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THE FISHERMAN
May 20, 1841
Fishermen!
When in Northern B.C. waters call at Your Own Store!
Prince Rupert Fishermen's Co-op Ass'n
"Everything for the Fisherman" Box 264 Phone 264
JAMES E. DAWSON
Dawson's Landing
FISHERMEN'S SUPPLIES IMPERIAL OIL AGENT
Cascade Harbor Store
In BATES PASS Water, Standard Gasoline and Oils. Bread, Groceries & Hardware. Halibut & Trolling Gear. Battery Service, Float Accommodation. Mrs. Art Jones
+■
SHOP at a II
II
CO-OP
and share in the DIVIDENDS
Sointula Co-operative Store Association
Sointula, B.C.
General Imperial Oil
Merchandise Agents
Labor News and Comment
By EVAN LANE
Writing in his union journal some fifteen months ago, Ernest Bevin, leader of the powerful Transport Workers Union, had this to say about industrial conscription:
"Immediately we are at war you have the bankers and financiers leading the attack against the wroking class with a view to working up a situation which will depress the standard of living and create a psychology favorable to some form of compulsion. They will not rest until they have carried out this policy and induced parliament to introduce some form of conscription of labor. . . . The whole tendency is to create a situation which will enable the ruling class to use this war as a means of thrusting us back to a form of serfdom. It is essential that the workers should be alive to what is going on."
ALERT BAY
Shamrock Cafe
ALERT BAY
BEST
HOME-COOKED MEALS
F. Parsons
CHRIS'S COFFEE SHOP
ALERT BAY, B.C.
• To please you . . .
Our Aim.
• To satisfy you . . .
Our Gain.
SO TRY OUR MEALS WHEN IX THE BAY!
Fishermen—For REAL SAVING in Prices TRY
EDDIE'S
Shoes, Clothing and
Confectionery ALERT BAY, B.C.
Fred Parson's Meat Market
Alert Bay
FRESH MEATS, VEGETABLES — GROCERIES
*
Union Meatcutters .... Most modern refrigeration on the Coast.
RONNIE'S
ALERT BAY
Magazines Stationery Photo Finishing Framed Local Scenes Hand-Colored
Harbour Inn
RESTAURANT
Licensed Premises ALERT BAY
CASPER'S STOR E
General Merchandise Valvolene Agency ALERT BAY
Yuclataw Traders
(Reg'd.) STUART ISLAND, B.C. at Southern Entrance to Yuclataw Rapids Fish Buying Camp - All Supplies Fully Equipped UNION Oil Station
• Post Office and Telegraph •
J. R. TINDAIA 5
Fishermen's Supplies — Good J Harbor — Fresh Water » Imperial Oil Products
REFUGE COVE ,
This was in February, 1940, before Bevin entered the Churchill government to impose the industrial conscription against which he had warned. But if Bevin, now minister of labor, no longer opposes industrial conscription, increasing criticism and protest from the trade union movement indicates the opposition of organized labor to the government's measures.
John Marchbank, secretary of the National Union of Railway-men, commented in a recent issue of the union's official organ, "We would do well moreover to recognize that the trade union safeguards erected at the beginning of the war are being thrown over. . . . The disclosures in the reports from the select committee on national expenditure show how the public's money is being squandered and how nests are being feathered by the hardfaced individuals who are doing very well from the war." An editorial in the Amalgamated Engineering Union's journal remarked that only experts on new emergency legislation could define a worker's legal liabilities. It asserted further that the government had "gone a long way toward altering the basis on which unions founded the policy of cooperation in the organization of the nation's war effort."
Complete industrial conscription has now been applied in engineering, shipbuilding and certain other war industries, while in the coal mining industry to which conscription is now being extended, the unions are endeavoring to strike a bargain by demands for a guaranteed wage and other concessions.
Although strikes are now prohibited in Britain, 20,000 engineering apprentices on the Clydeside and another 13,000 in Lancashire recently struck work to enforce their demands, while in Durham 3,000 miners also went on strike recently over a wage dispute.
