would

tract was signed States we warned against its ac-

CCL leadership’s divisive policies held responsible for weakening wage drive

TORONTO

An answer to the “labor” commentators of two big business papers, the Financial Post and the Toronto Evening Telegram, who recently charged the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers with having betrayed its own policy in signing a contract with the giant General Electric, is. made by George Harris, UE leader, in the Canadian

UE News. Harris’ article states:

Roland Williams and Fred Jones are “labor” scribes

ing Telegram. Both papers are top

level mouthpieces of the employ-

ers’ point of view and are rabid- ly anti-labor on all essentials.

Recently Williams and Jones wrote articles for their papers in which they made reference to the UE-GE contract settlement. liams’ article appeared in the Post about a week before the settlement

and Jones’ came a few days after. that UE

Williams predicted

for the Fin- ‘ancial Post and the Toronto Even-

Wil-

ceptance in Canada. We appealed in particular to the leadership of the Canadian Congress of Labor to fight against it being imported into Canada.

This appeal fell on deaf ears and rather than ,oppose this U.S. formula the- CCL leaders. facilit- ated it being loaded onto the Canadian workers. It rapidly be- came a feature of many CCL agreements. ,

This was possible because the CCL leadership and the leadership of some of the major unions affili- ated to the CCL had determined on

would not sign agreements which|a course which was’counter to the

contained cost - of\- living adjust- ments. His prediction was. liber-

needs of the working people. They had decided against uniting the

ally sprinkled with his usual red-|workers to force the profit-gorged

baiting, and claimed that UE was interested in keeping the wage guestion open so that “trouble” .could be caused at will.

Jones, following the announce- ment of the GE settlement, pro- claimed that UE had betrayed “its own policy by signing an agree- ment with a cost-of-living clause. He arrived at this “brilliant” con- clusion by saying that DE had been the most outspoken opponent of cost-of-living bonus plans and had severely criticized right-wing union: leaders for initiating such plans. ‘

In their main conclusions both these big business “labor” analysts were wrong. The facts are that

UE had agreements with cost-of-

‘tlement.

These agreements were based on

living clauses before the GE set- conditions peculiar to ‘the given situation and where, after explana- tion as to the disadvantages of such clauses, the workers concern- ed nevertheless voted to accept it

as part of their contract,

Such cost-of-living arrange- ments in UE contracts, as in con- tracts of any union, refiect the

- general weakness in the whole

labor movement, and not that UE has abandoned any policy or backtracked in any way on our criticism of those labor leaders who fathered the tying of wages to a government . cost-of-living index.

When the first five-year long- term cost-of-living escalator agree- ment was made with General Mo- tors. in the United States the UE advanced criticism of it.

We said that it was an eva- sion of the basic and real wage problem. We said that the wage question should be kept open so that workers would be free to advance their wage demands on other grounds than to- simply make up for higher living costs.

We pointed ‘out that ‘such long-

term contracts put collective bar-

gaining on a shelf and that this was tq the liking of the employers wh@® through speed-up and price- fixing saw a rich harvest of profits

in the offing.

We also said that employers interpret such long-term cost-of-living agreements as mean- ing that labor accepted present wage standards as being adequate, subject only to adjustment based upon an anchor point of a govern- ment price index... .

_ We have not changed our opin-

ion on long-term escalator agree- ments; and we do not retract one

single word of our criticism of

those responsible for foisting such

restrictive agreements on _ the

workers in the ‘first place.

When the General Motors con- in the United

employers to come across with real wage increases. Therefore any formula was in order so long as it could by-pass mobilizing the work- ers to struggle for their full wage needs.

It should also be recognized that this was because the top leader- ship of the CCL had committed themselves to full and uncritical acceptance of the war program of the government. This acceptance earried with it the financing of the war program by loading the main costs on the working people... Under such conditions, a genuine struggle for wages was alien to the thinking of the CCL top brass.

