which

Carpenters

action on

to vote for strike

expected

wage bid

Vancouver carpenters on Monday this week rejected a new 22-
cent hourly offer from contractors, and results of a government-
supervised strike vote in Wancouver and New Westminster is
expected to be overwhelmingly in the affirmative. The 2,500 car-
penters affected are determined to take strike action if necessary
to win a 32-cent increase for a $2 hourly rate.

Other developments on the B.C. labor front this week included:

@ An agreement between United Fishermen and Allied Work-

ers Union and the Sooke Harbor Fishing and

‘won a wage increase of $40 ner

@ Shell Oil workers turned

Packing Company
month for some 50 employees.

down a conciliation board major- .

ity recommendation for a 16.6 cent increase and will apply for a_

government-supervised strike vote.

About 228 workers are involved.
@ Some %0 members

Rejection was unanimous.

“of Beverage Dispensers Union (AFL)

Local 676 rejected a 10-cent hourly hike offered by B.C, Hotels

Association and will put

their case before a conciliation board.

They are seeking a 40-cent boost.

About 150 bricklayers in Vancouver won a 22-cent. increase;

250 members of the Boilermakers Local 359 won a 20-cent boost;

and 200 rodmen, of Ironworkers Local 97, also won 20 cents. Agree-
ments were signed with General Contractors Association.

Sewer worker's death

brings safety walkout

“The death of Paul Nelson fol-
lowing a job accident focuses pub-
lic attention on something Civic
Employees Union has been de-
manding for a long time—the need
for a joint safety committee and
a city safety officer,” said Jack
~ Phillips, Local 28 secretary, this
week. 2

Some 225 union sewer workers
walked off the job last Tuesday to
attend Nelson’s funeral. The acci-
dent took place at 22nd and Ren-
frew on June 6. Nelson was buried
alive when a bank caved in on
him, and although quickly dug out
by Fred Bianco and :other work-
mates and rushed to hospital, he
later died as a result of internal
injuries,

The mass walkout was organ-
ized by the men on the job as a
means of paying their last respects

to a good union comrade and at
the same time protest against in-
sufficient safety precautions. |

Local 28 has advocated setting
up of a joint safety committee in
the past, to the point of electing
its representatives,. but the city
to date has failed to cooperate.

Inquest testimony of Bianco
brought out that Nelson was work-
ing in treacherous, garbage-fill
ground, which should have been
dug out by hand. The six-man jury
brought in a verdict of “unnatural
death” and the coroner advised
sewer workers to refuse to work
under dangerous circumstances.

“We are going to see that our
members are informed of the cor-
oner’s advice, and ask them to
govern themselves accordingly,”
said a union spokesman.

accomodation can be found

A 18-page survey of the housing
needs of single girls employed in
edowntown Vancouver, issued this
month by Vancouver ‘Housing As-
sociation, stresses that the Em-
ployment Service officers have
been keenly aware of the -lack of
this type of accomodation for sev-
eral years.

“There are no :statistics of the
number of girls who have to be
turned away from jobs because of
lack of housing accomodation,”
says the VHA report, “but there
are many examples of girls who
have applied for positions from
out of town, ‘to whom the Employ-
ment Service had to write, advis-
ing them not to come to Vancou-
ver if they have no certainty of a

| place to live.

“Representatives of a utility
company employing many girls re-
port that many of their employees
are unable to find rooms within
their means in good residential
areas, and so are forced to live in
disreputable districts. In ordinary
times it would be unthinkable, but
nowadays there: is nowhere else
they can go. Bs

“Another personnel officer has
also testified to the great difficul-
ties. encOuntered in finding accom-
odation: for out-of-town employees.
‘Contact is maintained with the
YWCA in the effort to find rooms.
But if accomodation cannot be
found, the girls very often cannot
be hired.’

The comprehensive VHA survey,
entitled, “We, Too, Need jHous-
ing!” shows that the real. dilemma
for single women is “rent versus
conditions.” Complaints concern-
ing unsatisfactory living conditions
were registered by 60 percent of
those who filled out survey forms.
Here are some of them:

“No elevators, apartment. ort
third floor. No proper garbage
cans, no ironing accomodation, -
no proper locker accomodation

in the basement for storage, any-

City housing. conditions
make single girls prey |
for gouging landlords

National Employment Service claim that Vancouver is short “several hundred”
stenographers and fypists again forcibly reminds citizens that hundreds of bachelor girls
living in other centres are willing to come to the city to take jobs. provided - decent
for them.

one can touch private property.
There is no cooler or ice box in
the apartment; food has to be
kept on the window ledge.”

“Unsanitary halls and bathroom.
Insufficient hot water for any pur-
pose. Poor heating and inadequate
cooking facilities. No privacy.”

