Page Four
THE FISHERMAN
Friday, May 17, 1946
The Tiitier m&n
Representing The Organized Fnhernten And Shoreworkers of British Columbia
5,900 Copies Printed This Issue Published Every Friday except the last Friday of each month by The Fisherman Publishing Society, 138 East Cordova St., Vancouver, B.C. Telephone MArine 1829 Advertising Rates on Application
Editor ............................. GEORGE NORTH
Subscription Rates: One Year, $1.50; Six Months, 80c. Make All Payments to THE FISHHERMAN PUBLISHING SOCIETY
Authorized at Second Cldkt Hail, Postoffice Dep't, Ottawa
B.C. Logging Operators Must Come To Terms
THIRTY-SEVEN thousand woodworkers in British Columbia are on strike. They are out for the very simple reason that the logging and lumber operators actually refuse to consider their three demands. The operators' only offer, and this is qualified beyond recognition, is for a 12% cent per hour wage increase.
They have completely rejected the 40-hour week and any semblance of union security.
IWA leaders have shown, on the other hand, every desire to discuss, to compromise, and settle the issue. They have offered to arbitrate union security and at the last minute proposed, before Chief Justice Sloan, that if the operators would grant an eigiiteen-cent per hour wage increase with the 40-hour week, the strike would be called off. This was a move, which, if the operators had been truly interested in avoiding strike action, they could have met with no difficulty.
Best proof of this is the fact that already several small operators have signed the union agreement granting employees their full demands of a 25-cent per hour wage increase, a 40-hour week with full union security.
How, in face of this fact, can the big operators deny responsibility for provoking the present strike? They are surely in a much better position to meet the union's request than these small owners.
Tactic of the "boss loggers" is now to smear this union by attacking the strike vote that was taken, by calling the strike illegal, and attempting to confuse the public through misleading ads and press statements and phoney radio broadcasts. In this they are given first aid by their best friend, the press which distorts and discolors the news and assists with its own special material, the operators' campaign.
As an example, the day the strike broke, Wednesday, the Vancouver Sun carried an article on page 1 referring to "Black Wednesday," and foresaw 80,000 out of work as a result of the strike within three weeks. (The Victoria Daily Colonist despite its traditional conservative location, did the Sun one better—it foresaw 250,000 unemployed in three weeks, more than the total working population of B.C.)
Both papers see 10,000 fishing industry employees "sent home" as the result of a shortage of boxes (in three weeks) while the Vancouver Daily Province chops this figure down to 1,000, a fine example of consistency.
The Sun goes on to publish on its editorial page a cartoon depicting the the IWA as a huge, hairy hand squeezing the public, assisted by a white shirted arm called "management." The object is to take any heat off the logging operators, and place it squarely on the IWA.
Again, they feature on their editorial page an article which "proves." that strikes don't pay—that even when workers win, they "lose."
Strikes are not fun. They are used only a last resort when all else has failed" and this is the case in the IWA strike.
It arose as a result of stalling and provocation by the operators but it will be won through the solidarity of those on strike.
All labor must give full support to the lumber workers in their struggle. On the outcome of their fight depends the future conditions of many thousands outside their own ranks. They spearhead the national fight for improved living standards for the Canadian people.
Build Your Emergency Fund
THERE are still many UFAWU members who have not paid up their emergency assessment. Instead of only a dollar assessment stamp in your book, why not aim a little higher and make it five or more. The record is still $12 put up by Max Touchings of Port Albion. Who's going to better it?
On The World Scene
Figures Tell Sad Tale; Prices Are Sky High
An increase in the cost of living far above that admitted by the federal government is revealed in retail price comparisons of staple goods prepared by the Consumers' Council of B.C.
According to these figures the cost of food consumed by the average working class family has risen 85 percent. The government will allow its statisticians to produce only a 20 percent increase. Here are the council's figures:
Feb. 28 Feb. 28
1933
.95
lb. .29 lb. .18
Flour ................ 491b.
