By WILLIAM KASHTAN

he latest issue of Canadian
Labor, the official magazine
of the Canadian Labor Congress,
draws attention to some of the
results achieved so far in the
Organization of white collar and
Service workers by various
Unions throughout the country,

True, the total number of these
newly organized groups of work-
ers is aotlarge
—2,301 in 1963
-— but what is
important is
that the job of
orga nization
has been start-
ed by various
unions and is
making slow
but steady pro-
fress, According to Canadian
Labor, 117 new agreements were
Signed in 1963 while the results

this year already exceed that of
1963,

These are positive develop-
Ments which disprove the argu-
Ments advanced in some quarters
that white collar workers cannot
be organized, that they are not
likely to be attracted to the trade
Union movement because of its
Militancy,

Most favorable to organiza-
tion at this stage, it appears,
are the clerical workers if al-
Teady organized plants, as shown
in the results achieved by the
Auto, Steel, Packing, Electrical
and other unions, The Canadian
Union of Public Employees, on
the other hand, is making con-
Siderable headway among serv-
ice workers in hospitals and
Municipalities,

While there is no clear break-
down on whether draughtsmenand
technicians are being organized,
this may well be the case,

These few facts indicate that
the same objective conditions
which compel industrial workers
to act also compel white collar
Workers to look more favorably
On trade unionism,

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vood beginnings
for labor

The attitude of indifference,
of prejudice, even of hostility,
which at one time was 3). 4.20
prevalent, is slowly beginning to
break down, This is true inother
parts of the capitalist world as
well,

An item appearing in The
Times, which a friend in Lon-
don, England, was kind enough to
send me a few days ago, is titled
*Employers warned of growth of
white-collar unions,” with the
sub-title, “More militant than
manual workers,” The item
reads: :

*A warning about the ‘dangers’
of the growth of trade unionism
among whita-collar st2'fworkers
has been given by the British
Employers Confederation in a
confidential document to member
organizations. The document
says there is a growing tendency
for staff workers to join trade
unions, This is making it in-
creasingly difficult for employ-
ers to resist pressure from staff
unions for the nexotiation of
agreements,

“Tt is recognized that staff
unions, because of the type of
workers they represent, are gen-
erally more articulate, more
militant, and more effective than
the manual workers’ unions and
that any development of staff
unionism on a major scale will
present serious problems for
emplovers,”

Whether these workers are or
may become more militant than
the industrial workers is beside
the point. What is to the point is
that they are moving toward trade
union organization in the capital-
ist world and, insofar as they be-
gin to move in that direction, the
working class movement as a
whole will be immeasurably
strengthened not only on the eco-
nomic but on the political field
as well,

From this standpoint the small
beginnings by some unionsin this
need to become a pattern for
all unions, merging with the con-
tinuing drive to organize the un-
organized industrial workers,

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Labor hits Pacific Press
school for strikebreakers

Pacific Press Ltd., the mon-
opoly which prints both the Van-
couver Sun and Province, has

been operating a school for .

strikebreakers while ostensibly
“negotiating” with the Vancouver
Typographical Union, The school
has been housed in quarters just
above Edith Adams Cottage, ad-
jacent to the offices of The Sun,

The PT has learned from re-
liable sources that while bar-
gaining between the Typos and
Pacific Press began about three
weeks ago, the scab school opened
its doors for business six weeks
ago—three full weeks before the
company entered negotiations on
a new contract which will seek
to establish work rules on auto-
mated printing processes.

We have been further informed
that the union demanded the train-
ing of scabs be discontinued and
threatened to walk out of nego-
tiations unless this was promptly
done, The company was forced
to accede to the union’s just de-
mand and the school has been
closed down,

However, direct bargaining has
failed to resolve the main issue
—some element of union control
over the introduction of auto-
mation—and the question has now
gone into conciliation, This is
precisely the same reason why
printers in Toronto have been
out on strike since July 9, with
no sign in sight that the problem

_ will be resolved to the satisfac-

tion of workers of Toronto’s
three major dailies,

Len Guy, spokesman for the
Typos, has stated the company
intends using non-union person-
nel on machines of the future
while they are performing com-
posing room work, Guy says this
has been learned in discussions
with Ed Benson, general manager
of the Pacific Press monopoly,

