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THE FISHERMAN
October 12, 1962
THE FISHERMAN
138 East Cordova Street Vancouver 4, B.C.
GEORGE NORTH, Editor Phone: MU. 3-9656
Authorised as second class mail by Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage In cash
Rank and File Victory
THE building trades councils of Vancouver and Victoria and their affiliated international unions violated a fundamental principle of trade unionism when they urged their members to cross the picket lines of the Canadian Iron Workers Union during its strike last month.
They failed to break the strike, for which only they and the employers are sorry. Despite their actions, the Canadian Iron Workers won a resounding victory.
The Iron Workers won because rank and file unionists, the workers on the job, understood and clove to the principle of trade union solidarity abandoned by their leaders.
In a $700 ad published in the Vancouver Sun, the building trades council of Vancouver and Victoria advised "all their members that ONLY unions affiliated with these councils CAN BE SUPPORTED in any job action on construction work."
The ad went on to state that Local 97 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers "is the only legitimate and recognised trade union under the Building Trades Council's constitution. All building tradesmen are therefore instructed to DISREGARD any pickets placed by Canadian Iron Workers Local 1."
This ugly blot on decent trade unionism carried with it the names of 19 international unions affiliated to the building trades councils.
There are many striking features of this extraordinary document.
The most glaring is that it is a statement of policy made in the United States by a group of international unions and their US-appointed and paid representatives and directed against an independent Canadian union.
It is flagrant, thinly disguised effort to force Canadian iron workers back into an international union with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri.
It is a union BC workers were forced to leave when the US International offices placed a trusteeship over their Local here after failing to smash the iron workers' strike on the Second Narrows Bridge in 1959.
Included among the 19 internationals listed in the recent ad are the Teamsters and Carpenters, unions no longer affiliated to the Canadian Labor Congress; in the former case because they were accused of raiding and in the latter because they want no restrictions on their alleged right to raid the IWA in Newfoundland.
The Teamsters in the United States are pilloried and raided by the AFL-CIO leadership, including some of the internationals among the 19 listed, and have been kicked out of the AFL-CIO.
We're all for labor unity on any level but not on any basis and the bonds that linked the building trades unions in this particular instance are pro-employer and anti-labor.
This sorry, sickening incident must surely point up the fact that Canadian unions cannot continue as puppet sections of US-based and controlled international unions.
To speak of Canadian independence under such circumstances is ridiculous. In many ways, US domination of Canadian labor is part of the economic penetration that is forcing us to the status of colonials.
The Canadian Iron Workers' strike demonstrated one undeniable and proud fact, however, that rank and file Canadian trade unionists don't go along with the labor careerists who put personal position and gain above the labor commandment: Thou shalt not scab nor cross a picket line.
That feeling should be consolidated in order to achieve local independence and force the labor leaders involved back on the path to honorable trade unionism.
Help Yourself to Canada
HPHERE is a news item in this issue of The Fisherman **- which tells of US plans to send the exploratory vessel John N. Cobb off the west coast of Vancouver Island to investigate shrimp fishing possibilities.
The studies will, naturally, be conducted in "international waters".
The fact that Americans are seeking new fisheries off our coasts casts a harsh reflection on Canada's slack, inept fisheries policies. Organised fishermen have been hammering at the present fisheries minister on the subiect of developing new fisheries but have received only chill rebuffs.
The immediate issue, however, is a 12 mile limit. Without it, we're fair game for all comers. Right now the Americans are our top concern, but other countries may follow them.
We have a Parliament that's split four ways. With solid NDF' support for a 12 mile limit, with a pre-election statement by Pearson of support for a 12 mile limit, with other MPs making nationalistic declarations and all of them wanting to be re-elected, this is the session where a 12 mile limit should pass without trouble.
To delay action is to sell out a basic resource to foreign interests — for free.
WINJO WRITES
sec w«at a tiny Piece or-
?ROF IT ?OCfe OLt> CvPAM N\AVO q6t5 ON EACW SALES DOLLAR T,
Behind the Headlines
Economic Union Bad for Canada
AN ITEM in the August 16 Soviet Weekly tells of the mysterious disappearance of a few suckling pigs every time the pig herd of an Uzbek collective farm went bathing in the Syr Darya River. The farmers learned that the "gentleman with a taste for pork" was a 160 pound sheatfish which they captured after a hard battle. We have no description of the fish except that next to the sturgeon, it is the largest European freshwater fish, of the family Siluridae, if that means anything. The small item concludes: "We wonder if the farmers secured poetic justice by feeding the fish to the pigs." We always thought pigs liked sheat.
