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UNITY WINS FOR
CIVIL SERVANTS

On Wednesday of this week, Premier W. A. C. Bennett and his cabinet bowed
before the determination of 11,000 provincial civil servants, armed with an 89 percent
strike vote and supported by the entire trade union movement.

.The government employees had set this Friday as their strike deadline and had
made full preparations to carry through their fight to win collective bargaining rights
and substantial wage increases. :

after ratification by the next

legislature.

rts: ar ’ The settlement arrived at in

vill Victoria gives the employees a i
ot ai SSS wage increase of seven. and

le’ one-half percent retroactive to
0 July 1 this year, to be paid |

itt dnt statin
Volume 16 No. 28

=»

FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1957

VANCOUVER, B.C.
Authorised as second class mail by
the Post Office Department, Ottawa

BEHIND THE VICTORY

Gov't employees have
waged long struggle

By JACK PHILLIPS

British Columbia’s 11,000
Provincial employees have had
th follow a hard road since
1945 Were first organized in
a During the intervening
aecer period, Coalition, Lib-
i and Socred governments

turn have refused to grant

€m the elementary right to
again collectively and work

Nder a signed agreement.
Sr S & result, wages and sal.

€s in provincial employ-
pent Were more than 13 per-
nt behind those prevailing
Le Similar employment in pri-
ate industry and business, as

f last December 31.

‘ alaries in the federal civil
apa ie are approximately

“ven percent above B.C. sal-
aries, and are due to rise by
Mother six percent.

a iC, government employees
€ in’ a contradictory position.
a heir employer, the provin-

‘al’ government, is responsible
La the administration of a
@bor Relations Act, which
Suarantees workers in private
and Municipal employment the
“ght to bargain collecively.
€t, although provincial gov-

ernment employees do the
actual work of administering
the act, they themselves are
not entitled to bargain collee-
tively and work under signed
agreements.

It’s like denying doctors and
nurses the right to medicai
and hospital treatment in case
of serious ‘illness or accident.

The recent decision of the
B.C. Federation of Labor
(CLC) to support the associa-
tion all the way down the line
in case of strike, the firm sup-
port of the Canadian Labor
Congress nationally, accom-
panied by spontaneous expres-
sions of support from trade
union membets all over the
province, should prove that if
the government had forced a
showdown, government em-
ployees would have had the
moral, financial and political
support necessary to make
their strike a successful one.

This year’s dramatic tussle
with Premier W. A. C. Ben-
nett, Attorney General Robert
Bonner and Provincial Secfe-
tary Wesley Black, represent-

Continued on page 3
See GOVERNMENT

On the all-important issue
of bargaining rights, it was
agreed that Chief Justice Gor-
don Sloan should serve as a
board of referees to decide on
how provincial employees wili
negotiate with the government
in the future.

The cabinet has agreed to
accept the recommendations of
Sloan, whose name as an ar-
bitrator was first suggested by
the B.C. Government Employ-
ees Association.

The association originally
demanded a 13 percent pay in-
crease, a five-day, 40-hour
week and bargaining rights,
but it was clear from the be-
gining that the last request was
given top priority.

Prior to the settlement, over-
flow membership meetings of
the association were addressed
by top officials of the Canadian
Labor Congress in preparation
for the expected strike that
would have tied up vital serv-
ices in every part of the prov-
ince. y

One day before the accord
was reached, the cabinet an-
nounced that it would pay half
the cost of prepaid medical
plan, some two years after the
legislation was proclaimed.

The concessions won by the
government employees consti-
tute an outstanding labor vic-
tory, brought about by the
militancy of government em-
ployees and by the united
strength of the trade union
momevent, While Premier W.
A. C. Bennett and his cabinet
may feel'that they have eased
out of a tight spot, every trade

union, member in the province *

has been given a glimpse of the
government’s real attitude to-
ward organized labor’s rights.

Can scientists make

a CLEAN H-bomb?

By JIM JEFFREY

Undoubtedly because of the
tremendous opposition
throughout the world toward
continued H-tests, there has
been a great deal of talk re-
cently about the possibility of
producing a “clean” H-bomb.

What is a “clean” H-bomb,
and what are the implications
of all this talk about it?

“Dirty. bombs. are_ those
which give rise to radioactive
dust, as a result of. the explo-
sion.

If the. explosion is near
ground level; part of the earth
or sea is caught up with the
explosion. and the earth or
water particles become con;

taminated with radioactive
dust.

The substances of which
most of the earth’s crust is
composed (including water)
are not themselves made ap-
preciably radioactive by the
explosion, but the particles
take some of the radioactive

dust along with them.

These particles are fairly
large and come down to earth
again, in the hours and ‘days
following the explosion, over
an area about 200 miles long
by 50 miles wide downwind.

It is these contaminated
particles of earth or water
(the. “dust of death” which fell
on the Japanese fishermen at
Bikini) which make,up the
“fall-out” from the bomb.

It should be called the “lo-
cal fall-out” to distinguish it

| THE PROBLEM OF CANADA’S OLD PEOPLE

Continued on page 2
See CAM

s! TURN TO PAGE 6