B.C. FED CONVENTION:

A milestone in B.C.’s labor history

By TOM McEWEN

Rs Any appraisal of last week's

10th annual convention of the
British Columbia Federation of
Labor (BCFL) held in Vancou-
ver, must take into consideration
the momentous events taking
Place in the world, and in Can-
ada,

The inescapable impact of
these changes and events were
Strongly evident in the delibera-
tions of the convention’s 421
delegates, representing some

273 union affiliates of the BCFL ’

and embracing an approximate
110,000 members. Already a very
Significant force, and by no
Means as yet at its potential
Peak strength, A force which, on

the basis of its 5-day delibera-

tions and decisions, is destined
to wield an ever-increasing in-
fluence in British Columbia for
Policies of peace and a broad
People’s progress.

Significant as the accomplish-.
Ments of the BCFL has been in
the period under convention dis-
Cussion and review, the opening
Yemarks of President FE, T.
Staley emphasized that these
‘“‘might have been much more
Significant but for the introduc-
tion of some of the worst anti-
labor legislation in North
America’’,

Anti-labor legislation placed
on the statute books by the Socred
government in recent years is
primarily designed to restrict
and obstruct trade union activity
in the field of collective bar-
gaining and the right to strike.

Moreover, when unions have
complied with all the provisions

of such legislation with its mul-.

tiple delays and frustrations on
the part of management and gov-
€rnment, the indiscriminate use
of ‘judicial’? Ex-Parte injunc-
tions are resorted to en masse,
in an attempt to destroy labor’s
basic right to strike and picket.

In the many big strike struggles

_ in B,C, over the past year; rail

Workers, grainhandlers, long-
Shoremen, brewery workers,
lumber, oilworkers, etc., strug-
8les in which the BCFL leader-
Ship and affiliated unions have
demonstrated a splendid solidari-
ty, both on the picket line and
through the media of its Defense

Fund in giving financial aid, these

extra-legal Ex-Parte injunctions
have ‘been handed out like
delivering newspapers’? during
the past year,

In order to meet this form of

“anti-union ‘legal’’ discrimina-

tion the BCFL convention adopted
as “one of its major projects
for the coming year ...4
Campaign designed to eliminate
the use of Ex-Parte injunctions
in labor disputes, .. .”’

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With some few exceptions most
Of the BCFL standing Committee
Reports submitted to the con-
vention, produced a broad and

intensive discussion, Especially

Was this so on the reports of
Committees covering suchissues
4s Natural Resources, Munici-
Pal Affairs, Human Rights and
International Affairs.

The report on Municipal Af-
fairs stresses the need of or-
ganized labor to ‘‘take itsplace”’
in civic government, C. P.

‘¢Paddy’’ Neale charged that pol- |

iticians of the Liberal Party
‘thas taken over administration
of most cities in B.C.’’

“These councillors and
reeves?’ said Neale, ‘fare the
representatives of big business,
At the recent convention of the
B.C, Union of Municipalities,
every resolution that was pro-
management and anti-labor was
presented on behalf of big busi-
ness by these representatives,
If municipal affairs are good for
big business, it should be good
for us too’’.

Neale urged that organized
labor in co-operation with rate-
payer groups, NDP andother pro-
gressive people should field
candidates in all civic elections
‘cand work for them’’, All the
multiple civic issues facing the
taxpayers, said Neale, ‘tonly
proves the need for labor to be-
come more and more interested
in municipal affairs, and for
trade unionists to offer them-
selves as candidates for office’’.

In the wide discussion that fol-
lowed the submission of the
Natural Resources report tabled
by BCFL secretary-treasurer
E, P. ‘¢Pat’’ O’Neal, the whole
range of resources development
in the interests of the people,
versus big monopoly and the
government-giveaway
buck’’ came under review.

A quotation from the BCFL
Natural Resources report pin-
points the issue; ‘We have been
too careless, too indifferent to
our great heritage. We think of
how to exploit our natural re-
sources for a quick return, In-
stead, we should explore the best
development ofnatural resources
for the future of Canada,”

In the wide ‘‘free-wheeling’’
discussion on the issues of
Human Rights and International
Affairs Committees submissions,
there were long lineups of speak-
ers at the ‘‘mike’’ and, with very
few exceptions, an overwhelming
condemnation of racial discrimi-
nation and persecution in all its
forms. Similarly on U.S. foreign
policy and aggression in Viet-
nam, the Dominican Republic and
elsewhere.

Many delegates scored the at-
titude of the Pearson govern-
ment in its ‘trailing along’’ in
the wake of U.S. aggression,
instead of speaking out boldly
and independently against the
dangerous policies being pursued
by U.S. imperialism, Policies,
which many delegates emphasiz-
ed, could lead to world nuclear
war and total destruction,

Implicit in the report on In-
ternational Affairs and approved
by the convention, was the deci-
sion to re-institute the boycott
on South African ‘Apartheid’
products, Similarly that all
trade union memebers be ac-
quainted with the situation so
that a consumer boycott on Rho-
desian goods be implemented’”
in the event that the Rhodesian
Smith government carries out its
threat of a ‘‘unilateral declara-
tion of independence’ (UDI),
which in essence will mean the

‘fast .

