» November 19, 1940
THE FISHERMAN
Page Five
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Seamen Rap Lundeberg As Strikebreaker
(Courtesy "Voice of Federation") S.S. PRESIDENT TAFT (At Sea)—The entire membership of the steward's department of 130 members on the Taft passed a resolution at their first meeting, on the outward bound voyage, condemning Harry Lundeberg for his strikebreaking in the recent Scalers Union dispute with the American President Lines in San Francisco.
WHEREAS: Harry Lundeberg and certain other misleaders of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, have seen fit once again, to attempt to destroy the unity of the maritime workers of the Pacific, by trying to steal the scaling work that has been done for the past 20 years by ships scalers.
AND WHEREAS: Harry Lundeberg had attempted, once again, to break a bona-fide picket line of the Maritime Federation of the Pacific, for which scabby act a 110 lb. scaler knocked his teeth down his throat and broke his jaw in four places, which he certainly deserved.
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AND WHEREAS: Harry Lundeberg has constantly and consistently fought every move for the unity of seamen and other maritime workers on the west, east and gulf coasts of the United States by hypocritically hollering fink, at the National Maritime Union, and at the same moment taking all the real finks on the east and gulf coasts into his company inspired and dominated paper union, the SIU.
AND WHEREAS: Harry Lundeberg had to have the help of 70 uniformed policemen, 30 plain-clothesmen, and 20 mounted police, not to mention the American President Lines, to get a few of his misguided followers through a picket line of less than 75 scalers.
AND WHEREAS: This help given to Harry Lundeberg time and again, whenever he asks for it, by these well recognized ene-mes of all labor is positive and direct proof to all union men that he is working hand in glove with the shipowners and corrupt political machines on the coast to divide and smash all organized labor.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That we, 130 members of the stewards department aboard the S.S. President Taft, who walked off in sympathy with the longshoremen, firemen, scalers, teamsters, machinists, boilermak-ers, radio operators, etc., do hereby state positively that without a shadow of a doubt that Harry Lundeberg and his stooges are the friends of the shipowners and the disrupters, sabatouers, fifth columns and enemies of all organized labor in the maritime industry.
AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED: That we will do all in a case or our power to rid the maritime industry of such betrayers of the marine workers as Harry Lundeberg, so that we can organize every one of the 200,000 seamen and longshoremen in the United States, and march forward together for better wages, working conditions and real liberty and freedom for everyone connected with the maritime industry.
Tou Have The Floor7
This page is open to all readers, organized and unorganized. The Editorial Board requests all letters be signed. Signatures will be published unless otherwise stated. Letters should not be more than 200 words in length. Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the policy of
The Fisherman.
Cooperation Called For
Editor, The Fisherman: . To those who tie their boats to the slips which are provided for mooring of boats, etc.
I was tied up to the slip in New Westminister and there were two or three boats tied inside of me When one of them was leaving for home, he untied my boat and I don't know whether he did it through carelessness or force of habit that he tied my boat at one end and left it swing in the tide and when I got to it the tide was zero and my boat up on the mud, I had one heck of a time to keep it from swamping when the tide came in.
Now fellows, if you use these slips, wouldn't at be showing a little bit of friendship if you would tie the boat you have to let loose to get out in the stream, instead of being in such a desperate hurry and not caring what happens to the other fellow's boat. You wouldn't like to have him tie your boat double, so why not tie his boat secure when leaving.
For a little co-operation, I am still your friend.
—Adam Grouch.
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men:
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Castles in the Air
Editor, The Fisherman:
The dream of many public-spirited women of British Columbia will be realized next Saturday when they attend the formal opening at 3 p.m. of the new jail for women at Oakalla prison farm.
It looks like a hard winter among others besides the fisher folks, but gosh, what dreams some people have! Here I have been dreaming of the day when those eye-sores we call jails, will no longer be needed. Am I then so much ahead of the parade? If so, I had better get in step.
So that is what our public-spirited people dream about! Well, all I can say is, "Pleasant dreams!"
OLD SALT.