LABOR IN FASCIST FRANCE.
The militant unions Of People's Front France which won the 40-hour week for the workers now lie prostrate under the heel of the fascist leaders who now rule from Vichy, their courageous leaders imprisoned or in concentration camps, their rights destroyed. This is where the policy of "temporarily" surrendering labor's rights has led the French workers. Where unions are still permitted a legal existence, it is only under the domination of "safe" leaders who can be relied upon to carry through the govern-men's policies, and even these leaders are being forced to admit that they no longer enjoy the confidence of the workers.
For instance, Marcel Roy, secretary of the Metal Workers Federation, was recently compelled to state, in an effort to reassure the workers, "When we collaborate with the employers or with the representatives of the government, this in no way affects trade union liberties," while another official of the same organization declared that "fears of the government systematically removing all those who in any way have participated in social battles and who are trusted by the working people are unfounded."
Such assurances have little meaning for the French workers in view of their own experiences. The General Confederation of Labor was disbanded in November, 1940, its secretary, Racamond, jailed. The prisons and concentration camps of Vichy France are crowded with trade union and other working class leaders who refused to betray
Thulin Trading Co. Ltd.
_ LUND, B.C. — RED & WHITE FOOD STORE
Boat Hardware Fishing Supplies, Imperial Oil Products. . . . The new float accommodation at our dock is very handy.
Restoration of Civil Liberties!
their trust.
While some unions continue a legal existence, deserted by the majority of their former members, the workers' struggle is finding different, illegal means of expression. This struggle is revealed by articles carried in Via Ouvriers, illegal trade union weekly, and Tribune de Cheminots, illegal organ of the Railroad Workers Federation.
These papers tell of workers' strikes and demonstrations in all parts of unoccupied France. At the same time, they urge the workers not to withdraw from the unions dominated by reactionary leaders but to continue to work within them to force them into supporting their demands.
As an instance of how the legal unions can be forced to support the workers' demands, Via Ouvriers relates how women employees of a Limoges shoe factory, dismissed under the decree against employment of married women, went in a body to their union headquarters and demanded that it support them.
True to their militant traditions, the French workers are conducting a bitter struggle for restoration of their rights, a struggle that already has been marked with some success, for in the metallurgical and building industries factory committees have been formed which send delegations to the employers and publish factory papers carrying their demands for wage increases, full restoration of production, freedom of association and freedom for arrested labor leaders.
Tri-Council Conference Call Issued
This week the Vancouver Labor Council, Canadian Congress of Labor, issued a call to the Prince Rupert Labor Council and Island Labor Council to meet in a tri-council conference the first week in June.
The purpose of the conference will be to discuss the following points: (1) Organization of the unorganized; (2) A legislative program; (3) Establishment of a labor press to be known as the "Western Unionist"; (4) Unemployment; and (5) The enforcing of legislation on labor's right to organize and bargain collectively.
Harold J. Pritchett, secretary of the Vancouver Labor Council, stated that in his opinion this was one of the most important conferences on the agenda of organized labor at this time. He also said that in all possibility a delegate conference of the unions affiliated to the three councils above mentioned, would be called soon after the conference of the officers of the councils.
Demand Higher Prices
(Continued from Page 1)
panies and not by the working people. One fisherman at the meeting pointed out that the Imperial Oil Company had made 19% million dollars profit in the last year.
The prices for bluebacks came in for a great deal of discussion. It was recognized by all present that the cost of living and the cost of gear had risen to a considerable extent and that the prices would have to be up accordingly. With this in mind a motion was passed that it would be impossible for them to fish for prices lower than 7c lb. round and 8%c dressed.
Everyone present expressed them-
P.C.F.U. To Organize Meetings Demanding 7-8V2cFor Bluebacks
Percy Sabin, President PCFU, left Monday, May 9 on a trip around the Gulf to organize meetings of fishermen in the several concentration points to discuss blueback prices and conditions and to get an expression of opinion in respect to the resolution which is quoted below. He will go up the mainland side and come back by the Island side.
RESOLUTION.
