Strikes

This week members of a_ sec-

ond union, the United Packing-
house Workers of America (CIO),
joined. the Steelworkers on pic-
ket lines as workers at Swift’s
New Westminster plant charged
the management with instigating
a lockout. ;
“On Monday this week, accord-
ing to union officers, workers
were informed that unless pro-
duction increased there would be
no work for any of them. On
Tuesday morning they were told
that all work in the plant was
being suspended. .

Asked by union spokesmen if
the company was declaring a
lockout, the superintendent re-
plied that they could consider it
as such if they chose.

A 24hour hour picket line was
immediately established around
the plant on the Brunette Creek
boundary of New Westminster
and Coquitlam. All meat ship-
ments, were halted, since truck
drivers are members of the UPWA"
and members of the Brotherhood
of Railway Trainmen are refus-
ing to handle box cars. The union,
however, allowed the company to
load one car for Britain after
the lockout.

As New Westminster employees
of the company found themselves
locked out workers. at Swift
plants in six other cities struex
to protest the Royal City lockout
and discrimination against union
officers and shop stewards in the
Toronto plant.

This action came as UPWA
representatives from locals across
the country gathered in Toronto
‘to conduct negotiations for a'mas-
-ter agreement with the ‘Big
Three’ of the meat packing in-
dustry, Swift’s, Burns and Can-
ada Packers. In view of these
pending negotiations for a 15
cents an hour wage increase and
the 40-hour. week, union officers
here see Swift’s action in New
Westminster and Toronto as in-

tended to provoke a strike.

Session

Workers’ Union were assessed
nominal fines, and in its second
action, the present strike of steel
workers at Vancouver, civil suits
for damages have been entered
against the United Steelworkers’
Union.

Other decisions made by the
BCFL last weekend promise a
widening of the struggle against
Bill 39. They were:

@ To seek support from the
Canadian Congress of Labor and
Trades and Labor Congress of
Canada.

@ To appeal to the Supreme
Court of Canada the ruling of the
B.c. Court of Appeal that a
union is a legal entity.

@ To ask the IWA to give
Harold Pritchett leave of ab-
sence to direct the campaign
against Bill 39 in his capacity
as BCFL secretary.

Must book now
fo secure plane

The B.C. Federation of Labor
this week issued a reminder to
all affiliated unions that to take
advantage of special plane rates
to the forthcoming CCL conven-
tion it must be able to inform
Trans-Canada Air Lines. of addi-
tional delegates requiring space
in sufficient time for air crews
to be notified. A special return
rate of $210.48 has been obtained
for a guarantee of 42 delegates.
For every additional 14 delegates
TCA will make another plane
available.

September 3, 1947

SPEAKERS:

“THE DEMAND FOR A

LPP Membership Meeting '

NIGEL MORGAN

THE LEGISLATURE.”

: TOM McEWEN

“THE LABOR PRESS”
ADMISSION BY MEMBERSHIP CARD ONLY

Croatian Hall, 8 p.m

SPECIAL SESSION OF

Facts

In the 1.T.U.-Southam Dispute:

The I.T.U. is not seeking higher wages.
Shorter work week is not an issue

A master contract is not asked for.
Dues check-off is not wanted.

We do not seek a welfare fund.
Holidays with pay are not sought.

The only issue is
Company give the

treatment to each division.

that the Southam
same fundamental

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1947

Vancouver Typographical Union, No. 226

Forgery

@ “Children seem to have little
respect for their parents and
other older people . .. This
again is a good thing for it
will help to hasten the Canz
dian revolution. When the
youth cease to respect old-
fashioned Christian ideas,
they soon can be taught to
respect the revolutionary code.”

@ “Certainly my observations lead
me to believe that conditions
are definitely improving in
Canada, and that it will not
be long before that great
young country will replace
Christ’s Cross with the Red
Star.”

Two ‘impressions” which reveal
the article as palpable forgery
and at the same time indicate its
anti-labor purpose deal with the
Canadian Seamen’s Union (at the
time the article first appeared
in the Halifax Chronicle facing
a threatened strike on the Great
Lakes) and the cost of living.

The unknown writer of the ar-
ticle, fronting as Sobolevsky, re-
lates:

“I was told that I would find
several good comrades at the
Halifax office of the Canadiar
Seamen’s Union, which is amili-
tant organization dedicated to the
liberation of badly treated mer-
chant seamen. However, when I
reached Halifax, I. found that
these brave men were far away
in Toronto organizing seamen ir
the ships which ply the Great
Lakes. They openly risk the dis-
pleasure of the political and in-
dustrial bosses, and of the Royal
Police, in their ‘fight for free-

of the Soviet Union.”

The purport of this is clear
when placed against the action
of Great Lakes shipping com-
panies in attemptirg to make
‘communism’ the issue of their
dispute with the CSU.

The fabricated ‘observation’ on
living costs in Canada is note-
worthy for its adroit presentation
of the very arguments used by
the Canadian Manufacturers’ As-
sociation. It states:

“Under Caradian capitalism...
when the cost of labor goes high-
er, prices for the things made
by the workers go higher. When
prices increase, the many hidden
government taxes increase. In this
way, the workers quickly lose the
benefit of their wage gains, with-
out understanding why, so that
they feel they must strike again
for more money. Of course, this
process naturally exposes’ the
weaknesses of capitalism. If you
don’t want it to work, this is
an excellent way of wrecking it.”

The give-away is the careful
omission of any reference to the
unprecedented profits being re-
ported by the big corporations and
the use, as the premise on which
the whole ‘observation’ is devel-
oped, of big business’ own con-
tention that high labor costs, and
not high profits, are the basic
cause of high prices.

The Vancouver Sun owes its
readers an apology, if not for
the perpetration of a deliberate
forgery,
of its editors.

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dom. Here they would be heroes’

“Mr. Snagsby has a way with women—first he assures her that

the government’s Bill 39 will safeguard her stocks in steel—and

then pops the question. Very practical I should say.”

Se

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Have You Heard?

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You will want to assist

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then for the ignorance

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