cents an hour for each employee. oi! BILL SHORT JABS i] WANTED to tell the readers of this column something about the Young Pioneers before Betty Tarnowski wrote her column last week, but with that streamlined spirit of youth she speaks about she got in away ahead of me. Maybe it is better that it broke that way as it will give you_an opportunity to grasp the spirit of the Young Pioneers which was even more streamlined than that of the youth. From Betty’s neat little column you can see that the idea behind it is to get something done—in this case to raise a Christmas present for the Pacific Tribune. This was the way it was in the Young Pioneers, . : I am not saying that because I belonged to the Pioneers. You may not believe, that an old buffer like me could, but it is true. I was a sort of an instructor, delivered their lectures weekly on history . and didn’t they like the stories of the class strug- gle. Although,’ sometimés, what they told me was of more interest than .what I told them. I look around me now and I see them as delegates to the conventions of their unions.. But the outstanding contributions from the Young Pioneers were made by the two who were most prominent just before I parted company with them: Nick Tlatoff, “Little Nick”, as we used to call him, ‘and Helvi Rombau, later ‘Anderson. Little Nick joined the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion and went “to Spain to help stem the onward sweep of fascism. The International Brigade did not succeed because the help of the social democrats ‘to the fascists was so overwhelming—Little Nick came back home and. died in Whitehorse from the war wounds he received in Spain. It would be a nice gesture now for some of those who knew Nick to make a little contribution to Betty’s fund in memory of the’ brave little Pioneer, Nickie Tlatoff. Helvie’s work may be better known to the readers of the Pacific Tribune, since it has received much more publicity. She jumped into the struggles of the unemployed with both feet. Going back east, she ijl not been long there before she was a recognized workers’ leader and in Hamilton she was elected as alderman, a post she filled honor- ably until a non-partisan gang-up succeeded in ousting her. So you see the Young Pioneers are worth supporting, for Betty is going at it in the same spirit as those others. But I am almost forgetting that we are in a competition with them and if we spend all our time rooting for them, we'll fall behind ourselves. _So now, what are we going to do about our share? In the last drive, Tom McEwen did most of:my share. I used to scribble a bit and Tom put the finish on it. I don’t feel any too frisky this time either. " It reminds me of a remark that Lefty Gomez made the last year he pitched for the Yankees. One of the press boys asked him if he thought he could get a few if Johnny Murphy’s arm held out. Murphy was the Yenkee’s relief pitcher. So I'll be able to do the Lefty Gomez act if Tom's arm: holds out. - “Phat cares for that end, so the rest of you oldtimers around the bases and in the outfield get busy and do your share. Just think what it will be like to have no PT any more, and that’s what it may mean if we don’t get out and get our objective for Christmas. UE Welland local wins high basic wage “WELLAND Announcement of a basic wage rate ie $1.22 an hour (highest i in Canada) was followed by a pledge of “unqualified support’’ for the leadership and policies of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, at a meeting of UE Local 523 here. The local, which comprises em- ployees of the Electric Metallurgi- eal plant here, pledged itself “to carry on an active and unremitting’ fight against any and all disruptors no matter whether they come from inside or outside our union.” A resolution adopted acknow- ledged that the existing high stan- dard of wages and working condi- tions could not have been won without the progressive.and mili- tant leadership provided by VE officers. “We deplore the actions of some |’ so-called leaders of labor, not only within. our own organization but outside of it, who‘have divided the workers on phony issues and have done immeasurable harm,” ‘the resolution stated. : The UE local announced that the highest basic hourly rate in Cana- da had been won for the workers of Electro Metal. A seven cent wage increase brought the basic rate to $1.22 an hour. Wage in- creases won since 1946 total 55 oe Cc. S. JACKSON Welland Local underlined his statement ‘the UE membership pointed to’ it as an example of what can be ob- 0 The new contract, signed for a two year period, provides for the 40-hour week and has a wage open-, er effective Nov. 1, 1950. Contain- ed in the agreement are provisions for eight statutory holidays with pay, shift bonuses and one of the best “vacation with pay clauses in any Canadian tafe union agree- ment. In ratifying the fone cesar kak, . tained by the proper application of a trade union policy which bases itself exclusively on the welfare of the membership, Underlining the statement BN by C. S. Jackson, Canadian director of UE, Local 523 urged the entire UE membership “to fight against the splitters, raiders and opportu- nists. who have sold out the basic interests of the workers.” GM workers strike against speedup The workers shown above are part of 5,200 who closed down the