WHERAS there has been no offer from the cannery operators of prices or conditions on blueback for the season of 1941 and;
WHERAS we the fishermen in the Gulf of Georgia Area feel that it will be impossible to operate on a price less than 7 cents per pound for round fish and 8% cents per pound for dressed fish on the grounds, with suitable collection facilities furnished by buyers. Also suitable supplies such as groceries and gear being made available at suitable prices, viz. 15 per cent above wholesale prices in Vancouver. With a reasonable expectation of making any money for ourselves;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we the fishermen in meeting assembled declare and pledge that we will not fish blueback salmon during 1941 unless a market is available that provides 7 cents
selves as feeling that if these prices were not obtained, it would be not only impossible but also useless, for them to fish for bluebacks this year.
The meeting expressed a vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Logan Schibler for placing their house and other facilities at the disposal of those present. Appreciation was also expressed for the tireless work done by Gus Cogswell and Murray Taylor in organizing and conducting the meetings.
A further meeting was set for Stuart Island on May 25 at 1 p.m.
per pound round and 8% cents per pound dressed, with suitable facilities as above mentioned in regard to supplies being provided.
Company Fined In "Wrongful Dismissal" Charge
In the first conviction under the 1939 amendment of the Criminal Code dealing with intimidation of employees for union activities, Meriod M. Davies, manager of the Langley Manufacturing Co. Ltd., was fined $100 and costs for "wrongfully dismissing Edward Sturgeon for the sole reason that Sturgeon is a member of a lawful trade union."
A member of Vancouver Metal Workers' Union Local 2, Sturgeon was appointed shop steward among the men employed by that company.
Full particulars of this case are carried in the column "Labor and the Law" by John Stanton, who conducted the case for Sturgeon.
B.C.E.R. Arbitration Resumed Monday
H. P. Melnikow, director of the Pacific Coast Labor Bureau, San Francisco, was denied entry into Canada by the immigration officials upon his arrival here May 7, to assist in the conducting of the arbitration hearings of the Street Railwaymen's Union with the B.C. Electric. As a consequence the hearings were not resumed until Monday, May 19, at 9:30 in the Burrard Hall.
Evidence was introduced at the Monday morning session of the arbitration hearing showing that the Street Railwaymen's real wage had dropped to 57 cents an hour and that they were entitled to at least 70 cents an hour, to keep up with the rising cost of living.
The men's present wage is 63 cents an hour.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Right on your course is—
BLISS LANDING
That handy place in which to pop in and pop out, or to wait over.
A modern General Store stocked for the needs of fishermen. Speedy Shell Gas and Diesel service.
Fresh water, pure and soft,
piped onto floats. Have your mail addressed here. BOYD YOUNG, Proprietor, for 35 years supplier to B.C. Coast fishermen.
A dependable engine on a lee shore is worth more than all the sails the "Titania" carried, thanks to up-to-date fuels and lubricants. Standard Marine Products are scientifically developed to assure reliable and economical operation of all types of gas and diesel marine motors. It's good insurance to re-fuel and lubricate with STANDARD!
STANDARD MARINE PRODUCTS
Red Crown Gasoline RPM Motor Oil
Standard Gasoline Unsurpassed Standard Diesel Fuel Pearl Oil (Ki ng of Kerosenes) Standard Stove Oil
"RPM" DELO, Diesel Engine Lubricating Oil
CALOL Diesel Engine Oil —and other fine
Standard Oil Products
Available at many Marine Stations are the well-known General Batteries
STANDARD
Alert Bay Bamfield Baronet Pass Bull Harbour Cascade Harbour Ceepeecee Churchouse Gabriola Island Garden Bay Goose Bay
MARINE STATIONS IN B.C.
Gowland Harbour Heriot Bay Nanaimo New Westminster Port Neville Prince Rupert Quatsino Refuge Cove Rivers Inlet Safety Cove
Spring Cove Tofino Toquart Vancouver
Coal Harbour Dunlevy Avenue Deep Cove Horseshoe Bay
Victoria
Walters Cove
Zeballos
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