★ ★ Ik-Kind of hard for the newspapers to redbait Cyrus Eaton, Nova Scotia-born US industrialist, even though some of them try pretty hard. Eaton was worth $100,000,000 before the depression and today, at 79, according to an Associated Press article, "The companies in which he has interests represent an estimated $2,-500,000,000 in assets." He's strictly a capitalist, as far as we can see, who believes in grabbing off as much loot as possible and he's not too concerned whom he deals with. For instance, his associates in the multimillion dollar Ungava Iron Ores Ltd., which is exploiting Canadian resources, are West German steel interests. But there is a difference in Eaton's approach from that of the standard big shot businessman: he believes in peace, friendship, and trade with socialist countries, recognising they are here to stay a long, long time. If we could take the profit out of war, we'd be sure of peace.
★ ★ *
Barney Jensen dropped in to the Hall Wednesday to say goodbye before taking off on a three month holiday to Norway. He leaves Sunday, October 14 for New York where he will board the liner Stavangerfjord on October 19, arriving in Oslo on October 30. By coincidence, another BC fisherman, Emit Jensen (no relation) will be travelling on the same boat. Both are halibut men of long standing, Barney fishing on the Sea Maid this year, and Emil on the Laredo and Silver Rose. Barney's been at it since arriving in Canada 33 years ago This will be his first trip back home in all those years. He was born in Sortland while Emil was born in Haugersund. Incidentally, Barney has a nephew-named Emil Jensen, but he's the
Conservation — But Who Benefits?
AT long last the Adams River sockcye have gone past the point of no return, and quite a large number of local fishermen are hoping that now this area will begin to produce some fishing time for them. Or are they going to to store up more waiting time in hopes that they will get a few hours of fishing time.
This waiting game is getting to be a habit in the Fraser and Gulf areas. A lot of these same fishermen are wondering when there will be a fair return of fishing time after all these years of conservation.
Tempers are wearing a bit thin, and I for one do not blame the fishermen for getting sore when one type of salmon puts a crimp in fishing for other species.
I have been doing a lot of listening, and by doing so I have heart! varied opinions of why this situation is getting worse instead of better. It all boils down to far too much gear in the water. The fishermen know this and have spoken out about it; fisheries depart men) knows this and doesn't
want to do anything about it, or can't do anything about it.
COULD THIS SITUATION IM-
prove if politics were kept out of the fisheries? I have heard this many times and from different sources, that fishing would be on a better footing if politics were kept out. Whatever the answer, there is room for improvement.
The fishermen are getting mighty tired of scraping the bottom of the barrel, arid the bottom is getting pretty thin; one of these days it will break through.
This is the time of the year when fishing areas are closed and little potholes are opened for the whole fleet to fish in. Large fleets of boats move from one area to another—sort of hedge hopping—as the fisheries department opens one area at a time. This is what could be called togetherness, the same as in Satellite Channel last fall..
I AM GOING TO TRY AND
give you an account of a conversation I had with a fisherman who knows fishing because that is all he has done most of his life. He was born here; his father is a fisherman; he has a wife and family: he has no trade except fishing: and he is at the age that is not acceptable on the labor market. *
He is a better than average fisherman, but that is not very good these days, what with the cost of living, the cost of gear, and the cost of travelling from one area to another. Just look up the statistics of what the average fisherman makes in one year, double it and you still make nothing for yourself.
He says he is in favor of conservation because that is the only way that runs can be built up. but what puzzles him is who is benefitting from years of conservation? Not the Fraser River fishermen.
All one hears when the fish do not return is some excuse of poor ocean survival, or sea survival. We are supposed to believe this, because the ones who say it are experts, and what are the fishermen? Well, I have heard what the fishermen have been called, and I would not want to put it in print. My friend says you can bet your life there are a lot of fishermen who know what is happening to our fish, and they are not experts!
He says there is one more thing he had on his mind. The Adams River sockeye are pretty well gone, so we should expect some fishing time. But I will bet anybody this will not be the case, because now we have to start conserving the chum salmon.
Boy oh boy, the fisherman is sure smack behind the eight ball!
fellow who has been successfully fishing on his Blue Pacific 1. ★ ★ *
Union member Tony Giallon-ardo, employed by the Prince Rupert Fishermen's Co-op, is in Vancouver General Hospital following a painful injury suffered some weeks ago. We regret The Fisherman did not have this information earlier. Tony was burned in the face by caustic acid when a pipe to the glazing tank blew. Doctors tried for five weeks to save the sight of one eye which received the full brunt of the discharge but were unable to do so. The other eye was not damaged. News of the accident was relayed to the Union by Dave MacPhee, foreman of the cold storage at the Co-op, who was in Vancouver recently and visited Tony. Since that time other visits have been made from headquarters and Tony is reported to be coming along fine and looking forward to heading back to Rupert where his wife and children reside. He is in Ward 7 of the Centennial Pavilion of Vancouver General Hospital.
