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Provincial government employees
~ _ threaten strike on wage issue

British Columbia’s 13,000. provincial gov-ernment employees last week called for strike
action in reply to Premier W. A. C. Bennett’s ultimatum of “no raises this year.’

In Vancouver, a mass meeting of 1,200 members called for “strike action if necessary.”
They were followed by 500 Vancouver Island members who threw their support behind the
decision to strike if no satisfactory reply is received to demands for wage increases.

Eight weeks on the picket line.

| Simmons strikers

sure they will win

Some 75 employees at Sim-
Mons Bedding, 3585 Grand-
View, have been pounding
Picket lines since March 27
and the strike is still 100 per-
cent solid and confident of
Victory.

Members of Retail, Whole-
Sale and Department Store
Union Local 535, the strikers

are determined to hold their
lines until a satisfactory wage
Settlement is reached.

The men and women work-
ers hit the bricks to protest
Wages they termed “a disgrace
to Vancouver.” Men were
€arning from $1.25 to $1.35 an
hour and women were paid as
litle as 85 cents an hour.

The workers were asking for
a pay boost of 25 cents across
the board. Until a few days
before the government super-
Vised strike vote the company

refused to change its original
offer of five cents. At the last
moment this was upped to 10
cents for men and seven for
women, but the workers voted
overwhelmingly for strike ac-
tion to back up their original
demands.

The first morning of the
strike the company tried to
run a few scabs through the
picket line, but soon gave up
and since then the plant has
not been operating.

The labor movement has
supported the strike and urg-
ed unionists and the general
public not to buy any Sim-
mons’ products until a con-
tract is signed. Among trade
names manufactured by Sim-
mons are Beautyrest, Deep-
sleep, Slumber King, Eatonia,
Inyincible, Liberty and Oster-
moor.

If your name isn't on list
here's what you should do

If you intend to vote in the federal elections June 10 —
and every citizen should vote — you may have already checked
and found your name on the list of electors posted on a tele-

Phone pole in your voting area.

Every day people leaf through

the typewritten lists in search of their names.

But if you looked and didn’t
fing your name, here is what
You: can do:

Go to the committee room
Of a candidate, or to the re-
turning officer in the Winch

uilding on West Hastings, to
Check again ‘(the lists posted
©n poles are preliminary lists).

If you are not listed, courts
of revision will sit in all rid-
ings May 22, 23 and 24, to

‘hear applications for-changes.

Times and places of revision
hearings will be posted on
telephone poles in every vot-
ing district by Saturday night
this week.

Premier Bennett, with much
less than his usual finesse,
made a public announcement
that further aggravated the
situation. On the one hand
he promised a cost-of-living
bonus for provincial employees
in 1958. On the other, he
threatened to cut staff.

“We are watching the situa-
tion closely and if at all pos-
sible there will be pay in-
creases ‘in Store for civil sery-
ants at the next session. I
hope we will be able to reduce
the number of civil servants
through an efficiency survey,”
he announced.

In Vancouver, a_ union
spokesman indicated that a
strike vote may be taken
among 1,900 psychiatric nurses
and aides. Ed O’Connor, sec-
re.ary of the B.C. Government
Employees’ Association, report-
ed that Essondale nurses press-
ed for such a vote two months
ago.

According to the Association,
average wages in the province
have risen from $272.91 to
$31412 a month since 1952.
Provincial civil servants, on
the other hand, have only ris-
en from $244.19 to $273.13.

Provincial government wages,
on the average, are 13 percent
below those prevailing in pri-
vate industry.

The dispute boiled over after
the association had been nego-
tiating for six months with the
B.C. Civil Service Commission.
As a result of these negotia-
tion, wage increases were
agreed to for 33 wage cate-
gories, but the Bennett state-
ment vetoed all raises for 1957.

Organized labor in B.C. has
consistently supported the de-
mand of the government em-
ployees for collective bargain-
ing rights. The association, in
requesting collective bargain-
ing rights on the same basis
as municipal employees, has
offered to agree to compulsory
arbitration for unresolved dis-
putes.

By refusing to grant this
modest request, the govern-
ment may provoke a strike of
government employees.
Spokesmen for the association

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Vancouver, B.C,
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have pointed out that whilethe heads of government em-
they are not entitled to bar-ployees, meanwhile laying the

gain under the Labor Relationsblame on

Ottawa’s “tight

Act, there is no law prohibit- money policy,” the federal gov-

ing them from striking.

ernment

amnounced increases

927

In the same week that Ben- this year for some 237,000 fed-
nett held the big stick over eral employees.

Fishermen ask probe
into salmon industry

United Fishermen and Allied Workers’
ealled for a royal commission to investigate “every

Union last week
cas

aspect

of the salmon fishing industry in the province.
Peter Jenewein of Maple Ridge, union official and delegate
to the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission ad-

visory board, called for the
probe at the commission meet-
ing held in Georgia Hotel here.

The fisheries commission is
considering proposals to pass
stringent regulations affecting
B.C. commercial fishermen.
One of the proposed restric-
tions calls for a two-day fish-
ing week during the peak of
the sockeye. salmon run.

Jenewein urged an inquiry
to “bring about recommenda-
tions resulting in a longer
fishing week and increased
conservation.”

“There is a good possibility
we will eventually have only
a one-day fishing week,” Jene-
wein told the meeting.

Ask Canada mediate
TORONTO

Canada should seek “to bring
together the representatives of
Israel and Egypt and other
Arab nations” to resolve their
differences in a peaceful man-
ner.

The United Jewish People’s
Order national executive sub-
mitted this request to External
Affairs Minister Pearson in a
message released last week
which stated that Canada’s role
as peacemaker in the Middle

East could be “decisive.”

HELP the L.P.P.
FIGHTING FUND

Donate To Help Take The L.P.P. Election
Program To The People And Strengthen -
The Fight For Labor-Farmer And
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LABOR-PROGRESSIVE PARTY

503 Ford Bldg., Vancouver, B.C.

MAY 17, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5