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Fight against Sand

By MIKE GIDORA

The Gagliardis — former Socred

Shways minister, Phil and sons

b and Bill — are continuing in
their efforts to erect three Sand-
Man Inns in the province with
Solely non-union labor but building

ades unions have managed to
Score some points in an upward
battle against the anti-union
family,

Sizeable demonstrations have

ken place at all three sites with
Many of the battles moving into the

faring room of ‘the Labor
Relations Board.

Appearing before the LRB, as
Project superintendent in charge of
Construction, Phil Gagliardi ut-
ered the incredible comment that

€ has ‘always been a_ strong
Supporter of trade unions” and that

S “record will bear this out.’’

_ In March of this year, a laborer
Working on the Sandman site quit,
and complained to the LRB on the

Sis that he had not been
“orrectly paid for overtime
Worked. The LRB investigated the
“omplaint and ordered Gagliardi

Pay the worker in the proper
Manner,

In April a cheque was sent to the
*mployee in question,: but along
With it was a letter bearing the
Signature of Gagliardi’s son Bob,
and entitled: ‘‘So-called overtime
Payment.”” The letter reads, in
Part, “there are some people in

IS world who will stoop to any
Measure to benefit themselves.

9U are one of these people. We in
20 Way owe you this money, but the
nuisance you are creating is not
Worth the amount owed.”

After this expression of ‘“‘strong
SUpport”’ for organized labor

gliardi proceeded to go one step
Urther. In January, a member of

€ International Brotherhood of

arpenters and Joiners Local 452,

was successful in being hired at the
Sandman site.

The employee, Phil Hebbard,
started work on January 14. By
January 17, Gagliardi had learned
that he was a union member, and
Hebbard was. promptly fired,
solely because of -his union
membership.

The Building Trades Council
immediately appealed the firing
and Hebbard was rehired before

the hearing, only to be fired again ©

on February 4, 1975. Once again the
Building Trades Council appealed
the firing on the grounds. that
Gagliardi had- violated the B.C.
Labor Code. After hearings lasting
into April, Gagliardi was ordered
to reinstate Hebbard with full back
wages retroactive to the date of his
dismissal. In making the ruling,
Board member Angus MacDonald
made the point that there had been
a “systematic effort to keep the job
non-union’’ and to “‘weed out trade
unionists applying for the job.”

Gagliardi continued to flout the
authority of the LRB, and it was
only on May 26, that Hebbard was
allowed to return to the job, but he
has yet to receive his back pay,
which totals somewhat in.excess of
$4,000.

Phil Gagliardi, has still not fully
accepted the ruling of the LRB,
and has launched an appeal to the
Supreme Court of B.C. in what may
be. an effort to return British
Columbia industrial relations to
the days of his Socred government
where the courts played a
prominent role in suppressing
labor’s just demands. At the same
time, the LRB has launched an
action against Gagliardi to ensure
that Hebbard will receive the
money owed him as a result of his
illegal dismissal.

Bob Ritchie, of the Provincial
Council of Carpenters’ told the

| Frenes
of
labour \
THE >

: GAGARDIS

Trade unionists demonstrating outside Sandman site in Vancouver April 11.

Tribune that work continues on the
Sandman site, though at a very
slow pace. ‘It took them four
weeks to prepare for the pouring of
a slab, a job that any competent
union company would have done in
one and a half weeks,’ he said.

The length of time involved in the
project — already more than 14
months with only one floor above
street level — coupled with recent
disclosures that Gagliardi received

man continues

fore fn bl

g INFORMATION

) INFORMATION, |
PICKETING /

a $20,000 loan- from B.C. Hydro
while a member of the Socred
cabinet to finance the Sandman
Inn, has raised some questions as
to the possibility that the
Gagliardis are receiving other
financial backing to support their
bid for non-union contracting in the
province. The other questions
involve support from notorious
right-to-work associations who are
attempting to gain a foothold in
Canada.

PICKETING /

—Sean Griffin photo

The Building Trades Council
remains committed to a program
to organize the Sandman Inn
construction projects, and has
received full support from the
whole of the labor movement. With
this support, the construction site
is no longer completely non-union,
though still viciously anti-labor,
and recent events have shown that
no effort will be spared by
Gagliardi in his unholy crusade
against labor.

called the Committee for the

tivities.”’ Prior to the outbreak of

Bill may end 15-year exile for MacKay

By FRED WILSON

, After 25 years of persecution, 15

M xile, under the McCarthyite
€Carran Act, imprisoned
Umerous times and_ finally

j, potted away from his home and
amily in Portland, Oregon,

fmuish MacKay may yet win his
au against the cold war hysteria

the U.S.A.’s ruling circles.

