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SUGGES Tion Bowen

Mine Mill leads fight
_ for minimum pay hike

On August 13, the Board of In-
dustrial Relations’ conducted a
hearing in Vancouver into the
minimum wage scale for workers
in the mining industry.

At the hearing, the Mine Mill
union proposed a basic minimum
wage of $1.50 an hour and ex-
tension of coverage to include
diamond drillers. A union press
release states: ‘It was inc'e-
worthy that Mine Mill was the
only union in the industry to
make a submission. Other unions
that claim to represent miners
such as the Steelworkers, Tunnel
and Rock, Operating Engineers,
ete., did*-not think it worthwhile
to concern themselves with legis-
lation on the wages and working
conditions in the industry.”

The union also urged that spec-
ial boys’ rates (60 cents an hour)
be abolished and that 40 hours
be the maximum work week, with
overtime permits being granted
only with the consent of the
union.

The B.C. Federation of Labor,
through secretary Pat O’Neal,
also made a submission at the
hearing. Its proposal undercut the
Mine Mill proposal by arguing for
a $1.25 basic minimum wage—a
figure, which, interestingly,
incided with the Mining Asocia-
tion’s proposals.

O’Neal argued for a -40-hour
week, but in the same paragraph
conceded the 42-hour week, with
overtime pay for two of the hours.
He tried to discredit the Mine
Mill submission by suggesting
that the union prefers the present
system of two days off for every
six worked to alternative systems
which would work out to 40 hours
a week.

However, this point was _ re-
buffed by Harvey Murphy, who

co.

stated that if the 40-hour week
were made mandatory, a suitable
rotation system could be worked
out.

As a sort of offset to his under-
cutting minimum wage proposal
of $1.25, O’Neal proposed that
there should also be a separate

minimum for skilled categories, -

of $2.00 an hour. It is clear, how-
ever, that an overall minimum of
$1.50 would do more for skilled
workers than a skilled category
minimum within a scale start-
ing at $1.25.

The bosses conceded the cor-
rectness of Mine Mill. proposals
to include diamond drillers and
development workers on an equal
footing with other employees and
to abolish the 191-hour month.
In so doing, they went further
than the ‘‘compromise’’ offered

cby the B.C. Fed.

The federation also produced
some new economic logic, by
stating that any worker who could
not produce enough value to meet
the basic needs of himself and
his family should be provided
with a supplement by society as
a whole.

In reply, the Mine Mill state-
ment asks: ‘‘When did it become
the fashion for labor organizations
to blame the worker’s productiv-
ity for his low pay? The main
contradiction in our system to-
day is that workers can and do
produce much more than they
are being paid for, and the prop-
er business of a trade union is
to get for them as much as pos-
sible of their actual output.”’

A recent meeting of 82,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses in New
York, passed a resolution con-
demning the U.N. as “idola-
trous worship.”

Greetings on
Labor Day

VANCOUVER ISLAND
REGIONAL COMMITTEE

Lee gO

Sig te Cee Pot Eee ee a "* ‘

Labor Day

Greetings from

NANAIMO CLUB
CPC:

a
So

NEW CHARGES INVOLVE B.C. TYCOON

Ontario Communists call for
public ownership of natural gas

Ralph K. Farris, member of
a well-known B.C. family,
and son of Senator J. W. deB.
Farris, has been charged in
Toronto with perjury arising
out of a new investigation in-
to the affairs of the Northern
Ontario Natural Gas Co.

Stock manipulations of the
gas company have been under
periodic investigation by au-
thorities arising out of exces-
sive profiteering ang stock
manipulations, in some cases
involving prominent Ontario
government officials.

Included among _ govern-

ment officials who were ex-
posed ‘by earlier investiga-
tion was former Ontario Min-
es Minister. Philip T. Kelly.
He was oné’of three cabinet
members of the Ontario Con-
servative government who, it
was shown, would benefit
from the trans-Canada pipe-
line built across Northern
Ontario by the Ontario and
Federal governments.
Among evidence disclosed
at earlier hearings it was
shown Farris had bought 37,-
500 NONG shares for $300 at
four-fifths of a cent per com-
mon share in 1954. The stock

Comox citizens
protest sirens

Comox citizens were protesting
strongly this week against the
installation of high-powered sir-

ARMS PACT

Cont'd from pg. 1
non-confidence in the govern-
ment on this very issue.