Tea Bacon
Butter ............... lb. .26
Fels Naptha Soap . . each .05
Oranges, No. 288 ____dozen .19
Grapefruit .......... 4 for .15
Lettuce ............. each .06
Carrots ............. 51b. .10
Turnips ............. 5 lb.
Potatoes, Nett. Gems, 1001b.
Apples ............... 8 lb
Pork Shoulders Pork Chops ... Sirloin Steaks Round Steaks Blade Roast .. Stewing Beef . Pork Steaks ..
Cheese ........
1 lb. Liver, % lb. bacon
1939
1.19 .49 .24 .27 .06 .10
1942 1.39 .73 .28 .38 .06 .15
1946
1.39 .59 .40 .40 .06% .29
4 for .12 5 for .13 5 for .22
.10 .59 .25 lb. .04% lb. .09 17%
lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb.
.14% .07% .09% .07% .14
lb. .15
Chickens ............. each .49
Beef Liver ........... lb.
G. S. Salmon ........ % lb.
Sugar ............... 101b.
Jam .................
Tomatoes ...........
Peas .................
.17 .44
.03% .05 .05 1.20 .23 .14 .22 .15 .12 .10 .08 .17 .17 .18 .21
.08 .16% .50 .35 .09% -07%
.06% .20 .07 bunch .12
.14 2.50 .50 .17 .30 .29 .25 .19 .14 .27 .17 .29 .28
.15 .19 .50 .59 .11% .08%
-.20
31b. 51b.
3.07 100 lb. .72 8 lb.
.21 .38 .45 .33 .22 .20 .27 .33 .32 .38
lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb.
(Grade B)
.22 3R .73 .60 .15 .14
lb. % lb. 101b. 41b. lb. lb.
Woodworkers' Strike In Front As Canada's Top Wage Fight
By AL PARKIN
NO event of the week, either on the national or international scene, could overshadow in importance—at least to the labor movement and the people of B.C.—the news that 37,000 loggers and sawmill workers had struck work Wednesday morning to back their union's demands for wage increases, the 40-hour week and union security.
Indeed, the strike did not be- , . ... „ .
drive literally thousands of men
long to B.C. alone. It was already of national and even international significance, claiming the attention of all Canada, the United States, and those countries of the world who buy the products of British Columbia's major industry.
The tie-up of some 1,800 separate lumber operations—every logging camp and sawmill on the Coast and in B.C.'s southern interior—was complete by Wednesday noon. Even in those operations not yet unionized, crews observed the strike deadline fully and left their jobs, though not before establishing picket lines and sending appeals to the International Woodworkers of America for a union organizer "to come in and sign us up." It was the broadest and most effective walkout in the province's 60 years of labor history.
/ » . •
What was the impelling force that made those men stop work as they did, on hundreds of jobs, in every section of the province, and with such willingness and determination? Anti-labor elements, the obscurantist and cynic might answer, "Dictation by union bosses." But that demonstration of labor discipline on Wednesday was not the result of dictation from above. It came from men who acted consciously, fully aware of the serious nature of the step they were taking.
An over-riding question in the minds of those strikers was of course the demand for higher wages, made necessary by the sheer fact that their dollar is shrinking daily in value as living costs spiral upwards. Other things were in their minds, too —a compounding of memory and experience; reminders of those grim days of depression known by the "hungry thirties;" a distrust for the smooth assurances of the employers; confidence in their strength and the justice of their demands.
Among those thousands who struck work Wednesday were men with bitter memories. Once before the woodworkers had built a powerful union in the camps. That was after the first great war, when the One Big Union had 30,000 members in lumber. They recall how in 1920 the B.C. Loggers Association was organized for the specific, purpose of smashing the OBU, and how in 1921 the infamous blacklist system, that was to
from the industry, went into effect. * I personally remember that period, though still a youngster then. For my father happened to be OBU delegate for the Headquarters camp of the Co-mox Logging Company at Courtenay, was fired by the company in the winter of 1921 for his union activities, and
came back to Vancouver to find the doors of every employment agency in the city closed to him.
