Union Quiz Badly by Morden Lazarus _A little experiment to find out how much information the average trade unionist carries about in his head was a conducted at the CLC summer school at Port Elgin during one of the week’s sessions. A questionnaire was given to about 80 trade unionists asking specific questions about com- munity and national affairs. Some of them were relatively easy, some were rather tough. For Example For example the answers to the question, “Did you vote in the last election?” were: Municipal 50 Yes Provincial 61 Yes Federal 63 Yes All this proves that the average trade unionist is the average citizen. A good percentage don’t vote. Ten said they were active in the Community Chest (perhaps be cause unions actively co-operate with the Chest appeal), 23 were in Home and School associations (pretty good) but only 13 in Rate- payers associations. Unionists ‘’Giyers” Fifty nine contributed to the United Appeal which must be way ahead of the national average. A majority also contributed to the Salvation Army, Red Cross, etc. Trade unionists are “givers.” More than half of them knew their federal and provincial rid- ings, but fewer than half knew their federal and provincial mem- bers’ names. Almost 100% knew Diefen- baker’s name, 60% named the Governor-General, about half knew the name of the CCF leader (federal or provincial). Two-thirds knew the name of the federal Liberal leader, but only 40% knew the name of the provincial Liberal leader. Jodoin Unknown Surprisingly enough only 51 out of the 80 knew that Claude Jodoin was president of the Canadian Labour Congress and even fewer knew the name of the CLC secretary-treasurer or the presi- dent of the Ontario Federation of Labour. - As for naming the heads of im- portant unions in Canada such as Steel, Auto, UPWA, IWA. etc., this stumped most of them com- pletely. Room for more education? How much do YOU know? Misunderstanding Splits Negro-Labour Community “GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING” appears to exist between the Negro community and the labour community declared Phillip Randolph, an AFL-CIO vice-president recently. “This is an un- fortunate development. It ought not to exist. It must and will be resolved” he said. It was suggested that racist elements were trying to gain control in southern locals. President George Meany declared “I am confident that the day will come when we will have finally translated America’s promise of citizenship for all her people into actuality. more satisfaction! more life, ‘advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Board or by the Government of British Columbia WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER ist Issue IWA REGIONAL PRESIDENT Joe Morris, centre, addressing the Regional Delegate Conference in Vancouver, August 6, in which he gave the Conference the facts regarding developments which accompanied the deci- sions of the Canadian Labour Congress to enter into the formation of a new political party. Platform group from left: Bob Ross, Regional 2nd Viye-President; Jack Moore, Regional Ist Vice-President; Joe Morris; George Mitchell, Regional Secretary-Treasurer; George Home, CLC Director of Political Education, Editorial ———— aa Opportunity HE unanimity with which IWA delegates attending the Regional Conference on political action decided to support the CCF—B.C. Federation of Labour Joint Campaign Committee to elect a CCF Government in B.C., indicated organized labour’s determination to use the ballot box to achieve labour’s legislative objectives. The decision came after many years of waiting patiently, but in vain, for succeeding governments to deal | justly with labour’s legitimate demands. Final disillusion- ment with the time-honored “hat in hand” political re- presentations was the refusal of the Social Credit Govern- ment to remedy the rank injustices of Bill 43. If the organized workers vote at the polls with the j unity and solidary which they have shown in fighting economic issues, they will write a new and significant chapter in the history of their struggle for social justice. | Unemployment Still High D.B.S. Figures Show A drop of 99,000 in the un- employment figures between May and June has left a total of 300,000 or 4.6 per cent of the working force still out of jobs and looking for work, according to the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Most of the drop occurred in Quebec, but in Ontario and B.C. the improvement was slight for this time of year, DBS reported. Of the 300,000 seeking work in June, 85,000 had been seeking work for less than one month, 91,000 for one to three months and 124,000 for four months or more. The DBS classification of the 110 labour market areas was as follows: (last year’s figures in brackets): in substantial surplus, 3 (1); in moderate surplus, 68 (51); in balance, 39 (58). On the other side of the picture, the number of persons with jobs increased by an estimated 162,000 to 6,154,000. The increase during the month in both farm and non- farm employment was _ about average for this time of year. Larger gains, as is usual in June, occurred in construction and forestry. Britain Reports Labour Seeks End Of U.S. Bases More resolutions calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain, the closing of American bases here, and the withdrawal of Britain from the western alliance, are _ being passed by trade union con- ferences. The Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers, which has about 80,000 votes at the Labour Party conference, has called for unilateral nuclear dis- armament. Similar Call A similar call, and also for the removal of U.S. missile bases, has been made by the Scottish section of the National Union of Mine- workers. The main conference of the N.U.M. took place in July. Abolition of nuclear weapons was urged by the Amalgamated Society of Woodcutting Machinists, and the closing of American bases here by the Asso- ciation of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians. At the moment it now appears that about 2,900,000 votes will be, cast at the Labour Party con- ference against the new policy which the leadership is preparing. About 3,300,000 votes would be needed to reject it, and there are more conferences to come yet. Make saving a_ habit with a SAVINGS ACCOUNT at THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE Aug., 1960 ~