A little Child Shall Lead Them’

“teks,
8 bh, n. a leader of the Carpenters Union in Vancouver, has submitted the
1 raph as an entry in the M

LABOR SCENE:

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‘A Little Child Shall Lead Them.” It was published in the Sept. 23
‘ow News. Taken during a V d

tration, the

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na Cordoni with her aunt, Miss Elizabeth Szakal.

VLC hears Rankin call
for new city tax setup

Addressing this week’s session
of the Vancouver and District
Labor Council on the subject of
civic taxation and rising taxes
generally at all levels of govern-
ment, Alderman Harry Rankin
emphasized that this was one area
in which organized labor could
play a more prominent part.

Vancouver’s popular labor ald-
erman illustrated his point by
showing that organized labor puts
up a good solidarity fight for
wage increases — for “5-centsin
one pocket, while increasing tax-
ation takes 10 cents out of the
other pocket,” thus wiping out any
wage increases won, Alderman
Rankin urged the VLC to mount
a “greater follow through” onthe
taxation issue.

Alderman Rankin stressed the
need for new civic tax structures,
based on the principle of a grad-
uated business tax, plus a larger
share of other provincial taxes
which would assure a greater
revenue from those “best able to
pay,” as is now in operation in
the City of Winnipeg. Alderman

Rankin’s extensive outline on the
taxation issue, which at present
throws the heaviest burden upon
the municipalities, was enthus-
iastically received by the VLC
delegate body.

The announced threat of the
Dominion Coal and Steel Company
(Dosco) of Nova Scotia to close
down its steel plant complex in
Sydney, throwing hundreds of
steel workers and coal miners on
the industrial scrap heap and
crippling the economy of Nova
Scotia, brought sharp protest at,
this week’s session of the Van-
couver and District Labor Coun-
cli.

A resolution demanding that
Dosco “not be allowed to close”
down was unanimously approved
and forwarded to the Canadian
Labor Congress for action.

“When foreign investment
milks the Canadian cow dry, they
turn it out to starve or die,”
was how one VLC delegate put
the Dosco case, VLC Secretary

_ Paddy Neale urged that in order

{LABOR WATCHES

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@ is aa, scheduled to re-

re th ednesday, October

in Vieto, B.C, Court of Ap-
ted nett in the appeal by

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SS agent Jack Nichol,

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Bed to one year in
My, Tanta fine of $25,000
19, pice T. A. Dohm on
its ee found the union
Contem fers guilty of crimi-
h for allegedly pub-
ing Ttain bulletins and
rsh Vote of the union
ne P on whether to send
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Urt injunction, in-

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Appeal Court last
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Expg.
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Vital issues in

during the Prince Rupert strike,
was referred by UFAWuU officers
to a vote ofthe union membership,
The membership voted solidly

.against the exparte injunction
‘order),

This was one of the major
points stressed by.defense coun-
sel John Stanton and Jim Poyner
before the B.C. Court of Appeal
in Victoria this week as they
appeared on behalf of the UFAWU

and its three titled officers.

The UFAWU appeal court hear-
ing, which opened September 18
and continued for four days before
adjourning to resume hearings
Wednesday of this week, had
attracted a wide interest among
people generally and especially
the trade union movement of
BGs

Referring Justice

to Mr.

Dohm’s comment in passing sen-
tence that jail sentences and fines
had not had the required deter-

“ALF DEWHURST, national labor secre-

tary of the Communist Party, will
arrive in B.C. this coming weekend
on a national tour. He recently re-

turned from Prague where he served

on the editorial staff of World Marx-
ist Review. He will speak at a meet-

_ing with Nigel Morgan, B.C. Commu-

nist Party leader, at the Kennedy

UFAWU appeal

ton said the “judge had in mind,
the fact that he was dealing with
a case to which there was aback-
ground, one which reflected the
marked increase during the past
year and a half in the number of
people involved in contempt cases
arising out of injunctions.”

“All these people have been
trade unionists and that would
indicate there is a great deal of
uneasiness in the labor move=-
ment stemming from widespread
feelings that there is bias against

unions in the courts,” he said. ©

Dealing with other aspects of
the case, defence counsel con-
tended that:

e The exparte injunction of
March 23 was a nullity because
it violated the express provision
of an order issued the previous
day by the same judge, stipulat-
ing that no further order would
be issued except on “two clear
days’ notice to the defendant
union.” No such notice was given.

e There was no evidence on
which the’ union and its leaders
could be found guilty beyond rea=
sonable doubt, There was com-
plete absence of any evidence
connecting Stavenes and Nichol
to the press releases and bulletin
found to be contemptuous, and
Stevens could only be linked to
part of the bulletin.

e None of the passages in the
press releases or bulletin were"
contemptuous when considered
in their complete context.

e Evidence had not been pre-

. sented to show whether all the

‘defendants had been present at
the general executive board
meeting where the decision was
made to initiate the membership
vote,

Before the hearings adjourned,
crown counsel David Sigler indi-
_cated he would base his submis-
sion when the court reconvenes

this week on -several major:

points, He charged that contempt
had been, and would be, estab-
lished in the case, that a trade
union was a legal entity subject
to contempt proceedings and that
an order of a superior court,
however wrong or irregular, is
always binding and has full force
until reversed by appeal.

Chief Justice Davey invited
comment from both counsels after
the court reconvenes on the pro-
cedures adopted by the court in

dering the telegram sent to

rince Rupert shoreworkers,
“bearing in mind that the tele-
gram which the union was or-
dered to send was difficult to in-
terpret.”

to secure N.S. steelworkers,
miners and their families from
extreme hardship as well as the
N.S. economy as a whole, that
Dosco be “taken over immed-
iately and operated by the fed-
eral government.”

Other delegate opinion pro-
posed nationalization of Dosco,
without taking over the “worth-
less paper” of Dosco on which
the Canadian taxpayer would be
compelled to pay huge interest
and dividend sums to Dosco’s
foreign bondholders,

VLC delegates also voiced
unanimous support of the Mon-
treal Transit Workers strike and
congratulated the strikes in
their fight against a government-’
imposed injunction ordering a
return to work. Chas. Stewart
(Div. 101 Transit) reported that
his three local unions in the
Lower Mainland and “wired full
support” to the Montreal transit
workers, who in the course of
their strike have proven once
again that “injunctions don’t drive
buses.”

The VLC executive report
again reiterated its support of
the October 21 demonstration to’
end the U.S. bombing and ag-
gression in Vietnam. Secretary
Neal urged all delegates to “pick
up and distribute the leaflets
available” and to urge their un-
ions to participate in the Van-
couver parade, “The U.S. police
brutality against those demon-
strating for peace which we have
seen on TV,” stated Neale,
“should be our incentive to get
out.”

A letter from CLC vice-presi-
dent Dodge was read to delegates,
outlining federalfinance minister -
Michael Sharp’s call for a joint
meeting of government, business

-and labor to discuss ways and

means of imposing “restraints”
on high wages, prices, spending,
etc. The CLC chief indicated
Sharp’s main aim was to put
wage restraints on labor, hence
a policy of non-co-operation was
the only answer possible.

VLC delegates were advised
in a letter from the BCFL on
the opening and procedures ofits
12th Annual Convention which will
open Monday, Oct. 23 at the
Bayshore Inn, Vancouver,

VIETNAM

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October 20; 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3