ree

"Boost our pay two bucks a
day’ demand WIUC loggers

Getting set to fight back against the
$8,484,839 for H. R. MacMillan in. 1
Canada local 71 adopted the slogan,
"Fhe men from the camps were bitter!

take-home pay in 1948 through taki

monopoly offensive that netted such handsome profits as
948, a packed meeting of Woodworkers’ Industrial Union of
“boost our pay two bucks a day!”

y aware that operators had been able to actually reduce
ng advantage of disruption by the Fadling-Alsbury bloc in the old
_IWA to hold down pay boosts to $5.20 a week wile boosting board rates $7 a week.

WIUC national president Harold Pritchett showed that total wage cut was $3.71 a week (in-
cluding 52 cents for sales tax and 75 cents for m-zome tax).

Married chokermen in pbunk-
houses get $27.38 a week to care for

_ their families.

A motion from the floor set the
$2 demand after spirited discus-
sion. It was also demanded that
the labor board immediately certi-
fy the WIUC as bargaining agent
in the 34 operations for which ap-

plications are now up to seven.

weeks old.

Seeking action to meet large-
scale unemployment, a subsequent
WIUC local 71 meeting called on

_ the government to break the Mar-
Shall Plan clamps on B.C.’s lumber

market,

The loggers proposed a barter
system to exchange lumber for
British exports, rather than al-
low Wall Street to cut Canadian
jobs and British living standards.

Also suggested were such pro-
jects as road building and ‘dyking
to prevent floods; as well as halt-
ing DP immigration.

Moving on immediate needs of
unemployed members, the local
asked a 50 percent boost in un-
employment insurance benefits
and payment of benefits till jobs
are found.

WIUC national office was asked
to seek cooperation of other unions
in coping with the jobs crisis.

Not the Senate this time f

These are not Canadian senators in a typical pose, but mem-
bers of the Japanese Diet snatching a nap during a recent budget .
session which ran all night under the impact of sharp labor pres-

sure on a controversial wage bill.

Court crowd pays picket fine afte:

By LES URQUHART

Alsbury admits lron River on strike

—COURTENAY, B.C.

IWA provisional district president J. Stewart Alsbury admitted on the witness stand here last
week that he knew a strike was in progress at Iron River when he led an attempt to break the picket

line. He specifically admitted that he
meeting of the employees November 15.
These admissions explode province-wide

and that WA and CCL officials

had not acted as scabherders.

IWA propaganda that there was no strike at Iron River

knew the strike was authorized by a vote of 58 to 33 at a

4

They document one of the blackest pages in B.C. labor history,

The admissions were wrung out
of Alsbury by defense counsel J.
‘S. Burton at the trial of George
Stevens, charged with, assaulting

and causing grievous bodily harm |

to Alsbury. (
(Alsbury went to hospital De-

cember 8 with four broken ribs

and shock after leading an attempt

to break a picket line set up by
the camp crew to win re-instate-
ment of three crack fallers fired
in violation of the agreement.)

He testified as a prosecution
witness, ‘

Faced with lack of evidence
‘Magistrate Pidcock reduced the

Mine-Mill conference defies CCL

“raiders by opening wage drive

—PORT COLBORNE

* Rejecting a boss-inspired ultimatum from top CCL bosses to give

up Port C

olborne and Timmins locals, delegates from International
Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (CIO-CCL) locals across

Canada met in national conference here to hammer out a program for

a national wage drive. _

‘There will be a co-ordinated ef-

_ fort to boost gold miners’ pay to

base metals levels. Gold miners

_ are now discriminated against by |
$2 a day.

Coupled with ‘this & conference
will be held in March to co-ordinate
the wage campaign of all Inco and

CM & § locals. This includes Trail,

Kimberley, Calgary, Sudbury and

Port Colborne.

Delegates charged CCL national
“officers and United Steelworkers’
officials with labor cannibalism in
seeking to raid Mine-Mill instead
of organizing unorganized workers.
They called on all CCL and CIO
‘unions to fight to preserve the jur-

 isdictional rights of unions.