★ ★ ★ Benson's Shipyard at West
Georgia Street is cutting Bob Kelly's combination steel seine and halibut boat, Pacific Queen, in half and adding 15 feet to her.
★ ★ ★
Nolan Lowe, distributor for Palmer gas and diesel engines, of 1925 West Georgia Street, has installed one of his 301 -110 hp Palmer diesels in the troller Native Princess owned by Joe Frank of Tofino.
★ ★ ★
One black cod landing: BC Lady with 8,000 pounds black cod, 2,000 red cod, 1,500 pounds halibut sold to Edmunds and Walker.
★ ★ ★
We made some embarrassing errors last week in our report of black cod and halibut landings in these columns, leaving out a zero here and there. Here are the corrected landings: Covenant, 15,-000 pounds black cod, 2,200 halibut, 1,400 dressed red cod, 2,000 round red cod, sold Jack McMillan Fisheries; Arctic 1, 17,000 pounds black cod, 800 pounds dressed red cod, 3,000 pounds halibut, 250 ling cod, sold Reliance Fish; Deep Sea, 11,000 black cod, 2,000 red cod, 1,800 halibut, sold Edmunds and Walker; Sea Maid, 22,000 black cod, 1,600 red cod, 1,800 halibut, sold Tulloch Western; Tanza, 25,000 black cod, 4,000 red cod, 3,000 halibut, sold Edmunds and Walker.
★ ★ ★
We were looking over the latest issue of Fisheries Asociation Safety News and came across several interesting items. Here's one: "While lifting 100 pound sacks of fishmeal, employee strained his back. Remedy—proper instruction on how to lift may have prevented this injury." Lighter sacks may have helped, too.
CLOSER economic integration and union of Canada with the US is being advocated by the representatives of big corporations in this country. They assert that this must be Canada's answer to Britain's imminent entry into the European Common Market.
Victor Oland, new head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, announced in Seattle in September that a joint US-Canadian Chamber of Commerce committee will study the matter in closed session in Toronto this month.
The Vancouver Sun, in an editorial on September 24, termed the Chamber's action "a welcome manifestation of a new spirit" and gave its blessings for the undertaking with the comment that "North American economic integration would have obvious advantages in many fields."
The following day BC's attorney general, Robert Bonner, followed up by calling on Canada to establish an economic union with the US as "the only reasonable course" and predicting that the result would be "a vastly stronger economy for both countries."
J. V. Clyne, chairman of Mac-Millan, Bloedel and Powell River, the BC lumber tycoon who cries the loudest when his profits are the highest, joined the chorus with a call for a North American free trade area.
★ * ★
WHETHER FURTHER ECO-nomic union and integration would be beneficial or harmful for Canada can best be judged if we examine the effects of the high degree of integration we already have with the United States. Let's look at some of the results':
• US interests already control most of our economy. DBS figures for 1959 state that US control includes 44 percent of our manufacturing, 69 percent of petroleum and natural gas, 53 percent of other mining and smelting, 90 percent of rubber, 55 percent of agricultural machinery, 96 percent of automobiles and parts and 52 percent of chemicals.
• In 1960, the drain of interest and dividend payments to the US was $548 million.
• Our economy has been in a state of stagnation since 1957;
• We have chronic and growing unemployment.
• Inflated prices have been pushed up further by Diefen-baker's devaluation of the Canadian dollar and his austerity program. The orders to do this came from the US controlled International Monetary Fund which then made a large loan to Canada.
• Our manufacturing industry is in a relative state of decline.
• We have become a raw material exporting nation, exporting our resources to US manufacturing centres, which is the same as exporting jobs.
• The US places restrictions on our trade with other countries.
* * ★ FURTHER ECONOMIC IN-tegration will only aggravate all of these harmful results and make things worse—not better.
YOUNG ACTOR: "I'VE GOT
a job at last, Dad. It's a new play, and I play the part of a man who has been married 20 years."
Father: "Well, that's a start anyway, my boy; maybe one of these days they'll give you a speaking part."
★ ★ ★
Then there lias the fellow who bred a parakeet with a tiger. He doesn't know what he's got, but when it talks, he listens.
★ ★ ★ TENANT: "THE PEOPLE
who live upstairs are very annoying. Last night they were banging on the floor after midnight."
Landlord: "Did they awaken you?"
Tenant: "No. Fortunately, I was still up playing my tuba."
★ ★ ★ DOCTOR: "HAS YOUR HUS-
band taken the medicine I prescribed: A tablet before each meal and a small whiskey after?"
