LUMBER

“We are withdrawing the char-
ges,” said the WICU leaders, “be-
cause we feel nothing should stand
in the way of woodworkers win-
ning their wholly justified demands
of 17 cents across the board and
union shop, and every effort must
be made to unite and mobilize all
woodworkers to fight to win these
demands and offset the employers’
attempts to return to the 48-hour
week.”

Committal to jail of John Forbes,
WICU secretary, for failure to pay
$11,000 of “IWA funds” into court
was quashed by the Court of Appeal
last week, thus ending this ill-ad-
vised action of the IWA against the
WICU. There is a growing senti-
ment among IWA members to put
an end to other costly court battles
which are pending.

In the United States, 8,000 strik-
ing IWA members have completely
tied up the vast Weyerhauser op-
erations for more than a fortnight,
and are feceiving support from both
CIO and AFL unions. :

AFL shift engineers in 15 B, C.
lumber manufacturing plants are
demanding wage hikes from 18 to
30 cents an hour. The case is go-
ing to conciliation.

Employees of the Eddy Match
Company plant at Mission went
on strike last week and IWA pick-
ets are on the job. About 50
workers are involved. .

The Labor Committee of the La-
bor-Progressive Party issued a leaf-
let to all woodworkers this week,
calling on IWA, WIUC and unor-
ganized workers to unite and pre-
pare for strike action. “Show'the
boss you mean business,” the leaf-
let declared.

“Lumberworkers Strike Likely,”
uwas the headline on last week’s is-
sue of the CCF News. It reported
that the IWA is dissatisfied with
the conciliation board’s award, but
failed to mention that, in rejecting
the award, the IWA had also re-
Ppudiated ithe CCF brain-truster,
Dr. Eugene Forsey, who represented
the union and. concurred in the
board’s recommendatiions, which
included return to the 48-hour week.

At press time, results of the go-
vernment sponsored vote were not
available, but. all indications poin-
ted to a whopping majority in favor
of strike action June 15,

RALLY ©

The rally was jointly chaired
_ by Dick Allen, Vancouver, a pro-
_inent member of the Student Chris-
tian Movement, and George Star-
kovich, Bellingham, an Internation-
al woodworkers of America job
steward.

Featured speakers at the rally
included Dr. James G. Endicott,
chairman of the Canadian Peace
Congress; Rev. R. J. D. Morris,
United Church Young People’s Un-
ion, Vancouver; Robert Krahl. Wa-
_ Shington State Director, Young
Progressives of America; Hans Dor-
ford, theology student and war vet-
eran, University of Washington;
Homer Stevens, United Fishermen
and Allied Workers Union, Vancou-
ver; and Adair Sims, Marine Cooks
and Stewards Union, Seattle.

Rev Frank Paterson, adult coun-
sellor, United Church Young Peo-
ple’s Union, Vancouver, gave a
non-denominational religious invo-
cation; and Dr. James Endicott
dedicated the rally.

A Russian-Canadian young peo-
ple’s orchestra from Vancouver
d several numbers as ‘the
crowd gathered around the Peace
Arch at 2 p.m. The rally officially
opened with presentation of the
flags of Canada and the United
States and the peace flag. Singing
of the two national anthems and
the United Nations song was led
by the National Federation of La-
bor Youth chorus of Vancouver.

Speeches were interspersed with
other vocal numbers. Donna Kro-
ener (U.S.) sang a calypso number,
“Walk in Peace” and little Dot
_ Weaver, Vancouver, delighted the
audience with two solos.

Differing philosophical and poli-
tical beliefs were voiced by the spea-
kers at the great rally, but .all were
agreed that there must be “No
More War.”

SEAMAN TELLS HIS STORY

Ship transferred,
seamen on beach

(On December 23, 1949, the Pacific Tribune revealed that
Canadian shipowners were negotiating a deal to transfer $75 mil-
lion worth of Canadian ships to British registry and throw thous-
ands of seamen in this country out of work. The scandalous scheme,

. which will virtually scuttle Canada’s merchant marine, is proceed-
ing. In the story printed below, a B.C. seaman tells how his ship
was transferred abruptly to British registry while docked near Liver-

pool last week.)

