SS ae

Wages leaflet given
out to millworkers

A pledge to “fight for the wages and conditions that our
members need” and to regain for International Woodworkers
of America “the proud position it once had of setting the pace
and establishing the pattern year after year in the matter of
wage increases” is contained in a statement issued by Lloyd

Whalen, Joe Madden and Jack
Epp and distributed to workers
at city sawmills this week.

Whalen, president of Van-
couver Labor Council and head
of IWA local 1-217, is chal-
lenging incumbent Joe Morris
for the post of IWA district
president in current elections.
Madden is running for first
vice-president and Epp for
third vice-president.

The Whalen - Madden - Epp
statement makes these points:

@ Last year other unions
chalked up large wage gains
ranging up to 57 cents an hour
but the IWA was caught in
the middle of a two-year con-
tract and passed by. Instead of
leading wage. advances, the
IWA is lagging.

@ Statistics show IWA mem-
bers are producing 61 per cent
more logs and 58 per cent
more lumber for each man-
hour than they were 10 years
ago. Operators charge twice
as much for each board foot;

Continued

H-TESTS

manity,” to intercede with
MacMillan to step the sche-
duled ests.

In Tokyo, four Japanese, stul
suffering from the effects of
the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima in 1945, have started
a hunger strike, in_ protest
against British nuclear tests at
Christmas Island in the Paci-
fic, expected to begin aiter
April 1.

In commenting further on
the refusal of Britain and the

_U.S. to cooperate in banning

the tests, the Soviet foreign
ministry has announced that its
representative at the UN dis-
armament sub-committee “will
exert every pressure to se-
cure suspension of tests of
weapons of mass destruction.”

LPP to name federal
candidate for Centre

The Labor-Progressive party
will hold its first federal nom-
inating convention this coming
Thursday, April 4, 8 p.m., In
Hastings Auditorium here,
when a candidate for Vancou-
ver Centre will be chosen. The
meeting will be open to the
public.

woodworkers should not be
satisfied with nickel increases.
@ MacMillan’s profits for
1956 amounted to. $3,895 per
employee; Western Lumber
made $3,979 per employee.

@ The overseas market for
lumber has slipped, and “tight
money” policy has hit Cana-
dian home-building. Increased
trade with China would help
to solve the overseas market
problem, immigration will in-
evitably create a demand for
a domestic home - building
problem. So there is no reason
to consider the slump as more
than temporary.

“We do not think the foreign
market situation is so desper-
ate as some people would have
us believe,” says the statement.
India uses just one per cent
of the amount of lumber per
capita that we do, and is now
embarging on a long term pro-
gram to raise the standard of
living of its people. And China
where over half a_ billion
people are living in adobe huts,
has declared its intention of
becoming a modern industrial
nation, and apparently is show-
ing signs of actually doing so.

‘¥f countries like India and
China carry out the plans they
have set out for themselves,

they could use all of the lum-
ber we produce and then some.

“We do not think that this
industry is faced with a
gloomy future. Our job is to
fight for the wages and con-
ditions that our members need,
on the one hand, and on the
other hand to carry on a fight
for the kind of policies by gov-
ernment and industry that will
keep the industry going at a
high level and provide us with
a Canadian standard of living.”

* Unlike most of their kind who prefer the security of the woods, these three moose re-
cently moved into a vacant lot on the outskirts of Fairbanks, Alaska, creating quite a stir

in the city. So many people came to look at them tk
to protect citizens from the moose — and represen

ency were despatched to protect the moose from citizens.

Political action plan expected
from Ontario merger convention —

nat a police detachment had to be stationed
tatives of the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Ag-

. TORONTO

Adoption of a political action formula for the coming federal elections is expected 1
be a highlight of the merger convention of the country’s biggest provincial labor federatiol

this weekend. The merger will create the 400,000-mem

ber Ontario Federation of Labor.

A hint of what is likely to emerge was the policy adopted last week by delegates of the)

100,000-member Toronto District Labor Council.

policy” by the council.

