FARMERS ON THE PICKFT I INF
Injunctions Fail To Deter Ontario Milk Produ
PRIMARY producers picket a manufacturing plant protesting use of a "hot ' product ... workers at the plant refuse to cross the picket line . . . the company seeks and immediately obtains an injunction banning picketing.
Familiar ingredients of manv labor disputes, these events took place in Ontario this past summer in an unusual context.
The "hot" product in this instance was powdered milk. And the picketers were Ontario dairy farmers, members of the National Farmers Union.
The dispute, which ended in victory for the farmers, was as part of the opening round in a general fight back against high handed policies flowing from monopoly control in agriculture and associated industries.
It also demonstrated the value of farmer-worker cooperation and brought more clearly into focus the perspective of forcing agri-business and its allies to bargain collectively with organized farmers.
The Ontario dairy farmers were protesting use by the Borden Company's plant at Ingersoll of milk powder imported from abroad. For the farmers, it was a basic economic issue.
sold for manufacturing purposes have had to accept limited prices and quotas for years on the grounds that a surplus supply exists in this country.
Not surprisingly, they were outraged to discover that a giant U.S. corporation was bringing in large quantities of the allegedly "surplus" product from foreign countries.
IN A WHIRLWIND campaign which saw mass picketing, court injunctions and, subsequently, the launching of a province wide boycott of com-
pany products, organized farmers won their point.
Forced to the bargaining table, the company finally signed an agreement under which it is committed to use domestic milk for manufacturing purposes as long as supplies of sufficient quality are available.
Events began to unfold at a National Farmers Union meeting in Toronto where samples were displayed of imported milk powder being used at the Borden plant.
On their way home from the meeting in chartered buses, some 500 rank and file members of the NFU stopped at the Borden plant, saw the evidence for themselves and engaged in some unproductive talks with company-officials.
Next day, NFU information picket lines were up. Other trade unionists supported the farmers' action, some of them joining the picket line. Later, plant workers refused to go to work across the line.
The company then went to the courts and obtained an anti-picketing injunction. Its repercussions were not long in being felt.
NFU vice-president Walter Miller said the interference of the courts could be a rallying point around which to harness the economic power and determination of the farmers.
He added that "injunction" is a "dirty word among labor men and probably will be regarded in the same way by farmers."
Miller's predictions were borne out. As the union pointed out later, organized farmers "retaliated with double barrelled action. Picketing was shifted to other company plants . . . and a province wide boycott of the company's products was launched.
"That really hurt. In less than three days, the (Borden) cor-
LETTERS
Caamano Sound Potential High
Editor. The Fisherman:
I am now leaving Caamano Sound area after trolling here for six weeks.
This area has not been logged off. therefore we have good streams and sufficient water for the salmon to get up them — this season we have had a lot of rain. Most of the small creeks have 2,000 salmon go up them and there are excellent spawning beds. With research, putting hatcheries on the streams, they would be wonderful producers.
Since most of the streams and rivers in other areas have been logged off and a lot of them have been polluted, these streams on the north coast should be well taken care of.
Most of the streams in Georgia Strait and the other southern waters dry up in the dry months and very few or no salmon go up them.
I remember in the thirties these streams were full of salmon.
MRS GEORGE R SMITH Qualicum, B.C.
Not a Word Mentioned?
Editor. The Fisherman:
I notice with great disappointment that in your last issue, September 4, not a word was mentioned about the fishermen's protest on August 29 in Victoria harbor, where somewhere between 350 and 500 fishing boats gathered to protest the foreign fleet on the west coast and finally got federal fisheries minister Jack Davis out to listen to these protests aboard the Tanu.
At least he finally made a statement of perhaps a new fishing limit and the promise of five new fish hatcheries, here on the Wesl roast of Canada.
I was hoping to read an account in your paper on these news items, because all of us returning to the fishing grounds could not get d daily newspaper.
I would rather read about what •» going on here in B.C. than to read about a strike in a far off place like- Nova Scotia. Or a Danish fishing strike. Or (rapepir-kf-rs
You must realize that many of us I  ■ •   ■ •   who took part in this
• The Fisherman welcomes letters to the editor but asks only that they be as short as possible, be signed by the writer, and carry the address of the sender. We reserve the right to cut letters to meet space requirements. We will withhold from publication the name of any letter writer upon request. Write often, write topically, but write briefly. •
protest are members of your UFAWU and no doubt receive The Fisherman as well as fishermen from other unions.
