Mrs. Arne Hovden Wins Salmon Pack Contest
Mrs. Arne Hovden of North Vancouver confessed it was one of the biggest thrills in her life when she was informed last Saturday she had won the $50 first prize in the Salmon Pack Guessing Contest sponsored each year by The Fisherman.
Mrs. Hovden really earned her money because her guess was only 53 cases off the total announced by the federal department of fisheries in its "final bulletin" issued last week and printed on another page.
To report our conversation with Mrs. Hovden is almost impossible because of her excitement over the good news. We did learn that this was the first contest she had ever won.
Mr. Hovden is a troll member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. He owns the vessel "Kulla."
"Purely a £iess" is Mrs.
H6vden described her winning effort, but what a guess. The pack was 1,821,269 cases and Mrs. Hovden predicted it would be 1,821,322 cases.
She has a family and said the money would be a great help for the Christmas season.
Five dollar consolation prizes were won by the two who came next closest to the
actual pack. MRS. ARNE HOVDEN
Ronald Bradford of Crofton was second in line with a guess of 1,819,531 cases, less than 2,000 off the correct figure and good enough to win some of the contests.
Ronald is a sharpshooter in these contests; he won first prize in 1950, and strangely enough, he won that year with an estimate that wasn't quite as close as the one he submitted this year. But that is the way of fortune.
Third in line and also a five dollar winner is Larry Wick of 1275 River Road, who guessed the pack would be 1,819,037 cases.
"The fisherman
Representing the Organized Fishermen and Shoreworkers of British Columbia Price: 5 Cents .
VOL. V. No-. .38
*• VANCOUVER, B.C., DECEMBER 16, 1953
SPECIAL MEET Herring Fishermen, Temtermen Wednesday, December 30
2 PJA.
FISHERMEN'S HALL — 138 E. CORDOVA
• PILCHARD, HERRING WELFARE FUND
B.C. Compensation Act Leaves Six in Ten Fishery Fatalities Not Covered
How much will it cost to extend compensation protection in British Columbia, which presently covers some commercial fishermen sometimes, to benefit all bona-fide com' mercial fishermen at* all times they are engaged in earning a living by catching fish? The United Fishermen and Allied Workers
Locals Urged to Aid IWA
Locals of the United Fishermen end Allied Workers Union have been urged by Union secretary Homer Stevens to give financial aid to striking woodworkers in interior B.C. who have in some cases been out on strike over 2Vt months.
,In a letter sent out December |--
11, Stevens points out that "Our
executive feels very strongly on this matter since it is apparent the woodworkers are facing the same kind of anti-union drive which we experienced in the fishing industry during 1952 and early 1953."
The suggestion is made that consideration be given to direct Local assistance together with membership collections -where il is considered possible.
IWA secretary George Mitchell, in a letter to the UFAWU expressing thanks for a $100 donation sent to the strikers by the Union executive, states that "I would like also to express to your organisation on behalf of the workers their sincere appreciation for your good wishes for a successful end to the strike."
The strike affects the whole interior of B.C. area from Fort George to the United States boundary.
A letter issued by the IWA states that
"In the Prince George area, covered by Local 1-424, we have been on strike since September 27 and there is no sign of any let-up or settlement in sight. The employers have loaded the courts with injunctions to try to restrain us from doing even peaceful picketing.
"The Southern Interior, which covers Locals 1-405, 1-417, and 1-423, has been out on strike since October 13. The operators here have also resorted to injunctions in these Local Unions in an effort to restrain Us from any kind of picketing.
"Production of the interior was the highest last year it has ever been; and for the first six months of this year, both sales and production have exceeded the high of last year. Yet the employers are trying to force the Union to accept last year's contract which gives us only a basic rate of $1.30 which makes a spread of 19c an hour between the coast and the interior. This is the largest spread in the history of the industry, even during the depression years.
"Attitude of the employers in trying to force us to sign last year's contract again this year left the Union with only one choice — that of striking their operations to force a reasonable settlement.
"Our picket lines are strong. Our membership is in good spirits. They are prepared to put up a fight. Your financial assistance will aid them immeasurably and your moral support along with it will, assist them to victory."
