Labor hits Tories in Toronto poll; Unofficial] returns reaching the Pacific Tribune: from Toronto’s civic elections indicate that labor candidate Stewart Smith narrowly missed re-election to his 1946 Board of Control seat, polling Wismer says he won't amend ICA Act at February session —VICTORIA, B.C. Labor Minister Wismer has announced that the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act may not be opened for amendment at the February session of the legislature. This is considered an open slap in the face to labor, which bitterly opposes this union busting act. In effort to head off a growing labor demand for outright repeal of the act, and its replacement and employers to make “suggestions” for improvement. (All labor’s many demands in 1947 and 1948 were spurned, and the government by the old ICA Aci of 1943, Wismer last month called for labor Carpenters instead.) The proposal for suggestions : et cents was quickly endorsed by B.C. : - Federation of Labor _ secretary s , George Home and Vancouver oe —VICTORIA, B.C.| Trades Council secretary R. K. ; x Gervin, although important sec- Victoria carpenters are back at}; . ; work after their pre-Christmas tions of labor were already on record for suspension and repeal. Home was unable to get an appointment with Wismer, who now blandly announces that “no suggestions have been presented which merit reopening’ the act.” Observers see Wismer’s state- ment as‘not only a slap at labor but also as a trial balloon to test labor’s reaction. If evidence of strong united action against the act is not forthcoming, the gov- strike, and are getting the Van- - eouver rate of $1.55, having won a 15 cent increase, It is understood that the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners has agreed to discuss with ' the Builders’ Exchange and Vic- toria Contractors’ Association cer- tain contract changes on working _ conditions and jurisdictional dis- putes, The courts recently dismissed a adopted the bulk of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association proposals ernment may even attempt to make the act worse. . Both TLC and CCL affiliates throughout B.C. have insistently opposed the act’s crippling anti- labor provisions. Main beefs are: the establishment of unions as legal entities which can be broken in the courts, provisions making a legal strike almost impossible, placing of company unions on a par with labor unions, arbitrary powers of labor board (including strikebreaking powers and power to decertify unions it does not like), and smothering red. tape. With the session a bare month away labor has little time to get into high gear against the Act $$$ for phonies on the legislative front. General Electric Company’s president, Charles E. Wilson, ad- mitted at hearing of joint profits subcommittee in Washingtor that his company spends a mil- lion dollars a year fighting the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers (CIO). He also admitted the company’s profits this year would be more than $111 million. charge against the capital city. UB arising from carpenters’ re- fusal to cross an_ electricians’ picket line. (Fred Bevis, Victoria electricians’ business agent, still faces charges of “assenting” to a strike, though his local has now been acquitted.) Victoria Building Trades Coun- cil recently initiated a province- wide movement for repeal of the ICA Act. This move was at first supported by the Victoria Trades and Labor Council, of which Labor Board member George Wilkinson is secretary. Victoria Trades Council later re- versed its stand in a decision that is still being discussed on consti- | _ tutional grounds. Labor Board shortly afterwards publicly recommended that Vic- toria contractors pay the 15 cents increase sought by striking car- penters, a move bitterly assailed by contractors, who demanded the Board’s resignation. t : Labor Minister Wismer said the Board was doing a good job, oc- casionally made mistakes, but no- body would be asked to resign. {VICTORIA LENIN MEMORIAL MEETING | Speaker: MAURICE RUSH | Time: FRI, JAN. 21, 8 P.M. _ Place: 734 FORT ST. Hear NIGEL MORGAN- “REPEAL THE SALES : TAX” CJVI, January 17, .6.45 of the Civil Rights Union. Unvanquished Howard Fast, American author ‘whose novels on the fight for ‘freedom have brought him world acclaim, is scheduled this week to lend his voice to help Can- adians safeguard democratic rights when he speaks at Toronto and Montreal. Fast faces prison in the United States for defend- ing his right of secret ballot. (Auspices Victoria LPP) iz HIGH QUALITY LOGGERS AND WORK BOOTS HAND-MADE JOHNSON’S BOOTS 63 West Cordova Street - - - - - - Phone MArine 17612 PACIFIC 9588 FERRY MEAT MARKET Vancouver, B.C. _ FREE DELIVERY Supplying Fishing Boats Our Specialty | Jack Cooney, Mer. Nite Calls GL. 1740L Howard Fast scheduled for Toronto civil rights rally An emergency protest on behalf of free speech in the Patterson case was scheduled to be held at press time in Toronto’s Massey Hall, with American author Howard Fast to speak under sponsorship U.S. Civil Rights Congress secretary William Patterson, whose appeal against his exclusion from Canada will go to Ottawa shortly, will send a message to the people of Canada, which he is unable to deliver personally because of the adian goverment. “There is no person more quali- fied to lead this protest meeting than Howard Fast, author. of Freedom Road, My _ Glorious Brothers, Citizen Tom Paine, The Unvanquished and The American. “We will consider the meeting a demonstration in support of Pat- terson and free speech and a de- nunciation