SOLIDARTIY WITH OIL STRIKERS. Delegates to the B.C.
Federation of Labor convention decided to adjourn an hour
early on November 2 to picket the BA head office build-
ing at 1201 W. Pender St. More than 400 delegates and

establishment of another white-
minority ruled ‘‘ apartheid’ state
in Africa,

Closer to home, BCFL secre-
tary-treasurer ‘‘Pat’’ - O’Neal
read correspondence relative to
a complaint lodged by the Inter-
national Woodworkers of Ameri-
ca (IWA) against a Prince George
lumber company employing
Indian children under 16-years
of age in its operations, at sub-
standard wages. The IWA had
brought the matter to the atten-
tion of the Indian Agent at Burns
Lake and requested an investi-
gation, Following repeated re-
quests by the IWA, the Indian
Agent finally replied, ‘‘I have
not investigated this matter, nor
do I intend to,’’

This form of discrimination,
said O’Neal, ‘‘not only helps
deprive young Indian children of
a school education, but is an
arrogant and disgraceful re-
sponse toa request for an investi-
gation of a situation’’ which con-
travene the laws regarding the
employment of under-age chil-
dren,

The BCFL will press for the
appointment of a union repre-
sentative on the Provincial Indian
Advisory Committee as part of
its efforts to end discrimination
against Canada’s native Indian
people,

On the vital question of peace
and the dangers of peace by
U.S. escalation of aggression in
Vietnam, and strongly critical
of labor’s lack of participation in
the struggle for peace, O’Neal
declared:

‘¢T.abor must become a leading
dynamic force for peace, and
assert itself in this great
struggle for survival, Labor must
be in the vanguard for peace all
around the world, All other things
are secondary to the road weare

now on, We must stand up and be

counted, The time is running out.

The trade unions must make

peace their Number 1 objective.
I won’t turn yellow in order to
convince some people I’m _ not
Red’’,

* eK *

demonstration.

Many important resolutions
from affiliate unions of the BCFL,
some 140 in all, and covering
a wide range of issues, were
approved by the convention,
Among these were:

e The building of a Canadian
Merchant Marine ‘‘to serve the
interests of Canada and its
people, :

e Insistance that the Execu-
tive Council of the CLC ‘‘dis-
associate the Canadian labor
movement’’ from the policies of
the AFL-CIO Executive Council
support of U.S. policies in Viet-
nam and the Dominican Republic,
and that Prime Minister Pearson
be more ‘‘outspoken and press
the American government to
withdraw its armed forces”’ from
these countries, Many delegates
voiced strong condemnation of the
anti-labor position taken by AFL-
CIO President George Meany—
‘this man who boasts he never
was on a picket line’’!

@ The removal of ‘‘all nuclear
arms from Canadian soil, and
withdrawing from any treaty
agreements or organizations
which promote the spread of
nuclear weapons’’,

e The elimination of all con-
ciliation board proceedings in
collective bargaining,

e@ Making employee ‘‘voter
lists’’ available in advance to
unions where a strike or certifi-
cation vote has been ordered.
(Under present regulations only
the Labor Department and the
company concerned, have advance
possession of such lists,

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Because of their contentious
nature a number of resolutions
were ‘‘referred to the incoming
executive’’ for processing, Per-
haps one of the most negative
features of the 10th BCFL con-
vention, despite the many fine
demonstrations of trade union
unity on many issues, was

the’ inability of the leadership to

come to grips with the overall
issue of labor unity; of bringing

observers took part in the hour-long demonstration in sup-
port of the strikers who have been out nearly six weeks in
their fight for security. Photo shows part of the impressive

back into the BCFL the many
thousands of trade unionists and
their respective unions, now out-
side the BCFL in British Colum-
bia,

The United Fishermen, Team-
sters, Mine- Mill, Civic Employ-
ees (Vancouver), union which, in
the daily struggle, have made a
big contribution to the many strike
victories won by BCFL affiliated
unions, in addition to their own
substantial wage and ‘fringe
benefit” gains,

While the BCFL Organizing
Committee report shows a mark-
ed gain in the increase of BCFL
affiliates and membership, it
omits any mention of those
unions, despite the many laudable
convention expressions of labor
unity, In *‘the road we are on’?
to use ‘‘Pat’’ O’Neal’s words,
there is an urgent need of clear-

‘ing the way for the inclusion

of these vitally important ‘‘in-
dependent’’ unions inside the
BCFL, since all the ‘‘reasons’’
given for their exclusion no
longer exist,

Thus, while it should be stated
that the incidence of ‘‘red bait-
ing’’ at the BCFL convention was
at an all-time low, with only
one lone official trying his hand
at it, the coldwar ‘‘hangover”
still persists; serving only as an
obstruction to the objectives the
BCFL convention set for itself
in its five days of momentous
deliberation. It’s formal endor-
sation of the NDP as the **politi-
cal arm of labor’? demands a
complete break with the ideolo-
gies and associations of/and with
the old line parties in the ranks
of organized labor,

Nevertheless this historic 16th
Convention of the BCFL marks
a decisive turning point in the
long and militant history of BC.
labor; its awakening determina-
tion to move into the vanguard
as a dynamic force for peace,
human brotherhood, and demo-
cratic progress,

November 12, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3