CCL pulls fast vote TOM CARLSON Stand by Mine-Mill is call _ to every union in Canada By By J. B. SALSBERG, MPP ae OTTAWA : ; : : : Executive council of the Can- The Millard-Conroy group, which now dominates the Canadian Congress of Labor, has publicly oie Ge of Labor voted for announced its intention to launch a reckless raid on the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter ee. abolition ef the World Federation principle, a crime of Trade Unions and its replace- ment by a world organization “com- lawless , days of posed of free. institutions,” but the Piracy, an ugly act that this power-hungry group intends 25,000 Canadian members CCL Executive Council as Their unanimous decision to their gains, their rights and their fine~ union, whose battles for very life of their union. of their heroic predecessors against the mine monopolies This is the union of Bill the sawdust Caesars as it has the The Millard-Conroy public an- nouncement to raid a sister organ: ization is not only a challenge and threat to the Mine-Mill union but to the whole CCL and to the en- tire union movement. It is a cyni- cal assault on labor unity, on the integrity of the unions and the autonomous rights of each section of the union movement. It is a poisonous bacteria which these un- principled labor bureaucrats wish to inject into labor’s life stream. All workers of all CCL unions must spring to the defense of that which they have gained after, long years of bitter struggle—to pre- vent the crime before it is ex- tended. Labor and the general public is given a lying excuse for this union- wrecking plan. What is the phony story that Millard and Conroy of- fer? That since Millard’s Steel Workers’ Union. has opened Tim- mins area who are not adequate- ly organized at present, therefore the CCL ‘will set aside Mine-Mill’s jurisdiction and organize them di- rectly into the CCL. An equally phony excuse is that since Mil- lard’s. Steelworkers’ Union has opened an office in Timmins against its sister union, Mine-Mill and since Millard has granted a charter to a splinter ‘group in the Port Colbourne plant of the Inter- national Nickel Company, which has a Mine-Mill contract in force, therefore, the CCL asks both un- ions to withdraw from the two areas and the CCL will enter in- stead. This is a cclossal swindle and an insult to the intelligence of the workers. There are 2% million workers in this country, of whom less than one million are organized into all unions—a vast field for organiza- tion indeed. Yet the Mosher-Con- roy-Millard group choose the metal field, in which Mine-Mill has car- ried on battles for the last fifty years, as their field of operation, Untold numbers of unorganized workers await unionization, but Conroy chooses to raid one of the oldest unions on the continent, a foundation member of the CCL and a good-standing affiliate of the Congress up until now! Thousands of steel and alumin-' um workers in Canada are unor- _ ganized, but Charlie Millard pre- fers to raid the metal miners’ un- ion! How grotesque! Mine-Mill has about 25,000 members in good standing. It has the largest single local union in Canada, under the check-off, only a few hours away | from the Timmins camp, in Sud- bury. It has a membership larger than that of President Mosher’s own union, yet this is the organiz- ation that “the union-wreckers choose to raid! _ More than a year ago Mine-Mill conducted an energetic, promising campaign jin the Timmins gold field. The mine magnates and gov- ernment went all-out. to smash that drive and, to their shame, it Taust be recorded that Millard and his hand-picked officials openly ac- ted as finger-men for the govern- ment to disrupt the campaign and facilitate the deportation of Mine- Mill organizers, If that wasn’t enough, disrup- tionist sroups were set up in nmins to prevent the union’s ‘organizing efforts: And now, all the foul facts have become pub- lic. In an interview published in the Toronto Evening Telegram _ on January 15, Ralph Carlin, chief disrupter in Timmins, is re- . have become legendary. Haywood and Joe Hill! to commit. proves them worthy sons more than _half-a-century It will vanquish formidable billionaire corporations. ported as stating: “. . . since the split he has been directing the in- dependent union as an organizer of the Steel Workers. When the National Congress sends its own men to Timmins—and they are expected in numbers soon—Ralph doesn’t know what position he will occupy.” What perfidy! . What unprin- cipled, underhandedness this is! First you have union organizers de- ported, then Millard uses the Steel Workers’ money secretly to finance disrupters in a sister organization affiliated to the CCL; the hypocrit- ical cry is raised that the field is unorganized, and then these shame- less. men say, “Let’s both with- draw.” It is as if a burglar were to en- ter your house, claim it as his own, and then his accomplice would come along and Say that since both claim the house, both Should get out and he ‘will take it over. What absolute lawless- ness! This latest outrage of the Mil. | lard-Conroy clique is more, danger- ous to the well-being of Canadian workers and to the existence of trade unionism, than any thrust from without could be. It must be cut short if the labor move- ment is to survive. | The plot is so repugnant that many in the CCL Council voted against it. The press has an- nounced that George Burt and Roy England, the two ‘representatives of the United Auto Workers, larg- est union in the CCL, voted against’ the monstrous proposal. So did the representatives of the United Elec- trical Workers, third largest CCL union, Freeman Jenkins, president of the Nova Scotia. coal miners’ union, wired his greetings to the Mine-Mill conference, as did heads of other CCL unions, It is they, not Millard and Con- roy, who speak for the CCI, rank- and-file unions in Canada, We deny that Millard has the endorsation of the Canadian steel union member- shp, or that the steel workers of Sydney, Stelco, Algoma, Harvester and other plants, either want, .or will permit the use of their funds and their staff for raiding sister unions, or for lending their locals and destroying their hard - won gains to satisfy the unbridled po- litical ambitions of Millard, the man who neither planned nor built their great union, . We declare without fear of contradiction that the _ steel- workers, like the auto