They cited the case of 2,000 Que-

bec asbestos workers where Mine-
Mill relinquished jurisdiction two
years ago but not one has been
organized yet. They also cited
continuance of a company union
in Welland steel plants, and the
fact that the giant Stelco plant
in Hamilton is only 54 percent
- organized. fe
Delegates were unanimous on a’
political action program whereby
the union will seek, in constituen-
cies where it has decisive electoral
influence, to elect candidates from
its own membership, and failing
this, to elect candidates friendly
to Mine-Mill and labor generally.
International president John
Clark and vice-president O. Larsen
attended, and greetings were re-
ceived -from District 26 United

Mine Workers.

a

charge to commén assault, and
on the second day of the trial
rendered a verdict of guilty.
The crowd which packed the
courtroom immediately passed
the hat to pay the $20 fine and
$3 court costs, and donated the
balance to the Iron River Strike
Fund. alae

The following are also charged:
Mike Farkas (assaulting and caus-
ing grievous. bodily harm to Als-
bury and Bradley), Otto MacDon-
ald (assaulting and causing griey-
ous bodily harm to Alsbury), Alex
Armella (assaulting and causing
grievous bodily h to Alsbury),
Lang Mackie (assaulting and
causing grievous bodily harm to
Tom Norton), _

Early this month Iron River
strikers, assisted by Woodwork-
ers’ Industrial Union 365, staged
the largest public meeting held
in this district by any unior for
years. ‘ :

It was addressed by WIUC ‘na-
tional president Harold Pritchett’
and Local 363 president Ernie An-
derson, himself a striker, who
emphasized that the strike is still
on, and “the only thing we need
is finances to keep the strikers
and their families.” ;

Donations and parcels should
be sent to J. Creelman, Iron
River Strike Committee, Camp-
bell River, B.C. ‘

The Canadian Woodworker re-
ports that Alsbury also admitted
that he had received no invita-
tion to Iron River from either
IWA or WIUC, but had come ion
the invitation of the company.

IWA silent on Marshall
Plan but argues on CCI

The shell of the once-great IWA gathered in district convention
in the Hotel Vancouver- last weekend, and confirmed as prophetic a
January 8 Sun headline which read, ‘Loggers, Operators “To Get

Yogether’.”’

‘It followed the Truck Loggers’
Association annual meeting, and,
as the Sun predicted, the two
groups, “which in past years have
taken opposite sides in some of the
largest disagreements in the prov-
ince...” had “several major points
to agree on.”

The MacMillans and the IWA
agreed, for example, that ‘“Com-
munists,”’ not bosses, are labor’s
main enemies. One IWA resolution
claimed Communists “have the
world over been the most persist-
ent enemies of unions” and the
theme was repeated with a score
of variations. f

Militant woodworkers see the
reason for red-baiting in both con-
ventions as the same: to cover the
other points on which there was
also agreement—skirting of wage
aeeds, clinging to the job-destroy-
ing Marshall Plan, blacklist, strike-

‘oreaking and company unionism

with a “union” label.

IWA referred key question of
wages to a wage-contract confer-
ence in March, with no lead for
“substantial” wage increases.
Trotskyite Lloyd Whalen had no
trouble’ getting his ‘‘escalator
clause” endorsed, and a proposal
was made for ‘co-ordinating CCL
wage demands. IWA will seek a
clause on board rates, and elimina-
tion of 30 days employment as re-
quisite fer retroactive pay. Past
years saw IWA set the CCL pace.

With the Marshall Plan, root
cause of slashed markets, endors-
ed by; the TWA, the convyention’s
job program was limited to ()
public works (2) call for distri- -
bution of surplus products (3)
more advanced education so
youth can be in school instead of
walking tbe streets (4) contact
with unemployed woodworkers
through such means as commit-
tees in locals. Ee

Delegates asked higher —unem-
ployment insurance benefits, wip-
ing’ out .of waiting period, and
spreading of information on the
UIC. :
Convention highlights included a
political action controversy and a
struggle for top dog position be-
tween official CCF-CCL forces,
Trotskites and’ clerical elements.

