—— Woops ese) ellie TRIBUNE 702 -TBES- FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1957 Continued from page 1 UNEMPLOYMENT of the excise tax on low- priced Canadian-built cars to relieve unemployment, now around 10,000 in Windsor. Warning that the second half of 1957 might see “increas- ed unemployment” was made recently by Claude Jodoin, president of the Canadian Labor Congress, in the CLC presentation to the federal cabinet. Last official figures as of December 13 showed 314,401 seeking jobs, up 5,330 from last year at the same time. Now, two months later, the figures are likely to show a continued climb upwards, since it is admitted the peak unemployment level had not yet been reached with the December 13 report. To cushion workers against the effects of unemployment, the CLC advanced proposals for changes in the Unemploy- ment Insurance Act. were: They © Bring all workers under the Act. @ Pay regular benefits to workers idled because of ill- ness, @ Benefit rates should be not less than two-thirds of earnings. @ Extend benefits for a maximum 51 weeks. @ Pay seasonal benefits during winter months of De- cember to April. @ Eliminate waiting period. @® Treat married women equally with all others as in- sured workers, On the contract side, unions are seeking more “guaranteed annual wage” clauses; negoti- ation of the cost-of-living es- calator; and the shorter work week while maintaining take-- home pay. : Noted U.S. folk composer to give concert in city Earl Robinson, noted Am- erican composer and folk sing- er, will give a concert in Pen- der Auditorium here on Fri- day, February 22, at 8:15 p.m. As a composer, Robinson is best known for his Ballad for Americans, recorded by Paul Robeson, The House I Live In, made popular by crooners Crosby and Sinatra, and The Lonesome Trail, an epic bal- lad about Abe Lincoln, re- corded by Decca, and Joe Hill. In cooperation with Waldo Salt, he produced Sandhog, a folk opera on the building of the Hudson Tunnel in New York. = Tickets to the concert are available at Modern Music, 536 Seymour, and People’s Cooperative Bookstore, 337 Pender Street West, Vancou- ver. 387 West Pender St. NOTICE STORE WILL BE CLOSED FRIDAY EVENINGS AT 6 P.M.. Commencing March Ist PEOPLE’S CO-OP BOOKSTORE MA. 5836 Dave Beck, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, built this luxurious residence on Seattle lakeshore. It was later purchased from him by the union for $163,000 with the provision that Beck would continue to live in it rent free. Still later the union paid $100,000 for furnishings. Corruption probe stirs labor in U.S. WASHINGTON The AFL-CIO executive council, at its recent meeting in Miami, Florida, ordered three unions to clean up the corruption within their ranks within 90 days “or stand suspended and face expulsion’ from the AFL-CIO. The unions are: Laundry Workers’ International Union, Allied Industrial Workers, and Distillery, Rectifying and Wine Workers’ Union. The council found each of the unions to be “dominated, controlled and_ substantially influenced by corrupt influ- ” ences... . The action against these af- filiates was sparked by a U.S. Senate -sub-committee which investigated the handling of union welfare funds in 1955. The AFL-CIO News of Feb- 1957, describes the findings as “a sordid tale of ruary 9, irresponsibility, diversion of funds, jockeying of bank ac- counts and heavy recompense for certain officers.” But while the council was quick to lay the law down to these relatively small affili- ates, it moved with caution against Teamsters’ president Dave Beck whose 1,250,000- strong union wields a strong _influence in the trade union movement both in the U.S. and Canada. The Teamsters are being in- vestigated by a special Sen- ate committee investigating es improper relations between employers and anions. Four top officials of .the Teamsters have been cited for contempt for refusing to tes- tify before a Senate sub-com- miitee. The four officials re- fused to testify on two grounds: that the committee was not properly authorised to investigate the affairs of a labar union and the Fifth Amendment to the American Constitution which upholds re- fusal to testify if such testi- mony will be self-incriminat- ing. ‘Dave Beck, multi-millionaire Teamsters’ president, flew to the Bahamas and then to Brit- ain before he could be served with a subpoena, The AFL-CIO executive council, while calling for “a fair and objective’ type of inquiry, declared a union of- ficial “has no right to hold office in his union if he re- sorts to the use of the Fifth Amendment on all relevant questions for his personal pro- tection and to avoid scrutiny by proper legislative commit- tees, law enforcement agen- cies or other public bodies in- to alleged corruption on its part.” Al Hayes, chairman of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee, in commenting re- cently on the Teamsters’ of- ficials’ refusal to testify, said: “No government group in- vestigating Sabor racketeering should try to mislead the Am- erican public to believe org- anized labor is honeycombed with racketeers and gang- sters.” Hayes, who is the president of the million-member Mach- inists’ Union, told. the press he would testify “freely and forthrightly” before any con- gressional committee author- ized to investigate the affairs of his union. But Hayes warned that such investigations must deal with fraud, corruption or rackateer- ing’’ wherever it may exist, in labor, in industry, in busi- ness, in the professions and elsewhere. We will cooper- ate with any. group if that is the objective,” he said. FEBRUARY 15, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 16