Instead of unity the right-wing went on a spree of raiding all unions who opposed their “no- wage-tight” policy. .They deter- mined to create disunity — to light other unions rather than tight the boss—and now, as a logical extension of disunity, they are at each others’ throats and raiding each others’ member- ships. :

And at this time, when the rank- and-file of all unions are demand- ing action for wage increases, these gentry are breaking their necks. to avoid giving leadership to the

ers is to plead with the govern- | ment to make a bargain based on the CCL agreeing to wage controls (freezing wages at an unjust level) in return for so-called price con- trols.

A few,days ago the press report- ed that Charles Millard of the Steel union was calling for drastic action ... “a general strike against high prices” and, the report stated, he reaffirmed his opposition to “cost of living escalator clauses.”

living clauses” he could be remind- ed that he recently settled a strike with General Steel Wares Limited with a cost-of-living escalator clause in the settlement.

If Millard had called for a unit- ed wage fight and a general strike, if necessary, to back up the wage demand he-would have found gen- eral and instantaneous support from the men and women in the shops. : ‘

Leng-term agreements and esca- lator cost-of-living clauses are the fruits of the disunity and weak- nesses of labor caused by the re- fusal of such people as Mosher, Millarg and Conroy to measure up in a real way to the fight for wages, and by their substituting raiding, splitting and disunity for unity. ,

UE’s agreement with GE is as

_ 00d and better than most union contracts being made at _ this

time. The average money value

of GE ‘workers amounted to

nearly 19 cents an hour. It was

demands of their own membership.-

The main line of the CCL lead-'

On his “opposition” to “cost-of- |.

won while the paid henchmen of Millard and Mosher were spend- ing ‘tens of thousands of dollars

to disrupt the ranks of GE work- ers.

The settlement could and would have been much better for the workers if it had not been for the CCL-IUE company helpmates.

With, the relatively high offer of GE, a fight on the issue of a wage- opener instead of a, cost-of-living clause would have meant to strike while the majority of labor or- ganizations had deserted the ‘fight on this question. It would have meant a strike when the CCL-IUE

leaders were doing everything to.

stab the GE workers in the back. To have led GE workers into a strike under these conditions would have been adventurism and mis- leadership. .. . .

- Substantial wage increases for Canada’s workers, escalator clauses or no escalator clauses, can only be won by a united labor move- ment and united labor action. Unit- ed labor can scrap such restrictive clauses and get back on the path of freedom of action to struggle for wage increases over and above the inadequate standard set by the price index of the Dominion gov- ernment. Bre Recenter

This is our challenge: Let the

CCL stop splitting labor. Let the CCL leaders call for unity, for a united wage struggle by all sections of organized labor, as the only way to fully protect and advance the wage standards of the workers as against the all-out profiteering o the bosses! i '

What is your answer Mosher, Millard and Conroy? :

DBS ADMITS INACCURACY :

UE wants

TORONTO A demand that the government immediately institute a full scale public inquiry into the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (DBS) cost- of-living index was made here by GC. S. Jackson, president of District Five, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America in a letter to Prime Minister St. Laurent. The demand was prompted by a press release from the DBS on May 18 in which it admitted the ¢

Streetcar men vote confidence in executive

Members of Street Railwaymen’s Union, Division 11, gave their ex- ecutive a vote of confidence in re- ferendum balloting last week, fol- lowing an internal dispute arising from the last contract negotiations and BCER’s new running schedule.

Curtailment of transit service has created resentment in union ranks as well as public opposition. Split shifts are becoming more general, and many BCER em- ployees are quitting in disgust, al- though «the real remedy lies in united opposition to new sched- ules and union action to adjust grievances.

Youth peace float barred in capital

“+. WICTORIA, B.C.

Apparently believing that “peace is subversive,” officials in charge of the Victoria Day parade here disqualified a National Federation of Labor Youth float after it had previously been accepted and had participated in the parade for three blocks. ‘

The float stressed the need for peace and carried banners advo- cating “No Conscription.” —

cost of living index

probe of

cost-of-living index was not “an accurate barometer of living costs” and that ‘it is a doubtful guide’ to what is happening to food, clothing and housing costs in Canada.”

