100,000 new jobs for B.C. workers -- 1

New ships wou

By KEITH RALSTON

Id make 2,500 jobs

Some 2,500 new jobs for beached seamen and unemployed shipyard workers and $6,500,000 more on the British Columbia payroll.
This is the very least the province would gain from the building and operation of a new Canadian merchant fleet. These figures are rock-bottom
ones, based on the putting into service of only 30 modern fast cargo ships of the kind that call daily at the Port of Vancouver. Could we do it!

We already have — B.C. shipyards built more than 250 good cargo ships during the Second World War and in 1945 some 45 ships made
their homes on the Pacific Coast. ;

It’s a sad story. how the Canadian merchant marine
and shipbuilding industry declined from a postwar peak
of-.more than 300 deepsea ships and nearly 50,000 ship-

yard workers.

B.C., a great exporting province, has suffered more

than its share of the cuts.

In 1954 the last deepsea ship

of 45 has been transferred to British registry and the
19,000-man B.C. shipyards have shrunk to about 6,000

workers.

There were fair promises from the’ Canadian govern-

ment at the war's end.

“We are not going to repeat

past mistakes,’ Liberal cabinet minister Ian MacKenzie

told Vancouver shipyard workers
in a victory message of 1945.

“Tt is the determined policy of
the present government that Can-
ada is in the shipbuilding busi-
ness for good,” he said. “The
ships you built will carry Canada’s
trade to the ends of the world,
creating employment and oppor-
tunities for Canadian workers.”

Nine years later James Thomp-
son, West Coast Seamen’s Union
official, could say “It is not the
policy of the-Canadian government
to have any merchant marine.

“It’s the only conclusion that can
be drawn,” he said as he told of
the refusal of the Ottawa authori-
ties to consider any measures to
prevent the wiping out of the West
Coast fleet.

First move in the scuttling of
our merchant marine was the bar-
gain basement sale of government-
owned freighters’ at the end of the
war. Over 400 ships worth a mil-
lion and a half dollars each were
sold to private owners for $500,000
apiece.

Of course the government insist-
ed that they sail under the Can-
adian flag, or, if sold, the treasury
would hold the money which had
to be used to build more ships in
Canadian yards. :

But the shipowners were deter-
mined not to let anything stand
in the way of their grab for big
profits. Not content with getting
the ships at fire sale prices, they
reached out for those extra dol-

Shipyards and lumber mills along the water’s edge are a feature of the landscape ‘in North Vancouver.

lars to be made from transferring
them to foreign flags.

Standing in the way of this sell-
out was the Canadian Seamen’s
Union that had won the eight hour
day and wage gains. for the seamen
in some mighty battles. The union
fought a statesman-like campaign
to “Save the Merchant Marine.”

So the CSU had to go. With the
connivance of the St. Laurent gov-
ernment, American-directed scabs
broke the CSU in a strike battle
that raged around the world.

From then on, the Canadian
merchant marine shrunk steadily.
Many ships were sold outright, 100
were transferred to British regis-
try to take advantage of lower
wages, the West Coast fleet was
wiped out and only about 20 deep-
sea ships remain on the East Coast.

The shipowners were able to

have their cake and eat it too.

The sale money held by the treas-
ury was returned to them to use
in building lake and coastal ship-
ping. Their vrofits from the Brit-
ish-operated ships are flowing in.

The people who suffered most
were the Canadian seamen, forced
out of an industry with no future,
and the shipyard workers whose
jobs vanished. The Canadian peo-
ple, too, suffered the loss of inde-
pendence that comes to a great
exporting nation that depends com-
pletely. on foreign ships to trans-
port its goods.

Can Canada’s merchant fleet sail

The biggest lumber cargo in B.C. history was shipped from Vancouver this year on the Pana-
manian ship SS. Ceres. Only a few years ago 45 Canadian ships operated from this port: today nof
a single deepsea ship sailing out of Vancouver flies the Canadian flag.

again? The main thing needed is
a change in the volicies of the
Ottawa authorities who ran it
aground. ;
The reason that Canadian ships
had a hard time getting cargoes
can be seen in the figures of over-
seas trade. Our shiv-borne trade
was cut practically in half between
1945 and 1952. e But our trade
with the United States, mostly land
traffic, doubled in that period.

Only if Canada comes out from
behind the dollar curtain, accepts
sterling for our goods and opens
up trade with Asia and the social-
ist world can we hope to support
a merchant fleet. Here in B.C.
trade with China is the key prob-
lem.

Exports of- machinery, lumber,

11,000 shipyard workers in British Columbia; in 1954 the figure has shrunk to less than 6,000.

wheat to the Far East could mean
a boom in every port along the
B.C. coast from Prince Ruvert to
Victoria, and especially in Port of
Vancouver. This would help over-
come the adjustment which will
take place when the St. Lawrence
Seaway opens the heart of the
continent to ocean shipping.

What kind of ships would have
the best chance of competing? Ex-
perts all agree that fast 16-18 knot
“express” freighters would be
ideal.

According to James Thompson,
official of the West Coast Seamen’s
Union, a flotilla of 30 such ships,

operating from Pacific ports, could |

give year-round jobs to at least
1,000 B.C. seamen. :
Unless quick action is taken to

In 1945 there were

provide jobs for Canadian seamed,
there will be no vool of trained
men who can be called on to man
new ships. The federal depart
ment of transport says that it takes
three years deck experience t0
make an.able seaman. The Na-
tional Association of Marine En-
gineers estimates that four years
sea time are required before 2
junior officer can take over 4
watch. :

Yet union officials say that al
ready many men of long seniority
have left the sea because of the
dark future facing the merchant
marine.

Building of even a few new cargo
ships in British Columbia ship-
yards would give a’ big shot in the
arm to an ailing industry. Marine
Workers’ and Boilermakers’ Union
leaders have given a great deal
of study to this problem. :

The construction of just tw0
modern “express” ships in B:C. ~
shipyards would mean jobs for
1,200 to 1,500 shipyard workers for
two years, according to Bill White,
president of the Marine Workers
Union. Each contract would be
worth six to seven million dollars.

Skilled shipyard workers, trai-
ed in the Second World War, are
also seeking jobs in other , indus
tries, according to White. It 15
now difficult to supply tradesmen?
when there is. a sudden spurt 1
the yards. —

The Marine Workers Union in 4
recent survey of the needs of Cal-
ada’s maritime industries, pointe
to the need for recognition 9
China and vastly extended trade
with the Far East. They coupled
with this a demand that all ships
in the coastal trade be built and
maintained in Canadian’ yards.
was also recommended that any
subsidies by the government be
paid only to companies building
and maintaining their ships in Ca
ada. ‘ :

Opinion is sharply divided 0”
the aeed for and the value of su?
sidies but all agree that the cost
would be small—$100,000 a sliP
is the amount mentioned. :

_ The labor movement has a vital
interest in any action along thes¢

lines. It means 2,500 new jobs
for unemployed B.C. workers 22!

more money in paychecks meats
more money for the whole com
munity.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 9, 1954 — PAGE 10