Pacifica sail pTe te Pak Ceasers i Hi i sa, ei cel ut HE ls i qo all FP =i creel Strikers’ moral high | Here’s a picket team at the gates of one of the many Ford plants in Windsor. Pressing their demands for wage increases, full seniority and a health plan, 5,700 workers in United Auto Workers’ Local 200 are standing solid in their strike struggle with Ford’s U.S. owners. é Continued from page I NATURAL GAS and municipal councils and the provincial legislature had been given time to study them. It ask- ed further that council go on re- cord for a publicly-owned line, that the city explore the possi- bility of taking over distribution, and that the city campaign for adequate supplies to ensure the expansion of industry. : : Vancouver Labor Council de- cided on Tuesday this week to enlist the support of other labor organizations in a demand that the cabinet hold up any agree- ment on the export of natural gas until the legislature has an op- portunity to debate the issue. Council expressed deep concern over the government’s policy of “secrecy” as to the terms of the agreement. Members called also for a government enquiry into the matter of public versus priv- ate ownership of utilities. The provincial executive of the Labor - Progressive party in a sharply worded telegram to Prem-. ier W. A. C. Bennett this week scored the “unseemly haste” with which the government is at- — FRIDAY 9 to 2? FISHERMEN‘S HALL : 138 East Cordova Good Orchestra’ Favors © Smorgasbord DECEMBER 31 Single Ticket $2.00 Double Ticket $3.50 tempting to close the deal. The telegram charged that “our jobs are being exported with our re- sources, with the exception of the limited work on the pipeline itself.” (Only 2,000 jobs would be available at the peak of con- struction). LPP provincial organizer Alf Dewhurst, in a statement to the Pacific Tribune, declared: “We are more determined than ever to present a 100,000-name petition to the legislature in Jan- uary. This petition, calling for Canadian control and use of our hydro and gas resources, has met with an enthusiastic reception everywhere. There can be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of people are opposed to the kind of sell-out embodied in the present gas pipeline agree- ment, OS “The premier’s office should be flooded with telegrams demand- ing a halt to this deal, the MLAs should be kept busy with delega- tions of citizens to remove any — question as to where the elector- _ ate stands on our vital power re- sources,” he concluded. Labor demands aid for jobless Ald. Anna Sprott and Ald. J. W. Cornett of Vancouver met the provincial cabinet in Victoria on Wednesday this week to urge immediate financial relief for the city’s destitute unemployed, and to suggestthat the provincial government share finan- cial aid on a 80-20 split, the same as social service benefits, with the city paying 20 percent. On Monday union leaders met Labor’ Minister Lyle Wicks in a special conference on the jobless problem. Two labor briefs were presented—one from a joint com- mittee of the TLC and CCL labor councils in Vancouver and the - legislative committee of the Joint Railway Brotherhoods, the other by the B.C. Federation of Labor. Both briefs called for immedi- ate starts on civic and provincial works projects, and asked for full use of the National Housing Act to start rental housing, construc- tion. The B.C. Federation of Labor. ‘asked for a federal-provincial- municipal conference to decide spheres of responsibility and a program of action in tackling un- employment. : Vancouver City Council’s social service committee heard labor and Community Chest spokesmen stress the seriousness of the job- less situation on Monday. “People are suffering and the need is great,’ said Rev. Harry © No Yule joy for jobless Morrow of the. First United Church. “We must find some keg of dynamite to make Victoria aware of the problem.” ; “Unlike last year most of the unemployed are under 40 years of age,” continued Morrow. “We are meeting now what we nor- ‘ mally have to meet about the be- — ginning of February. And there will be more unemployed after Christmas as: logging camps and mills are not closed down yet.” Morrow said that private agen- cies, including Salvation Army, City Mission and church groups are swamped with hungry unem- ployed. “Two soup kitchens are operating to capacity and the number of meal tickets given out is far in excess of previous years.” Two representatives of the Building Trades Council, Cliff Worthington spoke of the “large numbers of destitute unemployed employ- ables” in the city, and said that “these people find themselves in these circumstances through no fault of their own.” Asking “immediate assistance to alleviate the plight of these NEW YEAR’S EVE “ Pacific Tribune Cabaret Dance : and John Hines, ~ unemployed” the ‘labor spokes- men condemned “argument as to who is responsible for assistance” and said bluntly that council should accept responsibility. The Building Trades Council said it would support by partici- pation, a delegation to the pro- vincial government to get the financial assistance that the law provides for, but at the same time felt that the city should grant assistance immediately. A resolution addressed to the federal government urged that Unemployment Insurance Com- mission’ benefits be increased to equal at least two-thirds of the weekly wages and that Ottawa “extend the granting of benefits to the workers regardless of con- tributions.” A rally held Saturday in the Labor Temple under sponsorship of the TLC and CCL labor coun- cils was attended by 250 workers and several MPs, MLAs and muni- cipal and civic officials. ‘The rally endorsed the demands which labor spokesmen presented to Labor Minister Lyle Wicks at Victoria Monday. Among the plans advanced was - a long-range project of sending a trade mission of government- management-labor representatives to countries across the Pacific to . develop. trade and thus help B.C. industry. ‘ The brief prepared by the two labor bodies called for broaden- ing of social assistance to abolish the need for soup kitchens, which were branded “a disgrace to the country.” : Showing a peculiar understand- ing of economics and a complete unawareness of the existing un- employment crisis, George Hahn, Social Credit MP for’ New Westminster, said that in Canada today “labor is capital” and that “every worker could become a capitalist by investing $10 a month in business shares.” Souplines are longer, flophouses jammed ‘By BERT WHYTE Just 20 years ago I stood in the rain outside a beer parlor on Hastings Street, bumming dimes from sports and their girls who came staggering out at clos- ‘ing time. I had no socks and ‘ho overcoat, and I was soaked to the skin, but I had to raise 50 cents for a flop anda bite to eat. A bed on Water Street cost 20 cents. Another 20 cents would buy a meal of soup, hamburger and onions, pie and coffee at the Wonder Lunch. The extra dime was for breakfast. There are just as many pan- handlers on Hastings Street to- day as there were in the Hungry Thirties—and 50 cents won’t buy a meal and a bed today. Every day I get hit by half a. dozen or more hardups, each with a tale of want and woe. Dis- counting the lads who are simply mooching for beer or “bingo” money, it is obvious that unem- ’ ployment has reduced many de- cent workers to the level of street beggars. : Government figures do not tell the tale, for thousands of work- ers have given up hope of get- ting jobs through the employ- ment offices, and don’t even both- er to register. Moreover, when you've reached a state of desti- tution where you’ve sold your overcoat, and haven’t -a clean shirt or a pair of sox to your name, you know that no employer is likely to hire you even if you did apply. * * * In the Hungry Thirties we had an organization of single unem- ployed, based on the men who lived in Bennett’s infamous “slave camps.” During the winter of 1934-5 I was a resident in eight of these camps in B.C. and took part in the strike we staged in ‘Okanagan provincial December, which brought 1,300 men into Vancouver. | Today there is no unemployed organization here, although sev- eral of the trade unions—in con- trast to’ the Thirties—have taken up the fight for jobs and set up unemployed councils within their organizations. These unions are bombarding, authorities with de- mands for extended unemploy- ment benefits, and calling on the | governments at all level to begin works projects to alleviate the growing economic crisis. Many of the unemployed, how- ever, do not belong to trade unions. When their money runs ~ out they sell their personal be- longings, piece by piece, until everything is gone. Then they hit the skidroad. * 4 * Take a look into Central City Mission any night of the week, and you'll find no vacant beds— in fact, scores of men are turned away, to sleep in the open, or in boxcars. i The souplines are getting long- | er, and the Powell Street mis- sions are crowded with “converts” in search of a cup of coffee and a stale sandwich. All this is taking place while the newspapers report “an indus- trial boom” in B.C. and across the land. If this is a boom, what will it be like when we get a depres- sion? _ LPP nominates Klim ae VERNON, B.C. Nick Klim, Vernon mechanic, has been nominated as Labor- Progressive candidate for North constitu- | ency elections. Klim contested © the seat, now held by Social Credit, for the LPP in 1953. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 17, 1954 — PAGE 12