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Representing the Organised Fishermen and Shoreworkers of British Columbia Vol. XXII. No. 30. VANCOUVER, B.C., SEPTEMBER 16, 1960
—Fisherman Koto
UFAWU FISH FOR PICKETERS Workers on the Canadian Pacific Merchandising picket line shown here last week during distribution of 1,100 pounds of fish donated by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. The slonan tells the story of their fight for the right to join the union of their choice. The fellow third from the right in the picture with the fish is UFAWU organiser Harold Wilcox. On his left is Reg Lenfesty and Al Barnes with the pipe), officials of the Teamsters Union.
Walkout Last Recourse to Win Rights
'Why the CPR Shutdown?' Answered bv Picketers
igreement with the   CBRTi   be- ond  application  was  still before name part of Merchandising Ser- the  Board, the  BRSC concluded vices,    it    absorbed    Expressway I another agreement with Merchan-Lines, which had   an   agreement! dising Services, with the Teamsters. Truck drivers
in the merged lines were all brought under the CBRT by placing them on the Okanagan Valley Lines payroll.
FURTHER COMPLICATIONS
The jurisdictional issue created by this merger was compounded when Merchandising Services amalgamated four operations in which drivers were either members of the Brotherhood of Railway Transport and General Workers or the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, with some previously having held membership in the Teamsters Union.
The former Okanagan Valley and Island Freight operations were represented by the CBRT and the Canadian Pacific express and LCL freight operations were represented by the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks.
Wages and working conditions became the immediate issue. All truck drivers and warehousemen were placed on the existing wage rate  ranging  between  $1.57 and
One clause of this agreement committed the BRSC to "cooperate fully with the Company in its efforts to gain employees' acceptance of wages and working conditions." The BRSC p'aced its own peculiar interpretation on this. The agreement was never submitted to the Vancouver membership for ratification.
In April, the Teamsters were ex-
See CPR SHUTDOWN—Page 8
Unionists Invited
Combines Hearing Opens Sept. 29
The United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union has an-$1.97 an hour, with the average j nounced it will fight for release of all secret company evi-
Can a group of workers be transferred from the jurisdiction of one union to another without their consent or approval? Can they be compelled to accept an agreement that slashes their previous wage rates and working conditions when they have had no opportunity to accept or reject it?
These questions are being raised for the entire trade union movement by the walkout of some 300 truck drivers and warehousemen from Canadian Pacific Merchandising Servkes in Vancouver.
By every democratic trade union standard, workers have the right to choose* what union shall represent them and la vote on any agreement negotiated on their behalf.
At Canadian Pacific Merchandising Services, the employers' committee declares, they are being denied both these elementary rights. And having exhausted every other means of combatting an action which disposes of them like so many serfs, they have been forced to take to the picket line to win their rights.
BATTLE STARTED  IN '59
Their battle started in August last year when the CPR established Canadian Pacific Merchandising Services in its bid to dominate truck transnort in this province. To set up the new subsidiary, the CPR acquired Okanagan Valley Lines and Island Freight Lines and merged them with its own express and LCL freight sections in a truck-rail operation.
Until Merchandising Services was formed, CPR trucking work was done by carriers under contract. Most of the drivers employed by these carriers were members of the Teamsters Union and over the years they had won steadily improving wage rates and working conditions.
Truck drivers for some carriers, however, were organised into the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Transport and General Workers. Before Okanagan Valley Lines (one of the carriers which had an
One Day for Springs On Fraser River
The Fraser River will reopen for 24 hours next week (8 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, to 8 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22) but only to spring nets.
Areas 17, 18, 19 east of Williams Head to Angeles Point and the rest of District 1 remain closed until 8 a.m. September 26, according to a fisheries department announcement Friday
FISH VRICES
VANCOUVER
wfc   ENDING SEPTEMBER 10 SALMON (TROLL) Large red Medium red Small red Large white Small white Coho
Industry Hits Coho Opening
'Spite Action'
Spokesmen for all sections of the Canadian salmon fishing industry, including the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, were united this week in condemning Washington state fisheries director Milo Moore for his "spite action" in a dispute over coho runs.
The i.:SMlie broke into the open<»>-
when  Moore  announced  he was opening the Point Roberts area to US commercial fishermen for coho fishing while retaining the closure on other areas of Puget Sound and the US side of Juan de Fuca Strait. The effect of Moore's ord^r was to allow  US fishermen to fish Canadian coho runs, which pass through the Point Roberts area on their way to the Frassr Rivsr, and protect US coho runs bourd for Puget Sound streams. Moore maintained his action was taken only because the Canadian ; fisheries department had refused |at Ottawa on the appeal presented to him by William Rigby, to close the Canadian side of Juan | United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union welfare dir-de Fuca Strait through which the ector, on behalf of those fishermen who were ordered to repay
majority of all coho runs pass.      unemployment  insurance  benefits *---——
He assailed Canadian fisheries drawn after May 1, 1959. The bfflc|als for their "lack of cooper- ground for the original order was ation" and accused them of contri- that a herring strike started on butmg to depletion of coho runs   that date and benefits paid to her-
Union Wins Appeal in Port
Herring Men Get Insurance Refund
The Unemployment Insurance Commission umpire, the Honorable Justice John D. Kearney, has handed down a decision
which this year are down some 50 percent from the 1957 cycle year. US DICTATION CHARGED
Spokesmen for the federal fisheries department charged that Moore was attempting to dictate Canadian policy by "reckless politicking."