“The feeling has been ex-
pressed on more than one 0c-
casion,” the political education
committee reported, “that we
need a Labor party through
which we can express our poli-
tical needs. The facts of the
situation are, that we have no
labor party as such, and we
face a federal election in the
near future.

“With a federal election im-
minent, your committee there-
fore recommend that our policy
for the coming election should
be support of the CCF as the
only party that we recognize as
having fought our legislative
battles, and we urge that del-
egates to this council go back
to their local unions and ask
support for this policy.”

These significant features of
the recommendation were
noted:

@® Recognition of the strong
demand for a broader political
type expression through a
Labor party. Hitherto this was

rejected by top CCF officials,
who sought unions’ acceptance
of the CCF as the permanent
“political arm” of the trade
union movement — the policy
of the former Canadian Con-
gress of Labor.

@ That support of the CCF
is restricted to that party’s can-
didates in an imminent federal
election.

A cautious approach is being
taken by top CCF leaders, re-
flecting the policy adopted at
the founding merger conven-
tion last year of the Canadian
Congress.

The CLC executive meeting
last January confirmed this ap-
proach to the federal elections
in a resolution calling on the
executive officers “to take
whatever steps are necessary
to implement the legislative
program of this congress in
the forthcoming federal elec-
tion” by coordinating the work
of PEC with the executive
and all affiliates to implement

Municipalities protest rising school costs
wipe out benefit of provincial tax rebate

Sharply rising school costs
are expected to wipe out any
benefit homeowners receive
from the provincial govern-
ment’s $28 tax rebate, spokes-
men for several Lower Main-
land municipalities charged
this week.

“The $28 rebate is a device
to hide the fact that an equal
amount is being taken from
us in higher school costs,” said
Reeve Charles MacSorley of
Burnaby.

“The increase in education
costs will undoubtedly reduce
any benefits from the_tax re-
bate,” commented Mayor Harry
Woodsworth of Port Moody.

“The $28 will not cover high-
er taxes resulting from the
boost in school charges this
year,’ charged Reeve Ray
Parsons of Richmond.

Union of B.C. Municipalities
has appealed to all its mem-
bers including Vancouver to
protest to the provincial gov-

‘

ernment if 1957 school costs
show a “disproportionate in-
crease.

Vancouver faces a $1,700,-
000 jump in school costs for
1957. Burnaby costs will be up
by $913,000, Richmond by $700,
000, West Vancouver by $130,-

000 and Port Moody by $105,-
000.

The demand is rising for the
provincial government to re-

vise upward ‘its basic salary
grants.

It noted the need for “a more positive politic®)

‘

the policy laid down at the
merger convention. _ |

This was to “initiate discus |
sions with “free. trade union)
not affiliated with the congres*
with the principal farm orga?”
izations in Canada, with thé
cooperative movement ant
with the CCF or other politica!
parties pledged to support th
legislative program of the Can”
adian Labor Congress, excludy
ing Communist and fascist’
dominated parties, and to e*
plore and develop coordinatio?
of action in the legislative 2%)
political field.” :

At a recent Niagara Fall
conference of staff represen!#
tives from CLC unions a sim!
lar approach was recom
mended.

The last meeting of the vaw
District Council heard can
dian director George at
recommend  endorsation inf
“CCF candidates” and work!
for their election in com™
federal elections, without of
ference to adoption of the C ne
as the “political arm’ of #
UAW. |

Well-known members of
CCF, like Cliff Pilkey, 5),
tary-treasurer of the big ii
awa Local 222, referred at © if
meeting to his membersh!P —|
the CCF, but called for a 1ab2,,
farmer political party. His ve
was that the CCF alone was tht
properly representative of ©
workers. 3 |

This kind of sentiment whi
has come to surface on @ i)
than one occasion in CO i
debates and in unions has
a great deal to do with
softening of the approac¢ fi
CCF leaders to a formula
the unions. ’

: §
MARCH 29, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE

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ig