McEwen

hitting “Short Jabs” appeared in this _

‘Was built in 1869)

Ze

TOM McEWEN,

Published weekly by the Tribune Publishing Company Ltd.

Canada and British Commonwealth countries (except

Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C!

Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager.
at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288 _ =
U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50.
Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa

Australia), 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia,

Socreds' new Labor Act

HE new Tabor Relations Act,
‘listed as Bill 28, replacing the

Old Industrial Conciliation Act, is
‘Row up for debate in the legis

lature — and in the ranks of or’
ganized labor.

On the positive side Bill 28
contains some provisions labor has

- Sought for years, definite improve
Ments over the ICA Act. It also

Contains a lot’ which labor just
doesn’t want and is not likely to
accept,

We do not think however,
that Bill 28 merits the sweeping
condemnation with which right

‘Wing labor leaders greeted it.
With more of such condemna-

tion from our ‘‘captains of in
dustry’ and the daily press; we
are compelled to look further
afield than the letter of Bill 28
for the cause. of this ‘‘united

front’’ outcry. c

_ To many the business of ‘em
atrassing’’ government is often

Considered more important than
PU

Tom

G on just such a campaign as
the Pacific Tribune is now conducting
ie Cep the paper rolling through the year

4 ,“OP Bill” Bennett, whose hard-

Paper and its predecessors over 15 years,

- ©Nce wrote:

“

é pant remember I am not the whole
Olumn. I am only one part of the old
uffers who are connected. with it.

- There’s old Bob Kydd up in Prince Ru-

Pert, for instance, who has been selling

Subs and getting donations for our papers

fver since the Cutty Sark was launched
mbarton.” (This famous clipper

of ¢ “ heard from this grand old veteran
a sh € labor press just a few days ago—
<q tort note with a dollar bill enclosed.
am sending you a dollar to help along.
Would like to send some more but I

-.*ven’t got it and I can’t travel around

LY, more,”

po Bob also sent as a.clipping of a
ter he had published in the Prince

 UPert Daily News, a letter that speaks

or the plight of hundreds of aged sciti-

RS of British Columbia:

he Ow us old fellows are on the scrap
“ap with a miserable pension of $480 a

JEN - - you hear talk of the high stand-

ic of living in Canada. Well, in the
Ce of all the mecessitics of life and

fosses along with it, at $480 a year I fail

x

°° See where the high standard of living

Somes in. I was just thinking I was lucky

eing born a Scotsman and can eat

| ae of mush or I would have starved

ee 880," -
From old Bob Kydd in Prince Rupert,

the job of securing democratic

~ Jabor legislation. Employers’ or’

ganizations and their lieutenants
in the top echelons of labor are
past masters at this sort of thing.

With the sole exception of Sec

tions 54 and 55 in their entire
ty, there are few of the nega
tive “features of’ Bill 28 which
cannot be changed, improved and
strengthened for the general bene
fit of organized labor.

Sections 54-and 55 and other
relative sections which bring
trade unions into courts to decide
the legality of their actions or the
conduct of their hard-won demo-
cratic usages, such as a judge de-
ciding on the checkoff Section 9
(1), must be unequivocally
scrapped, and a new section writ:

ten clearly defining the inalien-

able right of labor to withhold
its labor“power in seeking redress
on wages and working condi

tions.

As these sections now stand in
Bill 28, organized labor is reduc:

nearly into his nineties and condemned
to subsist on a permanent diet of mush,
that dollar to the PT is worth more than
all the gold in Fort Knox, because it ex-
presses the determination of an aged

worker to help keep his paper going even

- if it means going hungry. (And in Bob

_ Kydd’s case, it does!)

Last week, Tom Alsbury unburdened
himself of another of his now famous
speeches, extolling the virtues of _class-
collaboration and urging upon labor and
management to cease their “suerrilla
warfare” forthwith.,

The Vancouver News-Herald editorial-
ly described this as “a statesmanlike and

- eourageous utterance,” then went on to

‘do a little philosophizing on Alsbury’s
“more production” formula. “The larger
the. pie,” says the News-Herald, apropos
of “statesman” Alsbury, “the larger the
slice each may enjoy.

instead of directing our energies to at-
taining the maximum production, then
there is only that much less for each of
us to share. It is just as simple as that.”

For a press which makes no pretense

. to speak for labor, the problem may in-

o

d be “simple.”
ences to “ead” labor, it shouldn’t be
quite so “simple.” ty

Speaking of a “larger” slice of the pie,
let’s just take another look at the in-
gredients available. In 1953 our wheat
producers grew so much wheat that,

“added to the 1952 carry-over, we have

something in the neighborhood of 900- .

