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Canadian Seamen Place Demand

For 8- Hour Day Before Gov't

OTTAWA athe Canadian Seamen’s Union national executive met last week in Ottawa

seainen.

Gt is expected by the union that
tee strike ballot it is currently
conducting will show a big ma-
jority favoring a tie-up of the
Ships uniess the present 84-hour
week is abolished. The executive
meeting under the chairmanship
ef J. A. (Pat) Sullivan, CSU
president and secretary—-treasurer
of the Trades and Labor Con-
eress, made DELDASR NODS for this
eventuality.

Union leaders have met with a
large sroup of MP’s and stressed
the urgency of enacting an eight-
hour day law, if a strike is to_be
prevented. Im response to the
mnion’s request, a number of
MP's expressed readiness to raise

the issue in Commons.

to plan further steps in the union’s campaign for an eight-hour day for lakes and coastal

In the Howse of Commons on'
April 16, Labor Minister Mitchell
Said that the position of the gov-
ernment was that “for the pres-
ent negotiations have not yielded
any result and it is the view of
the department that the concilia-
tion processes of our legislation

should be invoked by the union
or the companies.”

CSU president Sullivan in a
wire to Prime Minister King

Stated that “the shipowners are
conducting a national advertising
campaign in which they have
stated that they will never agree
to a 56-hour week. It is there
fore’ futile to meet them unless
a government representative is
present.” 3 =

Labor Will
Fred Rose

The “trial”

“espionage” hysteria?

“Tf shall work in parliament to safeguard labor’s right
te organize . . . and for a square deal for every veteran for
a Rational minimum wage ... I stand for jobs for all now,

and aiter the war. I am for
clear the slums and replace

iow rentals.”

The above excerpts from the
1943 election platform of Fred
Rose, Labor-Progressive member
for Montreai- Cartier, reveal a
man elected on a labor platform,
and continuing in parliament his
20 years’ Campaign to better the
working and living standards of
Canada’s people.

Who is Fred Rose? By what
right does he claim to represent
labor? How does he differ from
other parliamentary figures?

The answer to these, and other
questions asked about Fred Rose
can be found in a short glance
ever his past history.
WORKING-CLASS PARENTS

Born of working-class Jewish
parents in Lublin, Poland, his
family emigrated to Canada
shortly after his birth. The fam-
ily settled in Cartier Division,
Montreal, where most of the
family, including Hred himself,
still lives.

The insufficiency of the fam-
iiy’s income prevented him from
attending university, and he was
forced to take the first job he
could find after graduating from
high school

Within a few months, Fred
was chosen by his fellow work-
ers as their spokesman in seek-
ing better working conditions and
higher wages. Erom this early
beginning he began to organize
& union in spite of intimidation
and discrimination.

tt was inevitable that. Rose
would realize that trade-unionism,
valuable aS it iS in improving
the workers’ conditions, was in-
Sufficient. He knew that the
workers’ also needed a political
crganization to fight for their
interests. He discovered such an
ereanization in the Young Com-
munist League, and later in the
Communist Party itself.

We seized the opportunity pre
sented to him in 1930 of visiting
the Soviet Union as a represen-
tative of his fellow workers. After
several months there, studying
at first hand the life of the
workers under socialism, he re-
turned to Canada conyinced that
im socialism lay a new life, the
answer to the major problems
facing the modern ‘world.

The Canada to which Fred
Rose returned was enduring the
first agonies of depression. Fac-
tories were closing, tens of thous-
adns lived in hunger and misery
and millions lived in daily in ex-
pectation of unemployment. This

Defence

of Fred Rose,
charged under the Official Secrets Act, opens on May 20th.
He has been refused a stay of proceedings te prepare his
defence which opens May 20th,
D. N. Prtt, K.C. and Bntish Member of Parliament, the
time and facilities necessary for defence preparations.
Who is this man whom reaction is in such a desperate
haste to railroad to prison behind the smokescreen of an

contrasted glaringly with the land
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3

Back

M.P. for Montreal-Cartier,

or to allow his council,

a housing program that will
them with decent homes at

of socialism he had just left,
where the energies of everyone
were turned to building and
strengthening their country.

WENT TO PRISON

Returning ‘to the fight for eco-
nomic democracy in Canada, he

was awarded by nine months’
imprisonment for his organiza-
tional work among the unem-
ployed.

FRED ROSE BP.

Following his release, he de-
voted himself to the fight against
the forces of fascism, newly tri-
umphant in Germany and becom-
ing active in Canada.