Patient's wife: "He's a few tablets behind on the medicine, but he's months ahead on the whiskey."
On top of that, it would result in us losing what little political independence we have left. US anti-Communist hysteria, witch hunts, further restrictions on labor's rights would undoubtedly follow.
That US big corporations want economic union so that we will supply raw materials for their factories is well illustrated by the statement made recently in San Francisco by Richard Wagner, then president of the US Chamber of Commerce.
"An economic union with Canada," he said, "is realistic. They are a raw material agricultural nation and we are a manufacturing nation." Is it not clear that economic union with the US would only accelerate the one sided development of our economy?
What future would there then be for our children?
Manufacturing provides jobs on a large scale; extraction of raw materials for shipment abroad does not.
* ★ ★
WHAT HAS BEEN LABOR'S
reaction to the proposal for closer economic union of Canada with the US?
One opinion has been made public by Tom Gooderham, BC regional educational representative of the Canadian Labor Congress.
"It is time this domination of Canadian industry by US corporations was stalled," he told The Vancouver Sun on September 24. "We give these American companies special concessions to come and build plants. Then, when business drops off, they throw Canadians out of work without turning a hair.
"Canadian labor is tired of these Wall Street tycoons who sit in their plush offices 3,000' miles away and push buttons.
"At present we export far too much raw materials to the US and import too many manufactured goods in return."
★ ★ ★
HAVING DELIVERED THESE
justified criticisms of the results of the present degree of integration with the US, Gooderham proceeded to welcome further economic union, expressing the view that closer trade links would bring more jobs to Canadians and that free trade will result in the expansion of Canadian manufacturing.
This conclusion is surprising, to say, the least.
If integration so far has lost
us jobs, how can more integration bring more jobs?
Would Gooderham have us believe economic union is good for Canada and bad for Wall Street tycoons? Is that why Wall Street tycoons support it?
Is this not turning the facts of life into their opposites?
Economic union of Canada with the US will undoubtedly receive the support of some US labor leaders, many of whom take their cue from the state department. It may also be supported by some-labor leaders in Canada whose jobs depend on echoing the policies of the leadership of their US controlled unions.
But surely it will be opposed by all who have the best interests of Canada and Canadian labor at heart.
Report from Ottawa
Thursday to Tuesday Club Cant Operate
By FRANK HOWARD, MP
THERE are 265 members of parliament. In the past it was impossible to determine this merely by looking at the number of members who happened to be in attendance in the House. Even when divisions (standing, recorded votes) were held, the degree of absenteeism was appalling.
In years past there existed the famous "T to T" club. "T to T" is a shortened form of! Thursday to | to Tuesday. Its was common! practice for] members from! Ontario and! Quebec to leave Ottawa for; home on a I Thursday andj return on a J Tuesday. On Fridays and Mondays only a handful of members showed up in the House. These "T to T" boys attained what many would like to have—a three day week.
For the time being, at least, the "T to T" club has been suspended. The reason for the suspension is the ticklish situation in the House brought about by each of the four parties being in the minority.
★ *■*-. THE TORIES HAVE 115 VOT-ing MPs. The Tories are deathly afraid of an election and therefore need every one of their members present to stave off defeat in the House.
The -Liberals have 100 members and are claiming that they want an election at any time regardless of the consequences to the country. Their members must therefore be in the House.
The Socreds have 30 members, don't want an election either and
have made a "behind the scenes" deal with the Tories to support them in exchange for the Tory sellout of Canada's power interests. They need every member in the House.
We in the New Democratic Party have 18 members. We don't particularly want an election, but will not run away from it. We want to buttress our program in the House with every member available. Therefore we have full attendance.
★ * ★ RECENTLY THERE WERE three divisions in the House. On the first of these, a vote on a Socred throne speech amendment, we set a record. Every member of parliament attended.
Parliamentary observers who have been here for donkeys' years cannot recall that ever happening before.
The vote was 233 to 30. This makes 263. The other two votes are accounted for by Mr. Speaker who does not vote, and by the vacant Burnaby-Coquitlam seat.
We had two other votes a few days later and this time there were five absent. The votes were on Liberal and New Democratic-amendments. In these cases the Socreds supported the Tories; the Liberals and New Democrats joined forces to vote no confidence in the government. The result on each vote was 140 to 118. The five absent members were Socreds.
These last mentioned votes were the crucial ones and indicate, to me at least, that we will not have an election before next spring.
Now that the tension has subsided and the pattern has been set, we can expect the "T to T" club to come back into existence. That will be a shame for it will mean that members will not be paying attention to the things they are getting paid for.
LY