B.C. LUMBER WORKER

Forecast

ALREADY, it is possible for the IWA to look forward
to 1956 as a year of fulfillment. The events which
are now being shaped are assuming in outline the sub-

stantial materialization of hopes long cherished by trade
unionists.

It would be profitable at this time to appraise the
very attractive possibilities which lie just ahead. That
these possibilities will be converted into realities is now
the main feature of plans that will shortly be transferred

from the blueprint stage and incorporated in concrete
results. :

In the month of April the two principal Jabor bodies
in the Dominion will merge, and form one great national
labor centre. To accomplish this end, both the Trades
and Labor Congress and the Canadian Congress of Labor
have shown great tolerance, and with praiseworthy in-
tentions have buried may of the ancient prejudices,
which formerly served to divide labor’s forces.

The results which will flow from the consummation
of this merger may now be seen as being of tremendous
importance to the Canadian workers. As the two central
bodies come together the provincial and civic bodies will
likewise unify their interests and organizational struc-
tures. When this is all completed, and we expect it will
be completed in 1956, the whole picture in Canada, as it
effects labor will be radically changed.

This development is warmly welcomed by the IWA.
The IWA delegates from this province who attended,
both the Toronto Convention of the Canadian Congress
of Labor and the Milwaukee convention of the IWA In-
ternational Union made an important contribution to-
ward the unity program. ~

IWA International representatives also assumed a

prominent part in the AFL-CIO merger convention held
recently in New York. International President Hartung
is a Vice-President of the Department for Industrial
Organizations within the new AFL-CIO Congress. The
enthusiastic support given the merger by the IWA stems
from the vision which IWA members have of the great

potentialities which now appear before the unified move-
ment. <

Already the IWA International Union is described
as an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and
the Congress of Industrial Organizations. After April
will be added the initials CLC which will stand for the
Canadian Labor Congress. 5

When the AFL and the CIO merged, there were 16.8
million American workers in trade unions, of which num-
ber 15 million entered the AFL-CIO. The organizational
potential considered by the merged organization at New
York includes 26.3 million workers in the United States.

So the present and potential membership of the
new Congress represents already 64% of the total labor
force in the United States. It is estimated that in craft
unions there are 5 million workers, and in industrial
unions, both AFL and CIO type, there are 10 million
workers.

It is the employers who are now pointing out that
unions will be bigger, more powerful, and richer. They
are alarmed that unions may be able to afford longer
and more costly strikes. They are concerned that smaller
unions will become parts of big unions, and that they
will be forced to grant spectacular pay raises for the
union members. The employers think this merger is bad
news for them.

That is of course the employers gloomy ‘interpreta-
tion. It indicates, however, the actual possibilities which
are within the grasp of the trade unions. It is the best
possible evidence that the merger places in the hands of
the workers an instrument which can win for them a
long overdue escape from sub-standard wages and work-
ing conditions.

The employers’ predictions that labor will use its
newly-acquired power without a proper sense of respon-
sibility are not well-founded. The unions which form the
merger today are exactly the same unions which yester-
day were acting with genuine intent to serve the public
welfare. In a very real sense, through this merger, or-
ganized labor is making a venture into a new era. In this
new era, organized labor will assume its proper responsi-
ae to abandon the marked irresponsibility with which
they have wielded economic power over the lives of the

workers,

and the employers will be required in a greater .

QUOTES

Said President Meany at the first merged Convention of
the AFL-CIO:

“Let all our actions be keyed to the simple plain principle
that a trade union has no other reason for existence than the
job of carrying out and carrying forward the interests and
welfare of its members . . . let us not think in terms of personal
prestige, of having a big union for the sake of haying a big
union . . . Jet us think in terms of the simple philosophy of
those who founded this moyement for advancing the cause of
the workers ... . Let us make up our minds that there is just
one label on all the organizations, and all the membership of
this great organization, and that label is AFL-CIO, and nothing
else... We must grow, this trade union movement, with the
nation, but we must grow in the right way .. 2”

Added Walter Reuther, now Chairman of the newly-formed
industrial union department of the AFL-CIO: “It is the task
of the labor movement to provide positive leadership in finding
a way so that free men instead of struggling together in an
effort to divide up economic scarcity can find new forms of
co-operation in the glorious opportunity of creating and sharing
economic abundance.”

DAILY PROGRAMS START

WASHINGTON (CPA) — The AFL-CIO will sponsor two
daily radio and news programs during 1956. They will be heard
over the nationwide network of the American Broadcasting Co.

Prior to the merger of the AFL and CIO, each organization
sponsored one newscaster. Now Edward P. Morgan, formerly
sponsored by the AFL, will be heard at 7 p.m. EST each evening
and John W. Vandercook, formerly sponsored by the CIO, will
be heard at 10 p.m. EST.

Martyrs
Honored

LONDON (CPA)—The Shire
Hall at Dorchester, Dorset —
scene of the trial in 1834 of the
“Tolpuddle Martyrs” — has
been turned over to the British
Trades Union Congress for
preservation as a national
memorial.

Six men of Tolpuddle, Dorset,
who were sentenced to seven
years transportation to the penal
colony of Australia for organiz-
ing a “friendly society of agri-
cultural laborers”, received their
sentences in the old court room
at the Dorchester Shire Hall. The
men were freed, due to public
agitation, after serving 4 years
of their sentence and returned to
England. A number of them later
emigrated to Canada and settled
in the London, Ontario, district.

The trial of the “Martyrs” is
commemorated by a bronze
plaque on the wall of the Shire
Hall. Recently the Shire Hall was
vacated when Britain’s Lord
Chief Justice opened a new court-
room in the Dorset county town.
The historic building will now be

preserved as a national memorial.

INDUSTRIAL UNION DEPT. HEADS.

IWA INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT A. F. Hartung (right), receives congratulations from AFL-

CIO Vice-President Walter Reuther, on his election to the Vice-Presidency of the Industrial Union
Department of the AFL-CIO. IWA Secretary-Treasurer William L. Botkin, was elected to the IUD

Executive Board,