pie Nazi caption on this photo, which comes from Lisbon,
I rtugal, Says it was taken in an “upper Italian town,”
ere a German police unit was attacked by a group of
tisans who took possession of the town and beseiged

§ Nazis for ten days.

all Restored To
‘on Organization

ie Finnish Hall, situated at 2605 East Pender, has been
aed to the Finnish Organization, it is announced. The
mseized under Defense of Canada regulations four years
aad been occupied by Forst’s Furniture Company.
ite building is in such a state of disrepair that it is not
in how long it will be before it can be reopened. The
has to be fixed, the fire escape repaired and many of
i —— _ the windows are broken. Repair
= a werk is further complicated by
,oliermakers 2 shortage of labor.

Hall | Im addition, theatrical cos-
tumes brought from Finland and
estimated to be worth several
thousand dollars are missing.

339 W. Pender
“ERY WED. & SAT.

)ANCING

ole Hodson’s Orchestra
@ PAc. 4825 for Rentals

Union House Jd. Mirras, Mgr.

REX CAFE

Meet Your Friends at the
Where All Union People Eat
Home of Tasty Meals
6 EAST HASTINGS STREET

9
HAst. 0340 766 E. Hastings

Hastings Steam Baths
~ Vancouver, B.C.

Always Open. Expert Masseurs
in Attendance >

8 a.m. to 11 p.m.—40c and 50c

cod

istings Bakery
= 16 EAST HASTINGS
_ HAst. 3244

(our Baker bake it for you!
| Purity — Quality

Je

oye <i ei —— fe fi me

\ NE IN the Weekly Labor Newscast —

| “GREEN GOLD”

= Station CJIOR -

600 Kilocyeles

livery WEDNESDAY — 6:45 p.m.

‘with NIGEL MORGAN as Your Reporter
j
4 Sponsored by the :
international Woodworkers of America (CIO)

Cc |

Di

ispute

ith Uni

BURNABY, B.C. — Burnaby
Civie Employees’? Union has is-
sued an ultimatum Warning Bur-
naby Municipal Couneil that ar-
bitration proceedings will be ini-
tiated unless union demands are
met. _ These consist of a com-
promise recommendation of the

personne] committee for a cost-
ofliving bonus of $8 a month

SAS;

and a five-day week for outside

employees.

Charging that council had not
Played fair in dlaying a -settle-
ment, a union delegation inter-
Tupted the council meeting this
week to serve its ultimatum, was
previously approved at a general
union meeting.

Councillors W. R. Beamish
(CCF), and Harry Ball (LPP),
both supported the union’s
Charge that council had broken
faith, But Councillor vV-~ Lewis
insisted shorter Working hours
were wot justified in wartime.

The union had first requested
a bonus of $19.92 a month as au-
thorized by the Dominion bonus
index. The present bonus is
$6.50.

William Black, president of the
B.C. Joint Council of Public Em-

‘ployees, told the council that the

union had been more patient
than with other councils.

“We have complied with the
labor laws and will resort to
other measures if we can not get
a definite decision from this
council,” he said.

Council will hold a special
meeting this Monday to consider
the ultimatum, Reeve Willson
Said.

Proposal for extension of the
Neville Bus- Line has been turn-
ed down by the Public Utilities
Commission, it was learned. The
new line would have provided
needed north-south transporta-
tion across the sprawling munici-
Pality.

War workers at present are
forced to spend Jong hours in
unnecessary travel, as they are
obliged to travel in a circle
through Vancouver to go across
the municipality.

Drive Winners
Announced

Holders of winning tickets an-
nounced at The People’s Press
Drive dance last week were:

First prize, Mary <A. Smith,

3060 Uplands, Victoria, No. 9231. ~

Second prize, H. Sievers, 917
Main Street, No. 8558.

Third prize, A. Campion, 176
Powell Street, No. 10367.

Fourth prize, Phyllis Toombs,
2017 West 5th Street, No. 4753.

