THE PROTESTANT School Board of Montreal and the 3,000
member Montreal Protestant Teachers Association have signed a
collective agreement providing salary increases of about $500 a
year. The agreement was ratified in a secret ballot vote. The new
salary range is from $3,800 to $11,950, compared with $3,300 to

$10,500 previously.

*

AT LAST the down-trodden and oppressed bosses are speak-
ing out. V. W. Scully, a “humble businessmen,”. who also happens
to be chairman and chief executive officer of the Steel Company
of Canada told a recent meeting of the Toronto Canadian Club
that: “Despite the claims of others to the contrary, the real bur-
den of developing and maintaining the economy of this country
rests on the shoulders of the businessman.

“His courage, wisdom, foresight and integrity are the props
on which this welfare state rests. Whatever may have been his
origin, the immensity of his contribution to Canada’s advancement

cannot be -over-stated.

“However, being resilient and dedicated to our jobs, we just
go on rolling with the punches and hurdling as well as we can
over the obstacles that are engineered to confound us.”

Not only that, but Mr. Scully is very modest.

*

RECENTLY the United Automobile Workers
States played host to a visiting delegation of Soviet trade union-*

*
in the United

ists. The 12 man group visited several American cities and toured
the giant River Rouge Ford plan. The delegation was kept pretty
much under wraps and no publicity was given to their visit. It is
now being reported that the U.A.W. will reciprocate the visit and
a group of American unionists will visit the Soviet Union during
the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Revolution.

Coleman strikers

get backing from
Toronto unionists

Council delegates also endors-
ed a resolution demanding that
the inquiry into the dismissal of

The strike at the Coleman
Lamp Company was again the
centre of discussion at the To-
ronto and District Labor Coun-
cil. The discussion followed a
report by executive member
Terry Meager who along with
Jim Bury had met with the
strikers to formulate proposals
for solidarity action.

The report included proposals
for a boycott of Coleman pro-
ducts, a brief to the Etobicoke
Council, demonstrations at the
Etobicoke Council, Queen’s
Park, the United States embassy
and the Coleman booth at Expo.
The report included also a re-
commendation that at an up-
coming meeting, which was to
involve the strikers, the Labor
Council executive, the Metro
council of CLC locals and CLC
and other officials, the question
of mass demonstrations at the
plant in defiance of the injunc-
tion should be decided.

Although a number of dele-
gates spoke on the CLC policy
of fighting injunctions, urging

that a. resolution of the CLC’

Federal Local 24739 for contin-
ued mass demonstrations at the
plant be adopted, on the urging
of Harry Simon, CLC Ontario
representative, the TLC went
along with the original proposi-
tion: to refer this resolution to
the coming meeting.

Dr. Morton Shulman be far-
reaching and completely impar-
tial. It urged that the terms of
reference be made as strong as
possible and that they include
an inquiry into the whole sys-
tem of coroners and indicated
their protest in the “strongest
possible terms against the hand-
ling of the Shulman affair by
the present government.”

TLC vice-president Murray
Tate obviously expressed the
delegates’ opinions when, speak-
ing to the resolution, he refer-
red to the fact that the Tory
government only wants “rubber
stamps and yes men’. He re-
minded delegates that the man
who fired Shulman, Attorney-
General Wishart, was the man
who conducted the vendetta
against the Tilco strikers. “The
Tory party,” he said, ‘is like an
apple with a shiny surface and
a decayed core.”

Council in addition called on
the Robarts government to as-
sume a greater share of the cost
of education in the province in
view of the mounting municipal
taxes, reiterated its demand for
a rental review board and called
on the provincial government to
take action against the proposed
hike in real estate commissions
in the Toronto area.

By RAE MURPHY

N A sense we are bred on the

similarities between the labor

movement in Canada and the
United States, and tend to over-
look the differences. After at-
tending the special International
Convention of the United Auto-
mobile Workers in Detroit, and
especially after listening to
Walter Reuther’s speech con-
deming the leadership of the
AFL-CIO, one is tempted to
shout out: “Vive la différence!”