In Quebec, reaction against
the nuclear agreement with
the U.S. was virtually all-em-
bracing, ranging through the
Socialist Party of Quebec, the
trade union movement, peace
organizations and the press.

‘French Canada’s two main
labor bodies joined with a
leading farmers’ organization
and two peace groups, togeth-
er representing 500,000 mem-
bers, to protest the nuclear
agreement.

Besides the Quebec labor
action and that of the Van-
couver Labor Council (as re.

ported in last week’s issue of .

the PT) the 30,000-memher:
Hamilton Labor Council has
demanded that CLC make re-
presentation to the cabinet in
order to reverse its decision.

The Mine Mill union sent.
a telegram to Pearson pro-
testing the nuclear agreement
and urging the matter be re-
ferred to the next session of
Parliament.

In Port Alberni, M. J. Cor-
beil, financial secretary of
Local 1-85 of the IWA, stated
in a press release that the
agreement indicated that the
present government “will do
as it pleases regardless of the
opinion of the Canadian
people.”

Typical of press reaction
in Quebec is the following
comment by Gerard Pelletier,
editor-in-chief of La Prese:

“Question: Who _ recently
has written in a letter to Mr.
Khruschev: ‘Mr. Premier, you
must understand a lasting
peace can be assured only by
a total and controlled arms
reduction, with efficient mea-
sures for the peaceful reso-
tion of differences?’

“Answer: (by the L-P edi-
tor). It was Mr. Pearson him-
self who last week wrote that
sentence. And if you find
strange such a proposal com-
ing from the mouth of a man

who at the same moment was

working for the installation
of nuclear bases on the soil
of his own country, you are
a crude Communist who com-
prehends nothing about the
diplomacy of Nobel peace
prize winners.”

ens throughout the area as part
of the preparation to set up a
nuclear weapons dump at the air
Base

The extra large sirens are be-
ing set up in many residential
areas and are not only depreciat-
ing property values but causing
growing concern over the obvious
implication of placing them
there. It will be possible to hear
the sirens for ten miles.

Comox citizens questioned on
TV Tuesday night asked: “If the
sirens do go, where do we run?”

One man interviewed said it
was ridiculous because if a bomb
did come the sirens would do no
good. He hoped they would never
be used.

Authorities are keeping quiet
about the sirens.

E

as

eas V4

BUSINESS {5 SoB8AD ['M

later rose to about $28 a
share and his original invest-
ment became worth $1,500,-
000.

Latest charges against Far-
ris allege he gave informa-
tion at an enquiry in May
1958 and October, 1962 in
which he perjured himself.

Arising out of the latest de
velopments in the case, On-
tario Communist Party iead-
er Bruce Magnuson said last
Friday:

“The on-again off-again in-
vestigations into private spec-
ulation in stocks of the Nor-
thern Ontario Natural Gas
Company suggests. ver
strongly that everything has
not been revealed concerning
the extent of corruption in
high places. Much unethical
conduct on the part of mem
bers of the Ontario govern:
ment and Legislature at on
time or other has already
been revealed.

“Whatever may be reveal.
ed by any further inquiry in-
to these “deals” for quick
profit, one thing is urgent
now and that is a solemn un
dertaking by those who as-
pire to office in this election
in Ontario to pledge swift
government action to remove —
this vital public utility from _
private ownership ang the
stock manipulators by expro-
priation of the holdings of the
Northern Ontario Natural Gas
Company and the Union Gas
Company and the institutian
of public ownership and con-—
trol of the distribution and_
sale of natural gas in_ this
province.”

Labor Day

Greetings from

BILL BENNETT CLUB
C.P.C.

LAYING OFF MY RELATIVES /#
Greetings to all North
Labor Day hore readers from the
Greetings from

Vancouver East Club

FL Eo oe

NORTH SHORE CLUB
Cul IG,

“May the campaign for building a
Canadian merchant fleet be success-
ful."

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