Friday, April 9, 1948
Page Tkree
Convention Calls For:
Legislative Action To Protect Rights Of Fishery Workers
By Al Pritchard
ONE of the blessings of this screwy world is that we are ignorant
of the immediate future. If we knew exactly what would happen ;o us a year from today, many of us would give up right now. It seems, too, that the predictions and forecasts of the men who would control our destiny are far less reliable than that of the working jlass press. Take for instance the year of the 1929 stock market ;rash: Herbert Hoover said, "The fundamental business of the country is on a sound and prosperous basis." After that the free enterprise magicians stuck their hands in the hat for another rabbit that wasn't there, and in October of that year, came the prelude to the worst depression in history. Yet Herbert Hoover again on December 3: "We have reestablished confidence ... a very large degree of unemployment which would have occurred has been prevented." Then came the mass suicides of the poverty-stricken unemployed. Be that as it may, this all leads up to a story told about a financier who had been worrying over heavy losses that had reduced his millions to a bare pittance of $10,000 a year.
One day a fairy came to this man and told him she would grant him any one wish he might make. The man thought a few minutes, and then said, "My wish is to see a newspaper published one year from today." Immediately the fairy handed him the newspaper published one year in advance. He turned quickly to the financial page, ran his finger nervously up and down the lists of stocks, and leaping from his chair shouted, "Hurrah! I'm worth fifty million dollars. Isn't that wonderful?" Then carelessly turning over to the Dbituary page his glance fell on a report that made him gasp, "Great Heavens! I died* two days ago!"
Labor Front
pHE House  of Commons Prices Committee  has  been engaged for
many weeks in a search for the basic cause of the high cost of living. Woe to the profiteers when the government catches up with them but thus far no profiteers have been exposed—not even one little profiteer who could serve as a fall guy for the people's wrath. We recall the committee of a few years ago whose purpose was to investigate the price fixing and anti-trust violations of Canada's large corporations. Its sole achievement to date is the prosecution of a trifling dental combine whose political influence in government affairs is insignificant. And you can wager your last good molar that the public will still be paying a hundred and fifty bucks for a thirty dollar set of false teeth in the forseeable future. But perhaps teeth will no longer be a necessity for the working man if the Drews and the Hoovers have their way—according to them the stabilization of the National economies depend upon the working class producing more and eating less.
However, let's return to our present price investigation committee —suppose they do finally unearth something that looks like a profiteer? Neither the committee nor the government has yet defined a profiteer nor have they determined what should be considered by law as a
fair maximum of profit. If they used the 1935-1939 basic cost of living and storage facilities in consumer period as an average then prices would have to be lowered by two markets for fish products, with in-
A policy of legislative action to win advances for workers in the fishing industry and to fight "reactionary legislation" adopted by fed-eraleral and provincial governments, was unanimously endorsed by the fourth annual convention of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union two weeks ago.
Outlining the basis for such a program, the officers' report to the conven'tion pointed out that "while our union can report considerable progress during the past year in negotiating and improving agreements, in organizing the unorganized and in servicing our membership in many ways, it is impossible to report an equal degree of progress in the field of legislation. On the contrary everything that has been gained for the workers in our industry through union organization is now dangerously threatened by the increasingly reactionary trend of legislation affecting labor and recent court rulings.
At the 1947 convention, officers recommended the following measures for inclusion in a legislative program:
1 Immediate establishment of the Fisheries Prices Support Board,
with direct representation from British Columbia fishermen on the Board.
2 Further legislative measures to provide comparable aid to the
fishing industry as already provided for agriculture. ^ Support for measures providing for highest quality standards and government control and labelling of fish products according to grade.
4. Legislative measures to encourage maximum distribution of fishery products by narrowing the gap between prices paid to the producer and the prices asked from the consumer.
C Government assistance in promoting improved transportation
thirds of their profits, for according to the government's own statistics, the average profits of all industry in 1945 was three times its standard profit (the ratio is expected to be higher for 1947). But more likely our dollar-dominated government would decide that the millenium for millionaires has not yet been reached. Under our democratic system of government it would be legal to hold a national referendum and let the majority of the people decide this problem which so vitally concerns their welfare. After all—the "vital" issue of "day light saving time" was so decided within the Provinces and commenting editorially at the time the free press proclaimed unctuously "the public will be served" . . . "the majority rules," . . . etc.
Yes, the public will be served in all issues which do not'oppose the dictates of Canadian Business monopoly. Public opinion will always be represented by a so-called "opposition" duly elected within the government which warns but somehow never imperils the power of the monopolists in our government of the people, by the people, . and for the people.
Poet's Bunk
The bankers open shop at ten
And go to lunch at noon; At one o'clock they're in again,
But out again so soon! Promptly at three they bar the door
And, once the shades are rolled, They throw the money on the floor
And divvy up the gold. You like a loan?   A trifling sum?