This meeting on the Tanu was brought about by a lot of effort on the part of the members of the Pacific Trollers Association, and I believe they should be given due credit for this.
Why just pat yourself on the back?
MRS. MARY STEVENSON Nanaimo, B.C.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Mrs. Stevenson is incorrect when she says "not a word was mentioned" about the sail-in to Victoria in our September 4 issue. If she will look at her copy again, sh*> will find that the editorial columns were devoted to an examination of the demands raised at the sail-in.
Since the sail-in was given full news coverage by every daily paper in trmprovincemd carried on Canadian Press wires across the country, unlike the Nova Scotia fishermen's strike which has been blacked out by B.C. daily papers, we gave the space to the fishermen's demands rather than the sail-in at which they were presented.
We leave our readers to answer Mrs. Stevenson, but we would point out to her that Nova Scotia is a part of Canada and that fishermen there have been faced with the problems created by offshore foreign fishing fleets far longer and on a much larger scale than in British Columbia as yet.
The Nova Scotia trawl fishermen on the picket lines, members of the UFAWU, are fighting for the elementary democratic right to belong to the union of their choice — a right won in practice by British Columbia fishermen before Mrs. Stevenson and the editors of this paper were born. As the wife of a fisherman, Mrs. Stevenson cannot escape the fact that her livelihood is also bound up with the outcome of the struggle in that "far off place."
cers
poration was asking for a meeting to discuss terms of settlement."
Agreement finally was reached after several days of "hard bargaining."
★ ★ *
NFU SPOKESMEN said the support of other unionists played a big role in the victory. By refusing to cross picket lines, the plant workers, members of Retail Wholesale Dairy and General Workers, "helped early in the dispute to bring pressure on the corporation."
Farmers also were encouraged "by the neighborly actions of token delegations of teamsters and textile workers who joined our picket lines." Organized workers at other plants refused to unload trucks which had brought Borden products through the picket line. Letter carriers refused to deliver mail at the struck plant.
NFU president Roy Atkinson congratulated Ontario members for their "initiative, determination and self-discipline." Their actions, he said, underline the "importance of this kind of activity and (will) encourage us to undertake similar projects.
"There will need to be many such actions carried out with equal success in every part of Canada before multinational corporations come to understand that Canadian farmers are not willing to be doormats," Atkinson said.
NFU vice-president Miller said farmers "must be prepared to take comparable action against those agri-business interests who now dictate prices for our corn, beans, vegetables, beef, grains (and other products).
"We have the power. Let's harness it and use it to gain a meaningful place at the bargaining table."
An Ontario NFU publication summed up lessons of the dispute in these words: "The confrontation which began at Ingersoll is a victory not only for Ontario dairy farmers alone but also for all Canadian farmers, no matter what they grow or where they grow it.
"It is proof that farmers who are organized, who have initiative and discipline, can have a direct influence on the policies even of big corporations.
"True, the influence exerted in this instance was limited. But that was to be expected. It was a limited operation. It involved only a small part of the Ontario membership and was begun with a minimum of planning.
"When one considers that the NFU is a nation wide organization and that there are many thousands of farmers still to be brought into it. significance of the action becomes apparent. It was only a beginning. But what a beginning!"
* * * UNITED   FISHERMEN and
Allied Workers president Homer Stevens was a guest speaker at the first Atlantic regional meeting in Amherst, N.S., on September 5.
He expresses the keen appreciation of striking UFAWU trawler fishermen for support received from NFU members this year. Organized farmers in the Maritimes have donated tons of foodstuffs to strikers at Mulgrave, Canso and Petit de Grat.
Stevens said farmers, fishermen and industrial workers have common goals and support each other's struggles, a view also expressed in an address to the meeting by NFU president Atkinson.
Atkinson called on farmers in all areas of the country to build a "powerful cohesive unit."
Fishermen and farmers, he emphasized, must insist on their rights to "bargain, to free assembly and to free speech."
UNION CARTOONS
"So what if he was sent here to hunt Reds. He's ruining our junior choir."
