HE men who collect your

garbage, who dig your,
ditches and do your “dirty
work” in all kinds of wea-
ther are doing their bit these
days to prove the boast. of the
city’s working people that Van-
couver is a labor town.

Last May the 1,400-strong Civic
Employees’ Union of Vancouver
(Outside Workers) won 14 cents
across the board, back to Janu-
ary 1, one of the biggest wage
awards of the year. In addition,
the union won $1.25 a month for
single men and $2.50 a month for
married men towards Blue Cross
and MSA—a real gain when you
consider how many workers’ fam-
ilies are constantly haunted by
doctors’ and hospital bills they
cannot meet.

Now, the Outside Workers has
added another to the impressive
list of gains it has made in the
short space of a single year.

After months spent in protract-
ed negotiations to settle a number
of disputed points, Vancouver
City Council, sitting as the fin-

ance committee, on October 3, ac-
cepted an agreement which had
been hammered out between the
union’s representatives and the
city reluctant bargaining commit-
tee, known as the conciliation
committee.

This is what the new agreement

provides, in addition to the agree-
ment reached last May:

—A 40-hour week, with time and
and one half for the first’ eight
hours overtime and double time
thereafter. Overtime after eight
and after 40 hours. No excepttions
to the Monday through to Friday
work week without the concurr-
rence of the union. Double time
and a half for SOE on statutory
holidays.

—A clothing allowance of five
cents a day for all,men who nor-
mally wear rubber clothing. Spe-
cial clothes for men where the
wear and tear is greater than nor-
mal.

—A minimum of two hours call-
out pay for emergency work. Time
to begin when man Jeaves home
and to and when he returns.
.—1Any man wrongfully dismiss-
ed to be reinstated, and compen-

sated for loss of earnings, Inves-
tigation and hearing to be within
15 days of application by the
union.

—Full time officers of the un-
ion will retain seniority with city.
The city will re-employ them aft-.
er they leave their union jobs.

Officers and shop stewards of
the union employed by the city to
be paid by the city for time spent
in negotiations and Sone of
grievances.

—tThe city council agrees to re-
commend to the incoming city
council that the city charter be

’ amended to provide power to grant

union security to civic workers.

In addition to these concessions,
a clause was written into the con-
tract guaranteeing that all wel-
fare benfits previously in exist-
ence, such as superannuation, in-
surance against loss of pay
through sickness, pay for holidays
and life insurance, will carry on
for the duration of the contract.
@

The significance of this con-
tract can be measured by the
following facts: —

It is the first contract ever sign-

The crime at Thorold

fjARLY this month, at Thorold,

Ontario, 13 seamen were sen-
tenced to Kingston Penitentiary
for two years. Fifteen others were
given seven months. It was a very
‘satisfactory day for the prosecut-
ors, And the prosecutors were the
owners of the Canada Steamship
Lines. But as you looked at the
agents of the shipowners you Saw,
not joy, but fear, and as you
“watched thé imprisoned seamen
being whipped away into the
hight, you heard song's of victory
and their voices ringing out, “You
can sentence us to jail, but you
can’t sentence us out of the
CSU,”

Five months ago these seamen
were locked out by the CSL be-
cause they had refused to leave
the organization they had puilt—
the Canadian Seamen’s Union, On
April 22, five days after the lock-
out had started, news came to
them that the SS Glenelg was
Passing through Welland Canal.

As one man, they all rushed
down to the canal bank. They
wanted to set up a picket line
alongside the ship and speak to

the crew, As they approached the _
vessel, lumps of coal were show- —

“ered upon them by the men on
the Glenelg.

Then came the live
Grasping hold of steam hoses that
were lying-on deck in full prepar-
ation, officers and their followers
turned them on the picket line.

The CSU ‘men ceased to talk.

Braving thé fury of the live steam

that could easily burn them to
death they ran along. a cat-walk

at the top of the lock, pushing ©

aside a couple of RCMP who at-
tempted to stop them. Jumping

Aboard the vessel they raced to-

those who wielding the
Steam hoses.