“Well, it’s all over!” This remark
by one of the ship’s officers left
no doubt in my mind as to exactly
what he meant. The crew mem-
bers of the ss Lake Tatla, owned
by the Western Canada Steamship
Company of Vancouver, were now
to be removed from this Canadian-
owned ship and returned speedily
to Canada to be thrown on the
beach with the mounting thous-
ands of unemployed already there
because this company had seen fit,
with the approval and consent of
the Canadian government, to trans-
fer the ship to British registry,
place a British crew aboard and
operate it at a considerably re-
duced scale of wages and working
conditions.

We had had previous information
that this was likely to happen be-
cause there had been some pub-
licity given to the transferring of
four ships belonging to this com-
pany, and this was one of them.
Our fears that we would soon be
out of jobs were now confirmed
and instead of making a trip that
would last a few months and en-
able us to eam a few ddllairs
against the day we would again
be on the beach, we were now
suddenly unemployed. We had been
away from Canada exactly 33 days,
just the necessary time required to
get the ship to England.

It was now also confirmed that
the other three ships had also been
transferred to British registry and
that the crews had been or soon
would be returned to Canada. This
also included the officers since the
arrangement, seems to be that only
Canadian captains will remain with
the vessels,

It wasn’t long before a British
chief mate, chief engineer and
chief steward arrived to check
stores and to take over the ad-
ministration of their departments.

Captain Clarke, superintendent
for Western Canada Shipping, also
arrived shortly and we were in-
formed that we were to have our
gear ready to board the bus which
would be waiting for us at the
ships side on the morning of Fri-
day, June 2, exactly five days after
our arrival at Ellesmere Port in

the Manchester Canal near Liver-
pool.

It is useless to deny that many
of the crew members were down-
hearted and greatly demoralized at
such a turn of affairs and this
also included many of the offi-
cers, one of whom stated that he
felt like “tieing up the ship and
walking off and leaving it without
completing the necessary duties re-
quired of him.” This statement de-
finitely expressed the way we all
felt.

At the duly appointed time, with-
out having seen any of the British
crew members except a few of-
ficers, we were hustled into a bus
and driven across England to the
airport of Heath Row near Lon-
don, placed aboard a chartered
plane, and within .36 hours were
back in Vancouver.

From the airport here we were
delivered -to the bus depot where
we were obliged to wait around
before the appointed time when we
could go to the company offices
in the Marine Building, where they
obligingly allowed us to draw $20
of our own money, which doesn’t
aimount to much since the articles
were signed on April 8. Our wages
also ceased 0n the day of our ar-
rival here,

We have yet to go to the office
of the shipping master, sign off
the articles and receive the balance
of our wages. And then as we
stand around looking at each oth-
er, the common query will be,
“What now?” ¥

Many of the officers and seamen
who have just been rushed back
to Canada like “a bunch of cattle”
and “treated as such,” as one ship’s
officer described at the airport in
Montreal, sailed these very ships
during World War II as well as
contributing their - share of the

‘money which helped to build them.

We can sum it all up in the
words of one of the seamen, who,
looking out of the -bus window at
the familiar scenery as we were
driven into Vancouver from the
airport, observed bitterly, “Yeah,
we did our bit for democracy and
security—and look what we get.”

SIU ‘company union’

plan blocked by CSU

TORONTO

Masquerading under an AFL, label, the Seafarers’ Inter-
national Union is attempting to “legalize” company unionism

in Canada.

This was further revealed last week when a court

action made public the fact that Harold Banks and Frank
Hall are attempting to blackjack the Upper Lakes and St.

Lawrence Transportation Company
into signing with the SIU which has
no membership on any vessels op-
erated by the company. An in-
junction issued by Mr. Justice Le-
Bel of the Ontario Supreme Court
temporarily restrained both men
from interfering in the company’s
affairs.

Banks, a SIU organifier, brain-
trusted the importation of scab
crews into Canada during the his-
toric East Coast deep sea strike.
Hall, vice-president of the AFL
Brotherhood of Railway and
Steamship Clerks, has been con-
demned from all quarters as a
labor-spltter: he played a leading
role in assisting the government
and the steamship companies in
their attempts to smash the Cana-
dian Seamen’s Union.

