Ten days

HORTLY after the Bolshe-
viks seized power in Rus-

sia, an American journalist,
John Reed, wrote a brilliant
kook about that revolution

called Ten Days That Shook
The World.

One month after the Socred
government in Victoria was
compelled to arrive at a settle-
ment with 11,000 provincial
government employees, who
had voted overwhelmingly for
strike, with the wholehearted
support of a united labor
movement, the B.C. Govern-
ment Employees Association;
summed up their struggle in
a phrase reminiscent of John
Reed: Ten Days That Shook
The Province. :

In the August, 1957 issue of

The. Provincial, the official
organ of the Association, the

story of the strike settlemen*‘
is told under that caption. The

editor makes no bones about
the fact that “our members
are not all satisfied” but

claims that “the majority. are
content to await the result of

the enquiry being conducted
by the Chief Justice of the

Province of British Columbia.”
“The dissatisfaction that
exists is based on a variety of
reasons. No true assessment of
the extent or justification for
that dissatisfaction can yet be
made. Errors of judgment
may have occurred. Lack of
knowledge and shortcomings
in organizations were reyeai-
ed. These must be honestly
assessed and corrective mea-
sures taken so that we may
profit by the experience and
not.make the same mistakes
again. Essentially we must re-
tain a unity of purpose, and
loyalty between members,
branches, executive and staff.
The primary requirement ot
this time is an honest, unbiased
attitude by all concerned.”

While adopting a self-crit-
ical tone in such measured
words, the executive of -the
association, using The Prov-
ineial, goes to great pains to
trace every move made during
the fateful ten days, to show
the factors that shaped their
judgement and to demonstrate

the positive achievements of
this struggle.
A breakdown of the. Ten

Days shows the following pic-
ture:

July 1 — The government
was advised that the associa-
tion wanted a regulated bar-

gaining procedure, a 13
percent (aggregate) wage in-

crease effective April 1, 1957
and the universal’ 40-hour
week. A_ provincial strike
committee was set up.

July 1-6 Strike appara-
tus set up, The government
issued its “strike and be fired”
ultimatum. The president of

By JACK PHILLIPS

the association wired the
premier to ask for further
meetings. A telephone request
to the headquarters of the
Canadian Labor Congress in
Ottawa brought Leslie Wis-
mer, directors of the CLC De-
partment of Government Em-
ployees, to the coast to help
and advise the executive.

PREMIER BENNETT

“Strike and be fired”

July 7 — Provincial execu-
tive and strike conimittee met.
Strike date set for July 12.
Government advised by phone
that regulated bargaining pro-
cedure was the main issue in
dispute. Association offered to
place questions of wages and
working conditions before ar-
bitration board if bargaining
rights conceded.

July 8 — Officers of associa”
tion met with executive of B.C.
Federation of Labor and ar-
ranged for support and co-
operation by unions through-
cut the province, in the event
of a strike,

July 8 and 9 — Mass mem-
bership meetings in Victoria
and Vancouver, with more

~than 1,000 at each meeting. On

July 9 the combined Essondale
and Woodlands branch held a
mass meeting in New West-
minster. These meetings gave
all-out support for strike ac-
tion. All-meetings voted over-
whelmingly to make collective
bargaining rights the main
issue, with wages and condi-
fons a secondary issue at that
time. On July 8, the provincial
strike committee burned the
midnight oil, working out the
details of the impending strike.

July 10 — At 4 pm. the
negotiating committee met
with the cabinet in Victoria,
on the premier’s invitation.
Headquarters, meanwhile, was
deluged with wires and phone
calls from every part of the
province, demanding advice
and instructions on dozens of
unforeseen problems related
to the pending strike, Late

that shook B.C.

that night, the negotiating
committee sent word through
to postpone the strike in, order
to give consideration to a
government offer,

Representing the association
in Victoria were: George Hor-
ridge, president; Alf Bennett,
assistant general secretary;
Jack Maguire, director, of edu-
cation; and Joan Gower, vice-
president. The following were
in attendance as advisers to
the committee: Leslie Wismer,
CLC director of education;
Tom Gooderham, regional rep-
resentative of the CLC; and
Pat O’Neil, vice-president of
the B.C. Federation of Labor.