Oshawa plant of the General Motors company in a solid strike against speedup. Members of Local 222, United Auto Workers (CIO), they are receiving the unqualified support of Oshawa citizens as they maintain their picket lines on a round-the-clock basis in the struggle to win the ‘einstatement of a committeeman and three shop stewards who, were fired because they organized protest: stoppages against GM’s killing speedup. UE membership rebuffs right-wing splitters PETERBOROUGH Latest reports indjcate that the rmedtcralin of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers is repudiating the right-wing raiders in Canada who are seeking to split and destroy their militant_union. Right-wing raiders, led by J. G. Morton, ‘suspended president’ of UE Canadian General Electric soon as the expulsion of the UE from the CIO became official, and it Local 524, went inte action here as was obvious that the campaign to split the union had been prepared well ahead. Morton, an adherent.of James B. Carey (who has been unable to win in the UE since the membership ousted him. fromm the presidency in 1941) re- ceived his first rebuff when a mem- bership meeting of GE workers any official position voted to suspend him and other officers of Local 524. section of the 3,200 members of the GE local are angry over the fact A majority |} that Morton and Carey launched their raid regardless of the fact that the union is on the verge of a grim struggle with the coipora- tion around the issues of wages -A huge vote among GE workers overwhelming- and a new contract: ly endorsed. cites action. The UE. won ye es round when it took.legal steps and secured an injunction which prevents the Mor- ‘And last ton-Carey bloc from seizing local In Peter- borough, Morton and his clique are union funds and records. legally barred from the offices of Local being taken in two or three’ smal- ler UE locals where the rightwing is attempting to seize control. 524 and similar steps are The right-wing, both in Canada and the U.S., is attempting to es- tablish a union dual,to the UE. The new “union,” which was establish- ed by the CIO after the expulsion of the UE, has no membership. week, Carey, awarded the title of found that he “could not even use who was “president”; the name conferred on his gh and olganization, . A legal restraining order obtain- ed by the UE ‘prevents the new CIO set-up from calling itself the “Internagional Union of Electitical, Radio and Machine Workers,” a title obviously chosen for’ its close similarity to the long-established UE? name, spread confusion among the mem- and one designed to bership in the effort to make raid- ing easier. C. S. Jackson, UE: Canadian Di- rector, has emphasized that “out agreements with employers are en- tirely Canadian Congress of Labor or the CIO. The UE is an autonomous union governed only by its own independent of either the constitution and by membership decisions made at UE conventions. This is recognized under Canadian labor law.” Jackson's statement was made when it became apparent that the Carey bloc would attempt to have their dual union recognized by ém- ployel's : whose plants are now under contract to the legal UE. Jackson declared that the UE would continue to seek unity with all sections of the labor move- ment on the decisive issues of, the economic welfare of the members of the trade union movement. ZILLIACUS PROPOSES BRITAIN RAISE ISSUE IN UN - \ US intolerance held threat to peace A het LONDON A proposal that the British gov- ernment’ speak up in the United Nations on the subject of “the growth of intolerance and author- itarianism in the U.S, and the dan- ger that it carries for our country and the peace of the world,” was made, in the British House of Commons recently, Konni Zilliacus, Labor Independ- ent member of parliament, who moved the proposal, said the UN Human Right Commission could properly be asked to consider that 11 U.S. Communist leaders “were sentenced not because of anything they had done but for holding cer-- tain political opinions.” He pointed out further that “for good measure, the lawyers of the defense were sentenced to jail for contempt of court by Judge. Harold Medina, who conducted -himself rather on the lines of the warning given by the pantomime (comic opera) policemen: “Everything you say will be taken down, alter- ed, and used against you,” Other subjects for UN consider- ation, Zilliacus. said, were “the ag- gravation of treatment of the col- ored population in the U.S.,” the Trenton frame-up, of six Negroes, the political witch-hunt in the U.S., the Peekskill Riot, the U.S, attor- ney-general’s list of “subversive” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER ll, organizations and “thought-control laws introduced in 34 states.” When Tory members tried to shout Zilliacus down with cries of “out of order” and the presiding officer ruled out his references to Negroes as referring-purely to the internal affairs of a foreign coun- try, Tom Driberg (Labor) came to has ‘defense. Driberg said the pro- prosal could propérly be consider- ed because UN action was indicat ed. John Platts-Mills, Labor In- dependent, made a further propo- sal. that “if these barbarities are continued in the U.S.,” the British ambassador should be withdrawn “as a mark of dissatisfaction felt by the people of this country.” -199—PAGE 2