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UNIONS PLEDGE FIGHT
AGAINST UNJUST LAWS

Big business plot against labor hit

By TOM McEWEN

_ The special convention of the B.C. Federation of Labor (BCFL)
-in Vancouver last Sunday bore the stamp of History. It was as if
the curtain of Time had been rolled back 132-years ago fo the six
Tolpuddle ‘‘Men of Dorset'’, who had banded themselves together
in a union to serve the interests of workingmen, for which ‘‘crime’'

Labor
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FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1966
VOL. 27, NO. 25

ye 10¢

This issue
devoted to

labor’s fight for
a better life.

Ray Haynes, new secretary of the B.C. Fede
union leaders outside the Court House last Friday,

ration of Labor, is shown above speaking to some 100
who gathered to express solidarity with impris-

oned Longshore leaders. They all joined in singing “Solidarity Forever."’

Unite for higher wages today-
Win a stronger voice for labor!

A MESSAGE TO B.C.’S WORKING PEOPLE
FROM THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF B.C.

Thousands of B.C, workers
have “hit the bricks” in a major
Struggle to wrest from their
local and American bosses a
Share of their increased produc-

tivity and security of employ-
ment,

This is no ordinary struggle.
The labor movement is pitted
against a ruthless, highly or-
_ 8anized combination of big busi-
ness, a deceptive government
Posing as its friend, various
Courts of law whose partiality for

the employers is daily becoming -

Scandalous, a press faithfully
Serving the employers, and ele-
Ments within labor’s own ranks
Prepared to do the work of the
absentee owners in the U.S.A.

The Federal Minister of Fi-
Nance, Mitchell Sharp, has re-

cently stated; ‘‘The first thing
we have to do and keep doing is
maintain a high level of em-
ployment, with rising personal
income.”

HIGHER WAGES, JOB
SECURITY SERVE ALL—
BUT MONOPOLIES

For the vast majority of Ca-
nadians, rising personal income
means wage increases, The Fed-
eral government has itself *spon-
sored” eighty cent two-year set-
tlements in the case of Montreal
longshoremen and St, Lawrence

Seaway workers.

In B.C, per capita provincial

product has increased 15% in the
past two years, justification
enough for very large wage in-
creases. The profits of the U.S,
monopolies who dominate the
B.C, economy are so swollen
that President Johnson’s eco-

nomic adviser has publically said.

they are harming the economy,

Prices. are skyrocketing! In
the past six months. they have
increased three times faster than

anytime since the early 1950’s, -

If the boom is to be prolonged
it can only be by putting into the
hands of the working people suffi-
cient purchasing power to keep
pace with the Niagara of goods

‘now being produced,

they were sentenced to 7-years penal servitude.

In the BCFL special conven-
tion the drama was staged in the:
setting and condition of 1966, but
the basic question at issue went
back to 1834 in Tolpuddle; the
right of working men and women
to organize and bargain collect-
ively; the right to strike and
picket to give security to their
jobs and livelihood; the right to
protest unjust laws and to resist
and disobey court injunction de-
crees based upon these unjust
laws--aimed at smashing and
destroying trade unionism in B,C,

Ten B.C, Longshoremen are
now in prison for refusing to obey,
the terms of a court injunction,
aimed at compelling them to work
on a statutory holiday declared
so by Federal legislation, (See
Page 8. . .Smith Statement),

In his opening remarks BCFL
President A. Staley declared:
“We owe a great tribute to the
courage of these brothers who
have gone to prison for a great
principle--the freedom of choice,
In this type of skulduggery by
government, employers and the
courts, we must stand up like
the longshoremen, The imposi-
tion of these unjust laws upon
labor must be stopped,”

President Staley and other con-
vention delegates pointed out that
during the coming days probably _
20 or more workers who partici-
pated in the Lenkurt Electric

A sinister conspiracy of big
business organized into the Com-
mercial & Industrial Research
Foundation (C.I.R.F.), aided by
the provincial government, the
law courts, the monopoly press,
and some traitorous elements in
labor’s ranks are attempting to
impose a “hard line” onthe labor
movement,

UNITE TO DEFEAT
MONOPOLY’S PLOT!

The aim of the conspiracy is to
prevent the winning of badly need-
ed wage increases andtodenythe
labor movement a voice over the
running of industry.

C.I.R.F. is headed by Je E.

strike anc picket demonstration,
are also faced with “contempt”
and other charges arising out of
“injunction violation,’’? also face
sentences, Among these is C,P,;
“Paddy” Neale, Secretary of the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council,

Cliff Scotton, Director of Fed-
erations and Labor Councils,
CLC and Paul Phillips, Research
Director, BCFL both reported of
the steady rise and use of ex-
parte injunctions in Canada, and
especially in B.C, over a ten-
year period and covering only
four regional areasin B,C, These
not only showa steady and alarm-

‘ing rise in these court edicts en-

abling employers to smash effec-
tive trade union organization, but
as one delegate put it, “ex-parte
injunctions have now become an

integral part of employer bar-’

gaining procedure,”

In the combined attempts of
Big Business and government,
by the “use and abuse” of the
courts to further their attacks
upon labor, the precedent- setting
decision to appeal to the Throne
was unanimously adopted by the
delegate body, (See text of appeal
on page 3).

In the reports of unions now
in negotiations to the BCFL con-
vention: IWA, Carpenters, Pulp
and Paper, Construction, Whole-

See B.C. LABOR, Pg. 3

Richardson, head of B,C, Tele-
phone, controlled by A,T. & T.,
one of the world’s largest monop=
olies. B.C, Telephone is the par-
ent firm in turn of Lenkurt Elec-
tric.

Also on the board of directors
of C.I.R.F. is J. V. Clyne, head
of McMillan & Bloedel, the larg-
est lumber monopoly in the prov-
ince with $82 million profits in
the past two years,

G, B, McLean, head of Stand-
ard Oil, notorious U.S, Rocker-
feller international cartel, and
J. H. Salter, head of COMINCO,
main subsidiary of the “public-
be-damned” C,P,R, are also on

. the board of directors, Not to

be overlooked is Ed Benson, gen-
eral manager of Pacific Press

See CP MESSAGE, Pg. 2

SST