award betraying

asbestos

The militant French-Canadian asbestos workers who waged a his-

QUEBEC CITY

toric three-month strike early this year to back up a 15-cent wage demand

have been sold out by a Quebec arbitration board.

The 15-cent demand, which would have provided a base rate of $1
an hour, was trimmed to 10 cents, although retroactive to the first of the
year. Not taken into consideration is the fact that. a series of price in-

Gallery lost
repute by ban

—OTTAWA

Almost a year late, admission

_ how appears in print for the first

time outside the Canadian Tribune

and the Pacific Tribune that arbit-

rary suspension of Ottawa staff re-

porter Mark Frank was complete-
ly unjustified.

“Backstage in Ottawa,” a regu-
lar column written by Ottawa Edi-
tor Blair Fraser of Maclean’s Ma-
azine in the December 15 issue
Says in part: ;

“Unhappily for its own repute,
the press gallery expelled Mark
Frank, the Tribune representative,
without even giving him a hearing
— it turned out after that he had

not written the story in question
= .

Fraser is referring to an article
quoting Lester B. Pearson, minis-

ter for external affairs, as saying
there were secret clauses in the
North Atlantic pact, designed to
frustrate the rise of popular re-
gimes in countries like France and
Italy.

Frank was given a starchamber
trial, charged with writing the ar-
ticle said to be “off-the-record,”
found guilty and sentenced, with-
out being given a hearing by the
press gallery. Despite frequent ap-
peals to the Speaker of the House,

Officials of the press gallery and
members of parliamént, the case
has never been heard by members
of the gallery and reinstatement
provided, i oid

Reason m€ntioned here is that
strict orders have been given by
External Affairs Minister Pear-
son to bar the Tribune from

; press privileges on Parliament Hill,

creases, put into effect since the
miners took their strike action last
February, have long ago wiped
otit the modest 15-cent demand,
even if it had been granted.

The arbitration board, in a spirit
of vindictiveness, rejected the Ca-
tholic Syndicates demand for a

five cent an hour bonus for night
work.

The board, ignoring the super-
profits made by U.S. Johns-Man-
ville — which has a monopolistic
control over Canadian asbestos
mines—condemned hundreds more
workers to painful deaths by re-
fusing the miners’ protection from
the deadly asbestos dust.

A dissenting minority report
submitted by arbitration board
member Theodore Lesperance,
who acted for the Catholic Syn-
dicates, said that the recommen-
dations of the board were “in-
spired by the most condemnable
economic liberalism and the most
individualistic conception of pro-
perty rights.”

Behind the board’s majority re-
port is the hatred that Quebec’s
Premier Duplessis has for the labor
movement as a whole and the as-
bestos miners in particular as a
result of their militant struggle of
this year.

the workers of “communism”
an attempt to break the strike.

in

Italian Socialists
brand Tito regime

ROME

The Italian: Socialist party has
issued a statement declaring that
the Yugoslav government of Mar-
shal Tito is “in open collusion
with the U.S. state department,”
has become a “pawn in the imper-
ialist game and an element of
grave disturbance to peace in the
Balkans as well as in the Adriatic
where, even in the past, the Bel-
grade government has demonstrat-
ed that it was a prisoner of inter-
nal nationalist forces.’

ers

Returns from Moscow

Duplessis allied himself
with the top brass of the Johns-|:
Manville corporation in acctsing’

“I have come back from Europe

confident of one thing, that here
on the North American conti-
nent we must give all the energy
we have for the crusade for
peace or suffer destruction even
worse than that which Europe
suffered,” said Mrs. Dorise Niel-
sen (above) on her return to
Toronto from Moscow where,
with Mrs. Mary Kardash of Win-
nipeg, she attended a conference
of the Women’s Intemational
Democratic Federation,

Pay shows cost
of red-baiting

—PETERBORO

The price of succumbing even
partially, to red-baiting comes high,
as members of the United Electri-
cal Workers union employed at the
General Electric plant here are dis-
covering when they compare their
wage rates against those won by
UE workers at Westinghouse.