Should a strike develop over
the introduction of this new ma-
chinery, the key to its success
may well lie with the position
adopted by the other unions in-
volved in the operation: press-
men, mailers, the Newspaper
Guild, etc. In Toronto, these
unions are crossing ITU picket
lines, making a workers’ victory
most difficult,

By contrast, office workers in
the Alberni Valley were able to
take on the giant MacMillan,
Bloedel monopoly earlier this
year and score a convincing vic-
tory because not a single one
of 4,000 other workers would
cross their picket line,

“What do they mean excess profits’
—profits are never excessive!”

ALMOST 600 EXPIREES STILL OUT

As a result of the unity dis-
played by the IWA, Longshore-
men, IBEW and Pulp & Sulphite,
the. company instituted legal ac-
tion against these unions, as pro-
vided by B,C,’s Labor Relations
Act. A court decision was never
handed down, however, as the
company agreed to drop all
charges as part of the strike
settlement,

The road taken by the varied
craft unions at Pacific Press
will largely have to be deter-
mined by the various unions and
their members.

As far as organized labor is
concerned, there can be only one
road, It was spelled out at a
special conference called by the
B.C, Federation of Labor last
July 10, at the time ofthe Alberni
settlement.

That conference unanimously
agreed that all picket lines de-
clared legitimate by the federa-
tion should receive complete and
unqualified support, To the ex-
tent that the Pacific Press unions
and BCF itself fight for such
solidarity, to that extent will the
ITU be successful in exercising
some say over the introduction
of automation in Vancouver's
monopoly press plant,

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Renewing ALL old subs
will put Drive over top

By JERRY SHACK
(Circulation Mgr.) |

With a little
over two weeks
left, our. Circu-
lation Drive for
1500 subs is now
entering the cru-
cial phase, At
time of writing
we had received
a grand total of
; 971 subs and
; paper sales, in-
cluding 75 new subs (51 in Greater
Vancouver and 24 in the rest of
BSCS)

We still have 593 old sub-
scribers who haven’t as yet re-
newed their subscriptions and
this remains ina <=3° job facing
this paver and all its supporters,
For, were all these expired subs
to be picked up, this would give
us a total of 1564 — and put us
over the top!

In addition, we know that many
more new readers will be signed
up by the time the Drive deadline
(Nov. 30) rolls around, and w>
also know that many hundreds of
papers in single copies will be
sold between now and then,

In other words, we are confi-
dent that the Drive Quota of 1500
can be more than met — it can
be overfulfilled, but only if the
vast majority of subs now up for
renewing the old readers depends
to a large extent on how well

the various press clubs organize
their efforts over the next couple
of weeks,

Many clubs have 25, 30 and,
in some cases, 50 subs on their
lists for renewing, At its last
meeting, the Press Committee
viewed this situation with no
small degree of alarm, The com-
mittee therefore proposes:

(1) Every club organize its
forces to collectively and syst-
ematically go out to renew every
old reader possibile in a “blitz”

a0

—"“Neeo er rollin’
boys Cae ee

fashion,

(2) Results of the “blitz” to
be in the P.T. office no later
than Monday, November 23,

(3) Every sub not picked up
by the appropriate club as of that
date will be “up for grabs”, That
is, all uncollected expires will
be thrown in the hopper and
volunteers will canvass them
before the Drive deadline,

Obviously, any club that has a
pride in its area and in its mem-
bership will strive to get its
list mopped up by the 28rd, in
order to avoid the embarrass-
ment of having somebody else
perform the job for it,

* o *

Top club in the new subs dep-
artment is Kingsway, with 13
chalked up so far and more un-
doubtedly to come, It is followed
closely by Vanconver East, with
11 new readers thus far,

The fine example set by these
two clubs is a clear indication
that possibilities DO exist for re-
cruiting new readers, where this
Objective is tackled consciously
and forcefully.

As stated earlier, there will
undoubtedly be many more new
readers won before the Drive
closes, However, the concentra-
tion task remains: PICK UP
EVERY EXPiREE!

November 13, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 11