Accused of having belonged to

©Communist Party of the United
tes during the 1930’s, MacKay '

th

“| 88 deported to Canada in 1960

— an ll-year battle that took
to the U.S: Supreme Court.
‘ ut the injustice of his case was:

“membered. And no better news
f d have come for his 70th bir-
=
Opeublican congressman from
teem. Mark Hatfield, has in-
whee’ a bill in the U.S. Senate
ss Ch would permit him to return

Me to Oregon. :

The bill, now in the hands of a
ss qc committee, names MacKay
Pin William Mackie — in exile in
~viland — but has implications for
rea those deported for political

Sons from the U.S. since the end
mo ‘orld War II. In Oregon alone
faj.c than 300 people suffered a

Similar to MacKay.

it ugh never formally ad-

ted, he is sure that it was his
fee © union and political activity
citi tich he was denied American
1995 pShi. Born in Calgary in
Citi, his parents were American
ee and moved their. family
apni to the U.S. in 1924. In 1936 he
but ‘ed for American citizenship
Verne wowed no reply. Thirteen
Oh ad later when the deportation

T came he was still classified
8n alien, even though steadily

last Tuesday that a gy

employed, married and owning his
own home.

He canremember well the day in
August, 1949 when upon arriving
home from work, ‘‘my mother
introduced me to two men who then
gave me a deportation order
because I belonged to an
organization which advocated the
forceful overthrow of the govern-
ment.”

The next five and a half days
were spent in the Portland jail and
began an 11-year battle that would
spark a movement. .

After getting out on $1,000 bail —
originally set at $2,000 — MacKay
found he was not alone. Three
others, including Bill Mackie had
also been issued deportation or-
ders: © >.

“A group of neighbors ~and
friends along with some union
members formed a committee to
help us,” he recalled. “It was

' Defense of the Oregon Four.”

Events moved quickly and in

1950 with the passage of the Mc-.

Carran Act the deportation orders
were removed, but replaced with a
new set — this time stating that he
was, or had been, a member of the
Communist Party. ;

_ Three more names were added
to the deportation list in Oregon.
They were Filipinos, and members
of the Cannery Workers Union.
“The Oregon Four didn’t fit
anymore,”’ MacKay continued, “‘it
developed into a much broader
committee — the Committee For
the Protection of Oregon’s Foreign
Born.” The new committee found
support in a number of trade
unions, as well as from the Oregon
farmers’ organization and Parent

Teachers Associations — in both of ©

which MacKay was an active
member.

While the committee went to the
public, MacKay and his six
associates went to court. The state
charged that he had been a
member of communist front
organizations and in particular,
the Worker’s Alliance of America.
“T was a member,” MacKay says,
“it was a depression organization
to put Americans back to work and
recognized by the U.S. government
as the official organization of the
unemployed.”’

MacKay had been an open
member of two other groups on the
list of the 300 subversive and
communistic organizations. They
were the American League against
War and Fascism and the In-
ternational Labor Defense.

He can remember the specific
charges of his ‘‘subversive ac-

the war a Nazi battleship sailed to
Portland and was to be met by the
mayor. The courts charged that
MacKay was responsible for the
painting of the sea wall with the
words ‘‘Free Ernest Thaelman,”’
the leader of the German Com-
munist Party.

Another charge was that he
painted sidewalks in Portland with
slogans reading ‘‘Vote com-
munism vs. fascism.”’ “‘That was a
wrong slogan anyway,’ he quip-
ped.
One act he did do and admitted to
was the organizing of information
pickets around an Italian ship, the
Cellina, in 1937. It was loading war
goods for use in Ethopia. “I am
proud to have done that,” he says.
“Tam proud of everything we did.”

For 11 long years the deportation

order was appealed to each higher.

court in succession. It was a
painful process, he noted, for
“each time the case was passed on
to a higher court I was arrested
and had a higher bail set.”’ By the
time it reached the Supreme Court
in 1959, he was arrested and held
for three weeks while he raised
$5,000 cash for the bail.

The defense committee did ~

excellent public work on behalf of
the defendents — “using - every
angle,” as MacKay put it — but it
was to no avail. Not even the ad-

dition of the powerful Methodist

Federation for Social Action to the
defense campaign could soften the
attitude of the state.

The long road came to an end in
1960. The Supreme Court case was
fought in the name of Bill Mackie
with the outcome governing
MacKay’s destiny. The defense

was based on the first amendment
to the American constitution, that
section guaranteeing freedom of
speech and press. It lost by a vote
of five to four and in November
both MacKay and Mackie were
deported. Of the others, four won
their cases on technicalities and
one had died in the interim. -

Over the past 15 years, MacKay
has been granted a special permit
on rare occasions to visit his
mother, now 95 years of age. He
also; has 26 grandchildren in
Oregon and about eight great-
grandchildren. Nothing could
make him happier than to regain
the freedom to live among
relatives and friends if he so
chooses.

But he isn’t holding his breath.
Knowing the ways of the state well,
he reminds that “‘it (the bill) could
stay in that committee forever.’

In the meantime he has a lot to
do in his new home. Although 70, he
has maintained his membership in
local 452 of the Carpenters union
and serves on its organizational
committee. Residing in Burnaby,
MacKay is an executive member
of the Burnaby Citizens
Association.

All of that aside, he is a fixture
each and every week and almost
every day .on the information
picket surrounding the non-union
Sandman construction project in
Vancouver.

For most of his adult life Hamish
MacKay has fought on principle for
a principle. And even in defeat and
exile he has maintained and
continued to fight for those prin-
ciples. If victory finally comes, it
will be much more than a personal
triumph.

» PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 13, 1975—Page 11