“There is no heat in my kitchen
and during the winter I have to
burn my cooking gas, which is
very expensive, and makes my
walls steam.” - ,

“Too crowded; inadequate facili-
ties for stotage; limited drawer
and cupboard space. Bothered by
mice.” ;

“One bath a week; no water or
sink. in either room.: One- bath-
room and toilet for juse of all the
tenants in the house, rooms nuin-
bering six. Very little hot water.”

“Rent seems high ($48) when I
supply dishes, cgoking utensils, ’ all
linen and have it laundered; there
is no phone in the house.”

“Ten people use same bathroom,
always long waits to get’ in. No
water in room.”

“Communal sink on landing
shared with two other tenants on
third floor. Bathroom shared by
nine other tenants.”

“Wallpaper falling off walls due
to heavy rains.’ Landlord refuses
to repaper. Not enough heat in
winter: have to use gas.”

“Rent is too high ($30) for the
‘conditions of the room. There are
mice, and the floor is rotten under-
neath the linoleum. It’s a_ base-

But finding even such unsatisfac-

ment room. The floor shakes when
we walk on it.”
. * * *
‘These sample replies give a grim
picture of housing conditions
among the city’s ‘bachelor girls.

tory rooms and flats isn’t an easy
matter. ‘

“The, YWCA receive enquiries
from thousands of girls every year
for help in securing accomodation

within their income, and hundreds

BOMB THREAT TERMINATES MEET TO HEAR ALDERMAN) ~

DP’s den

“Winnipeg citizens were denied
the right of free speech and as-
sembly on June 6 as a direct con-
sequence of fascist DP intrigue
and intimidation,” declares a state-
- ment issued by the Winnipeg Coun-
cil of the Canadian-Soviet Friend-
ship Society commenting on action
of Winnipeg police in closing @
meeting in Playhouse Theatre
here after the theatre manager had
received an anonymous phone call
claiming that a time-bomb had
- been planted under the stage.

. The meeting, sponsored by the
Canadian-Soviet Friendship So-
ciety, had been called to hear
Ald, Jacob Penner report on his
recent visit to the Soviet Union.
(The ‘veteran labor member of
Winnipeg City Council led-a_ dele-
gation of five well-known
dians on a visit to the Soviet
- 'Union, other members of the dele~
3 being Emil Gartner, direc-
tor of the United Jewish People’s
Choir; F, B. Taylor, artist; Jeanette
Pratt, housewife; and Fagel Gart-
ner, pianist.) ee
About 45 minutes before the
meeting was scheduled to start,
groups of hostile DP’s began to
5 outside the theatre, some
individuals among them slipping
into the theatre as the audience
arrived. :
One group of a dozen DP’s who
tried to enter the theatre as a body
was refused admittance. After
considerable wrangling, during
thes DP’s made _ threats
against members of the commit-
_ tee sponsoring. the meeting, neces-

-sitating police intervention, the
- group left the theatre but contin-

ia-

ued to hang around outside. The
committee then systematically re-
fused admittance to all DP’s as a
vrecaution against a: public dis-
turbance. : |

Ald. Penner had barely commenc-
ed his speech when the theatre
manager received an anonymous
phone call asserting that a time-
bomb had been planted under the
stage and warning him that he
had better get the audience out

wented some one hurt.

The manager reported the threat
to the police, who ordered the
theatre cleared and then proceed-
ed to make a search of the prem-
ises which disclosed that no bomb
had actually been planted.

As the 900-odd members of the
audience left the theatre -DP’s
distributed anti-Soviet _ leaflets
among them, and despite the fact
that. such leaflet distributions, de-
nied to labor groups, are in viola-
tion of a city ordnance, police
made no arrests among the DP’s.

Text of the statement issued by
the Winnipeg Council of the Can-
adian-Soviet Friendship Society,
signed by 'F. C. King, chairman,
and Mrs. Mary Kardash, secretary,
follows: :

Winnipeg citizens were denied
the right of free speech-and as-
sembly on June 6 as a direct con-
sequence of fascist DP intrigue
and intimidation.

~The time-bomb threat on Alder-
man Jacob Penner and the plat-
form party at the Playhouse
Theatre, on which the police based
their order to cancel the meeting,
was only one of a number of in-
cidents that evening that pointed

citizens

of the theatre quickly unless he

ALD. JACOB PENNER

to planned DP interference. Be
cause the committee in charge
frustrated the efforts "of this law-
less element to gain entry and dis-

element resorted to the hoax of
a timie-bomb threat,

While the committee was con-
vinced that the anonymous phone
call was a hoax, calculated to in-
timidate and prevent the meet-
ing, it was left with no other al-
ternative than to accept the’ police
cancellation under protest. A sub-
sequent search of the theatre prem-
ises by the police has confirmed

pure and simple. — |

This is not the first time in Win-

free speech

rupt the meeting from within, this’

the opinion that it was a jhoax—

nipeg, nor in Canada, that. fascist
elements brought here from Europe

by the Dominion government have
been allowed to_interfere with law-
ful meetings of Canadian citizens.

