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WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

On Work and Wages

“An Auto Worker's

Viewpoint”

“As an automobile worker, I am getting sick and tired
of hearing, every time a debate on the auto industry takes
place, that all would be well if those overpaid, underworked
auto workers would only do more work and take less

”

wages...

J. D. Kenney, a unionist from
Windsor, spoke for unionists
everywhere when, armed only
with a piece of paper and a pen,
he decided to take on the power-
ful Toronto Globe and Mail.

The Globe had been expound-
ing its favorite theme — longer
hours and less wages for Cana-
dian Workers—with greater than
usual enthusiasm as Dean
Vincent Bladen of Toronto pre-
pared to examine the troubles of
the auto industry.

Worker’s Viewpoint

Mr. Kenney couldn’t stand it
any longer. So he wrote to the
Globe’s editor, who published his
letter under the heading, “An auto
Worker’s Viewpoint.”

Wrote Mr.. Kenney: “In the
plant I work in, the average
worker, if he had high seniority
and worked full time, would make

around $4,400 before taxes. How-
ever the auto worker who works

every day is a rare animal indeed.
Ewen the highest seniority worker
can look forward to a few days
or a week or two off now and

again-s . -

Average Pay
“T have figured my average pay

ihe
BE the UNITED v9

for the past three years and it
comes out to something slightly
less than $3,000 per year—not
what I would consider an exorbi-
tant sum in our Canada of 1960.”

The Globe readers were also
told that the charge of workers’
laziness was false, “as anyone
knows who has ever worked in
an auto plant.” There are, of
cotrse as in every industry, some
soft jobs, Mr. Kenney admits,
“but on the vast majority of jobs

4,

LOCAL 1-357, IWA President Joe Madden and members of the Local’s
Soft Ball Team who were this year’s winners of the Commercial League

trophy. The trophy presentation was made at

the Local‘s Annual Shop

the company itself determines the i Stewards Banquet ond Dance held October 15, at the Flame Supper Club.
amount of work to be done and a
a ”
the worker does it or else. employment problem. Consumer|ada was not making the progress

Dealing with the argument
that Canadian wages must be no
higher than wages in England,
Germany or Japan, Mr. Kenney
asks:

Unemployment

National

spending power has not overtaken
our increased productive capacity”.

He warned his audience that
the trade union moyement in Can-

that it should. This was due, he
claimed to the anti-union propa-
ganda of the employers and the
displacements caused by technolo-
gical change. These circumstances
had compelled the unions to ex-

CHEQUE FOR $500.00 which was donated by the crew of the Canadian
White Pine Lumber Company to the United Good Neighbour Fund is
turned over to. Special Gifts Division Chairman Bill Paul by !WA Piant
Secretary at the White Pine, Dave Kirkwood, right.

pend a greater effort in terms of
finance and manpower.

He reported that only one-third
of the workers in Canada are
unionized, and that the necessary
work of organization was vital to
the protection of established stan-

dards.

Banta’s View On
Self-Government

How can you tell when a
country is ready (for self-
government)? It’s like saying
to your son: “Now I want you’
to be a first-class tennis player,
but don’t touch a racquet until
you get to Wimbledon.”

Japanese Standards

“T wonder if anyone ever con-
sidered what would happen to o
our retail trade, our domestic Disgrace
manufacturers, or even our news-
papers, if the Canadian worker is “Unemployment as it exists call
ever reduced to the standard of} Canada to-day is a national dis-
living prevailing in Japan? _ |grace,” declared Secretary-Treas-

“I wonder how many copies|urer Donald MacDonald of the
The Globe and Mail would sell in} Canadian Labour Congress in his ||7
Tokyo at 10 cents a copy?” address to the 5th Annual Con-
vention of the B.C. Federation of
Labour.

In scathing language he de-
scribed the growing number of
jobless persons as a damning in-
dictment of the economic system.

“We face a unique paradox,”
he said,” Mankind has the capacity
to destroy civilization, is on the
verge of conquering space but
cannot wipe out unemployment”.

The speaker traced the various
major causes of unemployment as
found in Canada to-day. He poin-
ted to the fact that the labour
force is the greatest in history,
production has reached new peaks,
but with less labour. Unemploy-
ment, he said, is now much more
than the temporary indication of
an economic recession.

CLC Secretary-Treasurer
Donald MacDonald

ICFTU Meet To Discuss
Role Of African Unions

A discussion of the role of the free trade union movement in
Africa’s struggle towards freedom will head the agenda at the
third African conference of the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions in November.

The regional ICFTU conference will also consider measures
to re-inforce the free unions of Africa and will examine the eco-
nomic and social situation in the continent. In addition the situa-

Monumental Problem
“If an economic recession were

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