BIC.

LUMBER WORKER

The Taft-Hartley Law has been invoked against the
International Longshoremen’s Association, yet history show:

that it seldom settles strikes. The Act, used by a U.S. y
dent 16 times in the past 11 years, merely pospones or inter-

rupts strikes for 80 days.
: The US. steel strike erick With the threat of a Taft-Hartley

injunction hanging in the air. both sides got down to negotiations,
Be eee “offer” of 734 cents was firmly rejected by the
union’s wage policy committee’as “completely unacceptable.”

A bright spot in the U.K. election results for Labor sup-
porters was the defeat of fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley in
the London suburb of North Kensington. i

Sir Oswald campaigned on the slogan, “Send the Ne-
groes back to the West Indies.” He was soundly beaten.

Disputes within the AFL-CIO will be settled by compulsory

arbitration, the AFL-CIO convention decided here.
The executive was directed by the convention to establish ar

tration procedures and report back to a special convention. Jurisdic-
tional disputes of affiliates are not affected by the decision. ‘
Strontium 90 levels have continued to rise, Health Min-
ister Montieth reported recently. May and June, particularly,
saw big jumps in Strontium 90 levels across Canada.
Corporation profits are running 23 per cent ahead of 1958, the
Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports. Labor income is only 8 per
cent ahead of last year, despite higher employment and higher pro-
duction. Weekly wages have actually dropped in recent weeks.
Canada’s consumer price index reached a new high in
August, according to the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. The
index climber to 127.1, nearly 1% per cent higher than a year

CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS Regional
gress’ Union Label display at the B.C, Federation of Labour Convention.

ish Columbia, Tom Gooderham

ago. Non-food items accounted for the increase, the bureau
said, rising two per cent above last year’s figure.

Hon. I. C. Rand, who gave his name to the “Rant-formula,” has
been*appointed a one-man commission to investigate Canada’s | }
body in B.C.

dwindling coal industry. :
Canada is not recognizing

cause the United States wouldn’t like it, CCF House leader | n
Hazen Argue charged here recently. p
This policy is “sheer nonsence”, he declared. The Peking

regime meets all the tests required for recognition. He urged
“the quarantine of China,” for

the federal government to end
the good of world peace.

Communist China, simply be-

“Set Heather Afire
Now!" — — Black

Political philosophy of Samual Gompers, (reward friends
punish enemies), which so long dominated the labour move-
ment on this continent, is now to be given a fresh application,
declared retiring-President Bill Black, addressing the 4th
Annual Convention of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

In Gomper’s day, the speaker
stated, governments took little
part in regulating industrial
relations. “To-day, we are living
in a different era.” “We have
government participation and
interference, compelling labour
‘to fight on two fronts:”

Reversal Of Policy

These remarks from the lips of

a former AFL-TLC leader served
notice on the labour movement in
British Columbia, that the political
isolationism of 1886 was out-
moded, as anti-union employers
acting in league with governments
now used political power to attack

trade union rights. If Gompers

Store your valuables in a ...

SAFETY
DEPOSIT
BOX

This way you know where your important papers are.
Why not call in and arrange for one

were alive to-day, said Black, he
would be the first to urge direct
political action, conducted ind
pendently of the employers to
protect labour.
Black’s Last Term

Bill Black informed the con-
vention that this was his final
term in the President’s chair. He
stated that he would not be a
contender for office at this year’s
conyention. As the reason for re-
tirement, he gave the increased de-
mands of his own organization,
the Hospital Employees’ Associ-
ation and the National Union -of
Public Employees, At the con-
clusion of his address, the fiery

at

CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE

800 Branches in British Columbia

labour
ovation
appreciation of

“rough”

Federation ranked with the best
of the central
Canada. “We have
sponsibilities without any evasion
er procrastination”, he declared.

reminded the convention of
warning given by
previous
that time he had pointed to
ruthless attack

was accorded an
revealed a warm
his qualities as
head of the merged central labour

leader
which

In his review of the achieve-
ment of the Federation during the
past year, described by him as a
ear, he said the B.C.

President Bill Black

labour bodies in
met our re-

The retiring Federation official
the
the
At
the
the

him at

year’s convention.

mounted by

. now!

organized employers. He left the
inference that the employers’ at-
tack had succeeded in a degree
because of apathy in the ranks of
organized labour.

The attempts of the em-
ployers’ organizations to
“smear” labour was bitterly de-
nounced by the speaker as
hypocritical. He cited the crimes
of which big business interests
had been found guilty, none of
which could be charged to
labour, to show that manage-
ment could not come before the
public with clean hands, Organ-
ized labour in Canada could be
proud of its clean record, he
asserted.

With dramatic forcefulness,
President Black adjured the dele-
gates to carry their resolutions in-
to action. In part, he said, —

“You Tell Me”

“During the course of the next
five days we will debate most
vigorously the various resolutions
and proposals. We will hammer
out a legislative program. Once the
program is hammered out, would
you please tell me what you are
going to do with it?

Would you please tell me how
many of our previous proposals
have been implemented or given
any favourable consideration?”

“We permit ourselves to be di-
vided over trivial things. Some-
times I wonder if we only have
the one. choice — that is to sup-
port the lawyers, the professional
groups, the representatives of man-
agement—the type of people who
advocate anti-labour and anti-

working class legislation. Then we
butt our heads up against a wall
trying to circumvent it or trying
to live with it.”

Or do we creat a vehicle and

support a vehicle which is truly
representative of the common
people of this province and of
this country?

Labour Creates Wealth
I was always taught, in fact I
had it hammered into me from my
early youth, that the workers
create all the wealth. Capital
would be useless without the he-
wers of wood and the drawers of
water. Do we not have faith in
our own abilities, in our own
people?

We trust our own kind to
look after our economic interests
at the bargaining table. Why
tie their hands behind their
backs in the legislative field,
which eventually governs the
type of economic action we will
take?

It is no longer good enough to
say “Let’s wait for Congress; let’s
wait until’ 1961 or 1962.” This
Federation represents 120 thous-
and people, not counting wives,
offspring and other relatives. Our
influence is great if it is exercised.

Let us have a meeting of
minds. Let us not just say a
party warrants our support and
then do nothing about it. Let me
use a phrase peculiar to the land
of my birth. “The time has ar-
rived to set the heather on fire.”
The time has arrived to do a
job. If we unanimously agree to
support the policies already laid
down by this Federaation,; then
that job will be done. By the time
the Sth or 6th convention of the
Federation takes place, then we
will no longer be talking about
legislation restricting our civil
liberties, legislation that is directed
against the common people of
this country.

Percy Bengough