4 aha 8 EDITORIAL “Ivory Tower” Thinking S TATEMENTS made by Labour Minister Wicks in the Legislature recently, when he dealt with the activities of his department, require careful analysis by trade unionists. An objective consideration of his views will indicate the course which the Government intends to follow in the field of industrial relations. It should be noted that the Minister was on the defensive. It was quite evident that he was deeply resentful of the criticism with which his policies have _been received by organized labour. Some persons charged, he said, that the Govern- ment had planned to legislate the trade unions out of existence. He dealt with this at length, although nothing on the record discloses that any trade union body expressed the fear of an early demise. The fact that more bargaining certificates were issued in 1959, than in any previous year since 1987, disproved any statement that union activities were being curbed, he said. The Minister derided trade union expectations that suits to recover damages would impede the normal functioning of the Unions. His answer to this was that the legal precedents making a trade union liable to be sued has already been established in law. He pointed-out that the exact legal status of trade unions for the purposes of suing and being sued had not been entirely clear. He asks trade unionists to take comfort in the fact that he has clarified this situation. “The remedy”, he said, ‘‘was to make them legal entities under the law for labour rélations pur- poses only, which we did.” His defense of this feature of the Act in no way removes the danger to which a trade union on strike will be constantly exposed — suits for damages on account of losses occasioned by the strike and made possible by the provisions of the Act. Part of the Minister’s defence was his statement that fewer injunctions were issued in 1959, than in the 1953 Interior IWA strike. This was questioned immediately by IWA mem- bers. The Interior strike dealt with widely scattered operations. The 1959 coast strike involved well-in- tegrated operations. Those who had cause to become familiar with the documents served, will recall that they restricted picketing over large areas, such as a list of booming grounds ete. IWA records also in- dicate a larger number of injunctions over the whole coast area, than admitted by the Minister. The Minister is openly opposed to secondary boy- cotts. He considers it to be wrong that a union having a dispute with a manufacturer should picket a retail outlet selling the struck manufacturer’s products. In this respect he denies to unions in certain industries their only means of making a strike effective. This remarkable result emerges from an examin- ation of the evidence presented by the Minister in de- fence of Bill 43. His claims that the Act has not harmed the trade union movement as predicted rest Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is March 17th. Deadline for ad copy is March 3rd and for news copy March 11th, THE WESTERN CANADIAN / be LMo Le PUBLISHED TWICE MONTHLY ON THE FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAYS BY International Woodworkers of America A (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 qe 3 .. Joe Morris Jack Moore 2nd Vice-President ... Bob Ross 8rd Vice-President .... Fred Fieber Secretary-Treasurer .. ee .... George H. Mitchell NOLS: le ccpectaesesgos ... Walter F. Allen International Board Members paltet econ REGIONAL OFFICERS: Presid®nt -.........c-essecnsees ist Vice-President Address all communications to GEORGD H. MITCHELL, Secretary-Treasurer 45 Kingsway - TR 4-5261 - 2 Vancouver, B.C. bscription Rates...___....§2.00 per annum or aciog Representative........_._..G. A. Spencer econd Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa Authorize” 500 SOrims PRINTED IN THIS ISSUD almost exclusively on the accomplishments of labour bodies determined to preserve their rights. The Minister stated, ““Misunderstandings could be avoided: — confidence built up — mutual respect re- stored. These things are far more necessary in the evolution of labour relations than legislation. In other words, good labour relations must come from the hearts and minds of men — not from statute books.” With this “ivory-tower” philosophizing, the Min- ister of Labour leaves our problems of industrial re- lations in exactly the same state of ferment as before. Should We Be Proud Of This? Clarification of Canada’s part in World Refugee Year A _ letter And EF 2 , GR P\ fA e , 7 a One Man's Opinion is urgently needed. Canada has taken a total of 100 tubercular refugees from Europe, promised to care for them in every way and at- tempt to make them well and get them on their feet again. It may well be true that The Editor. I would like to make a few comments on an item in your paper of the first issue of Janu- ary, 1960, “Canada’s Labour Costs, One of the Lowest,” by John Brewin. The statements were made by one Mr, Russ Bell. He must have had a lot of help as one man by himself could not be that stupid. By his report and figures and I quote, “A Canadian worker pro- duces one unit per $1.20 labour costs, The Japanese worker pro- duces one unit at $2.00 labour costs.” Does he think that the dif- ference is in working and not mechanization? He is wrong if he does. One thing I know for sure is that if we put the Japanese worker in the Canadian place that he would lower the cost per unit to 60 cents and the Canadian in the Japanese place would raise theirs to $4.00 per unit. That is until the Japanese got as lazy as our workers are. I’m a farmer and I don’t have to go to India or China to make comparisons between our two forms of output. I can do it right here. I can take a large combine and put a hired man on it at a $1.50 an hour and he can cut and thresh 100 bushels of grain in an hour. Thats 1% cents per bushel for labour. I can hire another man at $1.50 an hour and give him a sickle and flail and it would cost $10.00 per bushel for labour. Does that mean one man’s pro- ductivity is $9.98% better than the other? No. All the credit goes to the machine. The man on the machine didn’t really earn his 1% cents but the other man well earned his $10,00. Another question I would like to ask Mr. Bell is, if the Japan- ese cost per worker is higher, how come they can ship plywood to Vancouver in competition with B.C. Plywood Companies, and still make a profit? Also if our labour per unit is cheaper than the U.S.A., how / come there is hardly anything that isn’t 25% to 50% cheaper in the States than here? Their in- dustries make just as much pro- fit as ours. Ronald Wakefield, Freemont, Saskatchewan. Canada has done as much as any other country in attemp- ting to solve the terrible refugee problem. The ques- tion is whether that is still enough, —The Albertan, Calgary. More THAT'S WHY IT'S CANADA'S BEST-SELLING BEER! tom. * More flavour, more life, more satisfaction! “MABEL BLACK LABEL!” 5973-4 This advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Control Board or by the Government of the Yukon Territory AVAILABLE IN BOTTLES OR CANS *