t 3.5 MILLION WORKERS INVOLVED Teamsters, Autoworkers discuss cooperation By WILLIAM ALLAN DETROIT. On June 27, the two biggest unaffiliated unions in the United States, the United Auto Work- ers, (UAW) and the Internatio- nal Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) met away from the pry- ing eyes of reporters for the second time to discuss further ‘ coordinated activity. The developing liason be- tween these two labor giants is bad news for management and is being watched by all sections of organized labor with great in- terest. The first meeting took place a month ago in the IBT headquarters in Washington, D.C. This time the UAW leaders, Walter Reuther, president, along with his top aides were the hosts. The IBT brought to the De- troit sessions, their top figures, Frank “Fitz” Fitzsimmons, act- ing president; Einar Mohn, head of the West Coast States organ- ization; Harold Gibbons, acting Central States chairman; Dusty Miller, top man of the Southern States organization and others. A great deal of give and take discussion on many issues mark- ed the opening hours of the historic sessions, ranging all the way from U.S. politics, the inter- nal situation of the AFL-CIO, some barbs at each other but good-naturedly. There has been reached com- mon understanding, but nothing yet down on paper on a number of issues aimed at improving the bargaining positions of both in their day to day work. These will be worked out in the action stage through reports at the next meeting from a series of sub-committees that were estab- lished this time. Issues to be refined and pro- gramatized are: e A series of joint organizing drives, with the Teamsters pres- sing for a Southern Organizing Drive, but general unionizing drives to be planned. e Joint support to campaign for civil rights, poverty cam- paigns. e Community Services, which covers a vast range of civic issues. @ Politics, the UAW has pro- posed in Michigan a pattern of operations. To set up Citizen- ship Councils of UAW locals, Teamster, Building Trades, United Mine Workers, with 2 cents per month per member to be put into the political action fund. On politics, no candidate for president has been agreed on by either of the two labor giants. Both continue to take the position of no endorsement until after the Aug. 29 national Democratic Party convention in Chicago. Both UAW and Teamsters may call separate national ga- therings of several thousand grass roots leaders to discuss backing a presidential candid- ate after the convention of the political parties. The UAW has already said their national conference on whom to back in the presiden- tial race will be in September in Washington, D.C. and the en- dorsement will be voted up or down via a secret ballot. Both UAW and Teamsters will FRANK MARICLE Frank E. Maricle, leading com- munist and well-known in the farm and labor movement in Alberta, passed away on July 4 in the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, at the age of 58. Born in Oregon (he was a cousin of Oregon’s Democratic Senator, Wayne Morse) he spent his childhood at Vegreville. He farmed for years in the Hamlin district until ill health forced him to give it up. His last years were spent in Edmonton. On his return to his farm from war-time service with the RCAF, he plunged into work in the farm eevwve « ASS pr sess LG y age wEDY MY tate — See PACIFIC TRIBUNE JULY, 12, 1968—Rage 6, Movement and was one of the leading people who organized the mass membership Alberta Farmers’ Union in the late 1940s. He played a decisive role in the AFU merger with the older United Farmers of Alberta which resulted in the formation of the present Farmers Union of Alberta. He served as District Director and Provincial Board member of the FUA in its for- mative years. On moving into Edmonton, he found employment in the hotel trade and immediately became active in trade union organiza- tion. He was a member of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, its delegate to the Ed- monton and District Labor Coun- cil and chaired the Council’s committee on organization at his death. He joined the Communist Party in the 1940s and was a member of the Alberta Provin- cial Committee of the party for over two decades and chaired the Committee for the past six years. He was the party’s can- didate in several federal election campaigns in Vegreville federal. His work for peace singled him out in both the farm and labor movement. He was one of the few Canadians who at- tended the Sheffield-Warsaw world peace conference in 1950. At his death he was an execu- tive member of the Edmonton Committee to End the War in Vietnam. He leaves his wife, Jean, two sons and three daughters, a step- son and step-daughter and two foster daughters. have loads of observers at both Republican and Democrat Party conventions, as well as top people participating with the McCarthy campaign (Harold Gibbons, Central States, Team- ster leader strongly supports McCarthy). In the UAW, Emil Mazey, secretary treasurer is re- ported a McCarthy backer. In two weeks the Teamsters International Executive Board will hold sessions in California and one of the top issues will be the California political scene and what to do. It was learned also that the Teamsters have been getting feelers for affiliation from four of the smaller AFL-CIO Interna- tional Unions who are in desper- ate straits because of lack of strength, funds, organizers and power to be beat back manage- ment attacks. Following the eight month newspaper strike in Detroit, strong talk exists amongst the members of the Newspaper Guild, for the