The CSU, which is the legiti-
mate bargaining agency for crews
on all ships oprated by the Upper

Lakes and St. Lawrence Transpor-
tation Company, is once again the
target of Hall and Banks. In this
ease they threatened that the com-
pany’s ships would not be loaded
or unloaded by Hall’s freight hand-
lers unless it scrapped the CSU.
The blackmail attempt also threat-
ened that the SIU would tie-up
the company’s ships when in U.S.
ports. The injunction issued by
Mr, Justice Le Bel restrains the
SIU and Hall’s union “or any oth-
er’ union in Canada affiliated with
the AFL from inciting members
to refuse to load or unload cargo
from the plaintiff’s vessels at any
port in Ontario.”

Lauding the judgment of Mr.
Justice LeBel, Dewar Ferguson,
CSU vice-president said that it was
“completely justified.’

“The threatened action of Banks
and Hall is nothing less than sheer
blackmail,” said Ferguson.

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“foclaliem would mean the end-of elvinsation ae we know it”

pids Mine means loss of a $360,000
annual payroll and loss of jobs to
150 Nanaimo miners.

Robert Dunsmuir and his asso-
ciates in 1884 received as a tax-free
gift all the coal lands in and around
Nanaimo. By 1911 they had made
a coo] million dollars in profits. In
later years the company has prom-
ptly abandoned mines as soon as
they could no longer be worked at a
handsome profit.

“In view of the many lush years
of profit-taking enjoyed, the com-
pany can afford to temporarily for-
go an operational profit from the
White Rapids mine,” the LPP state-
ment says. “Until a national so-
lution for the present coal market-
ing crisis is found we propose:

1, The company to’ continue to
operate the White Rapids mine:

2. The provincial government
to establish an independent com-
missien to ascertain the opera-
tional losses sustained in opera.
tion of the mine.

3. The provincial government
‘ito underwrite ny opjrational
loss sustained by the compamy in
the operation of the mine, until
a solution of the national mar-
keting crisis is found.”

Future of Nanaimo’s coal industry
depends on the future of the indu-
try across Canada, the LPP points
out. And Canada’s coal industry is
being driven tc the wall by United
States competition. This is the
heart of the coal problem.

Last year Canadian miners dug
slightly more than 18 million tons
of coal. In the same period 24 mil-
lion tons of American coal entered
the Eastern Canadian market.

Free Spain Friends
appeal for Barsky

The Friends of Free Spain here
have sent a wire to Stanley Wood-
ward, U:S. ambassador to Canada,
urging President Truman to inter-
vene and prevent imprisonment of
Dr. Edward K. Barsky and 10 mem-
bers of the U.S. Joint Anti-Fascist
Refugee Committee.

Barsky, who served with the
Spanish Loyalists in a medical ca-
pacity, and other members of the
committee were cited for contempt
by the notorious Un-American Ac-
tivities Committee when they re-
fused to submit lists of donors to

the Washington witchunters.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 9, 1950-—PAGE 6

Announced closure of White Ra- }

Continued operation of
Nanaimo mine urged

NANAIMO, B.C.

Policy of Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir Ltd.) in aban-
doning coal mines before they are worked out was sharply
attacked this week in a leaflet published by the Nanaimo
committee of the Labor-Progressive party.

s s
Will stay in CCL

Robert Haddow, Canadian Dir-
ector, International Fur and Lea-
ther Workers Union (above) said
this week the union intends to
maintain its affiliation with the
Canadian Congress of Labor and
“will vigorously oppose any at-
tempt to deprive us of this right.”
Haddow’s statement followed re-
marks attributed to CCL president
A, R. Mosher that he “wouldn’t:
feel a bit sorry” if Fur and Lea-

ther decided to pull out of the
CCL,

Steel's miserly
strike aid hit

United Steel Workers spends
more than $200,000 a month in
raiding activities, but gives only:
piddling sums in support of Steel
strikers in Local 2756, Langley’s,
a leaflet published by a rank-and-
file committee of the union states.

“We demand that the national
and inernational offices of our un-
ion direct our finances towards the
legitimate needs of our member-
ship - - for strike welfare, to. or-
ganize unorganized plants, and oth-
er genuine trade union purposes,”
the leaflet says.

Steel strikers on Granville Island
are currently living on strike pay
weekly rates which are lower than
unemployment insurance benefits.

,