The letter to the prime minister pointed out that for many years the labor movement and other pub- lic organizations had been critical of the index as a measurement of the effect of prices on living stan- dards. ° Jackson recalled that as far back as 1948, in a special in- quiry conducted by the National War Labor Board, the UE, along

‘| with other labor and public organ-

izations, presented substantial cri- ticism of the index as a basis of measuring price moveménts in terms of living standards, but that no results were achieved in terms of improving the index.

The necessity of having an index giving full reflection of the actual living standards of the Canadian workers from month to month was

‘stressed because of the increased

number of trade union contracts

tied to the cost-of-living index, and

because all collective bargaining was either directly or indirectly af- fected by the index. ,

The UE urged that a new index (as apparently planned by DBS) should not be issued without 4 public inquiry which would have presentations from all manner of public organizations—labor, farm, consumer, welfare, business, etc. Only from such an inquiry would it be possible to arrive at an index which would properly reflect the effects of prices, taxation, supply and demand, wages, profits and in- vestment on the living standards of working people in terms of net spendable income; and further that such a revised index should not b¥ viewed as an instrument for put- ting a lid on a wage movement. Nor should it be another vehicle for depressing living standards as is the present one. ,

Jackson pointed out that the UE in the United States!had recently releaseq a strong and well docu- mented expose of the inadequacy of the Board of Labor Standards index in that country. This expose has been instrumental in arousing a strong public demand for a full investigation of the index in the U.S. similar study is being com~ menced by the UE in Canada which will supplement its study and criti- cism made in 1943. ,

Financial Post tips hand |

in attack on Labor Board's decision in Steel raid.

Circulation of The Financial Post in Vancouver is fairly well restricted to Howe — Street brokers and their ambitious young clerks.

N

a

Consequently, not many workers and |

trade unionists will have read the sour grapes editorial and articles on the B.C. Labor

Relations Board decision against the

“There’s something extremely odd when a Labor Board in Can- ada goes out of its way to defend a ‘Communist-run union,” plains the Post editorial. Canada’s first atom plant at Trail, B.C., is involved, it becomes a case of national importance.”

The editorial goes on in this vein

for some’ length,. then the Bay!

Street editor comes up with his ‘opinion on what should have been done, by not-too-subtle implication.

“The Canada Labor Board, when faced with basically the same prob- lem, acted far more realistically. It decertified the Communist-run Seamen’s union on the grounds that it was no longer a trade union in the true sense of the word. In so doing, it virtually eliminated the CSU from the Great Lakes. This and individual screening of seamen minimizes danger on the Great Lakes.” :

Danger to whom?

“To the ship- owners’ profits. Pee

‘

com-" “When.

_| Mine-Mill.

Steel raiders ‘in Trail.

Trade unionists, who regard de- certification of the CSU as one of the most shameful official attacks on a legitimate union ever com- mitted in Canada, take a different view of the LRB action at Trail. They’ greet the rebuff to Steel as a victory against all union raiders.

“They Got Their Due” is the title of an editorial in the Mine-Mill paper, Union News, this week,

Pointing out that the LRB de- cision, was as expected, a complete rejection of the Steel raiders in their attempt to obtain certification at Trail — where smeltermen had demofistrated very effectively that Mine-Mill is their union — the edi- torial said: ~* d

“For over: a’* year, the Steel- workers and their allies, Macleans | Magazine, The Financial Post and the Vancouver Sun, have been us- ing blackmail on Local 480 and the Their only stock-in-

trade, red baiting, reach the most ridiculous depths. The Labor Re

lations Board of British Columbia the Consolidated Mining and Smek

ting Company do not escape their

fed smear. And yet it was a very

simple question for any Labor Re

lations Board, or any person who —

had the evidence before them see the skin game that was being worked.” \ :

i ye Answering the smear tactics, t?

editorial stated that Mirie-Mill #* — tied to no political party, but res

pects the political and religious D& liefs of all its members, and doe* not interfere in these matters. “We consider this is the } of the success of this union

building the most powerful unio? —

of miners and smeltermen, 4 those engaged in our jurisdictiO? ‘That is why this union is growins

rapidly across Canada!” the edi

ee “PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 1, 1951 — PAGE

torial concludes. —