FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1966 VOL. 27, NO. 23 EE 10¢ Why did Sun a THE COLUMBIA RIVER SCANDAL ban labor adv PROTEST NAZI SPEECH IN TORONTO. The Toronto Globe and Mail carried this picture showing mounted police moving in to break circle. UP a massive demonstration of more than 4,- Forest strike looms as contract expires British Columbia’s giant forest industry faces the prospect of a Shutdown next week unless the siant monopolies abandon their “hard line” stand in negotations with the 26 000 coastal wood- Workers represented by the In- ternational Woodworkers of America, This was the situation shaping d Up as industrial commissioner Mr. Justice Nathan Nemetz held talks this week with both sides. Little headway was made in €arlier talks between the IWA and the employers, The em- Ployers are insisting that the Union agree to an iron-clad ban On wildcat strikes and submit to their demand for a seven-day-a- Week operation with shifts stag- ered, The present contract expires on June 15. Last Saturday, members of the Vancouver local voted to give strike notice to the employers before the contract expires, The large meeting auth- orized preparation of a strike headquarters and a walkout at 12:01 A.M. on that date. Syd Thompson, president of the 7,000-member Vancouver local, aye that a threat of strike is the only thing the companies understand, “If the companies stay firm on the seven-day week there’ll be a strike for sure,” he added, Other IWA locals in B.C. are expected to adopt a similar stand to the Vancouver local, which —eould make next Tuesday mid- night, D-Day in the woods, 000 people last Sunday to protest a speech by Nazi leader William Beattie, shown in SYD THOMPSON, president of Van-- couver’s 7,000 member IWA local, said this week a strike looms if com- panies insist on hard line. . ployee-employer Bennett’ giant hoax —See page 2 d Province rtisement? The Vancouver Sun and Province, tied together through Pacific Press, refused last week to publish as a paid advertisement a letter sent to Premier W. A. C. Ben- nett by the B.C. Federation of Labor and the Vancouver Labor Council, requesting that a public inquiry be held into the events surrounding the Lenkurt dispute. The letter, which the Sun and Province banned from its pages, was signed by E. P. O’Neal, secretary of the B.C. Federation of Labor, and C. P. Neale, secretary of the Vancouver and District Labor Council. Addressed as an “Appeal to the Premier of British Colum- bia,” the letter says: “At the request of trade unions affiliated with the B.C, Federa- tion of Labor and the Vancouver & District Labor Council, in con- ference this date, we urge your Government to appoint a Com- missioner under the Public In- quiries Act to investigate and report publicly upon all the cir- cumstances relating to the dispute involving employees of the Lenkurt Electric Company of Canada, Burnaby, B.C, “We submit that an impartial and public inquiry, for which statutory provision is made, would be in the public interest for the following reasons: “1, Approximately two hundred persons have been deprived of employment by action of the Com- pany designed to penalize them for their protest against an alleged breach of faith during negotia- tions, Their plight has won the sympathy and financial support of thousands of trade unionists who firmly believe that unendur- able conditions imposed by the Company provoked the employees to an act of desperation, The evidence on this point should be weighed judicially, “2. In an effort to gain humane consideration for the jobless em- ployees and restore normal em- relations, a Committee of the B.C, Federa- tion of Labor and the Vancouver Labor Council met with the Com- pany officials, These officials would not abandon their vindictive attitude and consider a-mutually satisfactory settlement of the dispute, “3. Our affiliated trade unions have experienced widespread re- sentment caused by the belief that ex parte injunctions were issued on the basis of mislead- ing evidence furnished by the Company and enforced in a manner that unjustly exposed in- nocent bystanders to contempt proceedings, Without an impar- tial probe of all the facts, con- tempt proceedings against indi- — viduals will not permit con- sideration of all the factors nor will they be conducive to improved labor-management relations in this province, **4. We are informed that our affiliates are in possession of evidence to the effeci that mem- bers of the RCMP and the Com- pany’s security force, not in uniform, deliberately incited violence during apeaceabledem- onstration of protest in the vicnity of the Company’s prem- ises. We have been assured by your Ministers that the police will not act as strike-breakers or agents provocateur, We therefore believe that the validity of any such evidence should be judicially determined, “5, There is reason for appre- hension that failure to render full justice to all concerned in this dispute will adversely affect labor-management relations across the province, The propos- ed public inquiry would have a salutary effect, “We direct your attention to the fact that the Company is part of a public utility complex enjoy- ing monopolistic privileges by consent of Parliament.” There is great concern inB.C, labor circles over the action of the monopoly press in Vancouver blacking-out the proposal of labor for a full inquiry into the events and circumstances surrounding this dispute, Many people in labor’s ranks are asking whether there is any connection between the rejection of the advertisement by the Sun and Province and the fact that the general manager of Pacific Press is Edward Benson, a member of the Board of Governors of the Commercial and Industrial Re- search Foundation (CIRF), a big business front organization setup recently to combine forces against labor, Members of the labor move- ment are also aware that Benson was last week named second vice- president of the B.C, Chamber of See LABOR, pg. 3 :