10

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

2nd Issue, May

“Appalling —
Lawlessness’

TORONTO (CPA) — Fol-
lowing the factual statement of
company violations of the labor
act, the unemployment insurance
act and the holidays with pay
act, before the Select Commit-
tee of the Ontario Legislature
investigating industrial relations,
CCF leader Donald MacDonald
moved that the matter be re-
ferred to the Attorney General’s
department for further investi-
gation.

‘The case histories of company
lawlessness were brought out in
an 800-word brief presented by the

Onta Federation of Labor and
read by OFL President Cleve
Kidd.

“This Is Appalling’”
No member of the Select Com-
mittee seconded the motion, even
though PC member MacCaulay

said “this is appalling.

OFL Sceretary-Treasurer Doug
Hamilton told the Committee
“that it was the feeling of the fed-
eration that the Committee was
being used as a sounding board by
union busters.”

After OFL’s Cleve Kidd said
that “not all union people are lily-
white any more than manage-
ment”, Committee Chairman Ma-
leney said he was inclined to agree
“that where an order was made by
the labor minister or a labor board,
there must be teeth in the law”
to see that the order was obeyed.

Refer Charges

Pointing out that the Committee
has voted to refer Teamsters’
Union affairs to the Attorney-Gen-
eral, Mr, MacDonald pleaded with
the Committee “to be equally im-
partial and refer these charges to
the Attorney General for investi-
gation.”

CLC Supports

WINNIPEG (CPA) — The
executive of the Canadian Labor
Congress, meeting just after the
Congress’ Second Constitutional
Convention, has re-affirmed a
resolution passed by the conven-
tion calling for CLC support for
affiliates now asking wage
boosts in contract negotiations.

CLC president Claude Jodoin
teok issue with statements by
Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
who in a speech to the convention
called on Canadians to dip into
savings and spend to help end the
current recession.

Wage Demands

Deserve Better

Mr. Jodoin stated that Cana-
dians “deserve something better
than a place in a line outside an
unemployment insurance office.”

The Prime Minister's suggestion
“gives little solace to men and
women who have been out of work
for months. These 500,000 fami-
lies cannot be expected to have
any savings,” Mr. Jodoin said.

The CLC according to Mr. Jo-
doin re-affirms the position that

the recession can be beaten by
more purchasing power for con-
sumers through higher wages,

plus tax cuts.

G. M.C. Rejects
Arbitration

DETROIT (CPA) — The
General Motors Corporation has
refused an offer by United Auto
Workers president Walter P.
Reuther to submit contract ne-
gotiations to an impartial arbi-
tration board for final ruling.

Mr, Reuther proposed that a
five-man arbitration board be set
up — the company would name
two members, the union two, and
together they would select a fifth.
The plan was outlined in a letter
to Senator Estes Kefauver, chair-

man of the Senate anti-trust and
monopoly sub-committee. A sep-
arate board would be set up for
cach of the “big. three” compan-
ies,

“It would be agreed that the to-
tal amount to be awarded would
not require a price increase by
the companies,” Mr, Reuther said.

General Motors, which rejected
another UAW arbitration offer in
1945, termed Mr, Reuther’s offer
a “publicity stunt”, and offered no

—

BOARD ROOM of the new buil

2

ling of Local 1-357, IWA, meets the hearty approval of this well known

group from left, Albert Rose, Joe Madden, George Mitchell, Rae Eddie, George Home.

Bombings
Protested

WASHINGTON (CPA) —
The Industrial Union Depart-
ment of the AFL-CIO has
strongly demanded action to
stop bombings of Jewish and
Negro community institutions.
1.U.D. president Walter P.
Reuther in a letter to U.S. Attor-
ney General William Rodgers
stated that over 40 “bomb out-
rages” have occurred “in virtually
every southern state since Janu-
ary 1, 1957.”

“Parents in southern commun-
ities are fearful for their children’s
safety and an atmosphere of ter-
ror and intimidation is graying out
the rights and liberties of hund-
reds of thousands of decent, peace-
ful, law-abiding American fami-
lies,” Mr. Reuther’s letter said.

Reign of Terror

“The pattern of these offenses
strongly suggests an interstate
conspiracy exists to establish a
reign of terror and to deprive
American citizens of the constitu-
tional rights and that without fed-
eral co-ordination of law enforce-
ment, local authorities are help-
less.”

