ae

Jnion Rejects |
(Malcolm Bruce

Vialcolm Bruce, expelled president of Local No. 2 of Ship-
fehts and Joiners of the Amalgamated Buildiss~Workers
“Sanada, knocked upon the door of labor last week and
Sad it shut as his entrance was barred to a general meeting
Phe local union which he and his colleagues had tried to

Bupt. :

®itolerate disruption by any-
»a who places himself against
will of the rank and file of
jrade union movement. Bruce
: i\-nted his card and was in-
“ed that he was not even a
ber any longer, let alone
ident. A steady flow of
Bbers brushed past him into
feiall, to which he was denied
ig ttanee.
fer the wishes of the mem-
j@ip be had insisted he was
(to be chairman of the
weiing, but the membership of
inion which he had tried to
@en as an organization, util-
® his position as president
ist leading progressives, de-
| otherwise and he had to
“in outside.
'@ is a sorry commentary on a
imi’ respected labor leader that
™ fused to bow to the wishes
'0 trade unionists, shouting,
#7 going in, | won’t be stop-
"= by a rabble.” Defeated in
@ittempts to enter the hall,

\roceeded to denounce his

od

Thill Motion
‘fore House

©} -TORIA, B.C—Tom Uphill’s
)n that the legislature urge
ederal government rescind
' order PC€ 9843 as disrup-
“of war unity came before
(iouse on private members’
® his week, as Uphill pointed
@ hat B.C. federal members
Bsenting ali three major
Ms had gone on record fay-
© such a step.

(®: motion appeared assured
meisSage but for some unex-
wed ©6reason §E. T. Kenny,

ser for Skeena adjourned
| ebate.

sielegation representing the
juyer Island Joint Labor
xu) has arranged to inter-
® the Coalition caucus on the
on, and it is expected the
Fo will pass when it next
™; before the House.

URN Se Nt

|) ie found something else—that trade unionists today will

former fellow union members as
“scabs and lousy rats.” é

Bruce had declared wunconsti-
tuitional the specially summon-
ed meeting at which he and his
cohorts were expelled and had
expressed his determination to
chair the regular meeting, de-
spite the ouster he had received
at the hands of the largest mem-
bership turnout in the history of
the local.
=_Inside the hall, Bernard Braith-
Waite, president of the Amalga-
mated Building Workers of Can-
ada, took the floor to declare
that Bruce was still recognized
by the general executive board
as president of local No. 2. His
announcement was greeted with
boos and cat calls. Braithwaite
had to leave the meeting and on
emerging told Bruce, “it’s no
use.”

Malcolm Bruce turned from
the hall and walked down the
skidroad, alone. Inside the hali
600 serious minded shipyard
workers set down to the- busi-
ness of firmly uniting the labor
movement, and strengthening the
war effort.

Repudiated by the member-
ship of the union, Malcolm
Bruce and William Bray, ex-
pelled as secretary when the
union took action against Bruce,
this week had their solicitor
seek a writ restraining Edwin
Baker, George Brown, Lawrence
Anderson and Bert Smith from
acting in any way as officers of
Local No. 2 Amalgamated Ship-
wrights, Beatbuilders, Joiners
and Caulkers.

The last officers named were
elected to ofiice after Bruce and
Bray were expelled at a special

meeting called by Local No. 2

eonsequent upon the general ex-
ecutive board’s expulsion of
Smith and Anderson on charges
of trying to affiliate the Amal-
Samated to one of the establish-
ed trade union centers.

A declaration that the meeting
of Sunday, February 20, which
resulted in Bruce’s expulsion, is
void and illegal and all its pro-
ceedings null and void is also
included in the writ.

CBC Forum
Broadcast

On USSR

The €BC Citizens Forum
broadeast for March 7, en-
titled “The New Relationship
with Soviet Russia,” will or-
iginate in WVaneouver. ‘The
broadeast is one of the “Of
Things To Come” series.
With Morley Callaghan as chair-
man, the broadcast will be given
by three Vancouver speakers,
Professor G@. F. Drummond, Uni-
versity of British Columbia, Ni-
gel Morgan, international board
member of the International
Woodworkers of America, and
Leon Ladner, KE.

Each of the speakers will pre-
sent his views on the present
relations, as he sees them, be-
tween Canada and the Soviet
Union.

Professor Drummond is a well
Known speaker and has given
talks on the Soviet Union in
-Vancouver. eon Ladner, K.C.,
is a former Conservative MP
for Vancouver South. He is al-

so a member of the League of -

Nations Society.

Nigel Morgan,: Labor candi-
Gate for the federal constituency
of Comox-Alberni and known to
thousands ‘of workers for his
progressive views and organiza-
tional ability, is an outstanding
figure in the labor movement of
Bridsh Columbia.

It is expected that this broad-
east will arouse particular inter-
est because of the topie to be
Giscussed.

