tates BC. LUMBER WORKER

EDITORIAL
Discrimination

AS a result of the present bakery strike and lock-
out situation, the Minister of Labor will have
some awkward questions to answer, with regard
to his interpretation of the Labor Relations Act.
Before the Act was proclaimed this summer,
he made it plain to the IWA that he intended to
employ the Act to prevent any industry-wide
strike. It was understood that the terms of the
Act were drafted expressly for this purpose.

Now, all production of an essential food com-
modity is closed down by an industry-wide deci-
sion of the employers to lock out their employees.
The Union in this case applied for a strike vote in
only one operation. :

The IWA may now quite properly ask the Min-
ister. why this right may be easily enjoyed by
employers and must be made difficult for trade
unions.

Can he successfully contend that, from the
public standpoint, a lockout is less likely to cause
distress than a strike.

Is it meritorious for employers to throw the
industry’s employees on the streets, and criminal
for the workers to withdraw their labor power on
an industry-wide basis?

In the case of the bakery workers, the Union
scrupulously followed the procedure laid down in
the new Act. Must it now be said that observance
of the Act’s provisions will result in pinning the
Unions down in their disputes in order that they
may be trampled on by the employers?

It has now become obvious that the employers
ina highly competitive industry, will not allow the
Union bargaining in that industry to strike the
operations separately. In self-defence they will
call a general lockout.

It is equally obvious that a Union bargaining
on an industry-wide basis, and asking for strike
action, will not be able to comply with all the pro-
visions of the Act. Either the employers or the

workers themselves will implicate the Union in
action that may be technically illegal.

Is it these unintentional illegalities that are
designed to place trade unions under highly de-
structive penalties imposed by the courts?

Another Gouge

ORGANIZED labor in the metropolitan areas

may well express alarm over the proposal of
the B. C. Electric Railway Co. to increase the tran-
sit fares. No justification has been shown for this
latest imposition upon the public purse.

There is logic in the position taken by Local
1-217, IWA, that no increase should be approved
by the Public Utilities Commission until a judicial
probe has been conducted into the financial opera-
tions of the B.C. Power Commission and all its
subsidiaries. é

An extraordinary feature of the Company’s
request is that the request for approval of the in-
creased rate is accompanied by the admission that
a 12 percent drop in passenger traffic is expected
This is held

us 1s held to mean that the Company prefers
to plan for a low level of pee cnverevole de and
Service frequency.

Whether the recently-reported stock manipu-

lations can be justified or not, is an open question. -

‘The fact is that the reports of profits amounti
to $875,000 on options for eavorett executives haa
had Serious repercussions in the public mind.

The important fact must not be overlooked
that a further increase in bus fares places the Van-
couver worker at a grave
fellow-workers in other cities, and makes a Serious
ot a his take-home pay.

is is the major reason why the worker:

should know whether the wages ait upon the
actual capital investment in this privately-owned
Pela sd are fair and equitable from eyery stand-
point, :

disadvantage with his’

"1954 ROUND-UP

lt Happened In Saintly Toronto

TORONTO (CPA)—The full
majesty of the law was mar-
shalled recently to give a pre-
cise legal definition of an im-
polite expression that has
bovine connections, More la-
conic types sometimes employ
only the two initial letters of
the expression (B.S.) but in
the case on which an Ontario,
Supreme Court Justice was
called upon to rule, the mean-
ing of the whole, full-blooded
expression was at issue.

As a result of the recent rul-

ing, the expression now has the |

official meaning: “Nonsense. You
are all wrong”, and a man’s job
was-saved.

The question of the precise
meaning of the expression, which
must have been used millions of
times previously, arose when a
tire builder at Goodyear Rubber
Factory, New Toronto, used it in

reply to a charge.from his fore-
man.

He Said It

The foreman had accused the
man of being away from his ma-
chine for half an hour. This, the
man denied adding as part of his
denial “the expression”. Next
day, the tire builder was dis-
charged for “using obscene lan-
guage to supervisor”.

Local 232 of the United Rub-
ber Workers decided to fight the
case and eventually a three-man
arbitration board was set up.
Heading it was Mr, Justice Roach
of the Supreme Court of Ontario
assisted by Dave Archer, Presi-
dent, Toronto and Lakeshore
Labor Council, and J. C. Adams,
industrial relations bureau man-
ager.

‘A majority report signed by
Mr. Justice Roach and Mr, Ar-

cher ruled that the expression
was vulgar. It was not obscene
or lewd, nor was it a curse, It
meant, they decided: “Nonsense.
You're all wrong”.

Realistic Interpretation

“We think that we should be
realistic and give effect to the
plain fact that workmen in in-
dustry, some more than others,
are not sufficiently careful in the
language they use,” noted the
Board’s report. “That criticism
applies equally to foremen and
supervisors in the plant as well
as workmen below that level.”

As a result of the decision, the
tire builder will get 60 days’
back-pay, less a three-day. pen-
alty, he will be re-instated in his
job and an amusing item has
been added to the fund of stories
trade unionists tell about them-
selves,

Free Press Is
Non-Existent

OTTAWA (CPA)—The way in
which big business cracked down
on the newspaper of big busi-
ness, The Wall Street Journal,
when that paper: published news
stories dug up by its own re-
porters instead of relying on
press handouts, is told in the
latest issue of Labor, the news-
paper of the railway brother-
hoods.

The Journal recently carried
articles on the shady practices
of some car dealers and also
“scooped” its rivals by revealing
details of the improved new
models which General Motors
and other manufacturers plan to
introduce later this year.

Auto dealers wrote GM _pro-
testing that the stories on the
new models were making it
harder to sell present models, of
which the dealers have more
than enough. They also wrote
strongly-worded letters to the
paper,

In reply, the paper published
an editorial .noting that: “A
newspaper exists only to provide

has no other reason for being.
It provides that service only so
long as it diligently seeks out
what is happening and reports
it as accurately and clearly as
it can.” The Journal added that
it refused to “suppress news,
whether at the behest of adver-
tisers or on pleas from special
segments of business.”
Ads Cancelled

General Motors sprang into
action and cancelled its $250,000
advertising contract with the
Journal, It then refused to sup-
ply the paper with auto produc-
tion figures which had been pre-
viously issued one a week. When
the Journal tried to get these
figures through the Associated
Press, of which it is a member,
GM said “nothing doing”. To
cap it all, Ward’s Reports, the
big auto industry news service,
cancelled the Journal’s subscrip-
tion to its weekly newsletter.

Labor asks, editorially, “How
many papers surrender to the
advertisers who pay their pro-
fits?” It comes up with the ans-

information for its readers; itwer, “Plenty”.

ANS

DBS NOTES

FARM CASH INCOME from
the sale of farm products is esti-
mated at $504,311,000 for the
fitst three months of this year,
6 percent less than last year’s
$536,150,000 and 9 percent under
1952's first-quarter peak of $555,-
690,000.

Pier 3 ‘

GOLD output down 12 percent
in the first quarter this year to
973,015 fine ounces from 1,013,-
384 a year earlier,

- ee

TV SETS: 11,874 were sold in
the first quarter of this year,
34,295 or 45 percent more than
in the first three months of last
year.

Abramson &
Acllenterg

Optometrists

Eyes Examined
734 GRANVILLE STREET

Marine 0928 = MArine 2948

Ground Floor,
Vancouver Block
Hours: 9 to 6:30 p.m.
Wednesdays, 9 to 12 Noon

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17 EAST HASTINGS, Cor. COLUMBIA

PAcific 3557