Well, the One Big Union was smashed and the employers' open shop ruled the industry. And the loggers and millwork-ers remember what happened from then on. How the depression struck in the 1930's, and how, without a union to defend their interests, wages went down to rock bottom. Camps in the • Campbell River area were paying as low as $1.50 a day for chokermen, out of which $1.00 a day was taken for board. Sawmill wages were as low as 15 to 20 cents an hour. They remember, too, the pool-food, the dirty bunkhouses and unsanitary wash-houses, the intense speed-up and the operators' reckless disregard of safety conditions which brought a terrible toll in lives and maimed bodies. And they can't forget that it took a three-month strike in 1934 to bring wages
up to a basic $3.20 a day. * * •
Yes, the woodworkers in 1946 remember all those experiences of past years when the industry was open shop, when right up to 1941 the employers' blacklist system kept the union from growing, and a man couldn't
call his soul his own.
And they don't intend to go back to those days, to face another inevitable depression without a union. They know the operators are talking soft and pleasantly these days, full of promises of how management "intends to respect" the right of men to have unions of their cwn choice. But past experience has taught them that when men put profits before anything else, little things like promises can soon go out the window. They'd rather fight to have the assurance, guaranteed them by law and precedent, of a powerful union to which every man in the industry must belong, sharing jointly the responsibilities and benefits of union membership.
• * •
Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours after the strike was called, I met one of the strikers, an old time logger, in the IWA hall, now a strike headquarters. Larry Rowan is his name, and the last time we had met was in 1934, when we were both part of a 200-strong flying picket squad which had marched into Bloedel's Great Central camp out of Port Alberni in an attempt to stop some scabs. And he summed up his feelings when he said something like this:
"Look," he said "there's 37,000 of us. Most of us are union men. It took us 15 years of hard work, at a cost of thousands of dollars, to build a union that will represent our interests. Then the boss operators come along and tell us they'll give us—give us, mind you—a 12% cent increase if we'll be good boys and forget all about our demands for union security.
"Well, we're saying—'no mister.' We're the ones who get out the logs and cut the lumber. We're the source of all the wealth of the industry. And no one is going to tell us, without properly sitting down and talking things over, what our wages are going to be, and whether we're going to be allowed to have a union or not.
"We also happen to be citizens," Rowan ended up, "and we've also got the right to say how we'll work and how we'll live."
Which just about sums up how those 37,000 strikers were thinking, and talking, when the strike deadline came at 11 a.m.
on Wednesday.
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Building Our Union _
By HOMER STEVENS
BUBnnnnninnnRnnnimnniiHiiiMiHinttinitnHtHniniuiim
The registration of the crews of all the larger fishing boats out of Vancouver and district is still the main task of your waterfront organizer. During the past six weeks approximately 150 boats have been covered, including ninety-odd halibut vessels, some 30 trawlers and a number of packers, seiners and trollers. The information thus obtained is passed on to George Miller in the Hiring Office where it is sorted and re-assembled in order to provide a clear-cut picture of the type of fishing done by individual members.
Therefore, this registration serves a dual purpose. First it strengthens and tightens our organization by bringing in new members and reinstating members who are in bad standing and secondly, it creates a permanent record of the fishing activities of our membership.
Many of the crews have elected their boat delegates and invaluable assistance has been received from these members in carrying out our program. The necessity for continued and increased action on the part of the delegates cannot be overemphasized. In addition to aiding the organizational campaign they must keep the crew members well informed on the union's activities and see to it that whenever possible the crew
members turn out to meetings.
They must be familiar with the agreements under which they work and must insist that all the conditions set out in the agreements are lived up to in every respect. All in all, the role of the boat delegates is a mighty important one.
Since the UFAWU is at present conducting negotiations in an attempt to raise the living standards of the workers in the B.C. fishing industry it is only natural that it is being criticized by the representatives of the fishing companies. However, when these individuals begin setting themselves up as the 'protectors' and 'guardians' of the fishermen's democratic rights they begin to be amusing.