® pide )

" Fights broke out all over the
Ship, and as the men fought, the

were

lock master slowly lowered the

vessel to the bottom of the jock by
, drawing out the water. '

The ship was 45-feet down, rest-

ing on the bottom of the lock
when the fighting came “to an
 €nd, Looking about, the CSU mem-
~bers® realized they were trapped.

But then they remembered the

tunnels in the lock.

_ As they were about to mount —

the lock ladder leading to the
tunnels, police officers told them
that if they dared to try to es-
cape by this route the tunnel
would be flooded—drowning any
who were in there.

Police reinforcements came.
They went down through the tun-
nels and hand-cuffed the arrested
seamen and whisked them off to
the Welland jail where 35 of them

were crowded into a cell block
meant for nine men, They had

no bunks. The sick were not
treated. Blankets were thrown to
the unionists —- one for every
three, These were used to cover
the cold, hard cement floor for

)

the month they were there.

®

This was the first mass group
of seamen to be imprisoned in
Welland jail. Soon scores of oth-
ers followed. This prison came
to be known as the Bastille of
Canada. Nearly 100 strikers were
to know these walls. Three

e
months later, 25 seamen were to
stage a hunger strike which went
on for four days.

The prison terms came as no
surprise to the CSU men. They
had already seen 43 of their un-
ion brothers sentenced to jail
terms totalling 35 years.

The prosecutor was the private
lawyer of CSL. There was no

- jury: to-watch ‘him, only a magis-

trate, because these men were not
allowed a trial by jury. They

were tried under the medieval
Canada Shipping Act — a law

drawn up in the 17th Century —
that has been condemned by the
trade union movement through-
out the land. ;

It was dark when we left the
court room—for night had fallen,
and we knew that unless all Can-
ada learned about this day and
fought to win the\ seamen’s re-
lease it might be the beginning
of a much longer night for all
Canadian labor.

ed by the City of Vancouver with
an individual union of civic em-
ployees.

The last wage increase won be-
fore the 14 cents was an eight-

cent boost, spread over 1946 and

1947.

The negotiating of this contract
was carried on concurrently with
a strong organizational campaign,
which boosted the steady dues-
paying membership by 100 per-
cent, and built up a strong group
of shop stewards from scratch.

The union has fought for the
40-hour week for more than a
decade, This year, it made it.

The Civic Employees’ Union of
Vancouver (Outside Workers) is
directly chartered by the Trades
and Labor Congress of Canada
and now, in its 32nd year, it, is

at its highest peak in numbers, .

unity and standing in the com-
munity.
®

One year ago September, when
Donald Guise, formerly an organ-
izer with the International Union
of Mine, Mill and Smelter Work-
ers, was elected business agent,
a few old-timers shook their
heads. They felt that Guise, who
had worked for the city and only
a short time before his election,
was’ too green for such a job, and
that the city would not deal with
him, because he was not “an old
hand”. The results speak for
themselves. Guise was re-elected
by acclamation at the last elec-
tion of union officers.
_ In addition to carrying on nego-
tiations during the last nine
months, the union has taken up a
surprising number of grievances,
and won the greater part of them.
This has increased the confidence
of the epee CSET in
and increased the union’:

with the city. - ‘

Two or three years ago, very
little was heard about the Outside
Workers. But today, because of

_ its size, importance and generally

progressive policies, it is one of
the best known unions in the city.

One of the secrets of its recent
success is the fact that its mem-
-bers have learned to get along to-
gether, and to keep their ranks
united and firm. During this en-
tire year of progress there has

‘been a terrific outcry in the daily

press and over the radio about

CCF News substitutes for Morrison

By JACK
PHILLIPS

reds and communists in the trade :

uniens. But in this union, where 6

several of the prominent mem- —
bers, including officers, are known _
Communists, there has been no ~
divisive, disruptive debate on this —
question to paralyze the work and
organization. &

When Vancouver Trades ps :
Labor Council passed an anti-—
Communist resolution, after a
very bitter debate, the Outside
Workers rejected the resolution,
and its members instructed their —
officers to send a stiff letter to —
the Trafes ae Labor Neuse

ment aad that labor can make
progress in these ‘difficult times —
only if it is united nae en.
actionary employers.