P.S.—And by the way, if you have built castles in the air (as who hasn't at one time or another), your labor need not be wasted. All you have to do is get someone, preferably a government, to put a solid foundation under it and you will be all set so far as rent is concerned.
No Income, No Dues
Editor, The Fisherman:
In reply to a Fraser River Fisherman on the question of union dues. I wish to state that the need of paying adequate dues towards the maintenance of an aggressive union should be self-evident to anyone who has been engaged in fishing for any length of time. But while the need is or should be easy to see for anyone, how to best proceed in getting the bulk of the fish-ernment organized, and how to get them to pay dues of any size from an often non-existing income, is the real problem as I see it.
In a season like the one just drawing to a close, it seems a safe bet that only half of our members have any kind of a surplus over their expenses, and among the gill-netters even the Nine Dollars looks like a lot of money.
Now, as to his wisecrack, about making a decent living, I have also fished for a number of years as a gillnetter but I have failed to see where the average fisherman ever made a decent living. Whoever heard of fishermen even wanting to do such a thing?
I am one of the unfortunates whose dues have not been paid for the current year and as I am only half a step ahead of the well-known wolf, it seems as if I am due to be dropped from membership of my local if it has not already happened, and there isn't a thing I can do about it.
They say there is lots of wealth to be made from the by-products of the fishing industry and I am beginning to suspect that I am one of those by-products from whom a lot of wealth has been made.
PER RACKEN.
P.S.—I was talking to a well known fisherman a couple of days ago and he told me he earned $12.00 the last three weeks. I think he comes near to being an average fisherman. He is married and has four children, all of school age.
Textile Workers Sign Union Agreement
TORONTO, Ont. — Local 17, Canadian Hosiery Workers' Union, signed an agreement with the management of L & L. Textiles Limited, of this city after two weeks of negotiations. The agreement provides for a closed shop, wage increases amounting to 10 per cent on piecework rates and 5 per cent for timeworkers. The check-off has also been included in the agreement.
A deadlock in the negotiations was ended when the night and day shifts ceased work to await the firm's counter-proposals to the original terms of the agreement. This stoppage lasted 24 hours and was resumed by the day shift for three hours when a last-minute snag developed.
Alex Welch, general secretary-treasurer of the union, was signatory to the agreement on behalf of the union.—Can. Tribune.
Employees Gain 40 Per Cent Pay Boost
WINDSOR, Ont. — More than 60 women employees of Stirling Products here won wage increases of q»ore than 40 percent this week after a short strike. When an official of the company from New York offered the women a wage increase without seniority and union recognition they decided to continue the strike. A few hours later the company conceded all their demands. Their minimum pay was raised from $8.64 weekly to $12, while the highest pay was upped from $10.45 to $15.
MV 'Good Partner9 Still Unfair
According to decisions made at the regular meeting of the United Fishermen's Union crew members on the "Good Partner," now herring fishing in the Namu district, will be notitied mat tne boat is still classed as "unfair," and that no members shall sail on or work with this boat until further notice. Failure to comply with the decision of the Union will result in Immediate suspension of the members concerned. As explained in the last issue, the Good Partner was classesd unfair by the Union when the skipper and owner, S. Nordhus fired the entire crew during the recent herring ne-gotiatons, and subsequently the cook and engineer were reinstated, and sailed with the boat. Two members of the Deep Sea Fishermen's Union joined the boat later, and it is believed that in addition, two non-union men were shipped. Having been forced by the attitude of the owner to take this step, the Union insists on complete obedience to Union decisions by all members, for only in this manner can an end be put to the discriminating practices employed by some boat operators.
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We heard that the fish packer Great Northern No. 9 is being re-powered with a 6 cylinder Buda Diesel. She produces 125 h.p. at 1500 revs.
Pete Ambrose has just launched a new otter trawler at Coal Harbor. She is named the Tordo and is expected to make 10% knots with her 120 h.p. Vivian diesel.
Denman Islanders will be travelling to town (Courtenay) on a new ferry which is being built to replace the Moniker. She is to be a forty footer and is expected to make 9 knots with her 75 Vivian Diesel.
