: Ist Issue, July

B.C. LUMBER WORKER.

T.V.A. Success
Defies Critics

Since the end of World W.

ar IT, some 17,000 foreign vi

tors have come to America to witness one of the greatest ex-
periments in democracy—the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Among the visitors have been
kings, queens, presidents, prime
ministers and ordinary people that
hoped someday to view similar
wonders in their homelands.

President Stayed Away

ignificantly, the list of vi
has not included President
hower or any member of his cab-
inet. And, it was no surprise
when the President completely
ignored TVA’s recent celebration
of its 25th anniversary.

President Eisenhower's views
on TVA like so many other things
--are dictated by the personal in-
terests of his bridge and golf-
playing friends.

As a presidential candidate,
General Eisenhower proclaimed
that “TVA will be operated and
maintained at maximum efficien-
cy. I have a keen appreciation of
what it has done and. what it will
be able to continue to do in the
future.”

“Education”

But upon election, the former
general was quickly given an
“education.” In the five years
since he assumed office, the Pres-
ident has labeled TVA as “creep-
ing socialism’; allowed his Ad-
ministration to seck to block the
Authority's request to self-finance
needed expansion facilities; stood
on the sidelines during the now-
famous Dixon-Yates scandal; and
replaced a non-partisan TVA ad-
ministrative board with members
whose private power interests are
well known,

The reason for the President’s
“switch” is simple — his private
power company friends don’t like’
TVA because it is a threat to their
monopoly rate structure,

The Valley Authority has pro-
vided a yardstick for low cost
power and—as such—has borne
the brunt of a constant industry
campaign that seeks to scuttle

the entire program,

Despite this campaign and the
sympathy of the. President, the
industry has never been able to
hide the great strides made by
TVA since its inception in 1933,

TVA Created

In that year, President Roose-
velt signed the TVA Act creating
the valley authority. The Act—
as conceived by Sen, George Nor-
ris (R., Nebr:)—not only provided

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low cost power for a seven state
area, but supplemented this power
with a long-range planning project
designed to bring rich economic
development to a stagnant area.

Norris was never worried about
TVA being socialistic. The bill’s
original author declared that “the
valley is populated by a conserva-
tive people who would not have
any truck with Marxism in any
form.

“The proof of TVA’s integrity
is that it is about as hard to find an
enemy of TVA among them as it
is to find teeth in the species of
poultry known as the Rhode
Island Red.”

TVA in practice has more than
fulfilled the dreams of Senator
Norris and President Roosevelt.
Its 20 dams and seyen major
steam plants have completely re-
developed an area that in 1933 was
bad even by depression-day com-
parison.

Magnificent Results

In 1933, there were no more
than 225,000 residential electric-
ity consumers in the entire area
now supplied by TVA power.

Today, the Authority supplies
power to 1.3 million consumers.

Twenty-five years ago, only
three percent of the farms in the
region used electricity, compar-
ed to 95 per cent of the present
farms.

Per capita income has climbed
in the same period from $163
to $1,165.

Malaria—which affected 25 per
cent of the population and in
some communities ran as high as
60 per cent — has almost been
completely wiped out. It has been
10 years since a single case has
been discovered in the valley.

Industry has multiplied and
agriculture has prospered — all
as a direct result of planning and
the wise use of multipurpose fa-
cilities, The threat of serious
floods has become almost a thing
of the past, A blighted area has
become one of the nation’s top
recreational centres.

(From IUD Bulletin)

Coldwell
Joins A.N.G.

OTTAWA (CPA) — M. J.
Coldwell, who spent many years
in Canada’s Parliament fight-
ting for the rights of trade
unionists, has joined a union.
Mr. Coldwell, who after his
March 31 election defeat began a
syndicated newspaper column on
current affairs, is now a card-
carrying member of the American
Newspaper Guild (AFL-CIO-
CIO)

Liberal leader Lester Pearson
also joined the A.N.G. when he
was writing a similar column.

ICFTU
Pays
Tribute

BRUSSELS (CPA) — The
fifth anniversary of the East
German uprising was the occa-
sion of a message to East and
Central European workers now
under Communist rule, from
international Confederation of
Free Trade Unions general sec-
retary J. H. Oldenbroek.
Workers in the Soviet zone of
rmany rose against the Com-
munist regime there on June 17,
1953. Three years later, on June
28, 1956, workers at Poznan, Po-
land, also revolted. The Polish
uprising was followed by the na-
tion-wide fight for freedom by
Hungarian workers in October
and November, 1956.

Admirable Example

Mr. Oldenbroek told the work-
ers that these uprisings “are
fresh in the memory of the free
world, and the courage and sac-
rifice workers showed when fac-
ing heavy odds are an admirable
example of solidarity.”

“Low wages and a large-scale
spying system are among the main
causes of the deep-seated hatred
for Communism among the work-
ers of Central and Eastern Eur-
ope,” he continued.

Mr. Oldenbroek said that work-
ers’ solidarity is the most effective
weapon against oppression.”

“We are convinced that the day
must come when all workers of
the world, all nations, all races
will live together in freedom and
peace for the benefit of all man-
kind,” he concluded.

Civil Rights

BRUSSELS (CPA) — The
International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions has asked
the Dominican Republic to
grant freedom of association,
collective bargaining and other
trade union rights to workers in
that country,

In a letter from ICFTU gen-
eral secretary J. H. Oldenbroek to
Dominican Republic secretary of
state for Labor Ramon Aristy, the
ICFTU noted that a fact-finding
mission had found that freedom
of association does not exist in
the Dominican Republic.

