Carrying their equipment, American soldiers march through liberated Anzio on their way
_to reinforce Allied troops who made the surprise landing south of Rome.

Sitdown Wins Seamen’s Demands

‘Windjammer Days’ Still
Prevail On Canadian Ships

By MARY PICKERING

When Canadian seamen aboard a Park Steamship Lines ship staged a sitdown this week
in protest over living conditions aboard ship and Were immediately rounded up by a Naval
Patrol guard and threatened with a Naval Court of Inquiry and imprisonment in Oakalla,
the incident brought into the open once more a condition prevailing on ships of the Ca-
nadian merchant marine that hails back to the days of the old windjammers.

The protest ‘strike, supported
by the Deepsea and Inland Boat-
men’s Union, to which the sea-
men belong, and strongly backed
by the CCL Vancouver Labor
Couneil at its regular Tuesday
night meeting, won a satisfactory
settlement. The company agreed
to instal steam percolators, ex-
tend hot water piping from the
officers’ quarters to the crew’s
quarters and put in gravity tanks

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to replace tedious hand pumping.
This would be done, they assured
a Gelegation from the DIBU and
the Labor Council, on four ships
operated by the line as soon as
they put into port.
e@ Se Se

That such action by the crew
Was necessary in order to secure
even a minimum of the conven-

‘ iences accepted as obligatory on

U.S. merchant marine ships indi-
cates in some measure the work-
ing and living conditions facing
tke men who man Canadian ships
over the dangerous conyoy routes
which lead to the war zones.
Conditions on Canadian deep-
sea ships are as out of date as
naval legal procedure. Crews

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quarters are cramped and poorly
ventilated. Food is cheap, coarse,
seldom includes fresh fruit.

The captain is an absolute dic-
tator, aligns himself with the
company, and often uses his
authority to deny the crew de-
cent human demands. Cases were
reported to the union last sum-
mer of steam percolators being
removed from the crews’ quart-
ers to be used for warming of
ficers’ shaving water.

“You talk about slums,’ says
“Digger” Smith, union business
agent, “well, the seamen have
been living in slums for years.
Some of these Captain Blighs
are the ones who should be put
in the penitentiary. In this war,
men who brave the dangers of
enemy and sea do not need to be
coerced by a cordon of guns.”

Labor legislation for seamen
also belongs to the days of the
sailing ships. Workmen’s Com-
pensation does not apply to men
en board ship. If a sailor is in-
jured or falls sick, he is put
ashore at the nearest port, siven
free hospitalization, and Ileft
there. Canadian seamen may be
left in Australia. Men on ships
lost at sea by enemy action are
non-wage earners from the time
the ship sinks. oss of Kit is
inadequately compensated for.

Organization of seamen has
been retarded by federal labor
policy. Park Steamships is a
crown company. Yet up to just
recently union officials were not
allowed aboard ship when in
port. The National War Labor
Board stalled for 13 months on a
brief from the union requesting
a basie $15 wage increase plus
full cost of living bonus.

“The men get less dodging subs
than they get while staying in
tie Manning Pool,” states Smith.

Yet in spite of these handicaps,
organization of seamen into the

Deepsea and Inland Boatmen’s ~

Union is proceeding at a rapid
pace. The union already has a
big majority of members aboard
the Park line ships. And the
members are determined that as
the union progresses, conditions
will be transformed and the Ca-
nadian merchant marie brought
up to the level prevailing on
ships of other leading seafaring
nations,

. taxes on the profits of the BCER alone.

UT

This Week in the tous

By BRUCE MICKLEBURGH

HT

HE situation at Victoria is not unlike that at Ottawa. The coalii
T government of Premier John Hart. like the Liberal governmeni
Prime Minister Mackenzie King, is submitting proposals designed
meet tremendous postwar problems and utilize postwar opportunit
And, as with the reconstruction plans of the King government, So
strength of the labor movement and of the Beonie generally will k
to be mobilized behind the Hart government's proposals to shape tt
and give them reality. For there are also other reactionary influen
Gt ee caemnann ina woysemmans See)

. Maitland, and w :
forney Ge thn narrow, inadeauate limits.

the throne speech has now been proceeding fo
ae ae ala Winch, as leader of the opposition, had outlij

at work, within th

eee ae Premier Hart filled in the details of the governme;
plans of which only a general outline was given in the speech ff
the throne.

