In the rail
ending
Wilson, Marshall Hill.

l
Ost week, PT staffers Fred Wilson

ands

Vanene Griffin toured the CP rail

ae NDP MP Ed Nelson, PC

; n Fraser and ¢

; epresen-

ee of BRAC and talked with
eral workers. The following ar-

ticle j
le is the result of that tour:

ay By FRED WILSON
anes after being ordered
Bec work by a parliamentary
Strike va a long and bitter
Se FS was characterized as
‘atione| Cause of all of the
the railroad
un-
-aNSWwered demands have slipped
Cus of public atten-
eralding the ‘great con-

Cessions': of
~SSlons”* of last week's arbitra-

"E
'N report released by the Hall

C .
fearon te media across
ry as sey
Problem at determined the
the vee could be further from
offices“ A trip out of their plush
‘conditi down to the miserable
eae Ons prevailing in the rail
: pauldshave found a time-
except ttuation. Almost without
ay :
‘i ae Shafted and are eager
sas about it. Search as one
With he non-op who is content
‘conditic. Tate of pay or working
Mons cannot be found.

t ae 'S renewed talk among
Walkin of “pulling the pin.’ just
round & out and trying another
mon the rail companies.
on Situation that the
rough th ound after a. tour
couver at € CPR yards in Van-
chairm the request of the local
Rail sep of the Brotherhood of
Hille Airline Clerks, Marshall
MP. Ong with the Tribune, two
‘Ed Nelson, NDP from
Seymour. and John
Re from Vancouver
their eyes opened to
€vances that the non-

Trib

rally oot of the problem on the
re YS IS hinted at with the
Vards pigecover the run down
then lapidated buildings. or
To unds of garbage strewn

final he tracks which
foundative rest upon gravel
Would she that a heavy man
incredibn in. The reason for the
simple Mv Poor maintenance is

fips ‘S Marshall Hill said, the
to hi : YS just too damn cheap
ee pebcone to clean it up.”
fe eoll fre lies the story. CPR.
i Sac of monopoly-capital
Whee Fs Slant landowner, hotel
trollin, Steamshipper. with con-
and ihe Interests in huge mining
se! Mber-concerns is too cheap

to
ir F
Ps: € a janitor. repair its own

'On rail workers know they’

yards along Vancouver's waterfront. Left to right, Ed Nelson
over); BRAC representative Bob Schooner, John Fraser, Fred

Sean Griffin photos

facilities. or pay a living wage to
the over 100,000 people who work
for the company. The inevitable

result is the continuing deteriora- :

tion of Canada’s rail transport
system, and of a vital section of
our economy as a whole, and
mounting bitterness on the part
of the rail ‘workers who are
beaten down by government back
to work orders each time they de-
mand a change in policy.

_ Wages are the rail workers
main beef. At one time they held
the privileged position of being
the best paid workers in the coun-
try. This they owed to the trade
union organization they formed
betore the mass production in-
dustries were organized. Today
they are 27th by occupation on
the pay scale. A junior will start
for $113 per week, less 12 for
the first 18 months for
‘*training.. Leo, the yard
master. after 36 years with CPR
brings in the grand sum of $179
per week.

The 5% to 7‘ extra wages
brought down by the Hall report
is a small beginning in what the
railworkers need to catch up.
After new contracts are signed
this summer in all of B.C.’s basic
industries. they will have fallen
even further behind. What's
more the Hall report offers prac-
tically nothing in the way of
better pensions, or in improved
working conditions.

The pension issue continues to
burn, Leo. the yardmaster. will
get less than $400 per month if he
toughs it out to 65. After that in
itself. is a problem. As one
operator-telegrapher put it.
After 37 years I am hog tied to
this bloody job. If I leave now for
a better job. JI/1l lose
everything.” Actually he will get
back only what he put in, less
administrative costs.” This is
the same pension fund that lines
the pockets of big developers like
Marathon Realty by allowing
them to borrow capital from it at
4°; interest.

And then there is the hated
demerit system, anachronism:
that is universally condemned
but somehow remains. Problems
of production are traced back to
an individual employee who
bears full responsibility in the
form of a demerit. Demerits
hinder promotion and can result

‘in loss of job. Of course they

become vicious weapons in the
hand of an unscrupulous manager

or superintendent who can use

them for personal, political or
any other purposes.

The demerit system is in-
dicative of the traditional rigid
hierarchy in the CPR system. No
doubt needed to keep the lid on an
explosive situation. its effect is
to stifle initiative and entrench
even deeper the bureaucratic
methods of management. “Right
up to the ‘wheels’ in Montreal
everybody is answerable to so-
meone else, to the point that all
you do is protect your job.
Nobody worries about efficiency,
as one clerk in the yard office
said. George. an. interchange
clerk, added to it, ‘If I stop out of
line I'm slapped with a demerit,
but last week I found a car on the
north track when it should have
been going south. I saved them
$1400, and what did I get for it?
Nothing.”

As we left the yard office our
attention was drawn to the sand
tower. The sand tower is a huge
structure of about 40 feet used to
dry sand for use in freight trains.
The problem with the tower is
most workers are afraid to go
near it. The 85-year-old pot belly
stove for drying sand could come
apart at any time, although this.
it was explained. was only a
minor safety problem. The
threatening fact of the looming
tower is that the main beams
holding up the heavy load of sand
which is blown to the top after
drying. have had dry rot for a
number of years. Here it can be
seen what relationship safety
conditions have to the efficiency
of Canada’s railways. The sand
tower has a capacity of ‘six yards
of sand. The unofficial, but strict-
lv adhered to. rule is that, for
fear of accidents, there can be no
more than two yards of sand in
the tower at any one time.