Urged

Not Genuine

“Indeed the trade unions of the
Republic are not genuine trade
unions, but are linked on the one
hand with the employers and on
the other wth the government,”
the letter said.
Collective bargaining does not
exist either. And, the mission
found, forced labor was practiced
on certain plantations and in rice
fields.
Mr. Oldenbroek’s letter asked if
the forced labor practices had
ceased, as the government had

promised they would.

New Westminster

CREDIT UNION DIRECTORY
IWA Credit Unions and other Credit Unions
supported by IWA Local Unions in B.C.

Alberni District Credit Union, 209 Argyle Street, Port Alberni
IWA 1-217 Sayings, Broadway & Quebec Streets, Vancouver 10
IWA (N.W.) Credit Union, Room 21, 774 Columbia Street,

Local 1-118, IWA (Victoria), 904 Gordon Street, Victoria
Chemainus & District Credit Union, Box 299, Chemainus
Lake Cowichan and District Credit Union, Lake Cowichan, B.C,
Courtenay Credit Union, Box 952 Courtenay

Duncan & District Credit Union, Box 1717, Duncan

Prince George & District, 1046-4th Avenue, Prince George
Nanaimo & District Credit Union, 499 Wallace St., Nanaimo

From Page 1

ing themselves out of a job.”
Threats Used

Jack MacKenzie added, “Van-
couver operators are putting state-
ments on their notice boards con-
taining the veiled threat, ‘If you
strike, you'll lose your job.’ They
are laying the law down to their
workers. If this isn’t intimidation,
I don’t know what it is.”

The IWA officer said John Bil-
lings, president of Forest Indus-
trial Relations, “and his cohorts
had made the statement that first

“Threat”

results of the government-super-
vised IWA strike vote were “most
gratifying.”

Reverse True

Said MacKenzie, “I would say
the reverse is true, The fact that
workers have voted 65 per cent
to reject the conciliation board
recommendation is, in my opin-
ion, most gratifying to the union.
t is even more gratifying that
they made this vote in spite of
intimidation from the companies.”

Right to prosecute Pond

bour Relations Board in regard to the alleged refusal by the
s. Early action in the
courts is anticipated.

As reported to District Secre-
tary George Mitchell, who made
a personal investigation of the sit-
uation, the clash between the crew
members and management arose
because of the refusal of manage-
ment to deal with grievances as
required by the contract. On one
occasion, the employer had -re-
fused to name his representative
on an Arbitration Board for which
application had been made by the

Union.

The present work stoppage

management to process grievance

Union Charges
Unfair Actions

losa Pine Lumber Co. Ltd. at

Monte Lake has been granted Local 1-417 IWA, by the La-

dates back to June 10th, on which
date the crew members requested
an interview with the superintend-
ent. The main grievance con-
cerned that of one of their num-
ber who had been discharged be-
cause of his refusal to drop a
grievance, it is alleged.

While the crew was waiting for
the interview, the superintendent,
if is alleged, fired all those sup-
porting the grievance. This action
caused the reference to the La-
bour Relations Board.

Three bad little boys,

Came bouncing a ball
(One of their toys),

Hit with his head
(Called Prov.), who in

And rarely the future

They came once again
It grew heavy as clay
Though poor Mun. go!

Denying disaster,

Then the officer truant

THE TRUANTS
An Unstable Fable
One bright day in fall

Each munching a very large cookie,

Engrossed in the game known as hookey,
‘The biggest (name: Fed.)

The ball to the boot of the second

turn,

Tossed to small Mun.,

they reckoned,

One dank winter’s day
And threw, but the ball was not bouncing:

And caused them great pain,

t much of the trouncing.

They flung it round faster,
Too late! strange ball,

it had burned them!
it

(Named “Union”!), pursuant,
To their great Teacher returned them!

—Johnny Canuck.

No Check
But Dues

DETROIT (CPA) — Mem-

bers of the United Auto Work-
ers, working without a contract
and consequently without the
dues checkoff, have been lining
up to pay dues in “local after
local”, according to SOLIDAR-
ITY, the UAW paper.
“This display of union solidar-
ity came as a surprise to some,
but not to AUW secretary-treas-
urer Emil Mazey”, Solidarity says
in the June 16 edition.

Dues Paying Members

Mr. Mazey was quoted in the
paper as saying “For a number of
years, we didn’t have a union shop
or a checkoff in GM and Chrys-
ler. But we had better than 98
per cent of the workers paying
dues.”

The UAW paper reports that
locals from coast to coast are re-

—=

-off,
Paid

dues up to three months in ad-
vance,

Ford, General Motors and
Chrysler all refused to extend
their UAW contracts on a day-to-
day basis after they expired at the
end of May. Bargaining is still
in progress. American Motors,
however, have agreed to an in-
definite extension of the present
contract, which according to
UAW American Motors depart-
ment director Norman Matthews
will allow time enough for “satis-
factory negotiations of new agree-
ments.”

Solidarity Charges

Meanwhile, Solidarity charges
that the big three have made “re~
peated efforts” to provoke a
strike. In the first two weeks
without contracts, the paper con-
tinues, the “most flagrant man-
agement assaults were made by
Chrysler Corp.”

porting volunteer pre-payment of