TheTITherman
138 East Cordova Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone MU. 3-9655
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GEORGE NORTH, Editor HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor
Authorised as second class mail by Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash. Published every Friday except the last Friday of the month. Deadline: Wednesday prior to publication.
Bigotry in Safety
THE FISHERIES Association has displayed considerably worse than bad taste in its February issue of Safety News, the cover of which is reprinted below.
It has revealed a lack of appreciation of the sensibilities of its employees, and has indeed directly offended those workers in the industry who are of Chinese origin.
The drawing makes three racist points: it portrays the Chinese as menial pullers of rickshaws loaded with well to do "superior" whites, the man of the Colonel Blimp variety; it caricatures the Chinese, and it mocks their alleged use of the English language.
In this enlightened age, it might still be considered funny among those of low intellect to poke fun at Chinese immigrants and their difficulty with the English language.
But surely those people who speak publicly for the Fisheries Association can be expected to rise above this sort of intolerance.
It may be slightly more genteel but it is hardly less insulting than such racial epithets as chink, nigger, wop, dago, siwash, bo-hunk, and Jap, terms which have been discarded by all but the consciously or unconsciously prejudiced.
Some readers may feel we are overemphasising this display of disregard for the feelings of others.
We think not. Cancer can only be cured if it is treated in its early stages. We are anxious to remove this particular cancer while it is in an incipient state.
We hope the Fisheries Association will agree with our viewpoint and tender an apology to those it has offended by this most unfortunate display of bigotry on the part of the author.
Fisheries Association of B.C. FEB. 1966
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Joint Action Needed
AREADER has passed along an article from the Victoria Daily Colonist written by outdoors editor Alec Merriman. In it, Merriman quotes a Jim Gilbert, sports advisory committee member to the federal fisheries department, as being optimistic about the department's approach to the problems of sport fishermen.
"The pendulum has swung," he said. "I can see within the next 10 years a complete closure of all commercial fishing in the Gulf of Georgia."
We are well aware that the department has given Gilbert a basis for his asumption by stiffened closures imposed on the commercial fleet and in statements accompanying the announcement of tougher regulations last year.
But that approach is completely unacceptable to the commercial fleet on many grounds. It should also be opposed by those sport fishermen who fish for pleasure and not profit.
There is room for both types of fishing in the Gulf of Georgia and certainly the commercial fisherman whose livelihood depends on his catch has a prior right to operate in his traditional grounds.
We see the conflict promoted by such men as Gilbert as another expression of the struggle within the commercial fishery itself. The fact of the matter is that resort owners, marina operators, and other groups with a business interest in the sport fishery are anxious to reserve all salmon for their customers.
The problem we're all facing is simple and straightforward. The salmon runs are declining and everybody within the catching group whether sport or commercial is trying to take enough of the reduced catch to maintain previous standards.
The answer to the problem doesn't lie in one group grabbing all and leaving nothing for the others, even though such an approach is inherent in socalled free enterprise.
The only sane way of dealing with the problem is through collective action by all groups to achieve a program of expanding the salmon industry to permit better fishing and larger catches.
The United Fishermen and Allied Workers will be sending possibly a dozen or more of its members to Ottawa next weekend for the purpose of pressing its demand for sharply increased expenditures to rebuild salmon runs and for policies that will protect this fishery from foreign exploitation.
The sport fishing groups and their spokesmen would be showing statesmanship and foresight if they set aside the narrow, partisan, self interest expressed by Gilbert and presented a program seriously aimed at building the salmon fishery in the present and future interest of all groups.
4 THE FISHERMAN — FEBRUARY 11, 1966
"As long as Steel is raiding Mine Mill, heads or tails, 1 win."
RAIDING EARNS DESERVED BLAST
F mf
By BEN SWANKEY
RAIDING and internecine conflict are the "venereal disease of the trade union movement."
The protracted inter - union struggle between the Steelwork-Union is "pointless and ers Union and wholly infantile."
Labor must drop such practices and fuse itself into a "more closely knit body whose m e m -bers direct at-the Mine Mill
tention ... to formulating plans for dealing with changing technology, with the educational needs of their members, and toward doing what labor has seldom done, come up witli the answers first."
This caustic comment and advice appeared on the front page of the February issue of the Labor Statesman, published jointly by the BC Federation of Labor and the Vancouver District Labor Council. The author is V. D. Young, professor of political science at the University of BC and an official of the New Democrats Party.
★ ★ * PROFESSOR YOUNG'S RE-
marks take an added significance in view of an announcement from the leaders of the Steelworkers Union that they intend to take over the membership of the Trail Local of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers.
Steelworkers' spokesmen justified their action with the statement that there is nothing wrong with raiding another union, that it is really no different from one political party trying to win over the supporters of another political party.
This move by the Steelworkers is causing dismay and anxiety in the ranks of organised labor in BC. It is made at a time when labor is up against such tough problems as the threat of automation to job security, the use of ex parte injunctions to prevent picketing during strikes and rising prices.
Now more than ever, labor should speak unitedly, with one voice. Most workers and their unions recognise this, as shown by the splendid solidarity that developed in support of striking oil workers last November.
★ ★ ★
THE CANADIAN SECTION of Mine Mill served notice at its national convention in Trail last month that Mine Mill members are not for sale. It will fight to the finish to protect its union and the gains it has won.