Reuther, in rather gory detail.
spelled out to the delegates the
corruption and degeneracy of
the right-wing leadership of the
American Jabor movement. Tied
cheek by jowl with American
imperialism, George Meany and
his_band of aging Florida sue
worshipers have tied the U.S.
labor movement to a set of the
most reactionary foreign and
domestic policies of the ruling
circles of the country.

Reuther pointed to the lack
of public confidence in the lead-
ers of the labor movement.
“Why is it,” he said, “that when
a public opinion poll was made
some time back and the Ame-
rican public was asked? ‘In
whom do-you have the most
confidence? In ministers? Cor-
poration executives? University
presidents? In the medical soci-
ety? In labor leaders? In the ad-
vertising field?’ where do you
think the labor leaders came
cut?

“They came out recond to the
lowest place. The only group
that got a smaller vote of con-
fidence was the Madison Avenue
hucksters. They were micros-
copically below us.

“Now, why? Why is that the

* American people feel this way

about the American labor move-

ment? Well, it is because the
American labor movement is not

_being true to the things it is

supposed to be about. This is
why we have got to look at our-
selves.”

Reuther left out a lot of
things in his speech. He omitted
his complicity in this tragie
situation. He was also some-
what fulsome in praise of his
own Jeadership which suffers, if
even nowhere to the same de-
gree as some of the other Ame-
rican unions, from the same
virus of galloping bureaucratitis.

During the discussion on the
relationships of the UAW to the
AFL-CIO,.Reuther was reminded
by Albert Taylor, of Local 222

WALTER REUTHER

in Oshawa. that ©
visaged of eventual
in the States wou
over into Canadas
fully made this Pp?

Whatever the di
ious problems that
labor movement,
much a different”
the policy problems
very different dimen

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chest, it iS natural
portant to ty an t
dispassionate 100k ae
pened at the Com
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workers in the © i
tions — wage pa
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its broader sens€ ‘ wil
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ada.
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a union
contradictions.
tween skilled
workers, petweet
the “Big Three” an®
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union in auto 4! R
and other sections
body of 1,600,000 att
There are “a
which exist betwe™
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surgent ran '
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President Wallte! |
all his glibness i
micks, can't cover
It was perhaps iy
that impressed
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did not act like a
ence, summo3 ki
great man sped felt
their presence ~
outset. . ie
Impressive rap

Off their jobs—into the "

DETROIT
HE historically militant and
vocal rank and file of the
United Auto Workers
streamed from the plants into
the union’s special economic
convention here to demonstrate
before the delegates and their
president, Walter .Reuther, that
they want the working condi-
tions of 1,330,000 production
workers not to be forgotten in
the 1967 negotiations with
General Motors, Ford, Chrysler
and 300 parts and supplier em-
ployers. :
In a pouring rain, at 8.30 a.m..
April 21, hundreds of afternoon
shift workers came to Cobo
Hall and picked up signs with
demands and began marching
before the convention hall. As
the 3,000 delegates filed into
their seats, the demonstrators
poured in behind them led by a
youth band playing, “As the
Saints Go Marching In.” The
demonstrators were mostly in
their work clothes, well integ-
rated, and with scores of women

workers walking alongside youth
and “greybeards,” ready to leave
the plants to strike if necessary
to win this demands.

Their signs read:

“Production workers demand
respect.”

“The stop wateh tells how
long but not how hard.”

“Establish a Production Work-
ers Council.”

“In 1957 sweat shops and in
1967 slave shops — we've had
enough.” :

“Production workers want
better conditions in 1967.”

“Sanitize the shops.”

“End compulsory overtime.”

“Hold down work standards,
throw out the stopwatch.”

“Humane working conditions,
portable pensions.”

“Every year, more work and
more work for us.”

“Don’t forget us production
workers, Walter!”

“End discrimination, upgrade
women workers.”

“Ford, GM, Chrysler workers

W Ut
need your helP: 7 sal
“We want 10% *
line.”
“No work in $F
“Brother Reuula
recognize the lh
“we want 5

“working COM 6”
us before we ret os
“No blank

The demons th
ners
rte see, theta
to work in ©"
They wanted

on speedup;
to be spelled @

May 5, 1967—PACIFIC q