CPR is not invulnerable. Given
the right conditions and a lot of
pressure they can be forced to
improve conditions. An example
of this is “Hill's Lunchroom.” a
story everyone in the yards
knows. Marshall Hill. the local
chairman, works as an in-
terchange clerk in the yard of-
fice. He and about 20 other
workers in the: area had no
lunchroom, nothing in fact. :ex-
cept a two burner hotplate on a
spare desk.

Frustrated after years of re-
quests. in the middle of last
summer's rotating strike Hill
walked into the superintendent s
office one morning and told him
he had till noon to get a lunch
room or they would.all go out for
lunch, and wouldn't be back.

Twenty minutes later a small
rented trailer pulled up.
henceforth known as “Hill's
lunchroom.’ Even at that the
workers had to supply their own

Many thanks

Maria E. Koven, sent the PT a
$5 contribution in memory of
Israel Levine who, she _ says,
contributed to my awareness of
the struggle of the working class

throughout the world. Hopefully .

my small donation will aid in
allowing the continuation of a
newspaper which is not afraid to
offend the system and present,
land and company owners. Con-
tinued success.!"" ’

Many thanks from the PT.

ail worker's job is no breeze

sofas and chairs. coffee maker.
kettle and radio, but nevertheless
the lunchroom stands as an ex-
ample to the whole yard of what
can be achieved.

There is a thousand other
grievances on the rails. all of
which put together make the life
of a railway man a pretty grim
existence. Militant, on the job ac-
tion can win some improvements
in working conditions. Perhaps
the black smog that pours out of
the coal briquette furnaces could
be cut down or eliminated. Or
maybe the rat problem could be
solved if the company was forced
to hire extra men to clean up the
spilled grain on the tracks. But to
make the turn in policy. and
transform Canadas railway
system into a modern, efficient
system, with men working in
clean and safe conditions. ear-
ning a proper wage with con-
fidence that retirement will br-

ing security, to win all of these
things will take much more.

It will take all 110,000 of them,
and the 17 unions with jurisdic-
tion on the rails, to forge much
closer bonds, and act as one un-
ited force. It will require the rest
of the labor movement to unders-
tand once and for all that the lot
of the railworker is bound up
with the progress of the nation.

|

hes i ¥

Peace parley delegates busy

Delegates from B.C. to the
World Congress of Peace Forces,
held in Moscow October 25-31 last
year, are busy reporting to
scores of meetings on the results
of that historic gathering.

Since their return they~ have
spoken to about 60 meetings. in-
cluding unions. church groups.
universities, high schools.
Rotary clubs. Voice of Women
meetings and house gatherings.

In addition. members of the
delegation have appeared on
close to 15 TV and radio
programs. More meetings and
gatherings are planned. Reports
of delegates have in some places
been. given wide newspaper

coverage, except in Vancouver
where the main dailies are prac-
tically ignoring the Congress.

Recently. the Trail Times
carried an extensive interview
with former mayor Buddy
Devito, including a large photo of
the entire B.C. delegation.

A particularly notable feature
to date have been the large
number of unions who have
shown interest in the Congress.
Two of the trade unionists on the
delegation from B.C. were Bob
Hamilton representing the Van-
couver and District Labor Coun-
cil, and Bert Ogden of the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union. ;

“Without Revolutionary Theory There Can Be
No Revolutionary Movement’ — V.1. Lenin

NORMAN BETHUNE MARXIST
CLASSROOM

A Series of Five Lectures Every 2nd Tuesday
Commencing TUES. JAN. 29, 8 PM

| WITH A STIRRING FILM ON LENIN

Boardroom, Fishermen’s Hall
138 E. Cordova, Vancouver

Classified Advertising

COMING EVENTS

January 26% — SViIsii TO
SOCIALIST BULGARIA.
Report and Color Slides.
Hear CORA and JACK
PHILLIPS, 4265 Sardis
(South Burnaby, between
Halley and Barker, north of
Kingsway). Saturday,
January 26th at 8 p.m.

January 27 — Come to the Annual
Banquet Por. =the
PROGRESSIVE JEWISH
PRESS. Guest speaker: Joe
Gershman, Editor. Sunday.
January 27th at 6 p.m..—
Vancouver Peretz School
Lounge. 6184 Ash Street.
Full course dinner.

January 27 — FINNISH CIVIL
WAR = 56TH

ANNIVERSARY CON-
CERT, January 27th,
1:00 p.m., 805 E. Pender St..
(AUUC Hall). Speaker: Tom
McEwen. Program - Coffee.
All Welcome. Ausp: F.O.

Local 55.
HALLS FOR RENT
UKRAINIAN CANADIA N-

CULTURAL CENTRE - 805
East Pender St.. Vancouver 4.
Available for banquets. wed-
dings, meetings. Phone 254-
3436.

WEBSTER’S CORNER HaLi
— Available for banquets.
meetings, weddings, etc. For
rates, Ozzie 325-4171 or 685-
5836.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1974—PAGE 11