They claimed that, as a Democratic appointee, he was trying to get Ottawa to put pressure on Washington so that the Democrats could blame the Republicans for stopping US fishermen from fishing.
Moore's reply to this was thai he was acting solely in the interests of conservation.
"All I'm trying to do is protect the silver (coho) salmon from being wiped out," he asserted. "If that's politics, then I'm politicking."
He argued that he had tried unsuccessfully for the past three years to get Canada to impose more rigid conservation measures. FACTS SET STRAIGHT
Both W. R. Hourston, Pacific area director of fisheries, and Homer Stevens, UFAWU, entered the dispute to set the facts straight.
"Until we entered the San Juan fishery," Stevens pointed out, "the United States got the first crack at the coho, the majority of which go to the Fraser.
"After we built the runs up, starting in 1952, the Americans tried everything to take it from us. They claimed we were taking their fish.
"The fact is we were only getting our own fish, because most of the coho   originate   in   Canada. The
See COHO — Page 8
rate around $1.75-31.80 an hour But the Teamsters' average wage rate for the same work was $2.23 an hour.
'"Some of t'^e men were very dissatisfied and they came to see us," Teamsters Local 31 business agent Blair Whitelock told The Fisherman this week.
"We were hesitant to do anything about their problems because  we  knew we  would become involved in a jurisdictional conflict.   But  these   low wage rates threatened  our  own contracts with other carriers and we had to do something." When the Teamsters placed their application before the federal Labor Relations Board to be certified as bargaining agent for Merchandising Services operations in Vancouver, the CBRT and BRSC dropped their own jurisdictional dispute.
TRANSFER WITHOUT SAY
Without any reference to Mer-
handising Services truck drivers bines Branch whose representative
dence and a six month hoist in proceedings at a public hearing called by the Restrictive Trade Practices Commission for 10 am. Thursday, September 29 in Room 414 at the Vancouver Court House.
In a letter to the BC Federation of Labor, other unions in the Vancouver area and its own locals, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union warns of the wide dangers involved in the Combines attack on the organisation.
"The general executive board has studied the communications received from the Combines Branch and has come to the conclusion that the Commission itself and the director are extremely prejudiced against the United Fishermen and AHied Workers Union," the UFAWU declares in one of its letters.
It cites the recent postponement oi hearings at fishing company request with the Commission failing to consult the Union on the matter. The September 29 date was fixed arbitrarily by the Corn-
ring fishermen after May 1 were
'overpayments."
The effect of the umpire's decision is to refund to the fishermen the overpayments previously collected from them for the period May 1-May 15, 1959. The umpire's decision states in
part:
"The claimant's representative has contended that the stoppage of work attributable to that dispute commenced on May 16, 1959, and not on May 1, as determined by both the insurance officer and the board of referees.
"In support of that contention,
the claimant's representative referred to the motion adopted by the herring fishermen at their meeting of May 6 and to the substantiating fact that a vessel owned by one of the members of the Fishing Vessel Owners' Association which had gone to fish on May 1 had been recalled by the Fishermen's Union on May 16 only.
"I can find no specific evidence in the records to counter that definite statement. True, there is the statement of the president of the Fisheries Association of BC in his letter of October 21, 1959, that the companies were anxious to start herring operations, but it is too
See HERRING MEN — Page 2
Four BC Tuna Boats Hit Fish Off California
Four British Columbia fishing vessels which left Vancouver earlier this month to seek tuna in California waters reported by radiotelephone on Thursday this week they had found fish in some quantity off the California coast north of San Francisco.
Of the four vessels, the 68-foot Blue Pacific 1 reported a catch of 30 tons to date, the big
Skardale a catch of 15 tons and the Pacific Belle a catch of 18 tons.
Only the Dominator, 78-foot all steel combination halibut herring vessel launched in February this year, apparently was having little success.
There is speculation here that a factor in the Dominator's poor showing may be the greater noise of the all steel vessel. According to reports, the fish are "wild" and so easily scared that the ships dare not even use their whistles when making sets.
The reports lend support to the demand of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union that the federal government charter six BC seiners to conduct an exploratory fishing operation as a means of developing a Canadian tuna fishery.
