Vancouver by-passed! ee Ris ONL ETED FINANCES ERNIE WALKER | United action on picket eed labor action won another oo ictory this week when DES: i" pe ansport Ltd, at Hastings 4h I ymuir in Vancouver agreed ce 62 an agreement with the Mster’s Union on Monday i failing in an attempt to 4k the union Saturday with the SUpport ; of cit olice and in- “ctions, pee ee dispute arose over the fir- Te of employees, which the Mster’s Union claimed was ie activities, About 30 Dec. refused to cross a by th line and many-were fired © Company, Last Week the courts granted Company three injunctions “ining pickets at the com- YS terminal, The injunctions €d all the men fired and also °wn persons, Test 7 ca, Saturday the picket line was . en Over by members of other ees backed by many women, © numbers of police con- ated and warned the pickets i disperse while huge trucks to break through the picket fre t § _ Cont'd from page | trade unions regarding their autonomy, Th Neht Iron © resolutions committee and Wing leadership sought to the above three specifics +: Mere] ngP the action down’ to Out a Y “investigation and study” . Stream of delegates hit the be ;, Phones to demand the points Reluded and fought for. me Committee stand was beat- Ad Overwhelmingly and dele~ ty , Teferred the question back ting , Committee with instruc- © include the three points. gy: uring the stormy debate Russ Ply business agent for the ig, .°'S, accused the Commun- Ore, 2 tY and its provincial or- in hizer Charles Caron of try- at break the plumbers?’ strike this pera Dry Dock earlier ar line, The picket line held and many arrests followed, B,C, Federation of Labor sec- retary Pat O’Neal condemned the action of the police and charged they exceeded their responsi- bility in attempting to break the picket line, He called for an in- vestigation of the police action, Hailing the victory, Ed, Law- son, president of the Teamster’s Joint Council, told the Pacific Tribune that this victory “could not have been achieved without extensive support from many unions including the Britannia miners, fishermen, machinists, oil workers and others whocame forward,” The agreement signed by the union with the company provides that all employees fired will be reinstated and that the company recognizes the Teamster’s Union as the official bargaining agent on behalf of all employees in Cana- da, which total 120, The agreement also provides that the company will accept the B.c. Fed calls for Sreater unity in ’65 Caron told the P.T. that *Bro- ther St, Eloi’s charge of Com- munist strike breaking is the usual red herring to cover up his bankrupt policy in this year’s negotiations. *On the one nand, he was the first to advocate the five year, long term contract, thereby by- passing many problems facing the labor movement. On the other, in.the case of the shipyard ne- gotiations, he tried to cover up by breaking the pattern of joint negotiations and joint settle- ments, by keeping the plumbers ‘out on strike for an additional 10 cents an hour, thus keeping the rest of the workers out. «This, in our opinion, is most irresponsible and we will not remain silent on questions ofthis nature.” The P.T. will carry more news on the convention next week. line wins Teamster fight Standard Teamster’s Agreement in each area in Canada, Lawson also informed the PT that the company agreed that all pending litigations against the union will be withdrawn, The em- ployer and union will enter a joint plea to the courts for withdrawal of charges and failing that, they will appeal for minimum penal- ties, * * x During the dispute a leaflet by a group calling itself the Pro- gressive Workers Movement was distributed which adopted a “super-left” position which played into the hands. of those seeking to find excuses toimpose compulsory arbitration on unions, Yet another labor victory was registered this week with the successful conclusion of the six week old strike of Local 5, Pulp & Paper Workers of Canada, at the CIL plant on Anacis Is, Under terms of the settlement worked out last weekend, the workers will receive wage in- creases ranging from 17 to 39 cents an hour over a 19 month period, Women’s wages, which were $1.79 an hour, will go to $1.89 immediately and to $1.96 on May 1, 1965, Greater freedom for shop stewards and establishment of seniority rights are also results of the militant strike, In addition, 65 percent of the workers will get three week vacations after five years of service, Orville Braaten, the union’s business agent, told the PT: “All in all, the agreement rep- resents quite a package, Besides the gains outlined, any charges against us arising out of the strike action have been dropped, This was part of the settlement,” Braaten also thanked organ- ized labor for its support, point- ing out that victory would have been impossible without the real help and solidarity shown by many individual unions, LABOR IN CIVIC POLITICS URGED Municipal taxpayers must have “United action to win civic re- form and relief from municipal tax loads” was the theme of a meeting of the B,C, Provincial Committee of the Communist Party held in Vancouver last weekend, Aim of the meeting was to de- fine policy of the Communist Party as a provincial organiza- tion towards municipal problems which form an increasingly im- portant and sensitive area of provincial and federal politics, Among recommendations ad- vanced by the meeting were: * A tax policy based on ability to pay, with elimination of all present exemptions on improve- ments other than homes; intro- duction of a graduated business tax to make big business pay without harming small business; restoration of the right of muni- cipalities to tax machinery for “cveneral purposes,” as is now done for schools, * Introduction of a capital gains ‘tax and diversion of expenditures for military to meet the rising costs of education, and provide increased senior government grants for health, welfare, hous- ing and expanding traffic require- ments, * Insistence that Ottawa allow homeowner taxes as an exemp- tion for income tax purposes (already allowed to apartment owners and business), * Exemption of municipal and school board requirements from sales tax, * Provision of low-cost, rapid transit with improved service and free passes for pensioners, as the only alternative to ex- new deal tremely costly expressway and parking facilities in Greater Van- couver and Victoria, * Reintroduction of the ward system of representation, and democratic amalgamation of municipalities where necessary to efficiency and economy, com- mencing with merger of services with assumption of increased financial responsibility by the provincial government to remove fears of higher taxation on homes, * Expansion of the public sector of the economy and development of concrete, forward - looking plans for development of indus- try, better land-use and improved port, transportation and recrea- tional facilities, Introducing the discussion, Nigel Morgan, B,C, leader of the Communist Party, called for in- creased labor and progressive participation in municipal elec- tions, “Labor representation has not been at a lower level in the municipal and school boards of B.C, for some years,” he re- ported, “What is needed is a broad, democratic alternative to break the stranglehold of big business on local government and relieve homes and small businesses from the present staggering load of taxation,” Morgan declared, “The main obstacle to needed civic tax reforms are the big corporate interests, Increased labor, ratepayer and progressive participation, united around a democratic, anti-monopoly pro- gram is what’s required, To this aim the Communist Party in each municipality must strive to make its maximum contribution in preparation for the forthcoming December elections,” GET INTO CIVIC POLITICS, LABOR FED TELLS UNIONS Britannia Mine & Mill Striking miners. need support Local 663 of Mine Mill, on strike at the Anaconda opera- tion at Britannia Beach, have called for all out labor sup- port to win that strike, The mine is closed because of the strike and not because the company wants to close it, the union says, It asks for dona- tions to be mailed fd the union’s Vancouver office or: Workers Union, Local 663, P.O, Box 92, Britannia Beach, B,C, This week’s convention of the B.C, Federation of Labor has strongly urged more labor par- ticipation in municipal politics and called for election of labor representatives, The call was contained in a report to the meet by the Munici- pal Affairs Committee which called on trade unionists to “make themselves available for election to local school boards” and to “interest themselves in civic and municipal politics either as can- didates or active workers and voters,”