4 B.C. LUMBER WORKER EDITORIAL Vindicated JT _was no mean achievement on the part of the IWA this year to secure substantial improve- ments in the Coast master contract during the first stage of conciliation. That the value of this achievement won appre- ciation by the membership was amply demon- strated in the membership vote on acceptance. It has been a victory won by the exercise of shrewd common sense, on the part of the Union from the outset. ‘ It can now be seen that the course of the year’s negotiations was largely determined when the membership, at the Wages and Contract Confer- ence, decided to withold any wage demand. ‘This was in effect a decision to concentrate on the improvement of contract clauses dealing with working conditions. In so many words, the mem- bership declared that, unlike the procedure of former years, desired improvements in working conditions would not he sacrificed to wage increases, This immediately shifted the emphasis from monetary considerations to those of principles underlying labor-management relations. The bargaining sessions were prolonged and often stormy, and the requirements laid upon the Negotiating Committee were the most difficult yet experienced. The fact that these sessions were not publicized, was in itself the best possible proof that an intense effort was under way to reach a settlement by means of conciliation. The results attained have substance and value, which will be more clearly appreciated as the years roll by. The Union was working for long- yange objectives, and made tremendous progress toward those objectives. The results’ are now shown to be the best obtainable under the cir- cumstances. The IWA has gained, not only a much better, contract, with honor, but has also gained an un- excelled opportunity to consolidate and strengthen - its position in relation to present-day economic developments. Exposed SPOKESMEN for the Provincial Government can no longer conceal its enmity toward trade unions in British Columbia. Actions speak louder than words, and hypo- critical phrases of pretended friendship are no longer a satisfactory camouflage for calculated damage to the free trade union movement. ' There are two major facts that cannot be satis- factorily explained away by the cleverest of anti- labor politicians. The recently-proclaimed Labor Relations Act deprives the trade unions of vitally important democratic rights. It was designed as a weapon against the IWA, as the Minister has not hesi- tated to hint. The administration of the Act is now entrusted to a Board, from which direct Jabor representa- tion has been excluded. - An evil omen for the future is found in the step motivated by hatred of the workers’ orga- nizations, which places supervision of industrial relations in the hands of persons almost wholly without experience in such matters. By these acts the Government has served notice on the trade unions that it will use the force of the police and the courts to compel the trade unions to surrender any effective protest against employers’ oppression. By these same acts the trade unions have been | challenged to fight for their rights, and are vigor- ously preparing to do so. 84% Never Get Profit Slice By LORNE INGLE Every man a capitalist! This is a favorite theme of private enterprisers. They are repeatedly telling us how many thousands of shareholders there are in this company or that, how widely business profits are distributed and how every man who owns a farm or a barbershop or some other small business is really a capitalist. This theme is, of course, de- liberately intended to obscure the high concentration of wealth and the huge proportion of pro- fits that goes into the pockets of a few. Last week some interest- ing figures came out which help- ed to give us a truer picture, Production Profits The budget papers showed that total corporation profits in Can- ada in 1953 from all corporate enterprises in Canada were $2,- 500,000,000. That’s a whopping big chunk of profits—more than 10 percent of our total gross na- tional production. But were those profits distributed as widely as the free enterprisers claim? Did they go for the most part to peo- ple of low or medium incomes? Quite the contrary. In the first place, although there were tens of thousands of business establishments operat- ing in this country (37,000 manu- acturing establishments alone) 480 companies, each with assets of $200,000 or over, took in a total of $1,319,000,000 in net profits in Canada last year— more than half of all the profits of all companies great and small —according to the Bank of Can- ada study. No Depression The rest of Canada may be going through some kind of re- cession or depression but not these industrial, financial and business giants, Their 1953 net profits were greater than in any year on record with the excep- tion of 1951. The net profits of these companies had increased by $571,000,000 since 1947, But perhaps these profits were widely distributed! Again fi- gures have turned up at the re- cent meetings of the Investment Dealers Association in Jasper which indicate that this favorite propaganda of big business is also a myth. Statistics were cited which showed that 94% of the trading in shares on the New York Stock Exchange (they em- phasized that the situation was ANS similar in Canada) was done by people with incomes of over $5000 a year. Less than two per- cent of the Canadian population were in this bracket, according to the 1951 census. The president of Sanders Marketing Research told the investment dealers that 82% of the Canadian people had never in their lives bought any stock in any kind of a company. When one remembers the thousands of companies operat- ing in this country one realizes what a still greater percentage of the Canadian people have never owned any stock in the 480 really big companies which re- ceive more than half of the total profits and which dominate the Canadian economy. Indeed a Ca- nadian survey indicated that 84% of the Canadian people did-not now own either stocks or bonds. Named BRUSSELS (CPA) — Suc- cessors to the Late Leon Jou- haux and Harihanath Shastri as Vice-Presidents of the In- ternational Confederation of Free Trade Unions were named at a recent board meeting of the ICFTU here. Robert Botheau of France was named to fill the posts of Vice- President and member of the Executive Board and Emergency Committee to Indian trade un- ionist H. Shastri who was killed in a flying accident. M. A. Katib of Pakistan was named to suc- ceed him as ICFTU Vice-Presi- dent, Donald C. MacDonald, Secre- tary-Treasurer of the Canadian Congress of Labor and Claude Jodoin, Vice-President of the Trades and Labor Congress were the Canadian Board members who attended the meeting. Earnings of railway employees averaged $3,126 in 1952, up 2% from $3,062. in 1951. Pension Increases Sought OTTAWA.—Old age and blind pensions were set at the present On DIAMONDS, JEWELRY, SILVERWARE, $40 a month in 1949, Stanley Knowles (CCF Winnipeg North Centre) said this week, and since then the cost of living has gone up and the productive capacity of Canada has increased tremen- dously. The government did not reduce its expenditures in other fields but more people were given employment and our national production rose when Canada was faced with the need for increased expenditures on national defence at the time of the Korean War. The same thing should be done to raise the necessary revenue for pension increases to not less than $65. 7 English-French P.A.C. QUEBEC—Political action literature will be made available in both French and English in the future, Henry Weisbach, Director’ of Political Action Committee of the Quebee Federation of Industrial X B. 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