“IT strongly urge ... that as
Attorney General you take ap-
propriate action immediately, us-
ing all the resources of the De-
partment of Justice, to the end
that the threat of terror no longer
darkens the lives of men, women
and children in our country, and
that the perpetrators of these acts
of terror and conspiracy he speed-
ily brought to justice”, the letter

alternative suggestion.

concludes,

Interior Celebrates

Italians Ratify —
Equal Pay Law

By EILEEN

TALLMAN

(Miss Tallman is studying trade unions in Italy on a
Canadian government overseas award)

ROME (CPA)—Two years will have passed this May
since the Italian parliament ratified I.L.O. Convention No.
100 on equal pay for work of equal value, but public debate
on how to turn the principle into practice continues much as
before, and Italy’s five million women workers have seen
little change in their pay envelopes.

Some contend that the blessing
by ratification must be given teeth
by a law, others that it is up to the
unions to negotiate equal pay into
being.

25% Women Workers

Women workers constitute
roughly 25% of the Italian work
force; they represent a third of
the workers in agriculture, one-
quarter in industry and .58% in
the commerce and service sectors.
They earn from 30 to 40% less
than men in agriculture, and 16%
less in industry, with differentials
running much higher in certain in-
dustries such as clothing. (Lavoro,
Oct. 13, 1957).

Following the Convention rati-
fication, the Minister of Labor in-
vited the union and employer fed-
erations by circular to incorporate
its provisions in future contracts.
At the moment, practically all
national industrial and agricultural
agreements contain separate wage
scales for men and women (as
well as differentials based on age).
‘or example, in the national
metal contract, men are classified
in four broad wage categories,
women in three. But top rates for
women over 20 in the female
schedules fall below the rates for
men over 20 in the lowest unskilled
labor category in the male wage
schedules.

Parity of Rates

Where parity of rates has been
achieved, as in government ser-
vice, the percentage of women em-
ployees has steadily declined, or
as at the huge FIAT automobile
works where, an equal pay clause
has been won in a plant level ac-
cord, women are no longer hired.
Faced with the opposition of the
employers’ association, Confindus-
tria, which bluntly says the equal
pay issue has not been won in any
country in the world, Italian
unions are likely to have a long,
hard road ahead in making the
terms of the ILO convention a
reality.

Alessandra Codazzo, who heads
the Women’s Department of the
CISL union federation, is not
waiting for things to happen at the
national level, but is busily gather-
ing facts from women workers in
various industrial areas. “We've
got to tackle this job industry by
industry, plant by plant, to find
out where women are actually per-
forming similar jobs* to those of
men, because in the long run, ap-
plying the equal pay principle
comes down to proving that they
are doing the same work, and
taking it on from there.”

Lowest-paid Industries

Miss Codazzo also points out
that since women are concentrated
in the lowest-paid industries, it is
often not a case of pressing for
equal pay but for higher levels of
pay for those depressed sectors.
For some 300,000 women who
gather olives in the field, or work
in the tobacco curing plants, with
no male counterparts, the basic
problem is to raise wages that
often don’t reach $1.00 for an
eight-hour day!

Discrimination against married
women has become widespread
since the 1950 Maternityaw was
passed, guaranteeing job retention
and 80% of pay for three months
before and six weeks after child-
birth. Employers evade their obli-
gations by hiring women for short
“temporary” periods, having them
“voluntarily” sign an agreement
when hired that they will resign
if they marry, or are willing to
accept a transfer to a branch in
some other city at any time.

Organizing Interest

To meet this situation, all three
union federations are taking an
increasingly active interest in or-
ganizing women workers, even in
such difficult fields as domestic
workers and agricultural laborers,
and have announced that they will
make equity for women workers
an issue as contracts come up for

renewal,

Facts Disclosed

OTTAWA (CPA)—Time lost from strikes and lockouts in
March 1958 cost a loss of less than one per cent of the estimated
working time in the month, according to the federal department

of Labor.

There were 39 work stoppages d

ing the month, causing

time losses of only 0.13 per cent. Four Strikes accounted for 80
per cent of the time lost. Ten stoppages were in manufacturing,
nine in mining, eight in construction, four each in transportation
and trade, and one each in public utilities, fishing, logging and

service,

a EY ee