of Ottawa’s arbitrary abuse of rights guaranteed to all citizens in the declaration of the United Nations.” | Toronto’s Civil Rights Union has appealed to the International Committee for a World Confer- ence on Human Rights to organ- ize protests against the exclusion of Patterson from Canada. Mem- ber countries are asked to add their voices to those being raised in Canada and the United States in a demand for free speech in the Patterson case. - Patterson’s appeal for reversal of the Immigration Board cf In- quiry decision which refused him entry to Canada is pending with the Civil Rights Union planning a campaign of full support when the appeal goes before Minister of Mines and Resources Minister McKinnon in Ottawa. Printers winning wage scale hikes The Vancouver Typo Bulletin, published by local 226 Internation- al Typographical Union, announces that Victoria typos will open wage negotiations January 12, seeking to at least equal the recent Van- couver scale of $1.67 per hour for day work, $1.77 for night work, with a 37% hour week. Vancouver and Victoria stereotypers and electrotypers have won the Van- couver typo scale in conciliation. “This meeting will be a mass demonstration by the people of Toronto against the gag the Canadian government has placed in Patterson’s mouth,” stated Civil Rights Union secretary Jeff Hurley. ban placed upon him by the Can- 43,200 out of a light overall vote as against 50,000 last year. Trail- ing Smith was the foremost red- baiting candidate, A. McKellar. In Ward 5 Alderman Charles Sims was returned in top position. as senior alderman, and Alderman Norman Freed was re-elected with an increased vote in Ward 4. Mrs. Edna Ryerson was return- ed by acclamation to Board of Education from Ward 5, and Sam Walsh won election from Ward 4. Ex-alderman Dewar Ferguson polled close to 6,000 votes in Ward 7, and Mrs. Mae Birchard was runner-up in Ward 3. The labor candidates, though blacked out by the dailies, com- pelled the entire administration to discuss the real issues. Large advertisements were used by big business in effort to counter- act Smith’s broadcasts. The Globe and Mail and Evening Telegram, McCullagh-Wright gold trust newspapers devoted special columns to combatting labor’s ex- posure of a projected tax assess- ment steal. 4 Smith, Freed and Sims crippled a Tory “spy scare” before it got started, compelling the administra- tion to cook up an attempt to capture the city hall for a two- year term (instead of the present one-year term) at a time when the tax steal was scheduled. The voters’ trounced the two- year term project. Speedup, unemployment face Washington loggers By WILL PARRY 7 —SEATTLE. Speedup and wholesale unemployment make a substantial wage increase next spring a necessity for Washington lumber workers. And record industry profits make the needed pay hike possible. These are conclusions of an outline of current conditions in the lumber industry’ drawn up by In- ternational Woodworkers Sedro- Woolley Local 2-75 and being used to alert the membership for next: spring’s economic showdown with! the operators. (Rank and file at Sedro-Woolley sent warm fraternal greetings to the founding convention of B.C.’s Woodworkers’ Industrial Union of Canada.) Wartime conditions heightened speedup and cut the size of crews in the industry, the report points out. Since the war further shorten- ing of crews, introduction of big- ger and faster machinery and an industry-wide policy of firing older men and’ workers who “might be a little slower than the fastest” has accelerated the speedup, While jacking up production per man hour, lumber monopolies have thrown wholesale unemployment into the industry in a manner least likely to attract public attention. Cause of widespread unemploy- ment is the short season operation --running operations only during, the five or six months of the year when the greatest production per man hour can be had. Effects of the short season opera- tion, the union says, are these: (1) Artificial scarcity of lumber products is maintained. A nation in the midst of a housing crisis is denied relief because lumber is de-! liberately kept scarce and at a price beyond reach of those who need homes. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 7, \ (2) Yearly earnings of lumber workers are deliberately kept low by short season operation. Although hourly wage rates appear fairly high, yearly take-home is below that needed for minimum living standards. (3) Yearly profits of the industry are higher than ever befor. Finan- cial reports of one large pulp com- pany show a net profit after taxes. of no less than $10,000 per worker was realized in 1948. This typical company made at least four times as much profit after taxes as was paid to workers who produced the goods. (4) Short season. operation throws the lumber worker out of work at a time when he cannot pick up employment in other indus- tries. He must hit the unemploy-. ment or relief rolls to keep from: starving. Actually unemployment. in lumber now amounts to from 35 to 50 percent, figured on the basis of year-round employment. “Inadequate wages, curtailed pro- duction and high profits have has- tened. the day of the collapse of the economic system,” the union warns. “The people are unable to buy the goods that they have produced. Billions of dollars worth of goods, which the-American people are un- able to buy for lack of money are being dumped, through the Mar- shall Plan and the war armament program, in a frenzied effort to keep the economic system from col- lapsing.” 1949 — PAGE 2: See con POCO EN eI