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B.C. LUMBER WORKER

2nd Issue, November

IN BRIEF

Technicians Well Paid

Soviet technicians in Communist China are the highest paid

people, as the official communist statistics show. The chief
Soviet technical adviser of the Ansan steel workers receives more
in one month than a Chinese farmer would earn in his lifetime.
There are about 120,000 Soviet technical advisers in China today.

Low Wages Make Thieves

A short time ago 49 dining car attendants and cooks in Brat-
islava and 35 in Prague were charged with having defrauded rail-
‘way passengers in various minor ways. The communist papers
described the waiters and cooks as common thieves. From the
trial it appears, however, that they were so badly paid that they
were absolutely forced to make a little extra in order to be able
to exist at all.

Tibetan Rebellions Suppressed

In Eastern Tibet the people have been in constant rebellion
since 1956 and the Chinese communist armed forces have sup-
pressed two major revolts, admitted the Tibetan communist paper
“Kangtung Kanze Pao” recently, and added that the Tibetan re-
bellions were the result of the people’s dissatisfaction with com-
munist policies,

Workers’ Self-Government Conference

The first workers’ self-government conference, held at the

Zeran Car Works in September and attended by W. Gomulka,

. first secretary of the Polish communist party, showed that the

workers’ voice in Polish factories is only dn illusion. This con-

ference put an official end to the very short history of workers’
councils in Poland.

Lumber Shipments

Production of sawn lumber and ties in British Columbia in
August was 11 per cent larger than one year earlier. In August
this year 440,070 M ft. were cut, while in August, 1957 the cut
was 396,300 M ft. and in August, 1956 it was 466,013 M ft. The
January-August output this year, at 3,177,403,000 ft. was 9.7 per
cent greater than 2,896,743,000 ft. cut in the first eight months of
Tast year, but it was 4 per cent less than 3,242,582.000 ft. produced
in the January-August period of 1956,

Lumber shipments in August were also greater than one year
ago. They totalled 426,249,000 ft., as compared to 397,303,000 ft.
shipped last year and 441,726,000 ft. shipped in August, 1956.
Cumulative shipments this year (at 3,189,757,000 ft.) were 7.5 per
cent greater than those of the first eight months of last year, and
2.5 per cent greater than in the same period of 1956.

—Bureau of Economics and Statistics

Labour Defends

Civil Liberties

TORONTO (CPA) — The
labor movement must play a
leading role in the fight against
discrimination, Frank H. Hall,
CLC general vice-president and
chairman of the Congress’ na-
tional Human Rights Commit-
tee, said here.

Most discrimination, he told
the Toronto and District Labor
Council’s human rights confer-
ence, has an economic basis.

Hall criticized the proposed Bill
of Rights introduced by the gov-
ernment last session as inade-

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quate, but said it was a step in
the right direction,

Struggle For Equality

A secure future will not be
won until the western world un-
derstands and appreciates the
meaning of the struggle for
equality and self - determination
being waged by African and
Asian peoples, he continued.

This struggle, he said, “repre-
sents one of the most significant
and meaningful events of our
century.”

CHAIN SAW LIFE!

International Transport
Workers Federation has an-
nounced plans for a world-wide
boycott by waterfront workers
of ships flying “flags of con-
yenience”. The boycott is sche-
duled to take place some time
between mid-November and
mid-December.

Ships flying “flags of conveni-
ence” are those registered by
foreign owners in Panama, Li-
beria, Honduras and Costa Rica.

World Boycott
| Announced

By registering their ships in these
countries, the owners evade labor
standards, tax requirements, and
safety regulations established in
Omer Becu, general secretary
legitimate maritime nations.
of the ITWF, declared that near-
ly 18 per cent of the world’s deep
sea shipping—over 1,500 vessels
—is registered under these flags.
A large proportion of this per-
centage, he asserted, is owned
directly or indirectly by American
corporations.

A U.S. Court of Appeals has
again rejected a National Labor
Relations Board ruling that a
union cannot use “harassing
tactics” to gain its objectives
at the bargaining table.

In 1956, the court held that the
NLRB was wrong in finding the
Textile Workers guilty of unfair
labor practices for engaging in
work stoppages and slow-downs
during negotiations without call-
ing a full scale strike. According
to the court, since Taft-Hartley
permits an all-out strike, it must
also permit a partial strike.

1956 Ruling

The Board took the court’s 1956
ruling to the Supreme Court, but
althought the Supreme Court
agreed to review the case, it nev-

Harassing Tactics
Ruled Unfair

er decided the issue.

Discarding the Court of Ap-
peals decision, later in 1956 the
Board found the Insurance Agents
International Union guilty of un-
fair practices for using harassing
tactics during negotiations with
the Prudential Life Insurance Co.

Picket Offices

In an effort to win wage de-
mands from the company, the
IAIU urged its members to picket
the firms’s offices twice a week,
pass out leaflets and refuse to
sell new insurance.

When the Board held that the
union’s actions were illegal, the
IAIU went to the courts on the
basis of the Textile decision. The
NLRB is now considering wheth-
er to appeal its latest reversal to
the Supreme Court.

EUROPE, which now seeks relatively little UNICEF aid, will channel much
of it into expanding basic, preventive health services for children like this.

U.LC.
Ruling
Given

OTTAWA (CPA) — An
amendment to the Unemploy-
ment Insurance Regulations an-
nounced here by federal Labor
minister Michael Starr pro-
hibits private employment
agencies from charging a fee
to workers for placing them in
jobs.

The regulations excepts those
engaged in finding work for baby
sitters, registered or practical
nurses, athletes, lecturers, enter-
tainers, and other similar agencies
which may from time to time be
exempted by the UIC.

Prevent Exploitation

The new rule is designed to
prevent the exploitation of un-
employed workers “who were be-
ing charged exorbitant fees by
some operators of private em-
ployment agencies”, a UIC state-
ment said.

Charges of exploitation were
made in representations to the
Commission, the statement add-
ed.

The new regulation, effective
January 4, 1959, was approved by
the federal cabinet.

Knowles
Attends
O.R.LT.

OTTAWA (CPA)—Canadian
Labor Congress executive vice-
president Stanley H. Knowles
will head a four-man delegation
representing the Canadian labor
movement at the fourth conti-
nental Congress of ORIT, the
ICFTU’s western hemisphere
section.

The other three members of
the delegation are Roger Provost,
president of the Quebec Federa~
tion of Labor, Canadian Packing-
house Workers director Fred
Dowling, and Kalmen Kaplansky,
director of the CLC’s Interna~
tional Affairs department.

Bogota, Colombia

The ORIT Congress will be held
in Bogota, Colombia, from Dec-
ember 9 to 12. Preceding it is a
seminar on trade union organiza-
tion and economic problems in
the western hemisphere, to be
held at the National University
of Bogota from December 2 to 7.
On his return trip Mr. Knowles
will spend two days in Kingston,
Jamaica, conferring with govern-
ment and union leaders.

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