They say they are opposed to the closed shop in the fishing industry "because it is against the best interests of the men and women engaged in the industry." Since when have the fishing companies become interested in the welfare of the workers in the industry? Only when the advancement of that welfare interferes with their profits and only as a cover-up for their attack on our union which is promoting the fishermen's welfare.
The operators state repeatedly in their statements against the UFAWU that its leaders have
"ulterior motives which are alien to true trade union objectives." Perhaps they might be able to teach us what "true trade union principles" are, but I'm from Missouri. No doubt if our union never asked for higher prices, better wages, shorter hours or improved living conditions they would write more kindly of it.
The companies have said they concede the right of the workers to organize. However, in many cases, their actions make us doubt their integrity. When organizers are forbidden to talk to workers on company property, even during their lunch hour, or ~~when organizers are given a half hour once a week at lunch time to speak to workers, we begin to suspect hypocrisy.
The right to organize was not granted to fishermen, loggers, miners or any other workers by the employers. That right was handed to us by workers who were beaten, gassed, tortured and murdered by the employers' stooges and hirelings in the not so distant past. The attitude of the employers is slowly changing but it is only due to the continued pressure and increasing strength of our trade unions. We have won the "right" to organize so let's use that privilege to reach our goal—"100 Percent Organization in '46!"
Log of the Mistral
By FRED
OLSEN ''A
«]MPASSE"—when an irresist-* ible force meets an immovable object. That seems to be the state of affairs these days —the Irresistible force of organized labor in headlong collision with collective resistance of the Gods of Profit.
The daily press and radio are blaring forth a day by day, blow by blow account of the battle and the listening and reading public are standing by, attempting to form an intelligent opinion ot what it is all about.
In a struggle of this nature, public opinion is a powerful and compelling factor in the outcome, for life itself teaches us that if the public is fairly and correctly informed about all sides of a question, its judgment will be fair and correct Which brings us to the main plot of the story.
"One thing we must always remember," said Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in her column of July 25, 1945, "there is seldom any great difficulty in getting management's side of any story printed, but when it comes to getting labor's side into print, that is a very different question."
On this point I find myself agreeing heartily with Mrs. Roosevelt. Applying it to our present situation, I charge the local daily rags with subverting the true principles of democracy by presenting in its entirety only management's side of the story and attacking the trade unions, the union leaders and misrepresenting the just demands of labor.
The laws of Canada clearly state that labor has the right to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike when all other means have failed the workers in their attempts to maintain decent living standards.
The attempt by Big Business to freeze wages and raise the prices on consumer goods is a direct attack upon our living standards. A deliberate, brazen attempt to increase its profits by reducing the value of our Canadian dollar, and a brainless plunge into economic chaos.
In Canada ,at this moment, millions of dollars are being spent by Big Business, via press and radio, in a red-baiting, anti-labor, anti-cooperative campaign. Our only defences against this barrage of villification are the few minutes we are able (at a terrific cost) to purchase on the air, our trade union organs and our weekly labor press.
No worker in industry can afford to remain indifferent or apathetic in the face of the struggle that is being waged. The outcome will affect his life, and that of his wife and children, with the violence of an atomic explosion. No worker can take an intelligent interest, nor play an intelligent part, in the matters at hand unless he is fully informed on all phases of the subject.
To this end, all workers in the fishing industry are urged to listen in on your labor programs and read and support your labor newspapers. A correct understanding and estimation of the forces at play is your only salvation. "Forward in '46!"
NOT IMPRESSIVE
DISTINGUISHED visitor to a lunatic asylum went to the telephone and found difficulty in getting his connection. Exasperated, he shouted to the exchange: "Look here, girl, do you know who I am?"
"No," came back the calm reply, "but I know where you are."
|N darkest Brooklyn, a pupil reported to his nature teacher, "Dis morning I hoid a bold choip-ing."
"No, John," corrected the teacher. "You heard a bird chirping."
"Funny!" commented John. "I coulda swore it was a bold choip-ing!"