Short Jabs ————___.

Monopoly skin game

Maa has helped to bring about the downfall of

great empires—Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Spain—but
the grasping owners of wealth do not seem to learn
from that kind of experience: They give full rein
to their covetous proclivities until their victims turn
and rend them.

Corporations, which are but empires in a small
way, persist in pursuing the same ways and means
of acquiring wealth as their imperial predecessors
‘until their victims in turn are compelled to rend them
also.

One of these corporations here in B.C. of which
we are the victims has developed this greed com-
plex to an inordinate degree—the BCCollectric.

Not content with the kindly ministration of a
city council of spineless stooges who gave them a
20-million-dollar franchise “for free,” and then allow-
ed them without protest, to milk the people of Van-
couver of another million-and-a-half dollars annually,
like Oliver Twist they ask for more.

A day or two after they raised the streetcar fares,
Grauer, who puts in his spare time lecturing to
boards of trade and other groups of alleged “good
citizens,” asserted in a press statement that the in-
creased fares would mean an improved streetcar ser-
vice. The improvement he had in mind was made
known to the people of Vancouver jast week in the
latest move of that clever lad from the grasslands
of Richmond.

Wednesday being a holiday for storekeepers, pas-
sengers are not packed into the broken-down wrecks
of streetcars like sardines in a can all day long as
on other days, so Grauer proposes t cut 500 streetcar
miles off the “service” on Wednesdays. This is what
the BCCollectric calls “an improved service.” You pay
more and you get less, just like the present ham and
egg situation.

That is what it will mean to the unfortunate users
of the Toonervilles. To the men who operate them,

it means eliminating an eight-hour run for 41 two-
man cars—the loss of a day’s wages for 82 platform
men—and the cleaners who would have to swamp out
the cars after -their runs, although from the filthy
condition of their cars one would think they never did
get mucked out.

From the angle of the exploitation of the streetcar
men, it means the wages of 82 platform men for an
8-hour day at $1.04 per hour (again not counting
cleaners), which means $682.24 every Wednesday or
$35,476.48 in a year and the men who operate the
cars that do run have to do the work of the 82 who
are idle, without any extra pay. : :

One would think that would be chicken-feed to
an outfit that gets such juicy gifts from the city
council and the Public Utilities Commission, but the
overweening greed that drives all monopolistic cw-
cerns makes them grasp at both ends—milk the public
and skin their workers.

The same greed prevents them from spending a
nickel (pardon, a dime) in keeping their juggernauts
in condition. A friend of mine had a good demonstra-
tion of this a couple of weeks ago. Riding on a
Grandview car on a day when Sweeney’s liquid sun-
shine was coming out of the skies in full measure,
with no other seat available, the rainwater came
right in on him just as though there was no roof

on the car. It was so bad he had to put up his um--

brella to save himself from being soaked. Remember
the BCCollectric slogan, “The passenger is always
wrong.”

There is only one cure for that greed complex. The
people who operate and use the streetcars must make
them public property and operate them in the service
of the community. Then we will make a system of it.
It is a misnomer to call the present set-up a streetcar
system. It is not, it is only a system of exploitation
and robbery. :

To succeed in that we will have to get rid of the
bumps that sit on chairs around the mahogany table
in the city hall and in Victoria too, where one of the
BCCollectric directors has just taken over the pre-
miership of the province.

by OL’ BILL

Death rides the logs

bata year 1947 will be a banner year for the BC.

lumber industry. The boss loggers and millmen are
licking their chops. Production has been greater’ than
in any year in the history of the industry. With only
nine months tally, more logs have been brought out
of the woods and cut into lumber than in all of 1946.

Needless to Say, profits have kept step with. pro-
duction. The lumber barons have only one beef—if
only ‘the union had not compelled them to come
across with wage increases in 1946 and 1947, their
juicy profits would have been juicier still. j

There is another angle to the banner year—it is
already a record year for deaths in the industry.
Three lumber workers are killed every two weeks in
the year‘even when the camps are shut down. On
December 15 the actual number - listed was 77 and
with two weeks to go the final figures should be at
least 80. :

When Andy Whiskers said a couple of years ago
that the lumber industry of this province was more
dangerous than the battlefields of the last war, he
was not speaking out of turn.

“Increased production!” Eighty make the supreme
sacrifice and about 7000 are maimed and crippled,
many of them for life. This: is the angle that inter-
ests me most—and that must. be changed—because. 75
percent of the men I have known in the years I have
lived on the Coast, were men who worked . in, the
woods,

Taft-Hartley formula
sought by employers

OTTAWA—There is every indication that the King gov-
ernment at this session of parliament intends to re-introduce
its new federal labor code with all the original controversial
Provisions to which labor objected when it received two

readings at the 1947 session.

—S

Mine disaster underlines union demands ;

Instant death of two’ miners in a powder blast at Privateer. .
Mine, Zeballos, this week has
amendments to the Metalliferous Mines Regulations f
come before the next session of the legislature. 4

While full details of the
is understood it. will have a
union’s demands. Representatives from the mines near Van-
couver including Zeballos, and Ker Smith, MMSW district

underlined present hearings for.
Act. to

disaster are not yet available, it
distinct bearing on some of the

According to a press release
from the Canadian Congress of
Labor, which is currently draft-
ing constructive proposals to place
before the government to have
the legislation fully protect labor’s
rights, employers through the
Chamber of Commerce and Cana-
dia Manufacturers’ Association are
already bringing heavy pressure
upon the government to enact a
Canadian version of the Taft-
Hartley bill.

Some prospect of what is in
store came recently from the
Windsor Chamber of Commerce,
which made public twelve points
recommended for inclusion in the
federal bill.