Future Foretold
While crossing Nawhitti Bar one morning last July I was driven to panic by an acute case of indigestion. You can picture me there in my misery, down on my knees with tears as big as horseshoes rolling down my cheeks and my head drooping overside as the boat reared and tossed.
A big five-foot dog fish suddenly took shape through my blurred and misty vision as he idled along a foot or two under the surface waiting for me to part with my ham and eggs. The idea of feeding fish is very unpleasant at the best, but that dogfish—hell, he drove me more insane than ever. I said a little prayer right then and asked God in the high Heaven for strength to throw the anchor down the throat of that miniature shark, but the only answer to my prayer was another mouthful of white man's grub for that blasted dogfish. I couldnt help but wonder if he'd eat my boots which by this time were somewhere between my belly and my Adam's apple. Then, I seemed relieved, and as in answer to that prayer I was given the power to look into the future, so I'm passing it on to you so you will know beforehand what the future holds in store for us. Yes, dear Brothers and Sisters, here it is.
The year 1955 and everything has changed remarkably. The boats (trollers) are all over fifty feet and can they roll their tails. Tne average speed is twenty knots. A new bank has just been discovered some two hundred and fifty miles W.'S.W. of Triangle Island. After ten years of struggling through lean unprofitable years, the boys are experiencing a new lease on life. High boats are bringing in seventy-five cohoes a week and since the Government, being anxious to keep the industry alive, is providing free provisions, gas and oil and has pegged the price at thirty-five cents a fish, this means hay and oats for the trollers (only ten left) and a bag of mush for the winter. Of course, these ten high liners hold an enviable position in their respective communities despite the fact that they are fish hogs from Hades and have cut their helpers' pay to a measly 9%%.
A grand monument has just been erected in memory and appreciation of a Fisheries Department official through whose skilful manipulation and effort the spawning streams have been so ably protected for the past thirty some years. This apple of the can-ners' eye cashed in his checks reluctantly, so it seems, and when he turns in his tomb the old monument nods and sways. This happens everytime a boat gets pinched for fishing illegally. However, he's gone to drink cocktails with the rest of the dead creek robbers and cannery moguls.
Gillnets and seines are now cheap to buy. Any stump rancher can pick one up for a dollar or so minus the lead, which is worth a dollar an ounce. Many of the old timers have
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LONDON, Eng.—"Let this be said for the working people, even the Communists. There is no evidence in Norway, Holland, France or Belgium, that any part of the working class, whatever their political party may have been, operated as 'fifth columnists.' The 'fifth columnists' come from higher up."—Ernest Bevin, minister of labor in the Churchill cabinet, as quoted in "Labor," official organ of the Trades Union Congress, September issue.
passed on but there is still an odd one left. These remaining stalwarts of a forgotten age spend their waning days feeding pigeons at Victory Square on the free peanuts provided for this purpose by a trust fund set up by the Canned Salmon Section C.M.A. The Government and city have at last cooperated to the extent that they allow every legitimate worn-out fisherman a dollar a week in appreciation for past services rendered. The herring chokers hold an annual celebration afloat off Point Grey and at the mast head of the mother ship is a bottle of alcohol—containing the last herring. It is two and a half inches long and is the property of Gerry McGeer, who paid for it out of the funds left over from the City hall. He wanted a red one but he waited too long.
Yes, I hear old Dave Rogers In the Commercial. He's drinking to the health of the last Japanese fishermen who got drowned at Five Fingers. The Biological station has just awarded Dave two thousand dollars for catching the only spring salmon to enter the gulf in ten years. It weighs all of four pounds. And Joe Moore caught a humpy the other day— just outside the Boundary. Then my vision ended.
There were now ten dog fish and as they waited for the last crumb they certainly reminded me of a meeting of certain worthy individuals gathered together to devise ways and means of further fleecing the fishermen. That self-satisfied smirk on the faces of those dogfish, everything in fact was there — even to those avaricious beedy eyes—(a most striking contrast), and as usual they told me a long sad story.
—H. E. M.
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