Guild to affiliate to a bigger, more powerful international union. Michigan Teamster leaders, asked about Reuther’s proposal for UAW, Teamsters, Building Trades, United Mine Workers to set up a Citizenship Council, said “we would favor it, would help on candidates, program, re- gistration and defeating the ‘reactionaries, anytime”. The assets of both labor giants are: United Automobile Workers Union, at least $114 million. Teamsters, at least $120 million. UAW has 1.5 million members, Teamsters has almost two million. Teamsters have been quietly signing into all contracts a clause where $5 a year is check- ed off by the employer for each of his employee, for DRIVE (Democrats, Republicans, Inde- pendents Voters Education). As a result, in Michigan where the Teamsters have close to 200,000 members, more than a million dollars is in the DRIVE “kitty”. Duplicate this in 50 states and you have quite a poli- tical action fund. With the UAW also having a massive “Citizenship Fund” of millions, both UAW-IBT through their combined strength, plus the building trades and United Mine Workers, are going to make the 230,000 Michigan AFL-CIO COPE movement pretty small. UAW has about 700,000 mem- bers in Michigan Building Trades, 200,000, UMWA about 50,000. ITH“the federal election now behind us and Trudeaumania_ riding the crest, the post-mortems on how it all happened are taper- ing off, and the Canadian peo- ple, particularly that all-im- portant section we call the workingclass, are experienc- ing what might be termed a political hang-over. Out here in B.C., and I would assume the feeling is pretty general among work- ers everywhere, is the very narrow marginal loss of his seat in Burnaby-Seymore by NDP national leader Tommy Douglas. Nor does the un- seemly haste in NDP Right- wing circles to bury their for- _ward-looking national leader before even the contents of the ballot box proclaim him Officially dead, ease the im- » pact of the hangover. Two prime causes (among a lot of others) contributed to the Trudeaumania defeat of Tommy Douglas.First a cock- sureness by too many of his NDP and other supporters _that victory was a foregone conclusion, and there was nothing to worry about — a sentiment which manifested a gross under-estimation of the political charisma of Trudeau- mania, helped along by an NDP Right-wing in the ranks of organized labor and out of it, who pay lip service to NDP policies and goals, but who in actuality find a closer affinity with the old-line Lib- eral and Tory hucksters for big business. Some even climb into bed with the Socreds when there is enough money in it, as in the case of recent Bill 33 “mediation” appoint- ments. The second prime factor is equally important, and most vital in elections — that of votes. The B.C. Federation of Labor leadership, and perhaps to alesser exten the Vancou- , ver and District Labor Coun- cil, both of which pledged on a number of occasions the “election of NDP _ govern- ment,” as a means of settling with Bill 33 and all that anti- labor sort of thing from monopoly-dominated Estab- lishments, just don’t or can- not or won’t deliver the vote of the tens of thousands they lead in economic struggles. Had either of these central labor bodies mobilized 4 couple of hundred active trade unionists, NDP’ers or not, to take a couple of days during the last week of the. election campaign, in Burna- by-Seymore, handing out leaf- lets, pushing doorbells, giving a resident workingclass elec- torate a few ‘timely tips on the inherent political dangers of a Liberalized Trudeauma- nia aimed at fooling the peo- ple into voting for the same old hamburger in a fancy wrapper, Tommy Douglas’ seat could have been held. | with ease. But that didn’t happen. It is customary in our way- of-life for central labor bo- dies, some trade unions and other organized bodies to cut their scheduled, business ses- sions and activities down by 50 percent or more during the summer months. This of course is a splendid idea, pro- viding there is really nothing doing in labor circles to get all het-up about in hot wea- ther. But when the fate of the one voice which invariably speaks for labor in the Par- liament of Canada — and/or 30 or 40 thousand lumber, steel and other workers may be readying to hit-the-bricks most any day for a pay-enve- lope increase which comes somewhere near to meeting skyrocketting prices and liv- ing costs, then I for one would say that’s a damn poor time to let the doldrums get you down, no matter how much more appealing the open road or a sandy beach may be. There are some first things that just simply must come first if progress is to move forward at all; things that do not permit the luxury of the — doldrums, however pleasant it may be. Whatever the overall final assessment of NDP fortunes in the recent federal election may or may not be, is not the central thesis of this column. My main gripe, along with tens of thousands of others, is that the loss of Tommy Douglas is a major loss to Canada’s working people — and one that could have been avoided with just a little less lip service—and a little more genuine activity. — GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC TODAY Eyewitness Report by Don and Sylvia Currie The Curries recently return- ed from Berlin, GDR where they participated in the 150th Anniversary Seminar commemorating the birth of Karl Marx. Wednesday, July 24, 8 P.M. F.R.C, Hall, 215 Selkirk Ave. Winnipeg Everyone Welcome Bring Friends. Auspices: Communist Party. “Er, would you like to help me get the economy on its feet again?” ECCLES (British Daily Worker) : ee ee ee