This, in essence, is the Outsthe

- Workers’ formula for putting a —

union on the map: progressive
policies: rank and file control:
unity against the common enemy.

And, as reactionary influences on ©
civic policies are forced to ad-
mit, it is a most effective formula —
that brings real gains to its mem- _
bers. : ‘ ;

steam. —

By TOM McEWEN
it the October 7 issue of the

CCF News,
“which side are you on?” is
clearly’ answered. By its un-
qualified support of those dis-
ruptive elements within the
labor movement who carly out
the policies — of big business,
the CCF News has definitely
placed itself on the side of re-
action.

The CCF News backs IWA
president James Fadling in his
effort to destroy, the organiz-
ation of the B.C. woodworkers.

It publishes in full the text
of Fadling’s broadcast _ over
CJOR on October 4, a “speech”

which might well have been —

written (and probably was) by
the propaganda agency of the
Stuart Research. :
\ It runs Fadling’s 8-point
smear campaign advertisement
in which outright distortion of
fact has top priority. 4
Grant MacNeil, former CCF

the _ question i

MP and provincial organizer,
is now reported to be editor of
Fadling’s smear sheet, Voice
of the TWA.

The same CCF News carries |
a lengthy letter from another
CCF’er, T. Denny Kristiansen,
who, from his recent letters in
the Vancouver Sun, would ap- \
pear to have been delegated

chief apologist for Frank Hall’s

attempt to liquidate the Can-.
adian Seamen’s Union, split
the Trades and Labor Congress
of Canada, and himself become
the “safe and sane” choice of

‘big business, sitting on top of

the TLC and holding the lid
down for the monopolists of St.
James and Bay Strets. Kris-
tiansen, who has long been
linked with Trotskyist cliques
inside the CCF, cites seven
points to “prove” that a fink
union set up by a phoney is
superior to the Canadian Sea-—
men’s Unian? —

The CCF News may argue.
that Kristiansen’s letter is
merely a reader’s opinion ex-
pressed in a “democratic” pa-

per. Such letters have no place
in a paper laying claim to la-
bor allegiance. It is as treason-
able to the unity of organized
labor as Frank Hall’s attempt
to split the TLC. »
©

The CCF News echoes the
prognostic&tions of the Finan-

_ cial Post, that the setting up
of the Woodworkers’ Industrial

Union of Canada (WIUC)
“-. . may well mean an at-
tempt to organize a third body
of labor unions, patterned on
the old Workers’ Unity League,
and comprised of LLP-control-
led unions”.

In its lead editorial, the
CCF News does a better job of
slandering Harold Pritchett
and Ernie Dalskog and in way-
ing the odoriferous red-herring
(all for 5c) than Bob Morrison
ever managed to do for the
boss loggers for a handsome
salary.

It uses the language of the.

daily smear press in reference
to the leadership of the WIUC
as “rebels”, thereby hoping to

attach the onus of splitting the |
IWA, not upon Fadling and
his bosses’ bloc, but upon the
leadership of the WIUC,

In its unqualified support of |
Fadling and those whom he - _
represents, the CCF News j
gives endorsation to the Mar- —
shall Plan of European Recoy-
ery ... for Wall Street; backs
the Taft-Hartley Law in the |
U.S. for restricting democratic
labor rights and practices;
and gives full voice in support
of the warmongering strategy
of anti-communism asameans
of emasculating the fight for —
unity in the ranks of labor. _

History is repeating itself af-
ter the pattern of 1919. Therole
of social democracy is being
accentuated. It is no longer an
academic theory in the ranks
of Canadian labor, but rather —

“a menace to be reckoned with
“now! It is doing a job for re-

action—the job of splitting,
disrupting, and misleading la-
bor, The October 7 issue of the ws
OGE Newsy ty new Pal OF MA.
perfidy.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE_OOTO BER 15,

*