Prices Support Survey In First Two Months of '54
The Fisheries Prices Support Board in cooperation with the Markets and Economics Service of the Department of Fisheries is presently making a study of the extent to which prices and costs affect the net incomes of fishermen in British Columbia. Initially this work is concerned
with the position of salmon gill-net, troll and seine fishermen.
As part of the study, a field survey is to be carried out in January and February, 1954, when several hundred salmon fishermen are to be interviewed by a team of survey specialists drawn from the staff of the Department in Ottawa, Vancouver, and from the University of B.C.
Interviewers will ask for information on fishing activities in 1953, the craft and gear used, the catch made, materials, labor and other costs incurred, as well as other receipts and expenditures.
Fishermen selected for interviews will be a representative cross-section chosen by random drawing from all the holders of commercial fishing licences in the Province. It is important for the success of the study that all those selected answer the questions put to them as fully and as accurately as possible. Even fishermen who feel that their cases are not typical and very different from those of the average fishermen must be included in the survey so as to produce a complete picture. All those selected are therefore urged to be prepared to answer the interviewers' questions. Wherever possible, advance notification will be sent to those selected for interview.
Results of interviews will be recorded on schedules which will be treated as strictly confidential. They will not show the name or address of the fishermen interviewed. No outsider will have access to the schedules and no information on them will be given to any other person or organisation (cbmpanies, associations, income tax or other government departments). Figures given out will not refer to individual cases, but will merely be averages, percentages, ranges and the like.
The survey has the full support of the organisations of fishermen in B.C. These organisations have all stated that they welcome the investigation and they will advise their members to cooperate fully with the interviewers. The study aims at collecting
basic information fundamental to a realistic consideration of fishermen's problems generally. Such information will be valuable, for instance, if the Fisheries Prices Support Board has to consider requests for assistance and in some cases where action by the Department is called for.
In commenting on the proposed survey, the United Fishermen andj Allied Workers Union points out that last June it asked for an in-1 vestigation into the earnings of j salmon fishermen. "We believe! such an investigation should be! aimed toward finding out the ex- j tent to which lower fish prices affect the take-home pay of the I fishermen. Prices support legisla-! tion exists in Canada which can and should be used to maintain a decent income for commercial j fishermen, during period of crisis, when for example — falling mar-1 kets threaten to drive prices be-low a decent minimum," Union | secretary Homer Stevens declares.
The Union fully supports this survey and asks air members who are contacted to cooperate as fully as possible. It has been assured that all information submitted by individual fishermen will be kept strictly confidential. Only averages, percentages and ranges will be used publicly.
The Union believes all fishermen will realize the need for accuracy in this survey. There would be no'point in such gathering of information if the individuals who are interviewed attempt to "doctor up" their answers or mislead the interviewers.
Union officers have had an opportunity to examine the questionnaire forms which are to be used. The forms require considerable detailed information and it will take a considerable amount of time and a real sense of responsi-bility on the part of the fishermen who are interviewed. The Union | agrees, with the Department of Fisheries that the fishermen who help to make ehe study accurate and successful will be helping themselves and their fellow fishermen.
Union has jiist completed a study of compe -ation costs in the B.C. ifishing- industry in order to estimate the expense! in terms of actual dollars and cents of implementing its proposal that all commercial fishermen-, be covered by workmen's compensation. Among the conclusions reached as a result of this latest investigation by the Union are these:
• An average of six out of 10 fatal accidents in B.C. fishing arc not presently covered by the Act.
• At the 1952 level of compensation benefits and pensions, industrial accidents to commercial fishermen, presently covered by the Act, involve an average cost to the industry of $176,-407 per year.
At the same level of benefits, compensation coverage extended to all commercial fishermen as proposed by the UFAWU would involve an additional average cost of $274,000 per year.
Present compensation costs in the hshing industry are low compared with other basic industries in B.C. The assessment rate for fishing and whaling is little over one-third of the rate for logging, coal or metal mining, or long-shoring.