Resolutions committee at first
called for endorsation of CCF can-
didates and “others” who support
labor’s position. There were ob-
jections to “others” and afresh
resolution endorsed CCL policy of
the CCF as labor’s political arm,
with political action committees to
be set up in each’ local. :

Dunean and Port a ‘dele-

tes, though protesting t eir own
Toyaty to the CCF, saw difficulty
in “pyshing down the throats” of
their members proposals to make
locals into political machines, Final
agreement was on making commit-
tees dependent on membership ap-
proyal in each local. :

Clerical influences were seen In
Catholic Action leader Fred Fieber's
minority report urging locals to
elect delegates to seek at CCL con-
vention ‘‘a policy ee bring

ious political action.”

eT stunt ATTY received official
convention nomination for district
president by acclamation. Branding
Alsbury as strikebreaker, the
Canadian Woodworker sees his ac-
calmation as a sharp expression of
the difference between this and
previous conventions.

With 70 votes Mike Se failed

old his job as secretary-treasur-
Ponts on George Mitchell (76)
and Tony Poje (74) go on the
ballot. The Canadian Woodworker's
description of Sekora as “fascist-
minded” is substantiated by the
latter’s statement to this reporter
that he would gladly “pull on a
rope with Pritchett and Dalskog”
on the end of it, and help “hang
all the Communists in ‘Canada.”

Choices for other nominations
stacked up like this (first two go on
ballot in each case): first vice-
president—Alex Cox, Tom > Brad-
ley (Whalen declined); second vice-
president—Joe Morris, Harold Hall;
third vice-president—Roy Whittle
83, Bob Waters 77, Dave Donahue

58; six-year trustee—J. McEwen
(no relation to editor of Pacific
Tribune) 83, W. Lynch 69, J. Bush
61; four-year trustee—John Squire,
Herb Bruch; two-year trustee—N.
Shaw 104; B. Macham 60, W. Grey
54; international board member—
T. Mackenzie 83, Fred Fieber 82,
Lioyd Whalen 51.

Operators bitterly fought the
union shop in the past, but con-
vention thought the present IWA
might get it. Port Alberni’s reso-
lution urged the union shop to de-
stroy the WIUC among other reas-
ons, including the belief that IWA
Officials and stewards “could spend
their energies better developing
more cooperative relations with the
employer instead of in a struggle
foi existence.” This was too brash
for the Trotskyites, who won dele-
tion of the clause over Port Alber-
ni’s objections.

A master blacklist of WIUC mem-
bers is to be compiled throughout
the industry, New Westminster

‘delegate George Mitchell boasting

his list had already gone to CCL
as. well as IWA locals.

Organizational reports ited
Many trouble spots. $45,000 is
to be raised from such sources
as the CIO to put 20 organizers
in the field.

Financial reports did not reveal
dues-paying membership, but tend-

-ed to confirm reports from the in-

dustry that the IWA has nothing
approaching the 24,000 members
claimed in the Sun. Credentials
report gave no breakdown on the
112 delegates present from 11 locals.

Around 15 women formed an aux-:

iliary :
“Political action” was seen as
answer to Bill 39. Other resolutions
encompassed safety, holidays, con-
servation, housing, compensation,
auto and health insurance, income

and sales tax, margarine and other .

Subjects.

Delegates, after making fine
points on the difference between
“Stalinism.” Trotskyism, and ‘Fas-
cism, decided the IWA, in cdopera-
tion with other unions, will move
to “take ove1’’ May Day.

_ Harvey Nelson of Columbia, River
District 5, home of the IWA’s orig-

‘inal “white bloc” gangs, announced

for the benefit of the labor press
that he had brought no goon squad
as he saw “no necessity.”

“But ifsyou need support Col-
umbia River stands ready to give
it as we have before. And I
think we can get across the line.”

Referring to Harold Pritchett.
banned by U.S. Immigration in 1940
after having been IW4A’s first in-
ternational president, Nelson said,
“We ran him out of the U.S. and

it’s been your unfortunate position

to have him.”

Speakers were sensitive to pres-
ence of the Pacific Tribune, on
which several attacks were direct-
ed. Provocative attempts were
made off the floor to make it too
“warm” for this reporter, but after
a convention demonstration against
the PT, we were allowed the “priv-

ilege” of reporting “the truth.”
This we have done.
OOOO

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANURY 21, 1949 — PAGE 2

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