THE WESTERN CANADIAN

LUMBER

WORKER

38,000 copies
printed in this issue.

Published twice monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOQDWORKERS OF AMERICA

Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1

Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC

2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 874-5261

Editor — Pat Kerr Business Manager — Fred Fieber

Advertising Representatives — Elizabeth Spencer Associates

Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Western Canada in accordance with convention decisions.

Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year.
Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post.Office Department,

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and for payment of postage in cash.

EDITORIAL

NO ALTERNATIVE

N HIS ADDRESS before the recent B.C.
Federation of Labour convention Mr.
John Laxton, Provincial President of the
New Democratic Party, urged new ap-
proaches to old problems. As he explain-
ed, he was deliberately provocative to
make his point, that trade unions should
press forward to new goals with modern
techniques.

Without in any way opposing the
workers’ right to strike he touched upon a
sensitive area when he referred fo strike
action as a “primitive weapon.” The in-
ference was that he would prefer action
less likely to cause public inconvenience.
So would everybody else, including the
unions, if equally effective results could
be obtained otherwise. A fact that can-
not be ignored is that the right to strike
is now indispensable to the maintenance
of a free. collective bargaining system
and cannot be dealt with separately. The
right to strike means nothing unless exer-
cised when necessary.

The clamour of the employers and
their political friends to outlaw strikes
is inspired by the desire to destroy col-
lective bargaining as a means to cripple
trade union resistance to the downward
pressure of the profit system on wages
and working conditions.

Enactment of the Wagner Act (1935)
under U.S. President Franklin D. Roose-
velt marked a turning point in labour his-
tory. Despite the determined opposition
of the employers, trade unions gained
legal protection of the rights which en-
able collective bargaining: the right to
organize, to secure contractual agree-
ments with the employers and the right
to strike when necessary. .The preamble
to the Wagner Act states that protection
of such rights was essential to the stabil-
ity of trade and commerce. Labour legis-
lation in Canada subsequently adopted
the principles outlined in the Wagner
Act.

The result of this legislation was the
immediate modification of the chaotic
and bitter industrial strife in the pre-
ceding period often accompanied by
bloodshed and cruel punitive action. More
orderly settlement of disputes was sub-
stituted until today, 97% of industrial dis-
putes are resolved at the bargaining
table.

Our leading economists generally
agree that collective bargaining has not
captured wages at the expense of profits.
Neither has economic growth been im-
peded. Other economic forces have
greater effect on the allocation of our re-

sources.

The value of collective bargaining in =

respect of the rights, dignity and worth
of workers as citizens of industry has
been incalculable. The agreement estab-
lishes a system of industrial jurisprud-
ence. It provides the machinery for ad-

judication of grievances. Management
is compelled to consider the interests of
the workers in production plans.

Under present-day industrialization
there exists an inevitable conflict of inter-
est between management and the
unions. Management is under great pres-
sure to provide increasing profits for the
stockholders.

The unions are under pressure from
the membership to secure a more equit-
able share of the wealth produced.

The relationship between labour and
management is in essence a power rela-
tionship. This is clearly realized during
contract negotiations. Management ex-
ercises power by virtue of ownership in
the control of job opportunities. The
Union exercises power based on the
loyalty and unity of its membership and
the willingness to strike if necessary.

With regard to this power relation-
ship Frederick Harbison, Director, Indus-
trial Relations Section, Princeton Univers-
ity, told the Centre for Industrial Rela-
tions, Toronto University, “ . . . Collec-
tive bargaining does not exist unless each
party is free to negotiate with a club
which is within handy reach in case of
necessity . . . Despite the fact that col-
lective bargaining has its roots in a con-
flict of interests between capital and la-
bour and cannot exist without the right
of both parties to back up their interests
with force, it is really an instrument for
furthering industrial peace. It is a way
of organizing divergent interests in such
a way as to resolve rather than to extend
open conflict.”

This opinion has been echoed by the
U.S. Senate Committee on Labour and
Public Welfare and more recently in a
symposium prepared on behalf of the
top-ranking mediators and negotiators in
the United States (management included).

Every trade union negotiator is well
aware that his presentation of the case
for the Union’s members would be com-
pletely futile but for the fact that the
right to strike, as a weapon of last re-
sort, is held in reserve.

The collective bargaining system
would collapse if unions were stripped
of all right to strike. The only known
alternative is compulsory arbitration. As
shown by experience, compulsory arbi-
tration would only -provoke a rash of
illegal strikes or force workers into sub-
jection by the employers.

The alternative suggested by Mr.
Laxton, long sought by labour, can be
realized. Make collective bargaining
really work and abandon efforts to de-
stroy it by outlawing strikes. Collective
bargaining is the best known system to
promote industrial peace. If it can be
done in Sweden, as reported by Mr. Jus-
tice Nemetz, it can be done in Canada.

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

YOU ASKED ME TO DIG UP SUMPIN’ TO KEEP YOU
WARM ... HERE... DIG UP SOME TWO BY FOURS!

CRIMINAL CODE CHANGE
SOUGHT FOR LABOUR

The New Democratic Party
has moved an amendment to
the Criminal Code of Canada
with the purpose of making
it legal for any number of
people to peacefully picket,
not only to communicate in-
formation but also to persuade
other employees and people
having business with a struck
company to support the union.

Ed Broadbent (NDP, Osh-
awa - Whitby) moved second
reading of a bill to amend
Subsection 2; Section 366 of
the Criminal Code which at
present prohibits intimidation
by violence, threats, disorder-
ly conduct, and watching and
besetting.

Mr. Broadbent pointed out
that at present a judge can
decide that any number of

+

pickets is a form of intimida-
tion, when in fact a large
number of pickets simply
means that many people are
persuaded that the cause is a
just one.

He also said that if men on
strike seek actively to per-
suade others to follow their
example, they can be charged
with watching and besetting.

But one of the defining
characteristics of a free so-
ciety, he contended, is the
right to influence other’s ac-
tions by means of reasonable
arguments. A free society,
therefore, must make it a legal
right for workers to persuade
as many as they can, that their
cause merits support. To deny
them the right is to deny them
a fundamental freedom.

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