WAGE. FREEZE CLAMOR

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1958

Effie Jones ridicules
B.C Tel arguments

“B.C. Telephone Company apparently wants the public
to pay its bad debts,” Effie Jones, president of Civic Reform
Association, said this week. She was referring to the B.C. Tel

application for a 9.6 percent rate increase, and its argument
before Board of Transport Commissioners that the company

expects it will have to “write
off” some $176,000 in unpaid
bills this year.

W. D. Stevens, B.C. Tele-
phone assistant controller, told
the commissioners that the
company was unable to collect
$93,000 from its customers in
1957, and expected to write
off $176,000 in 1958 because
“more people are unable to
pay as a result of the busi-
ness recession.

“This is a remarkable re-
quest for a private company
to make,” commented Mrs.
Jones. “The public is asked to
assume responsibility for the

company’s bad debts by pay-
ing more for phone service, so

that the company won’t have
to dip into its surplus to pay

its usual $2 dividend to hold-
ers of common stock. I believe
phone users will oppose this
preposterous suggestion.”

If the economic recession
makes it impossible for some
subscribers to pay their bills,
B.C. Telephone should con-
sider “holding the line’ on
rates, rather than pressing for
an increase, said Mrs. Jones.

On Tuesday this week the
company’s assertion that it
must have rate increases total-
ling $3,996,000 was dealt a
serious R. M.
Skinner of Toronto, a charter-
ed accountant, testified at the
hearing that he believed the
company could operate profit-
ably by an increase of only
$858,000.

blow when

Continued from page 1

FRANCE

At the moment thousands of
workers were demonstrating
against de Gaulle in the Pas
de Calais area, which in-
cludes his own constituency,
he was using every persua-
convince reluctant
deputies to
le Gaulle’s assurances.
A recent remark attributed

sion to

Socialist accept

to Mollet illuminates his ac-
tions: “If de Gaulle does not
come to power, within a short
time there will be a people’s
democracy in France.”

Now de Gaulle has assumed
power with Mollet as one of

his chief aides. But de Gaulle’s
claim to have the majority of
the French people behind him
is best illustrated by the fact
that a- Paris demonstration in
his support mustered only 5,-
000 to 6,000 people against the
500,000 who protested his bid
for power the day before.

The generals are behind de
Gaulle. A section of the middle
class is not against him—nor
particularly for him. But the
majority of the people are
against him. They see the gen-
erals behind him.

a “deep freeze” on wages.
“Labor,” said Finlayson,
on wage demands ..

In his address as “guest
speaker” at.the recent Cana-
dian Labor Congress conven-
tion in Winnipeg, Prime Mini-
ster John Diefenbaker made
a similar suggestion.

On a Vancouver TV inter-
view ths week, ex-Alderman
R. K. (Roly) Gervin, the
former union official who is
now spokesman for B.C. As-
sociated Contractors, endeav-
ored to justify the employers’
lockout of building trades
unions on the grounds that
the building workers’ wage
demands were “unreasonable.”

Chambers of Commerce and
employers’ associations across
the country have long been
preparing their campaign to
impose a wage freeze on labor.
Daily newspapers have played
up their “hoald-the-line-on-
wages” propaganda, which: is
based on the false claim that
high wages are the cause of
current high prices and loss of
markets. And they have won
some support with their equal-
ly false claim that labor is
pricing Canadian products out
of the world’s markets.

This, propaganda, which is
part of the monopolies’ build-
up for a wage freeze, ignores
the fact that this country’s
loss of markets flows directly
from policies which have sub-
ordinated the national eco-
nomy to the dictates of U.S:
cold war policies.

Equally, it evades any line
of argument that might direct
attention to the monopolies as
the direct cause of soaring
prices.

While it is well known that
the big monopolists and car-
tels engage in illegal price-
fixing, and make full use of
every wage demand to in:
crease their marginal profits,
labor’s wage demands are dic-
tated by living casts, in the de-
termining of which it has no
part.

H-bomber protest

TORONTO — About 50
pickets staged a noon - hour
demonstration in front of the
U.S. consul-general’s office on
University Avenue here Mon-
day this week to protest U.S.
H-bomber flights over Cana-
dian territory. The protest
was organized by the LPP
Toronto Metro Committee.

Living standards ©
target of Tories)

. ~ : so ; ° ; a
Speaking on a CBC free-time political broadcast this week, Deane Finlayson, Con 4
tive provincial leader, added his’ voice to the nation-wide Chamber of Commerce clamor ;

at
“6 : . S jum
should be asked to hold the line ... with a one year moratori™
: : AS,
- and only seek such wage increases when circumstances permit.

Continued from page 1

LOCKOUT

fact the union has not taken
any strike vote and has been
prepared at all times to con-
tinue working and to negoti-
ate a collective bargaining
agreement.

“The contractors’ represen-
tative, R. K. Gervin, an ex-
labor man and ex-alderman,
apparently is prepared to front
whose _ chief
aims are to discredit and de-
stroy labor.

for employers

“These callous tactics mean

loss of income to many in-
nocent wage-earners involved
in this unnecessary lockout.

“During negotiations Gervin
has refused to name the con-
tractors’ committee, refused to
reveal what cost items may or
may not be considered, refused
to discuss or read the union’s
draft agreement and refused to
reveal what parts of the draft
agreement the employers have
rejected.

“The fact is that the union
has drastically reduced pre-
vious demands in an effort to
effect .a proper settlement.
Wage demands of 60 cents an
hour have been reduced to 36
cents an hour.

“In addition to the wage in-
crease the union is seeking a
35-hour week.

“An increase of 36 cents an
hour and a 35-hour week, as
asked by the union, would
mean that the union members
would earn $2.35 less take-
home pay than they can earn
at present.

“Electrical workers, like
other unionists, are presently
confronted with extreme un-
employment.

“Local 213 intends to initiate
and implement measures to al-
leviate this tragic and appar-
ently continuing problem.

“A shorter working week is
of paramount importance in
the union’s plan to end un-
employment.

“Why this frantic rush on
behalf of the employer when

cy : 1S
negotiations in past yé&

have extended many non
past the expiry date of ‘
agreement (six months 4

1956)?

“Why did the contractor
apply for a conciliation office
even before they sat dow? u
meet .the union in negoll
ations?

“More than 25 years of
mutual satisfactory contractual
relations have been scuttled PY
this rug-pulling, stab-inthe
back lockout.

“Every citizen should search
the true facts and recogniz’
that these callous, calculatiné
contractors have flagrantly
flouted good faith in their bel
gaining and are content to 4
rupt and halt the constructio?
industry.

“They are unnecessarily AG
priving people who are not <
volved in any dispute of the
pay cheques.

“The employers are endeav’
oring to capitalize on an emer”
gent unemployment situatio™

i tee

Meanwhile, electrical
ers at a special meeting Tuer
day this week decided unal™
mously to accept the offer °
the Vancouver Electrical Ass
ciation to begin negotiatio”
on a new wage agreement.

The VEA represents 2 me
jority of the smaller conta
tors in the city employ!”
approximately half the um?
membership.

The IBEW special meetiné
also decided to make appiic®
tion to the B.C. Labor Rela
tions Board to have the bi
contractors’ lockout declat®
illegal. Should this actio® ‘
decided in favor of the union
locked out, the contractors W
be faced with the obligation °
meeting the back pay of unl®
members from the date
lockout.

work

2
‘
BE

June 6, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE #” ©