Frank Parker
Heads PCPPA

CLOVERDALE, B.C. — Frank
Parker, of Strawberry Hill, was
elected president of the Pacific
Coast Poultry Producers Associa-
tion at the recent annual meet-
ing held here. Cyril Headley was
elected vice-president.

The meeting endorsed appoint-
ment of Clem Willingale as pro-
vineial organizer of the associa-
tion. The executive is to be elect-
ed at the first meeting of the
central committee this week.

Financing of the association
based on a membership fee of
one cent per bird was approved
and is effective for 1944. Plans
to extend the association through-
out B.C. were also approved.

2 Red Army captain directs the fire of an anti-tank gun against German armored
chines somewhere in the Ukraine.

Labor Personalities —27

Norman McSween
By CYNTHIA CARTER

© Thursday night in April, 1943, seven thousand Boiler-
makers marched into Athletic Park here and gave their
teply to a small group of men who, defeated in the election,
were trying to take over the union offices, books, and treasury
of forty thousand dollars.

Tossing out an administrative board imposed on the organ-
ization without its consent, the membership said, in effect,
“This is what happens to people who try to get tough with
workers who intend to keep their union under their own demo-
eratie control.”

And then the union settled down in an orderly fashion to
reelect the executive it had elected twice before in opposition
to the disruptive forces seeking to destroy it.

When the leaders of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders
Union, Local 1, went back to their offices to continue with
the job of looking after the
affairs of the 12,000-strong
and still growing local, they
took with them the one
neweomer to the executive
board — blond, soft-spoken,
25-year-old Norman Mc-
Sween.

MeSween, a plater at
North Van Ship Repairs,
had worked in the yards
since early in the war. A
member of the Boilermak-
ers from his first month of
employment, he was one of
a militant group who ob-
jected to the way in which
the affairs of the organiza-
tion were being handled by
the incompetent executive
then in office. The union,
which had grown from a
small local of 500 men to a body-twenty times as large, de-
manded an executive caple of solying the increasingly complex
problems of a tremendous wartime industry.

Union affairs were in turmoil. It was a union without shop
stewards and without divisions into sub-locals. So McSween,
and a fellow-plater named Malcom McLeod, got together with
other progressive members and decided to do something about it.

The story of what ensued, the uniting of the whole member-
ship around the issue of democratie control, is trade union
history!

Noe McSWEEN was born in a log cabin on the shore
of Lake Okanagan, in 1917. His father, a shipwright from
Glasgow, built wooden ships for the CPR, and a year after
Norman was born he was moved with his family to North
Vancouver to work in the growing shipbuilding industry estab-
lished there. A sincere trade unionist, the elder McSween was
soon made business agent for his union.

Norman and his brothers and sisters attended public and
high school on the North Shore. Finishing school, he was taken
on by a Vancouver advertising firm to learn the business, and
for two years he worked as a copywriter.

During his high school years McSween had won acclaim
for his athletic prowess which was to grow considerably after
his graduation. Soon he was well known as a local soccer star
in the junior league here. It was a serious blow, therefore,
when he was stricken with an illness which confined him to
his home for two years. McSween was eighteen. He put away
the many medals he had won for sports. And he started to read
—anything and everything! :

“It didn’t take me long to develop an interest in progressive
literature of all kinds,” reealis McSween. “I started off on
Upton Sinclair and when I was able to get on my feet again
I had progressed to Marx and Tenin.”’

To regain his health, MeSween took a job on a gillnet
fishing boat for two seasons, and began to learn how workers
put theories into- practice. Talking to fishermen he understood
their problems, and agreed that the solution lay in the building
of a strong organization in the industry. Later, working in
canneries at Quathiaski Cove and on the Skeena River, he
developed an even greater interest in unionism.

“I worked in a company store which, during the slow days early.
in the week. was a lot like the traditional general store.’ states
MeSween. “Cannery workers came in and talked over their
problems and searched for answers to them. Not long after-
wards, these employees were to build their own union which
has helped to raise living standards in their industry both for
white and native Indian workers.”

In 1940 he started work in the yards, worked with pro-
gressive elements in shipyard unions to establish the joint shop
stewards councils, and was made recording secretary, then
business agent for West Coast and Hamilton Bridge sub-locals.
role to play in the broadening of Canadian democracy.”
Joining the Iabor-Progressive Party when it was organized,
MecSween is a member of North Vancouver branch, LPP.

The future of the British Columbia shipbuilding industry,
believes McSween, must be planned carefully now, and in all
plans for postwar reconstruction trade unions must be given
a seat at conference tables. i

“The new Shipyard and General Workers Federation will
be a vehicle to strengthen the unity of all shipyard workers in
B.G., aS an inspiration to unions in all industries to work
towards a future in which living conditions will be maintained
and improved, instead of reverting to depression levels,” he
declares.