. million bushels of unsold wheat on hand.
Again, in 1953 our B.C., Manitoba and

- Nova Scotia apple growers grew So many
apples that they didn’t know what to do
with them. Neither did Trade Minister
Howe. The result was that the organized
packers got a lot of apples dirt cheap
with the balance left to the grower —

to rot. er

a for the past few years, thanks to
Yankee ‘“‘aid,” the British pottery work-

- ers have made so damn many plates that

they just don’t know what to do with

ue i

If we waste our —
time and energy fighting among ourselves °

But for Alsbury, who .

‘OF COURSE THE PRESIDENT CAN’
DROP M'CARTHY, BUT HE CAN
ea +? DROP THIS.

ed. to a virtual state of indus

trial peonage, without rights and
hamstrung by legal restrictions.
The ‘‘penalties’” are equivalent
to wholesale union-wrecking by
court order. 3

On the new regulations gow .

erning the appointment, tenure
and function of the Labor Rela-
tions Board and the increased
authority vested in the minister

of labor under Bill 28, labor opin: ©

ion varies. On one point how-
ever, it is fairly unanimous, that
the board has no longer the right
to tell a union man which union
he ‘‘is eligible for membership’
in. That right is now implicit

them. So the worker is booted out of

, his job while the plate manufacturer
looks for a spot in the world where they,
. can be disposed of — at a profit, of

course.

Thus we have produced more than
sufficient of the essentials for enough
apple or other pie to put a three-inch
layer clear around the world, while mil-
lions of people, here and in other lands
cannot even afford to think about apple
pie, let along think about producing more
in order to get a “larger .. . slice.”

It seems to us that in his capacity as
an “economist” and labor “leader” Als-
bury should devote some of his time to
a more profound study of that charm-

ing nursery rhyme, “Simple Simon” be-

fore he again enlarges on the bosses’
pet theme of “more production” and pie
slicing! : :

)

U.S. Secretary of Labor James P.
Mitchell has come up with-a “new” for-
mula to beat the threat of economic de-
pression. Of course it isn’t exactly new,
but that doesn’t mean anything to those
whose business it is to try and fool all
the people all the time. :

' Mitchell says everyone should stop

talking about recessions, depressions and
such like. “The buyer,” says Mitchell
(which means all of us), “will buy more
than he needs if he’s optimistic, but his
optimism will evaporate if there’s too
much recession talk.” ‘“

This chap also holds the same views
about Taft-Hartley laws . . . too much
“hysterical talk gets such laws out of
focus.” How to stay in “focus” is quite
simple. Just have the worker feel that.
he’s on the board of directors of the out-
fit-he works for, “an integral part of the
company’s operation,” and everything is
then in “focus.”

If Canada’s 600,000 unemployed (or all
of us)-can substitute such “optimism” in
lieu. of a pay envelope, or regard Bill 7

-as a real blessing in disguise, then we’ve

absolutely nothing to worry about—ex-
cept a very early demise. But we'll be
‘in focus”!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 2, 1954 — PAGE 5 _

in the workers own choice.

Be ne oe ee

What is required on this point
is the same clarity of definition
establishing the right of a union
to determine, be certified, and
bargain collectively, for its own:
membership. |

During the Victoria labor con-
ferences on the new act, and later
on, labor's key job will be to
bring Bill 28 into line with the
needs of a growing trade union
movement. The worst features
of Bill 28 must serve to sharpen
working class vigilance against
the introduction of any and all
legislation which obstructs, limits
or restricts the labor's right to

Forty years ago

(From the files of the B.C. Federationist,
April 3, 1914)

A report from Denver, Colorado, stat-
ed: “The Colorado militia reached the
climax of their fiendish war of terror-
ism on the striking coal miners when
they kidnapped Mother Jones and placed
her in a damp, filthy cell in Walsenburg.
jail. She is being held there incommuni-
cado, a military prisoner... . Dr. Abdun-
“Nur has advised the militia that the cell —
is absolutely unfit to live in... .”

Fifteen years ago

(From the files of the People’s Advocate,
March 31, 1939)

Actual hunger and privation faced a —
group of families in the farming com-
munity of Little Fort, near Kamloops, be-
‘cause of a relief administrator’s zeal in
upholding relief regulations. The families
affected appealed directly to Labor Min-
ister George Pearson.

* * *

Prime Minister Mackenzie King told
‘parliament that the present Liberal gov- —
ernment would never enact conscription
for service overseas. ;

Ten years ago

(From the files of The People,
\. &pril 1, 1944)

‘Charges that elements preparing the
ground for a huge land steal were utiliz-
ing that actions of a minority among the
Doukhobors to foster hatred and violence
against the Doukhobors as a whole were ©
voiced by the Trail Ad-News. oe