WALTER IRONSIDE
Some Jottings from Chiquita 3 Log
IT'S nice to be back. It was a break to get away for awhile from UFAWU headquarters, or perhaps no one noticed my absence while I was upcoast for three weeks on my first trip aboard the Chiquita 3,
She's quite a boat, the Chi- A quita 3, roomy, m but lacking in J e q u i p m ent. One     would **4 think  he  was $ aboard a Wes-ton seine boat, not the union's flag ship, c o n s i d ering the absence of I radar, echo sounder and refrigerator.
It was mostly the refrigerator that I missed. With Bert Ogden acting as skipper by unanimous consent, I had to settle for the title of chef. But enough of the griping. I've been on worse and the welcome we received at all the ports and camps more than compensated for any discomfort.
First we called at Bella Bella and. of course, at Millbanke Industries, Shearwater, where earlier this season a union agreement was established in the plant. That was good but it should not obscure the fact that Millbanke Industries hasn't signed a tendermen's agreement yet, and thus the Pachena, Sea Mount, Adolfina, Northern Princess and Pacific Reefer did not sail under union agreement.
And this is a good place to point out that the Amboyna and Beatrice, which pack for Norpac, do not have clearance.
On the way upcoast to Bella Bella we met the seiner Jean W in Alert Bay. Skipper Edgar Lan-sdowne, who fishes for Canadian Fish, refused to take union clearance.
At Bella Bella we were overwhelmed with hospitality. We found very little organizational work to be done, for the display of union decals proudly proclaimed it to be a union area. * * * THE WEEKEND OF OUR arrival at Namu coincided with couple of days' layoff at the plant after continuous operation for some time. There being no liquor store in Namu, one of the workers was delegated to fly to Ocean Falls to pick up liquor for the rest. Upon his return, the liquor
Token Penalties
TOKEN penalties of one month's suspension of fishing permits were imposed at Pusan recently on two South Korean vessels which had returned home after fishing Bristol Bay salmon on the high seas in violation of an "understanding" between the Seoul regime and Washington.
Several other units of the high seas fleet had not returned to Soth Korea when the penalties were announced and were said to be operating in other fisheries. U.S. officials estimated in June that the Soul h Korean gillnetters were taking 90 metric tons of Bristol Bay salmon daily.
was confiscated by the RCMP, so it was a dry holiday.
Interesting isn't it, and infuriating, because there is a rarely used law which requires you to buy your own booze; you cannot act as agent for someone else. The law also states that the confiscated liquor is forfeited to the crown. I wonder what the crown will do with all that liquor. Hold a partv at Victoria maybe?
* ★ -*
WHILE WE WERE AT ALERT Bay, several crew members of the seiner San Jose appeared in court charged with having no fishing licences.
The magistrate, a resident of Alert Bay and himself a fisherman of many years' experience (if he's not a union member now, he has certainly been one in the past) imposed a $50 fine on a young Canadian who had only got the job the previous Sunday and who stated in his defence that he had taken a chance because he had no opportunity to get a licence that day and he needed the job badly.
In all equality before the law, he imposed $50 fines each on two non-Canadians who had been aboard the boat all season and on the skipper, a non-citizen who also had fished the boat all season.
* * *
TO   SEINER   CREWS, my
thanks for your cooperation this season. However, I am aware that some of you either are fishing shorthanded or have nonunion men aboard, for a number of regular crewmen have left the industry. So get in touch with me at Fisherman's Hall — there are still some men available.
And you gillnetters who have been missed — there's nothing wrong with dropping into the hall and relieving your conscience. Never forget that a union is its members.
Those of you who choose to avoid responsibility and let the other fellow carry you, would do well to consider that unless we all pull our weight, it's not inconceivable that unionism in the fishing industry as we know it could cease to be if the unending assault against it by the monopolies over the past 20 years should ever succeed.
You only have to look at the truly heroic struggle for the right to belong to a union of their choice — the UFAWU — being conducted by the trawl fishermen in Nova Scotia to realize the lengths to which the monopolies will go in their efforts to deny elementary democratic rights to fishermen.
The monopolies can't succeed in destroying the union on the Pacific coast or denying it on the Atlantic coast so long as we all stand together. But you don't pay $108,000 damage suits nor carry your appeal to higher courts with promissory notes. Meeting the strike pay required to maintain families of men who have been on the picket line for nearly six months takes cash. It means that we all have to dig down — in our own defence.
THE FISHERMAN —- SEPTEMBER 18, 1970