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Vol. 7, No. 16 Vancouver, B.C., Friday, April 16, 1948 Five Cents

VICTORIA, B.C.—The Coalition
government, which refused to see
the labor lobby last weekend, has
ignored equally its own pledges
to labor’ and recommendations of
the B.C. Liberal executive to place
still more severe curbs on labor’s
rights.

Its Bill 87 to amend the ICA
Act, introduced Tuesday night,
recognizes none of what it has
conceded to -be labor’s justified
demands on last year’s Bill 39.
Instead, it provides for cancella-
tion of union certification in un-
authorized strikes, empowers the
Labor Relations Board to settle
employment conditions in such
cases and allows dismissal of
workers engaging in unauthorized.
strikes. Sweeping powers are
given the board, members of
which , are appointed for five
years, to investigate, serve orders,
refuse or withdraw certification.
The supervised strike vote has:
not been eliminated, as labor de-
manded, but extended to permit a
supervised vote on any employ-
er’s offer during a strike.

Only point sought by big busi-
ness not incorporated in the g0v-

ernment’s proposals is the demand
for an “anti-communist” clause.

Demand price controls

500 housewives
invade Ottawa

This weekend some 500
housewives, unionists and
others will arrive in Ottawa.
Representing scores of or-
ganizations throughout the
country, they will be armed
with a petition bearing close
to a million names calling
for restoration of price con-
trols at 1946 levels. The
question they will place be-
fore the cabinet and MP’s
will be:

What action do you intend
to take to reduce living

UNM S

Italy faces crucial vote

This Sunday the people of Italy
will go to the polls in an elec-
tion that will determine their
future as a nation.

Their choice lies between the
Socialist-Communist front, com-
posed of the working people who
never accepted fascism and the
partisans who fought it, and

costs and _ protect living
standards?

With working people
everywhere awaiting the an-
swer, it’s a question the gov-
ernment will find it hard to
evade.

The official cost of living
index today stands at 150.8,
highest on record.

Corporation profits are
also the highest on record,
higher even than 1929, and
still going higher.

Premier de Gasperi’s Christian
Democrats, among whose sup-
porters are the fascists of yes-
terday, the black marketeers and
anti-democrats of today.

af the _ Socialist-Communist
Front heads the polls, as seems
probable, Italy will join the na-
tions of Europe in building a

Four-fifths of wage earn-
ers have not had a wage in-
crease since the war ended.

Milk consumption in the
country is 5% million quarts
less than a year ago. Soar-
ing prices are cutting living
standards.

This is why the delegation
is in the capital. And it’s
not prepared to take “No”
for an answer.

mew democracy from the ruins
of the old. If the Christian Dem-
ocrats win, Italy will become
part of the new “cordon sani-
taire” directed against the
USSR, a puppet of the US.

See feature section