At 4:15 p.m. the association
committee, accompanied by:
Wismer, met the _ cabinet,
Premier W. A. C. Bennett of-
fered the association an ag-
gregate wage increase of 7%
percent and informed the com-
mittee that-an order-in-council
had been passed earlier in the
day, referring the matter of
collective bargaining rights to
Chief Justice Gordon Sloan
as a board of reference,
requested at an earlier
by the association.

The association committee
adjourned to study and discuss
the offer and returned with
a counter-proposal. Would thc
cabinet agree to include non-
civil servants in the reference
to the chief justice and would
it commit itself to recommend
the findings of the board of
reference to the next session
of the legislature? If so, the
committee would recommend
acceptance.

To both these stipulations,
the cabinet, through the prem-
ier, replied in the affirmative.
The ‘cabinet also agreed to
implement the universal 40-
hour week at the earliest pos-
sible date and, in the mean-
time, to pay for the additional
hours over 40. In reply to the
association’s demand that
there be no discrimination
against any government en-
ployee, the premier stated he
Was prepared “to let bygones
be bygones.”

On this understanding, the

committee agreed to recom-
mend postponement of the
strike and to refer the offer
tor the executive for considera-
tion.
_ Following the cabinet meet-
ing, the CLC advisers recom-
mended that the association
should, under the circum-
stances, accept. the cabinet’s
offer, Next day, the provincial
executive discussed the offer
for several hours, in Victoria,
and agreed, in the interests of
the majority of the member-
ship, to accept} the committee’s
recommendation.

as
date

Continued on page %
See TEN DAYS

This was the ea

2S ae %

rly Cariboo Road.

The stagecoach

rides

HUNDERING hooves and
the rattle of an old-time
stage coach, with escorting
outriders and the inevitable
“bad men” of the hills adding
to the colorful din, will sound
through B.C. next year.

It will be a re-living of the
early frontier days in BC.
when this type of transporta-
tion was the life-line between

large centres and distant
points.
Lawrie Wallace, chairman

of the B.C. Centennial Com-
mittee, whose grandfather was
a stage coach driver on Van-

couver Island in 1871 when
B.C. entered confederation
said:

“The story of early trans-
portation in this province is
one of the most exciting chap-
ters in our history. With this
re-enactment of a stage coach
run, we shall entertain thou-
sands and posthumously pay
tribute to the men who every-
day risked their lives to carry
supplies and “mail.”

From Bakerville, now a
ghost town but once the high-
living scene of: those magic
words, “Gold Strike,’ a stage

August 16, 1957

Seer

Early settlers had homes like this.

coach will roll over nistol
routes the 460-odd. miles ve
Vancouver. It will thet
ferried to Nanaimo and ;
rumble across Vancouvel ii
land. to Victoria for a colo
wind-up celebration.
Shotgun guards and all
other trappings of the old
runs, as well as gun-toting “a
riders will accompany |
stage’* on its long journey.
0

th!
i

Mr. Wallace declined t0
how big a cache would bé
board the stage but he did al
it would carry a very valu@,
mail packet containing 8.
ings from Lieut.-Govell,
Frank Ross, Prime Min}
John Diefenbaker and prem
W. A. C, Bennett. The 8)
ings. are to be deliveré f
-mayors and reeves at a
along the route. Return Si
ings will be brought ba),
the Lieut.-Governor for —
Victoria arrival Ceremony}

Local centennial comm™
plan to get most of their *
out to welcome the * |
coach and to have some ce
bration! in honor of it, is

Changes of horses, W
and possibly stage coache®
be made along the route: —

— PACIFIC TRIBUNE—

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driv’ il i

Pe ee ee

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