These fascist eléments fear
friendship with the Soviet Union
because they want to see a war
against our northern neighbor—
just as Hitler did. They do not
want Canadians to hear the truth
about the Soviet Union, just as
Hitler kept his ‘nation in ignor-
ance. They fear the truth be-
cause it leads to understanding,

, and that understanding leads to
friendship and ee

The Canadian-Soviet Friendship
Society is composed of people of
different political faiths and reli-
gions, who are interested in seek-’
ing. an understanding of the peo-
ple of the Soviet Union, their way
of life, their work ‘and achieve-
ments. 4 : ;

this aim, that the meeting was
called to hear the report of Ald.
J. Penner, the head of the Can-
adian delegation which recently
visited the Soviet Union, Half
the program was to have been
devoted to questions by the audi-
ence, :

But it is the responsibility of
the police authorities to render
such threats harmless and to
make it possible for the citizens
to exercise the basic right of
public meeting and discussion in.
conditions of safety. Otherwise,
any crank, lunatic or fascist can
become the means by which the
police can deny the people the
right and freedom to meet and
speak. J

It was! in this spirit, and with |’

have to be turned away,” says the
report. “The girls come from up-
country, the interior and from the
east. The accomodation provided
through: the YWCA is quite insuf-
ficient to cope’ with the influx; the
hostels could be filled three or four
times over.”

Greedy landlords charge fantastic
prices for wretched accomodation.
The VHA report states:

“It is common experience that
the accomodation in lodging
houses, if found by the girls at
all and if withing their income,
is usually without heat or hot
water. The girls who feel them-
selves most fortunate are those
who can get a small room in
hotel-type accomodation, because
this has heat in it. For this they
have to pay $9 or $10 a week,
as against $6 a week for a room
without heat. In these rooms, .
however, there are no housekeep-
ing facilities and the girls must
eat in chean restaurants.” ‘
Lying newspaper ads cause many
weary room-hunters to trudge use-
less miles, only to find that the
“bright room with kitchenette” is \
just another in an endless series
of matchbox-size hovels. ’
Landlords and landladies are of;
ten unsatisfactory, too. “It’s no
as difficult to find a half decent
place as it is to find a half-decent
landlord,” laments one girl.
,Another says: “The landlady is
a little too snoopy ‘about one’s
private affairs, visitors, ete. Also
does not like the bathroom used
during the night unless one is ill.’”

“Although you rent the place,”
one girl complains, “most land-
ladies consider our accomodation
is still. theirs.” Also, says one,
“During working hours the owner
often‘ comes into my room.”

The survey showed that 47 per-
cént of the girls show a marked de-
sire for separate apartments, and—
82 percent prefer to cook their own
meals rather than have them pro-
vided for them! ?

ok x x A
~ Recormhmendations of the Van- —
couver Housing Association are as
follows: ‘ j

@ That a vigorous program
to bring all rooming and lodging
houses up to a reasonable stand-
ard of occupancy be set on foot
by the city. —

@ That, if the necessary funds
and staff can be made available,
a field survey of houses in mul- _
tiple occupancy be cartied out
by an appropriate private agency,
to provide factual evidence on
existing conditions and to deter.
mine the effectiveness of the pre-
sent efforts of the city health de-
‘partment to raise lodging house
standards. ; .

@ That the present lower limit
of 400 square feet on the permiss-
able floor area of an apar:ment
unit in certain districts, be re
duced to 350 square feet; and that

suites in the zoning by-laws g0V- —
erning site densities, | oN

@ That provision be made in
the city zoning~and building by-
laws. for the erection of ‘
accomodation for single persons —
including the provision of indi- —
vidual’ cooking facilities, subject
to special council approval, suc |
approval to be dependent on ad& _
quate assurance that the building —
would remain under the control :
of an approved non-profit or lim-
ited dividend organization. _ -

@..That consideration be give?
by interested groups to (a) the —
erection of hostels of the tyPe —
outlined above; (b) club accomo~"
dation providing board and lod&- —
ing for single girls. — \

@ That consideration be give?
to the need for a pe t
housing registry, similar to that
operated by the Emergency
Shelter Administration up
1946, to aid both single persons
and families in their search f0F

é

| Suitable accomodation.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 15, 1951 — PAGE &

recognition be given to bachelor —