s optimism, despite consistent
drops in employment totals, is their excuse for not imple-

~ menting the long-term measures requested in the CCL-
TLC brief last February.

In his Budget statement, Finance Minister Abbott
admitted that there was “more unemployment than we
had last year and more than any of us like to see.”
Extension of supplementary benefits would indicate to
Canadian workers that the government at least saw the
need for short-term aid to assist those unable to find jobs.

—Canndian Labor

Bengough To Retire
OTTAWA—Percy Bengough, president. of the TLC of Canada
for 12 years, announced that he would retire in August of this year.

Members Vote Increase

LONDON—British members of Parliament have voted to in-
crease their pay from the present $2,800 a year to $4,200, giving
them their second pay increase since the end of World War Il.
They formerly received $1,680 a year.

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