The total 1952 cost to the B.C, fishing industry of all compensable accidents in fishing and in the packing, canning, processing and wholesaling of all fish and fish products was 7/10 of one cent per dollar of value produced . by the industry.
Jackson Gives Up at Quathiaski
The Rupert Daily News December 5 announced that the SIU was setting up a northern office headed by John Jackson, late of Campbell River and expelled from the Quathiaski Local of the UFAWU -for disruptive activities.
The move is the final admission of failure to "take over" the Quathiaski Local by the renegades Jackson and Chapman. Jackson, who couldn't eon-vinee his neighbors who knew him is now going to carry on in new territory as an SIU disrupter. It is freely predicted he will fail in Rupert as he did in Quathiaski.
/43
U.S. State Department Bars President Payne
The U.S. Stute Department has once again revealed its anti-labor, anti-democratic bias in the continuing witch-hunting campaign, with its action this week in preventing' UFAWU President Reg Payne from attending a meeting of the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission in San Francisco this month.
The compensation cost of all industrial accidents in the fishing industry after extension of coverage as proposed by the fishermen will, be 1.17 cents per dollar of value produced in the industry.
Over the past five years the cost of compensable industrial accidents, affecting fishermen and calculated at the 1952 benefit scale, amounted to an average of 3/100th of a cent per pound of fish landed by the fishermen.
The additional cost that would be needed to extend coverage to all bona-fide commercial fishermen is equivalent to an assessment of 1 / 20th of a cent per pound of fish landed in an average year.
Only reasons advanced by' United States Immigration officiate in Victoria was that Payne was a member of the Peace Council. On November 28, the General Executive Board of the Union discussed the invitation from the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission to send a delegate to their December 14, 15 and 16 conference in San Francisco. Agenda of the meeting indicated the delegate should be familiar with some trolling and beam trawling.
The Executive selected Reg Payne who was still out fishing, as first choice for delegate. He arrived home from the grounds on the evening of December 3. Next day, after being informed of the Executive decision, he went to the U.S. Immigration Office in Victoria to obtain his U.S. entry permit.
The officer in charge pulled out a little blue card and said, "Sorry, but you can't go." When the Union President asked why, the answer was, "You are barred as a member of the Peace Council."
Payne asked why membership in the Peace Council should bar him from the United States. The officer said, "Because the Peace Council is on the' list of subversive organisations of the US.. Attorney-General." He added that, "No members of the Peace Council will be allowed admittance to the United States for any reason."
TO UFAWU MEMBERS
f tot lieu wL
Commenting on this attack on his personal rights and privileges, President Payne told The Fisherman, "It seems quite a contradiction for the nation that constantly talks about its peaceful desires to take the actual step of barring people on the grounds that they belong to an organisation which works for peace.
"However, when you see how far they have gone in recent weeks in attempting to smear Lester Pearson and ex-president Truman as reds and fellow travellers, it should be no surprise."
"I believe firmly in my rights to work for peace in accordance with my conscience. The U.S. State Department has no right to brand me as subversive. Ifs (a catch-all phrase used to cover up their own attempt to subvert and destroy democracy.
"Another aspect of their refusal is the attacks on the rights of trade unionists," the Union leader continued. "I was elected by my Union to attend a meeting of scientists, management, and labor, which happens to be held in the United States. By refusing me the right to enter the country, they have trampled on the rights of organised Canadian fishermen."
In view of the action by the UJS. Immigration Service against President Payne, an alternate delegate was appointed to attend the Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting.
Art Burchett, secretary of the Tofino Local and a delegate to the last annual convention of the Union, was appointed by President Payne. Art is an experienced west coast troller.
He attended the open house meeting of the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo on December lloand alter a day in Vancouver left by plane for San Francisco on Sunday, December 13. His# written report on the conference will appear in the next issue of The Fisherman.
BILL PURVIS LAID UP IN GENERAL HOSPITAL
Bill Purvis, an active Union member in the fishing industry for many years, is ill in the Vancouver General Hospital.
Bill gave up fishing a few years ago and has been employed ashore in Celtic Shipyard.