In a statement signed by George
Burt, regional director; Roy Eng-
land, president, Local 200; and
Earl Watson, president, Local 195;
the United Automobile Workers
(CIO) declared that chamber’s pro-
posals would undermine rather
than improve relations in the
Windsor area.

The’ Windsor Chamber proposed
a ban on the closed shop, follow-
ing the Taft-Hartley pattern, with
union shop or other union secur-
ity provisions subject to negotia-
tion. In line with the declared
policy of the Chamber of Com-
merce, the Windsor group pro-
posed that every employee should
have “the right” to join or stay

out of a union.

The UAW pointed out that
this left the way open for the
management to refuse union
security and asked: “Is it right
that new employees accept the
benefits which have been obtain-
ed through collective bargaining
without having to pay for
them?”

}a strike took place they proposed

Windsor employers came
flatly against industry-wide bar-
gaining, urged compulsory regis-
tration of unions and legislation
making unions subject ‘to court
action. Mass picketing, sympathy
strikes. and secondary boycotts
would be outlawed. Communists
would be barred from union office.

Professing to uphold the work-
ers’ right to strike, management
proposals nevertheless would tie
up the strike in so much red tape
as to render it ineffective. Before

to notify the company. Then, pre-
sumably after some delay, a vote
would be taken. Finally, “After
a strike takes place the govern-
ment should take a vote at the
request of either side or on its
own volition so that a strike can-
not become stalemated.”

A lengthy and very uncertain
routine was proposed for certifica-
tion. First the union would be
required to obtain signatures of

25 percent of the employees to a
petition. A vote would be taken
afid then, it was suggested, “prior
to the end of each contract year
the employer, the certified union,
or any other union or agency
obtaining 25 percent or more of
the employees’ signatures, should
be permitted to seek and obtain
another government - sponsored
election to determine the proper
bargaining agency.”

As the UAW commented, this
“would give an anti-union em-
ployer an opportunity to main-
tain: a state of turmoil among
the union membership and de-
feat the real purpose of collec-
tive bargaining.”

| CONSTANTINE

FINE CUSTOM TAILORING
For Ladies and Gentlemen
501 Granville St.

PAc. 1452

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1948 |

out

KEN SMITH

secretary, will probably
Thursday in this city.

Hearings have. already been held

Wells, Princeton and Pioneer.

Two definite demands of the union
miners to sit on the coroner’s jury after such disasters and for
Special emphasis has been placed _ .
by the union on its demands for improved safety conditions, 4

s

proper licensing of miners.

be at the Vancouver hearing opening ae

at. Kimberley,” Nelson,

are for experienced

Possibility of another tie-up in
deepsea ships was hinted at Van-
couver Labor Council (CCL) this
week when delegate from the
Canadian Communications Asso-
ciation announced that negotia-
tions re-opened January 8 had
again reached a deadlock.

“We hope if this goes to a
strike, we can look to this organ-
ization for support,” the delegate
said, pointing out the the previous
tie-up of seven ships on the Pacific
coast had been caused by the
Arbitration Commission’s 22-day
adjournment. As a protest against
this delay, officers had voted not

‘to sail the ships, whereupon the

companies had started to log

them, a serious business for offic-

ers, since it affects their tickets.
* * *

Delegate reporting for
2655 United Steelworkers, said
the Dominion Bridge local was
going into its fifth month of
strike, but pickets were still solid.
Recent proposals from the com-
pany for a 10-cent an hour in-
crease with the old agreement had
been turned down, and the men
had decided not to vote on any
further offer from the company
until it was considered worthwhile
by the strike committee.

* * * :
IWA Local 1-71 delegate, John
McCuish, reported that this union
was now certified as the bargain-

Local

Council hears another deepsea
tie-up possible as negotiations fail

ing agency for Gibson Brothers
logging camp and was in the pro
cess of negotiating an agreement
there. This camp has a recora
in B.C. as the camp with the
largest ‘turnover
Over three thousand men have

CCL prepares for
new wage drive

Proposing to reconstitute its
National Wage ‘Coordinating Com-
mittee in view of the serious
threat to the people's living stan-

dards, the Canadian Congress of
Labor has asked each local af-
filiate “to assess the effect of
prices on their respective organ-
izations and make arangements
to draw up their wage programs”
for presentation to this committee.

Meeting of the Wage Coordinat-
ing Committee will likely be held

early in February, the Congress

stated, urging all locals to place
special emphasis in their wage
proposals “on annual incomes and
pensions” which have to a large
extent remained static while
prices have soared out of reach
of the average income.

of manpower.4

gone through there in the last:
two years, McCuish said.
* “4

A request to the B.C. Federa-.
tion of Labor to include certain :
pension proposals in its brief to:
the provincial government will be’
made by adoption of legislative |
committee’s report. William Stew- ;
art, reporting for that committee,
said that it was agreed that pen-!
sions should provide full coverage |
for all workers, that pensions |
should be: commensurate with the |
wage earned in each particular!
industry, and that wage increases |
gained in each industry should be !
added to pensions granted in that !
particular industry. 3

d * * * i

Nominations for election of offie- ;
ers to the council were opened ;
this week, to be reopened at the
next meeting, when further nom-
inations will be heard and voting .
will take place. :

William L. White, present presi- ‘
dent, Nad Sadler, George Home,
and E. E. Leary were nominated °*
for president. George Mitchell, .
Fraser Wilson, John Turner and -
George Brown for vice-president. }

For secretary-treasurer, Jim
Berry was nominated to run °‘
against the present officer, John
Turner.

Nominations were also made for
members of the three committees,
legislative, grievance and creden-
tials,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5