Class justice and outmoded laws On Monday, May 23, west coast longshoremen took an extra day off with their families rather than work for double time. This was their right in full conform- — ity with the Canada Labor Code, which designates Victoria Dayas a statutory holiday. At the same time, however, they were violating a B.C. Su- preme Court injunction issued five days in advance: “antici- pating” something that might hap- pen but had not happened at the time the injunction was issued. This unprecedented far-reaching injunction ordered the Interna- tional Longshoremen and Ware- housemen’s Union to prevent its members from getting sick or booking off work on Victoria Day — despite federal law. New Democratic Party leader T.C. Douglas rose in Parliament to demand that Labor Minister, J.R. Nicholson, force the em- ployers: to respect federal law but was ruled out of order, At its Winnipeg convention last April, the Canadian Labor Con- gress stated categorically that “the judiciary by its readiness to grant injunctions, aligns itself INJUNCTIONS on the side of employers.” This is now so obvious that most Can- adians would reject arguments to the contrary. One would think this would con- vince the authorities, including the judiciary, that it’s time the law was changed. Not so; as witness the judgment of criminal ‘contempt handed down by Chief Justice GA. Gale of the Ontario Supreme Court in the case of 26 persons charged with violating an injunction issued last February at the Tilco Plastics plant in Peterborough, Ontario, The Tilco strike is now six months old and the unionis seek- ing permission of the Ontario La- bor Relations Board to prosecute the company for violating the law. In the course of hearings on this application, the employer ad- mitted that the strike would have been over in two weeks were it not for the injunction granted by the court, which gave him the alternative of smashing the union rather than engaging in collective bargaining, : Chief Justice Gale’s judgment exposes the purpose behind court injunctions in labor disputes and LABOR SCENE by BRUCE MAGNUSON cP messnge urges labor © unity fo win big gains Cont'd from Pg. 1 (Vancouver Sun & Province), part of the P,P, press monopoly which controls a large number of Ca- nadian newspapers, Powerful as this conspiracy is, it can be defeated, The condi- tions exist for big victories by the labor movement, These victories if pursued skillfully could result in the election in this province of a government pledged to pre- serve and extend the gains now being fought for on the picket lines, The key factor to victory is. the joining of the mighty unity of the picket lines with political action by all of labor’s support- ers, NDP MUST SERVE LABOR’S INTERESTS Most of the trade unionists of this province regard the NDP as their political expression, In this hour of need all-out support for the cause of labor by the NDP can be decisive. On the picket lines, in the public press, in mass meetings, in represen- tations to government and the courts of law, the NDP must be heard loud and clear, To win election in this prov- ince the NDP must rély on its own initiative and not expect to cash in on the current difficul- - ties of Social Credit, Labor rep- resents the vast majority in this province and active support for its cause is support for all other sections in the community as well, The economic gains wrested by labor from the monopolies will indirectly benefit the farm- ers, the small shop-keepers, small businessmen, pensioners and the members of the profes- sions, LABOR MUST CLOSE RANKS This is the timeto close ranks! Fight with enthusiasm and ima- - § gination, Take labor’s case boldly to the general public, Put the U.S. monopolists who are running this province under public control, Set labor’s sights as high as possible, Working people are the producers, and therefore have every right to participate fully in the running of industry and the government, Labor’s fight is the fight of all who stand for progress, democ- racy and the public welfare, B.C. COMMITTEE ~ places restrictions on public demonstrations in support of a strike, In it he says: «, , ,It would have been one thing to have paraded at Queen’s Park or to have held a rally at the Peterborough Arena for the same purpose (to declare support for the Telco strikers — B.M.)... but quite another to have formed a closely knit line of hundreds of persons around a strike-bound plant where the number of pickets had been limited by the court to a2" Why was an injunction limiting picketing issued in the first place? Did the employer prove a prima facie case for such ac- tion by the court? If employees have a right to strike they havea right to protect their jobs by effective picketing. If not, then the right to strike is meaning- less, Chief Justice Gale goes on to state: “In my mind, the latter conduct constituted picketing, re- gardless of the motives of those participating, and to ask the court to hold that it was something else is to ask the court to nullify, by employing sheer sophistry, the law of injunction as it pertains to tradé unions. . .’’ So what if the demonstration constituted a reinforced picket line? Itis precisely the right to picket that is involved in the fight to abolish injunctions in strike situations, The defense of those charged with contempt was weak on this point, It did not make the right to picket the issue. It based its defense on the need to remove a bad law, then defended a tactic which left this removal to the discretion of the courts which are biased in favor of employ- ers and against labor on this issue, despite Chief Justice Gale’s vehement protest to the contrary. It is precisely this bias — which has its roots in the class THE {WAS ON. ¥ ST RIK! character of our society, with political power in the hands of the ruling class, the employers — that makes a farce of the ar- gument of “Equality of rights be- fore the law” of employers and workers, Chief Justice Gale’s judgment is based on an unjust and out- moded law. Refusal to change the law undermines labor’s confi- dence in our system of justice and makes an ass of the law itself, A dynamic and growing Can- adian democracy must sweep aside obstacles to its implemen- tation in enterprises where men and women work. Labor’srights cannt remain secondary to man- agement’s rights, The inunction as a strike- breaking weapon must be smashed. To do this requires ‘mass action by labor on picket- lines, in demonstrations, in the kind of political campaigning that will challenge the dictatorship of the employers, The convening of emergency meetings and conferences to plan such public mass action is the need of the hour, not leaving it. to the courts. Noother demand — not even a proposed law against strike-breaking — can be an effective substitute for the de- mand to remove a strike-break- ing law — the injunction against picketing. The employer demand for com- pulsory arbitration, which aims _ at outlawing the strike itself and putting every union into a legal strait-jacket, is a threat to la- bor’s rights. Organized labor cannot allow this to happen, us Le THE IWA IS N ‘Woodworkers walkout protests delays 14,000 IWA rembers marched off their jobs last weekend The IWA negotiating committee said their action “was pro- after the contract date expired. Photo shows.a groupof voked by aggravating delays.” COMMUNIST PARTY ~ pickets at the giant MacMillan, Bloedel plant in Burnaby. 2 _-Edward photo aa ge fg agg iss Selah “an i