Westinghouse workers work five
hours a week less than do the GE
workers and have a take-home pay
of 25-cents an hour more. The
reason is that UE Westinghouse
workers have rejected every effort
to split them and now their unity
is paying off. :

At the big General Electric plant
the workers, until quite recently,
followed the right-wing red-baiting
leadership of J. Morton, the split-
ter who is now trying to take the
UE into the new CIO-sponsored
IUE (Imitation UE). Morton’s ac-
tivities emphasize by way of the
pay envelope that red-baiting is not
directed against so-called “reds”,
but is a device invented by the boss
to be used against all workers who
are trying to win economic ‘justice
from the employers.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

A charge of 50 cents for each
insertion of five lines or less with
10 cents for each additional line

is made for notices appearing in

this column. Ne notices will be
_ accepted later than Monday noon
_ of the week of publication.

WHAT'S DOING?

NEW YEAR’S EVE FROLIC—At

_ Fishermen’s Hall. Limited attend-

- ance, Full orchestra. Door prizes.

Refreshments. Noisemakers. Ob-

tain tickets from Alf Dewhurst,

Room 501 Ford Bldg, 193 E. Hast-
ings, TA. 1451.

_ NEW YEAR’s EVE — Lower Hall,

_ store. Admission, $2.00 per per-
son (auspices Burrard Section).
_ ‘Pender Auditorium. Tickets at
LPP Provincial Office, Ford
Building and at People’s Book-

HALLS FOR RENT

; Oldtime Dancing
To Alf Carlson’s Orchestra
Every Wednesday and Saturday
: Hastings Auditorium
Phone HAstings 1248
Moderate Rental Rates
For socials, weddings, meetings.

Russian People’s Home—
Available for meetings, weddings

and banquets at reasonable rates:

600 Campbell Ave. HA. 0087.

Dance, Clinton Hall—
2605 East Pender. Dance every
Saturday night. Modern. and
Old - time. Viking’s Orchestra.
Hall is available for rent
HAstings 3277. i

MEETINGS

Swedish-Finnish Workers’ Club

meets last Friday every month

at 7.30 p.m., in Clinton Hall.

BUSINESS PERSONALS

SALLY BOWES—
INCOME TAX PROBLEMS.
Room 20, 9 Fast Hastings:
MA, 9965. i

O.K. RADIO SERVICE. Latest

Factory Precision Equipment
Used. MARINE SERVICE. 1420
Pender St. W. TA. 1012.

FIRST CLASS CARPENTER

Cabinets, remodelling, new
homes, city or country, M.
Vaselanak, 360 Chatham Street;
Steveston, Phone: Steveston
108-Y.

DR. R. L. DOUGLAS HAS OPEN-.

ed a new office at 9 EAST HAST-
INGS STREET, cor. Carrall St.

Phone TA. 5552. All old friends

cordially: invited to drop in for
a visit. :
*NOTE NEW ADDRESS.

CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—
Open every day.

HAstings 0094.

New Modern
- Beauty Salon—1763 E, Hastings.

150 CHIMNEY SERVICE—Autho-

rized heating installation, roofing x

‘contracts and repairs. Office at

1821 Main St., FA. 3271.

ROOM AND BOARD WANTED
for elderly convalescent gentle-
man. Ground floor with no chil-
dren. Please contact Pacific Trib-

va

(AFL-TLC), in a searching brief
which analyses “The Quebec Labor
Relations Board, the Government
and Its Labor Laws.’

In this valuable document for
the Quebec trade union move-
ment, Roback shows in cold fi-
gures that the Quebec Labor
board operates on “the guiding
principles that boma fide unions
shall not be certified as long as
possible, that company unions be
certified, that illegal and unfair
labor practices he permitted,
that employers wishing to break
unions be given every assistance
and encouragement, and even
shown how to do it by agents of
the board in cases where the
employers seem unaware of how
to go about it.”

