CIO urges organization but
okays grab of small unions

‘
The once-great. Congress of Industrial Organizations,
reccgnized by resolution the urgent need of the American workers for wage boosts, price
rollbacks and controls, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, democratic rights, social security

and housing.

But CIO traditions of militant in-
dustrial unionism were trampled
when the convention trained its
main guns on those delegates who

tried to insist on the policies need-
ed to meet those needs—policies of
united labor action to organize the
unorganized, build a third party
based on the labor movement, and
prevent enslavement in the Ameri-
ean imperialist war machine.

The .convention. in a_ sharply
worded resolution outlining the
union-busting treatment accorded
CIO affiliates under the NLRB,
unanimously called on President
Truman and Congress to replace
the “strikebreaking” Taft-Hartley
Act by the old Wagner collective
bargaining law.

(The Truman administration has
already indicated that it plans on
retaining certain Taft-Hartley fea-
tures in its new act, and will not
likely drop the strike-breaking In-
junction.)

Delegates stepped ahead of the
AFL convention, which met the
week before in Cincinnati, when
they adopted a wage policy reso
lution which can pave the way for
@ new round of wage increases.
The statement declared that 25
percent of the American people
last year spent more than they
earned.

Emil Mazey of the Auto Workers
stated flatly that American indus-
try could. raise wages 20 percent
and still make a reasonable profit
without raising prices. For work-
“ers averaging $1.50 an hour, this

Offers ‘bait’
on ICA Act

“This is a piece of old and
mouldy bait,” Ed Leary, interna-
- tional representative of the -Fur
and Leather Workers (CIO-CCL)
commented on Labor Minister Wis-
mer’s appeal this week for those
with complaints about the ICA Act
to make “suggestions” to him or
the Labor Relations Board.

“The whole labor movement last;

year suggested how Bill 39's
straightjacket clauses could be
wiped out. Instead we got the ad-
ditional straightjacket clauses of
Bill 87. The Vancouver Labor
Council went on record for suspen-
sion of the act until it can be re-
placed at the next session. It would
take a real sucker to fall for Wis-
mer’s line now.”

That Wismer did have some sup-
port nevertheless was indicated
when Trades Council Secretary R.
K. Gervin told the UBC Student
Liberal Club: “politics are behind
the movement to have the act re-
péaled . . . it should be altered by
the proper method, not repealed.” -

Trades Congress affiliates are
holding a provincial conference
ror week to take a position on the
a

THIS

‘to_

> her baer ber bye be E 4 Pye bee

meeting

—PORTLAND, OREGON

in convention here,

would mean an increase of $12 a
week.

To stem inflation, the CIO urged
prices rollbacks, excess profits tax,
ending of speculation in grains,
and a “realistic curb on monopoly.

Its tax program called for tax re-
lief for lower income brackets.

Other resolutions: called for ex-
tended social security, U.S. aid
to education, $1 minimum wage
(instead of 10 cents as at present),
a housing program, national health
insurance, improved veterans bene-
fits, soil conservation, rent control,
and support of TVA.

The convention asked restoration
of the Norris-LaGuardia anti-in-
junction act, set a guaranteed
annual minimum wage as a goal
to be bargained for, and urged CIO
unions to “embark immediately on
a vigorous campaign to secure pen-
sion, health and welfare benefits
through collective bargaining.”

Delegates approved closer coop-
eration with Latin American unions
and a complete revamping of the
Displaced Persons Act passed by
the 80th Congress. Support of spe-
cial legislation for women and chil-
dren was voted.

Against this program, CIO Pre-
sident Philip Murray and his
convention majority raised an
edfiice of obstruction founded on
acceptance of Wall Street’s twin
“big lies”: the “Soviet aggression”
myth to cover support for Ameri-
can aggression and the “Moscow
agent” myth to cover the suppres-
sion of dissent inside the Con-
gress.

Ruling out minority reports “un-
less the majority report should be
defeated,’ Murray led in laying
down an anti-Soviet resolution’ sup-
porting the Marshall Plan and the
Baruch plan for Amer‘can control
of atomic energy.

Follow-up on this stand was two

convention actions which Food
Workers president Donald Hender-
son charged paved the way for a
break with the.World Federation
of Trade Unions. The executive
board was “‘authorized to take
whatever action in relation to the
WFTU and the international labor
movement as will best accomplish
CIO policies.”
* Secondly, officers were commend-
ed for their role in the conference
of unions from Marshall Plan
countries on ERP and authorized
continue such participation.
(CIO officials failed this year to
convert the WFTU into an instru-
ment of the Marshall Plan, but,
like the AFL, they are active in the
administrative apparatus of that
plan.)

Murray led a ferocious attack on
unions disagreeing with his pol-
icies, charging them with “glaring
incompetence” to organize their in-
dustries. These unions include the
United Office and Professional
Workers, United Public Workers,
and other unions which have been
given raiding rather than help

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other CIO affiliates in the face of
the sharpest Taft-Hartley attacks.

Executive board was granted
power to “investigate” unions it
feels are not making “substantial
progress” in organizing.