Other prize winners were. I.
Morris, 982: West 9th Avenue, No.
14888: Mary Parier, 3906 West
s3rd Avenue, No. 4148; Johnar
Holiti, 649 Howkes Street, No.
42911; N. Krywoch, Patricia Ho-
tel, No. 10364; Mrs. H. McCor-
mack, 815 SE Marine Drive, No.
1839; W. J. Restell, 2307 Blan-
chard Street, Victoria, No. 9166.

e

HOME of

UNION MADE
CLOTHING

and

Established Over 40 Years
45 East Hastings — Vancouver

Labor Personalities—No. 36

Bert Melsness

“By CYNTHIA CARTER

pee men from the stockroom sat together in their accustomed
place near Plywoods gate, eating their lunch. Bert Melsness

watched the man next to him eating his bread and jam with-

out enthusiasm and wished the kid outside the gate would stop
singing that songs. It was a good song, he guessed, for a kid
who had come hopelessly to wait outside the plant gate every
morning since last Tuesday, along with a hundred Gthers, to
see if Plywoods was “taking on.” But in 1937, when the old
story about prosperity being around the next corner was get-

ting worn in the middle (like the baby’s shoes), a song like -

that did things to you.

“Once | built a railroad,
made it run. Made it race
against time. Once | built a
railroad, now it’s done,”
sang the kid at the gate.
“Brother, can you spare a
dime?”

Tf only times were dit-
ferent, thought Bert. Now
that the union had come to
the plant you might be ,able
to do something if you didn’t
have to fight the fear of be-
coming part of the crowd at
the gate. But you couldn't
step trying, of course. You
just had to hope you could
convince enough people that
Security didn’t begin with
backing down, that you had
to fight for your rights ._ .
and do it without too many.
people getting hurt . .

“Say, don’t you remem-
ber, they called me AI? It
was Al all the time,” sang
the kid.

_ say, don’t you remember? [’m your pal! Brother, can you
spare a dime?” :

That, however, was during the latter days of the depression
when, for a time, Bert was the only paid-up union member in
B.C. Plywoods. But the union was to grow into the powerful
IWA Local 1-217. The IWA district was to develop from an
organization with no signed agreements in the logging industry
and a total membership of 1,000, to an organization with 83
Signed contracts covering 15,000 employees throughout the
province.

Visiting Plywoods recently, Melsness saw at his old job a
Woman worker, fully protected by the union he helped to
build. She is paid at a rate of 72 cents an hour.

In 1937, Bert—in daily fear of losing his job for “talking
union”’—was pulling down 25e¢ an hour.

“The benefits of organization,’ he grinned as he told me,
“are obvious!”

[BS BEST EIOED JEROME MELSNESS was born of American-

Norwegian parents in Grand Prairie, Alberta, in August,
1915. The family lived in aA Scandinavian community, where
Bert attended grade and high school. When Bert finished his
education he started work in his father’s little store. It was
at this time that he began to realize that something was defin-
itely wrong somewhere with a system that left the very people
who spent their lives in an effort to raise food for the nation
hungry themselves. After two years of transient farm work
Bert left the prairies to look for a job in Vancouver and was
hired by B.C. Plywoods gluing department.

He joined the TWA-in 1937. when the first attempts to or-
ganize were made. In 1938 he was elected financial secretary of
the local. In the spring of 1942 he was chosen president. And
exactly one week later he was fired. At the Same time. the
equivalent of an entire shift of union sympathizers were let
out. But organization went on regardless. Melsness has re
mained president of Local 1-217 ever since and has in addition
taken on two other important responsibilities. In January, 1943,
he was elected secretary of IWA District Council No. 1, cover-
ing the whole of British Columbia’s sawmill and plywoods in-
dustry. And over the past two years he has been gradually.
assuming more responsibility in the editing of the B.C. Lumber
Worker, of which he is now editor. Bert is also a member of
the South Vancouver branch of the Labor-Progressive Party.

@

As editor of the union’s official organ, Melsness is in con-

‘stant contact with the men in the camps, through the medium

of their letters to the paper. And in his Opinion, union members
are very greatly interested in the future of their industry. Led
by intelligent discussion in their local meetings they have many
suggestions to offer fer the formulating of a plan to preserve
the industry for British Columbia. os

“The preservation of our forests is an important responsibil-
ity,’ declares Melsness. “Forests are directly related to reten-
tion of water power resources and the spawning -grounds of
salmon streams. We ask that action be taken to investigate and
experiment in methods of managing forest lands and in finding
practical means of getting more use from forest products, par=
ticularly in the plastics field. ;

“And with this must come the seeding and planting of de-
nuded thousands of acres of forest land. There must be greater
cooperation between government departments, private owners
and the union to expand the forest planting program. B.C.
needs her lumbering industry. We must provide for its future
now.”