i cetly estimated the magnitude of the problem, ever
Se “counier_proposals were couched in such nebulous tei
as to mean anything or nothing. He pointed out that half of Brit
Columbia’s 70,000 enlisted men had no promise of employment
their return and that there are 100,000 persons engaged in war.
dustry, directly or indirectly, making a total of 135,000 for wh
jobs would have to be found. -

Increases in the payrolls of basic and manufacturing indust
since 1938, he said, had been largely based on war economy. The
crease in provincial revenues was geared directly to the imerease
the value of production throughout the province. Consequently, if
present high production levels could not be maintained, the 7
vision of social security would become a staggering load. The mz
task was to concentrate on providing full employment at good 7

, of course, this is the yardstick by (which the people 1
aaa the achievements of the present session of the legislah

There is substantial agreement among members of all parties
the problems to be faced, althoug® unfortunately, not the same agi
ment on the measures for meeting these problems.

GREAT deal of time is wasted bandying the word “Sociali

backwards and forwards across the floor of the House. The C
members, particularly Harold Winch, have advanced proposals {
cannot by any stretch of the imagination, except perhaps their G
be termed socialist. But by their insistence that the main issue-
tween them and the coalition is the question of maintaining or abol
ing the system of private enterprise, they have given every coalil
member who has spoken an opportunity to divert the discussion a
from the urgent immediate issues.

Thomas King (Coalition Liberal, Columbia) made CCF eyes
when he said that the “CCF wants socialism as in Russia.” In f
eyes popped all round when he said, “We may have slave-dris
here but at least we have the privilege of changing one slave-dr
for another.’ Amid a barrage of interruptions from Sam Gut
(CCF, Cowichan-Newcastle) and Tom Uphill (Labor, Fernie), he
tinued: “You may have housing and health insurance and lots
frills in Russia but just the same you're just like a pig in a poke.

“How about Joe Stalin, ain't he doing all right?” asked Tom
hill as King hastily scrambled onto safer ground.

There is a world of difference in the approach te the quest
under debate taken by W. H. Herridge (CCF, Rossland,Trail),
shows an understanding of changed relations both on the nati
and international scene and the needs arising from them, and ¢
Lien Shepherd (CCF, Delta), and ether CCF members like Vin”
Segur, the new member for Revelstoke, who show no understanr
at all. It was Segur who told the House that the system of pri
enterprise was finished and predicted only another terrible der
sion unless the “socialism” of the CCF were adopted. And ~
Dorothy Steeves (CCF, North Vancouver) has still to speak.

Or government supporter after another has risen to support pU_
ownership of utilities. Premier Hart, in particular, annowi |
that after a great deal of consideration he had reached the §
clusion that it was in the best interest of the development of ~
province for the people to control the entire hydro-electric pc
and light facilities now in operation. 4

The reason for the government’s change of heart is obvi
British Columbia’s industries, many of them new and struggling, —
face intense competition in the postwar veriod from the indus:
in, say, Ontario, where the Hydro-Blectric Commission, institutec
a Tory government thirty years ago, provides light and powe
industry. British Columbia’s industries and people pay not only
the light and power they get: they also pay the profits of the Bi
and its subsidiary companies, as well as $5,500,000 annually in fec
When the government
into the power business, that is just one way of priming indust

The municipalities are conferring on just what they want tc
about taking over the B.C. Electric and the decision will be taken
ing this session. The BCER has many friends in high places ar |
striving to make a killing at the expense of the public. Aiready W. 2
Bennett (Coalition Conservative, South Okanagan), is pressir
scheme whereby the BCER would be bought out on the basis o
average investment share value over the last two years, an evi
tion which would obviously leave out of all consideration the fact
BCER has deteriorated enormously in value. (‘Our streetcar sy
is junk—absolute junk.” Mayor Andrew McGavin of Victoria decl
at the meeting in Vancouver this week of representatives of 29 n
eipalities who yoted unanimously for the principle of taking ovei
rights and assets of the B.C. Electric.) This scheme would er
BCER shareholders to take more from the province than they or |
ally invested in the company. after having drawn dividends for 1
years. 4

if such schemes are to be defeated and the government's prop |
carried through on the basis of the people’s and not the counel

interests the trade unions and other popular organizations will %
to make their influence felt here at Victoria.