The Union's proposal, which is being warmlly endorsed by many labor and other organisations, holds that the federal government should take the initiative by undertaking a practical fishing operation to determine whether Canadian fishermen can successfully participate in the Pacific tuna fishery.
SALMON NET
FISHERMEN •
Emergency Meet
Over Closures •
TUESDAY, SEPT. 20 2 p.m.
•
FISHERMEN'S HALL 138 E. Cordova
•
San Juan, Fraser Closures
ALL NET SALMON MEN OUT!
PRINCE RUPERT
WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER SALMON (troll)
Large red Medium Small
Large white Medium, sma Coho
SEATTLE
SEPTEMBER 14 SPRINGS (TROLL)
Large red ............____........
Medium red Small red Large white Silver........................________
md warehousemen in Vancouver the CBRT agreed to transfer its members to the Railway and Steamship Clerks. The men affected were given no opportunity to discuss their transfer. They were simply told they had been handed over to another union.
Then the Labor Relations Board rejected   the   Teamsters' appliea-Ib. 70-73c Iuon 011 *ne Sround that it sought lb. 55c representation only for Vancouver 1 employees of Merchandising Services, who were already covered by a BRSC national agreement. .
The Teamsters placed the Board's decision before Merchandising Services employees and told 10 them that if they wanted the Teamsters to represent them they would have to sign up more than the 51 percent majority required. They obtained this majority, but in March this year, while the sec-
lb. 35-45c lb. 45c lb. 28-30c lb. 54Vi-55c
lb. 66c lb. 51-52c
............. lb. 33c
lb. 43c white lb. 28c ..... ....... lb. 50-53c
. lb. 85c lb. 61c lb. 51c lb. 46c lb. 56'/2c
Judicial Inquiry Sought by UFAWU
United Fishermen and Allied workers' general executive board announced this week it will press for a full judicial inauiry into all the circumstances of the Unimak case.
said it was absolute and would not be altered under any circumstances, even if the Union could not be represented.
Any idea that the Restrictive Trade Practices Commission will automatically rule that secret company evidence must be released in order that the Union can prepare an adequate defence, is wishful thinking, the Union declares. The Combines Branch had originally argued in court, under Union pressure, that all relevant evidence should be made available to the UFAWU. but latest developments have indicated a modification of this position.
The Union some time ago requested six months to prepare its case after receiving all evidence and this will be under discussion at the September 29 public hearing.
"Despite the fact that the Commission took 18 months to study the evidence in the first place," the UFAWU claims, "they are trying to set up a new date that will give the Union only about one or two months to study the material.
"This." the UFAWU declares, "is
See COMBINES — Page 8
What's Happening on the Queen Charlottes?
Illegal Fishing Questions Require Immediate Answer
By TOM PARKIN
DISTURBING reports of illegal fishing on the Queen Charlotte Islands have been reaching the mainland and members of the Union have been expressing concern over the cleaning out of creeks in several areas. From reports received, several questions would appear to need answering.
Did a company official get a guardian drunk and then stand by while two of that company's boats cleaned out the salmon inside a boundary?
Has the northern representative of the department of fisheries been advised of this and has any investigation been undertaken?
Were any Queen Charlotte fishermen who signed a no poaching pledge a few years ago involved?
Illegal fishing generally gets worse in a year when the fishing is bad. It's easy to understand the feelings of a crew that see a hungry winter ahead and a school of salmon inside the boundary. It's hard to understand an action that amounts to picking the pockets of other fishermen who fish legally.
When we hear of boats ordering quantities of bluestone and soap and having frog suits aboard, we can't help but be concerned.
In 1950. members of the Union and the Native Brotherhood at Skidegate and Queen
TOM PARKIN
". . . chiselling on the Charlottes"
Charlotte City agreed the situation demanded emergency action. Poaching had reached a point where the department was threatening to close the Islands. Skippers who wanted to play ball were forced to move in when pressure from crews who saw others doing it forced them to. Company pressure on vessels had its effect and the situation was growing worse.
By decision of the Skidegate Local, a petition was circulated and signed by an overwhelm-
ing number of Charlotte fishermen in which they pledged not only to refrain from going in behind boundaries but to report others seen doing it. For a while the situation improved and even the department officials congratulated the Union on the improvement. Has this program gone to hell?
I am told a Rupert boat was in on the most recent chiselling, ably abetted by Island fishermen.
I don't believe it was a very bright stunt in a year when .most fishermen are finding the going tough.
I don't think dumping blue-stone or soap in a stream to drive would-be spawners out and using frog suits to herd them into a net is very bright when these depredations could lead to complete closure of the Islands for four or five years.
I don't believe responsible company officials should countenance or encourage such actions.
It would appear to me that if the proposals of the Union calling for confiscation of boat and gear had been adopted by the department, the incentive to chisel by all parties would be lessened.
In any case, I would suggest the parties responsible reconsider or it may be necessary to demand a full scale investigation in future seasons.