The Trail local of Mine Mill has succeeded in winning the best wages, working conditions and pensions in the hard rock mining industry in Canada. The
raid by the Steelworkers will threaten these gains.
The Canadian section of its union is completely autonomous.
Canadian Steelworkers enjoy no such autonomy. Even the decision to raid Mine Mill had its origin in the United States.
But what is most important of all is the harmful effect that raiding has on the bargaining power of unions. Instead of fighting the common enemy, labor will use up its energy and resources in a bitter civil war. From this only the employers will benefit.
* ★ ★
WHY THEN, DOES STEEL insist on raiding?
The only explanation that makes any sense is the charge that top leaders of the Steelworkers Union in Canada and the US have become power hungry. They look on their union as a business.
The Steel leadership looks with envy on the locals of Mine Mill in Trail, Kimberley and other mining camps whose 7,000 members, if captured by Steel, would contribute a minimum of S350.000 a year to Steel coffers in dues alone.
Today it is Mine Mill that is being raided. Tomorrow it could be any other union. ■
From the standpoint of Steel leaders, this may be good business; it may satisfy their "empire building" proclivities. But from the standpoint of the genuine interests of labor, such policies are disastrous.
These same Steelworker leaders have always opposed the admission of militant and progressive Unions such as Mine Mill, the UFAWU and the United Electrical Workers into the Canadian Labor Congress.
★ ★ ★ BECAUSE OF ITS RAIDING
activities, the leaders of the Steelworkers are in trouble today even with the Canadian Labor Congress. The CLC has imposed sanctions on the Steelworkers Union for its raid on another CLC affiliate, the Moulders Union at Three Rivers, Quebec.
The Steelworkers raid on Mine Mill at Trail has been roundly condemned by the Canadian Area of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. The ILWU called the raid "completely contrary to all the honored principles and traditions of the labor movement."
The Longshoremen also pointed out that if the Steelworkers want to increase their strength, they can help organise the more than 50 percent of BC workers who still remain unorganised.
"What we need today," said the ILWU, "is more unity, more organisation; not raiding, cannibalism and civil war within the ranks of labor."
This is the kind of policy the UFAWU has always fought for.
FISH AND SHIPS
TX7E have some pretty knowl-*" edgeable readers on various sports — especially horse racing. We won't talk about George Royal, at the moment but we have a word to say on how Vancouver was robbed of a National Hockey League franchise. Harry Allison is so mad he's thinking of cancelling his season's hockey ticket and refusing to look at NHL games. The latter threat should last until Saturday. But it is an insult to Vancouver which outranks all of Canada when it comes to football attendance. The grounds for the turning down the bid for a franchise have nothing to do with justice but the interests of the tight business monopoly that runs the NHL. Here's a sport dominated by Canadian players (those born across the line can be counted on the fingers of one hand) but six new franchises have been handed out — all of them to US cities. The interests of the NHL business clique have been amply protected at the expense of Canadians who brought the sport to its present level. And it might not be a bad idea to do a Combines probe on the obvious monopoly that controls Canadian hockey.
★ ★ ★
Veteran packer skipper Olaf Hofseth dropped in to the hall Wednesday this week looking somewhat leaner than usual. It turns out that he was stricken with gall bladder trouble on New Year's eve and operated on January 5 for removal of his gall bladder. All is now well and Olaf expects to spend another month or more recuperating. He is now with Northland Navigation, serving recently as second and sometimes third mate on the Haida Prince, which is laid up for the winter.
★ ★ ★
One of his friends and neigh-borse, well known fishing skipper Everett McDonald, also underwent an operation in December. He's back in action again.
★ ★ ★ Skipper-owner Benny Lagos
Sr., has sold his 68 foot seiner Snowfall to Egil (Ed) Teigen Sr. He has expressed his appreciation to The Fisherman because the sale was made as a result of his classified ad in the paper.
★ ★ ★
This is fair warning to all the folks in the Victoria area. UFAWU organiser Bert Ogden tells us there is a dance sponsored bv both Locals for Friday, February 25, at the Jubilee Hall in Esquimalt. Admission is $1 per person and as Carl Liden says, BYOB.
★ ★ *
Walter Gawricki, former executive member of the Vancouver Fishermen's Local, has made it official—he has given up fishing to work at longshoring. It was less a matter of choice than of necessity in view of his wife Mary's illness and his consequent desire to stay as close to home as possible. Walter did not fish last year or in 1964, his previous work in the industry being with Mike Wishinski on the Jessie Island 2 — drum seining. Walter expressed his appreciation to The Fisherman in the form of a $10 donation, a most welcome gift.
★ * ★
We notice that Abel Pye, retired for several years, is a director of the Vancouver Pioneers' Association. Abel will best be remembered as cook on the Velma C for years and years.
★ * *
We were in the Union welfare director's office when fisherman Zdravko Skific reported an addition to the MSA roster in the person of his first child, born to his wife January 6. Thus we became the recipient of a side benefit in the form of a good cigar. Zdravko, still as proud and happy as though the event had occurred the day before, says the young fellow has been named Raymond Sime Skific.
★ * *
AT A RECENT MEETING of Victoria Fishermen's Local a motion was passed that the administration of wharves and services should be the responsibility of the department of transport, and that, if any charges are to be made, $3 per month should be the maximum charge. For this there should be watchman service, light, water and sanitary facilities.