Heaviest verbal battle, punctu-
ated by cries of “shut up,” “sit
down” and “take a walk.” came
when the convention minority un-
successfully tried to fight against
reaffirmation of the CIO policy of
continiied support for the “progres-
sive” forces in both major parties,
and against rejection of “any and
all proposals for a third party.”

The CIO Political Action commit-
tee will be continued in its present
form.

Opposition speakers charged that
the progressive program sought by
the majority of the electorate in
the November 2 elections “can be
achieved only through the united
and fighting action of the labor
movement and its allies and not by
any reliance on the employers or
the promises of the administra-
tion.”

United Electrical Workers Pre-
sident Albert Fitzgerald said he
was “sick in his, stomach” at the
booing and heckling of minority
speakers. In angry tones he said
that during the foreign policy de-
bate the day before he had heard
one delegate cry, “Why doesn’t
the dirty Jew sit down?” while
President Abe Fineglass of the
International Fur and Leather
Workers was speaking against
the resolution. ,

Some delegates, on hearing Pre-
sident Murray give a fresh blast
against “communistic infiltration”
on his re-election, recalled the
warning given the 1946 convention
by the veteran president of the
Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen,
Mr. A. F. Whitney. Whitney at that
time warned against red-baiting,
“which in the past took the form
of labelling , labor fighters as
‘socialists’ and IWW’s and today as
Communists.”

“I speak to you of a lifetime ex-
perience. Do not let this issue
divide you. If you do, labor will be
set back many years in its struggle
to achieve dignity and security and
freedom ... Your energies and your
militancy will be consumed in a
futile witch-hunt. Do not allow
yourself to become the tools of
fascists or reactionary forces,”

Ask UN to keep
out Franco Spain

A second Canadian, Ross Russell
(United Electrical Workers’ direct-
or of organization and a Spanish
civil war veteran) has joined A. A.
MacLeod, MPP, in Paris on the
:nternational delegation to the UN
to protest any attempt to admit
Franco Spain to that body,

The world wide “Free Spain
Week” campaign, December 1 to
8, has been given added impetus
by the Spanish Communist Party’s
exposure of a secret military treaty
concluded between Franco Spain
and the U.S. high command. Span-
ish airports and harbors are being
rebuilt at great speed to serve as
U.S. military, air and naval bases.

Meanwhile Dewey Short, spokes-
man for a group of seven Ameri-
can congressmen and three brass-
hats, stated in Madrid, “If ERP
was created to combat communism
there is no better place to begin
than in Spain. I’m going to recom-
mend insistently that the U.S. give
immediate aid to Spain. We have
been inevitably victims of Red pro-
pagana.”

Vancouver’s Friends of Free
Spain Committee is nolamg a

public meeting December 7 at 641
Granville Street to back the Paris
delegation.

\

Songsters weld strike unity

Labor. songs have played a big part in the great west coast

maritime strike.

This trio of members of the National Union of

Marine Cooks and Stewards (CIO) is singing victory songs on the
San Francisco waterfront as a settlement shapes up in spite of

the Taft-Hartley Act.

Maritime strike indicates
victory over Taft-Hartley

‘"—SAN FRANCISCO

Striking members of the International Longshoremen and
Warehousemen’s Union are voting on an agreement reached
under leadership of Harry Bridges with the Waterfront Em-
ployers’ Association which would settle a major part of the

&5-day west coast maritime tie-up.

The union won its full demand
of 15 cents, retention of the union
hiring hall and other major gains,
without signing the Taft-Hartley
non-communist affidavits as arro-
gantly demanded by the employers.
The complete solidarity of the
strike, plus defeat of many Taft-
Hartleyites in the November 2 elec-
tions, changed the employers’ tune.
The CIO underwrote the agree-
ment, which is of three years’ ,dur-
ation.

Full settlement of the walkout
awaits completing of negotiations
between the Pacific American
Steamship Association and the Na-
tional Union of Marine Cooks and
Stewards (CIO), American Radio
Association (CIO) and Marine Fire-
men, Watertenders, Oilers and Wi-
pers (unaffiliated). A delay had en-
sued when AFL sailors’ boss chal-
lenged CIO jurisdiction over some
ie 3 crews.

The victory is seen as heralding
a series of militant struggles by
other unions, and as having wide
significance inside the labor move-
ment. The unions concerned took a
militant stand from the |
against Taft-Hartleyism and war
policies inside and outside the la-
bor movement,

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first |.

B.C. loses in
lumber deal

The Marshall-Abbott plan has ta-
ken another chunk out of British
Golumbia’s income with the slash-
ing of the British lumber contract
to $7,000,000. Operators estimate
that they needed at least 2 $15,000,-
000 contract to keep this province’s
major industry going strong.

Due to the noose being tightened
around British and Canadian trade
by these plans, Britain is unable to
pay sufficient tribute to Wall
Street and still find enough Ameri-
can dollars to buy Canadian lum-
ber. °

One effect will be to intensify
operator attacks on the Woodwork-
ers’ Industrial Union in an effort
to make workers pay the difference
through speed-up, stretchout and
pay cuts. The boss-favored IWA.
endorses the Marshall plan.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 3, 1948 — PAGE 2