workers, electrical and thousands of oth- ers in CCL nnions, will rise up against ‘the unprincipled and in- defensible recklessness of the Millard-Conroy group. Without the defeat of this out- rageous plot, the higher wages, shorter work-week and social ben- efits proposed by the CCL Council in its 5-point 1949 program, will be So many phrases, for how can union-splitting and raiding do any- thing but help the employers and their anti-labor program? The war which Millard and Conroy are about to launch against the Mine-Mill and the miners is a war against the whole trade union movement. Workers everywhere, yes, and leaders who have an ounce of principle within them, will join in beating back this attack. In do- ing so they will defend their own unions and they will defend the Spirit of trade unionism. of the Mine-Mill correctly estimated the recent an attack on all they have achieved, and on the reject the Millard-Conroy ultimatum and to defend Pay drive faces city Vancouver’s Non-Partisan coun- cil faces a simultaneous wage drive from five unions representing 3,500 civic workers. Outside workers, represented by Civic Employees’ Union local 28, want a 25 cents hourly boost, con- sideration for tradesmen, and un- ion shop: Police Federal Union asks a $50 monthly boost plus adjustments. Firemen want increases ranging from $25 up. District Water Board employees will demand 15 cents. City hall staff at first eftdorsed the Petersen “job evaluation” plan and asked for a 5 percent in- crease. But when the Civic Feder- ation, representing all civic employ- ees’ unions, rejected the Petersen plan by overwhelming vote, ten of the inside workers requested a new meeting to reconsider their position. They are now holding a referendum to choose between the Petersen plan plus 5 percent, or 10 percent without the Petersen plan. Last week local 28 told the city fathers flatly that it will not even consider the Petersen plan, which it brands as a violation of collect- ive bargaining. (The plan cost the taxpayers $50,000). The aldermen wanted the union to sit down with them and study the plan together until February 15. Now they have agreed to con- tinue bargaining this week. be- fore the ICA Act deadline ex- pires. i ‘ City has already agreed to seek enabling legislation to grant the union shop, with Alderman George Miller tacitly admitting the union will get the union shop once the legislation is passed. : Some workers are speculating whether the city may yet try the maneuver proposed by Tory ele- ments at the Union of B.c. Muni- cipalities Convention, namely,» to: cancel any wage increases that may be negotiated by saying they were not included in the civic budget. ‘ : YS HIGHEST PRICES PAID for . \ DIAMONDS, OLD GOLD Other Valuable Jewellery STAR LOAN CO. Ltd. 719. Rateos tt ee MAr. 2622 " For Extra Quick Service CHIN LAUNDRY 746 POWELL ST = A Seccet sviches of BCE STANTON & MUNRO : Barristers and Solicitors 501 HOLDEN BUILDING Vancouver é — MArine 5746 Brazilians don’t like bus fare increases any more than Vancou- verites. In Rio de Janeiro they demonstrated and here we see a cop giving the company’s an- swer with a club to a student. A. P, Holt of London, England. is a director both of the BCElec- tric (Canada’s 11th largest Cor- poration) and Brazilian Trac- tion (2nd largest). Four Brazilian Traction directors sit alongside H. R. MacMillan on the director- ate of the Canadian Bank of Commerce. (Buzzer please copy). resolution was rushed through in the absence of ten council mem- bers. Those absent included Can- adian leaders of the United Electri- cal, Radio and Machine Workers, United Auto Workers, United Mine Workers (affiliated to the CCL in | Canada), Canadian General Ship- yard Workers and- International Fur and Leather Workers’ Union. Canadian UE Director C. Ss. Jack- son came in soon after the meet- ing began. “When I entered the meeting*I could~see that they had done some pretty fast business,” he said afterwards. “When I learn- ed what had taken place I asked that the matter be reopened for discussion but got no action.” The executive council voted with- out any discussion by member un- ions. Despite the fact that there has been no rank-and-file criticism of the WFTU at CCL conventions or elsewhere, it charged that the WFTU ‘should be abolished be- cause it “had failed to function to the benefit of the workers,” NPA tries cheap chiselling at expense of unemployed Don Guise, (Outside of “welching ca a promise” because of frost conditions. Council agreed January 21 to re- instate these men as long as there was sewer work available, on the basis of their seniority and because they are not covered by unem- ployment insurance, Guise further accused Council of “miserable penny-pinching” in try- ing to cut off hundreds of other workers from unemployment insur- ance coverage. He stated that. in November City Engineer C. A. Bat- tershill issued an order which dropped several hundred workers from unemployment insurance rolls through their being certified as permanent employees. The union squelched the move. i But 226 workers employed by Board of Works and Water Works had already been certified as per- manent employees in 1942. The six men laid off are from these 226, “When they tried to »remove workers from unemployment insur- business agent of Civic Employees’ Union Local 28 Workers) has accused City, Council and the City Engineer to restate six senior employees laid off ance rolls, they told them they were steady employees,” said Guise. “When six permanent men were laid off on 15 minutes’ notice, the union was told all construction workers whether paying into unem- ployment insurance or not are tem- porary employees. “This is double-talk and chisel- ling. The city sacrifices the secur- ity of the men to save a few dol- lars, , “Before we are through with ne- gotiations this year we shall see to it that all men are covered and seniority respected.” h BILL’S SHOE RENEW 2626 Hastings St. E. \ W. KATAJA, Prop. Army and Navy “ of We Always Self for Less ingly be undersold. We will meet any competitor’s price at any time, not only ceiling price but floor price. © ae and we will gladly refund any differ- ‘ ence, Army and Navy prices are ‘ guaranteed to be the lowest in Van- couvér at all times, RMY & NA ‘DEPARTMENT STORES Vancouver and New Westminster PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 28, 1949 _ will never know-