To back up the trade union case
against the Duplessis- appointed
board, the UTWA research direc-
tor points out that in 1947 the board
granted 513 certifications but at the
same time refused 114 and revoked
57 certifications from bona fide
unions. In 11 months of 1948, the
board increased its average of
anti-union actions, issued 470 cer-
tifications, refused 128, and revoked
49,

Pointing out that the Quebec
Labor Relations Act does not pro-
hibit company unions, Roback goes
on to show that the board actively

ciations”, In 1947 the board grant-
ed its stamp of approval to. 46
company unions, and in the 11
months of 1948 to 41 company units.

The entire’ trade union move-
ment from “right” to “left”, in-
cluding Catholic Syndicates, AFL-
TLC, and CIO-CCL unions, have
felt the heavy hand of the board.

What does this hamstringing of
the trade union movement by the
Duplessis board add up to?
money in the pay envelopes of the
Quebec working people!

The UTWA_ research director
shows that in 1940 the average
weekly pay for Quebec men was
$22.75, for Quebec women $12.70—
as against $26.63 and $14.37 respec-

tively for Ontario workers.

By 1945 this “gap” between Que-
bec and Ontario, the heart and
core of the national inequality im-
posed upon French-Canada by mo-
nopoly, had begun to narrow as a
result of large-scale organization
in Quebec during the war.

In 1945 the average weekly pay
envelope of Quebec men held $34.-
18, that of Quebec women $18.97—
as against $36.02 and $20.61 res-
pectively for Ontario workers.

Duplessis rants, —
employers smile,
workers get less

MONTREAL

The anti-union activity of .Duplessis’ labor board is hitting workers
where it hurts most—in their pay envelopes. Quebec’s working people
are today averaging 14 cents an hour less than workers in Ontario be-
cause of Duplessis’ union-busting program. :

This is the main conclusion arrived at by Leo Roback, research
director for the Canadian District, United Textile Workers of America

“Christmas sock’ now
nearing $1000 mark

Christmas is over but Pa-
cific Tribune readers are
still sending in money for
OV Bill’s “Christmas sock”
.and Betty Tarnowski’s “PT
stocking”, :

At. press time this week
the total was $933; OI Bill’s
supporters contributed $635.35
and Betty’s friends came
through with $297.65.

Final retutrns on the
Christmas sock fund’ will be
announced in next week’s
Pacific Tribune.

Following his recent) ser-
ious relapse, after which he
showed an improvement in
health, Ol Bill got feeling
“under the weather’ again
before Christmas and is now

encourages boss-dominated ‘“asso--

Less |

recuperating in a nursing
home.

But today, as a, direct result
of the anti-labor, union-busting
policies of the Duplessis govern-
ment, the “gap” is again widen-
ing. Average hourly earnings,

. (male and female) for 1949 reveal

that Quebec working people re-
ceive 389.8 cents while Ontario

‘labor gets $1.03.

That difference of close to 14
cents an hour is the price Quebec ©
labor is paying for Duplessis’ con- —
tinued service to the monopolies of
this province.

*

LRAAMPMANAVSAMBAAIDs
E. H. SKEELES

Transfer & Fuel

CEDAR, B.C.
SRE ME REESE ENE RENEE MEU OS VRE HE BE HE

LRA AAMAAIAANAASAAAAWLN

Te all our friends and com-
rades, a prosperous and
happy 1950, and in the fight

for peace, the courage to:

“Choose to suffer or
triumph,
Anvil or the hammer |

be.”’-—(Goethe)
Rose and Tom McEwen

to

une office, MArine 5288. .

film art.

- Soviet Film Festival
Note Change of Dates
Thursday, January 5th, PETER THE GREAT

Friday, January 6th, THREE WOMEN
Saturday January 7th, ALEXANDER NEVSKY

English titles, Russian dialogue. Each film will be shown for.
one day only. Your last chance to see these great classics of &

? bP ber baer ber bas bar

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DE

‘

x : “ 3 « his af
30, 1949-PAGE 4

- 4