A stony front they show you. Their blood is ice;   they trust you, chum,
As far as they can throw you. But when you put some money in
To swell their swollen coffer, You'll find the pickings pretty thin—
It's one per cent they offer! When books are scanned at audit time
By agents duly bonded, They balance to the final dime.
No matter who's absconded. And so a banker "I would be
And wear a high silk hat; And would I roll in do re mi?
Well you can bank on that! National and Dominion!
Provincial and Express! We're the ones that have the fun—
Ye$,   Ye$, Ye$!
NORMAN J AFFRAY.
tensive advertising campaigns on a national basis. The Union should actively participate in such campaigns by playing a leading part in organising fish festivals in leading fish centres.
Inclusion of fishermen and shoreworkers in all existing social legislation and the extension and improvement of such legislation (Compensation Act, and Unemployment Insurance etc.)
In addition, attention was drawn to the dangerous nature of Bill 39 then before the Provincial House for consideration.
"During the year as far as beneficial action is concerned the fishermen continued to be treated as legislative orphans," the officers' report states. "Large numbers remain outside the protection of the Compensation Act, none are covered by Unemployment Insurance or guaranteed minimum wages or holidays with pay. Plees for adequate   wharfage   and harbor
facilities, rising in volume from all parts of the coast, remain unheeded. The Fisheries Prices Support Board was indeed established but up to date it would seem that no definte decision has been reached as to its powers or policies.
"What the present governments have failed to do for the fishermen is, however, only the least part of the difficulty. Even worse is what they are doing. Years of pleading have failed to get action to extend compensation coverage to all fishermen. But it took only one company delegation to Victoria to get an amendment to the Cooperative Marketing Act which withdrew the protection of this Act from crew memDers on fishing vessels.
"Under the smoke screen of offering unions to rid themselves of "Communists" the employers organizations are conducting a determined and vicious drive to smash all trade unions. Having obtained the legislation they desire from government they are now engaged in using the courts to destroy trade unions.
"Mr. Justice Wilson in B.C. Supreme Court recently ruled union officials liable for $10,000 damages for civil conspiracy in the strike of the ITU at the Vancouver Daily Province. He ruled that there was an agreement to do an unlawful act (striking contrary to P.C 1003) and there were unlawful means used (illegal picketing). The ITU is one of the oldest established   unions   in   the AFL.
"A few weeks ago, Chief Justice Gordon Sloan in Appeal Court ruled that unions are legal entities, liable as such to damage suits by employers in strikes which are illegal under Bill 39. The decision against the Steelworkers' Union, a CIO affiliate, immediately affects every trade unionist in the province.
"What is at stake is the right to strike. Trade unionists in B.C. now find themselves in exactly the same legal position as the British trade unionists after the infamous Taff Vale decision of July, 1901. To defeat a strike of railwaymen the cured   an injunction
What The Convention Decided Must Be Done
Four main proposals put forward by the 1947 UFAWTJ officers, were solidly backed by the fourth annual convention &s practical steps for combatting anti-labor legislation.
• Every local organization establish an active committee for the purpose of seeing that every member is registered for election purposes, that all understand the legislative aims of the labor movement and of our own union and that everyone goes to the polls.
• All local organizations take steps to make their influence felt as an active force in the community by inviting members of parliament and all candidates to attend public meetings of fishermen and their families.
• Our union should organize special campaigns on a province-wide scale in connection with special legislation required for the protection of our membership (e.g. extension of the Compensation Act).
• Our union should express its lack of confidence in the old line parties which, while ignoring Labor's needs, have consistently followed the dictates of big business and should exert every effort to defeat in the coming elections all members who have voted for Bill 39 and similar reactionary legislation that threatens the very existence of the trade union movement We should support the ejection of a government pledged to immediately wipe such legislation off the Statute book and endorse only those candidates who have proven by their actions to be worthy of labor's confidence.
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Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and the courts mulcted the union to the tune of f35,000 in an action for civil damages. The unions then found that their whole future existence was jeopardized because by judicial decision strikes had become 'for all practical purposes absolutely illegal.'
"British trade unionists realized that the only way to counter this threat to their existence was to become active on the political field. They joined with the Labor Representation Committee and in the general election of 1906 they nominated 50 candidates, of whom 29 were elected. As a result in the same year the Trades Disputes Act was passed which absolved unions of any legal responsibility for civil damages in
respect of actions by their members or officials in furtherance of a trade dispute, and also expressly ensured the legality of picketing.
"Trade unionists must act in the same fashion in British Columbia to defeat the governments whose reactionary legislation, both federal and provincial, stands in the way of continued progress for the people," the report declares, before proposing the course of action outlined on this page.
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