We called for an anti-fascist
alliance with .the Soviet Union,
at a time when the capitalist
powers were rushing headlong to-
ward war. When this policy even-
tually found expression in the
Munich agreement of 1938, Pred
Rose described it as the prelude

to war.
Two pamphiets in particular,
Fascism Over Canada published

in 1938, and Hitler’s Fifth Column
in Quebec, published in 1942, ex-
posed the menace of fascism in
Canada. Under the protective
eamouflage of anti-Semitism and
red-baiting, these fascist forces,
he said, worked openly for a war
with the Soviet Union, and when
the war switched to one against
fascism, they undermined and
sabotaged the war effort

Wis election to parliament cli-

maxed years of struggle against

He urged that the government
call a meeting of the shipowners
and the union executive in Ot-
tawa to negotiate “the 56-hour
week to replace the 84-hour week
which has no place in our econ-
omy.”

Two More Unions
Taking Action

@Qn two mere sectors of
British Columbia’s seething
industrial front, where atten-
tion is already centered on
the struggle in the lumber
industry, workers were pre-
paring action this week to
win their demands.

In Nanaimo and Cumberland,
members of the United Mine
Workers locals, smarting under
the injustice of their exclusion
from the provincial government’s
recent 44hour week legislation,
were taking a “holiday” Wednes-
day to discuss what further ac-
tion they should take to point
their protest

The miners have been informed

that the coal mining industry will,

continue to operate under the 56-
hour week called for by the Coal
Mines Regulation Act which has
long been assailed by the union.

Union leaders point out that if
the coal mining industry is to be
exempted from the provisions of
the new legislation it sets a dang-
erous precedent of which employ-
ers in other industries may seek
to take advantage.

Im Vancouver, some 500 molid-
ers and pattermmakers in 20
plants organized into Local 289,
Mine, Mill and Smelter Work
ers, will strike Hriday for de-
mands including a 25 cents an -
hour wage HOPED SS and hie

40-hour week.

it is expected that steel and

packinghouse workers, both CCL
and AFI, directly affected by.
the strike, will support the mold-
ers and patternmakers.

Fishermen Open
Price Negotiations

VANCOUVER, May i4.— First
negotiating meeting of the 1946
season between the Salmon Can-
ners’ Qperating Committee and
the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers’ Union opened this past
week.

The union representatives urged
the conclusion of all agreements
Sy June 1 well ahead of the
sockeye run. The union is asking
for a $10 per thousand pounds

of fish increase for tendermen,
and a i cent increase on all
species of fish. Price increases

affecting all classes of gear re-
quired by fishermen, to say noth-
ing of living costs, make it im-
perative that the fishermen re-
ceive higher prices for their
catch. :

Profits of the big fish packers
indicate that they can well aft
ford to meet the union’s demands
without any increase in- price to
the consumers. At the time of
writing the operators had no pro-
posals to make other than the

request that “the union recon-
sider its price demands.” Early
negotiations are urged by the

union in order to avoid endan-
gering the 1946 season’s catch, an
important factor in Canada’s
domestic and export food market.

reaction in Canada and abroad.
Time and again Ered Rose has
taken the floor in the House of
Commons. During the war he
pleaded for government action
even before the second front in
Europe ensured a United Nations
victory. More recently he has
called for a comprehensive recon-
version program capable of con-
verting: Canada’s industry to
peacetime uses and at the same
time maintaining a high level of
employment.

| delegate,

Labor Counal Backs

Lumber Workers’ Strike

Growing determination to carry forward labor’s battle

for increased wages,

union secruity,

checkoii and adjust-

ment ef working conditions was evidenced this week as dele-
gates to the Vancouver Labor Council endorsed the pending

Strike of foundry workers

Delegate John FErame, Metal
and Chemical Workers 289, re-
perting for his union, stated that
members had gone on record 91
percent in favor of strike action
and that Tocal 289 will go out

in all Vancouver plants, this Fri-

day, at 10 a.m.

Bill White, Marine Workers and
Boilermakers Industrial Union
announced that author-
ization to conduct a strike vote in
the shipyards and plants under its
jurisdiction had been received

and members of the Marine
Werkers would vote on May 21-22.

A spokesman for the Amalga-
mated Building Workers urged
all affiliates of the Council to
line up solidly behind the Wood-
workers in their strike, and ap-
pealed for representation from
all unions on loggers’ picket lines.
A further- suggestion from the
Packinghouse Workers called .for
one dollar weekly donations from
all workers in industry in sup-
port of labor’s fighting fund.

Other business heard in one of
the shortest meetings on Labor
Council record included:

@ A letter from Alderman R.
K. Gervin regretting his inability
to support labor’s protest at in-
erease in WVancouver’s mill rate.
Gervin stated that while he
recognized that some hardship

in the International Union of
Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers.

would be felt by taxpayers, the
higher rate was the only means
that would assure ready finance
to enable the City to repair Van-
ecouver’s deplorable roads and
sidewalks.

@ Announced support by the
Newspaper Guild Local No. 1 of
the B.C. Federation of Labor ex-
ecutive on the question of 44
hour week legislation dispute,
questioned by a CCE-inspired fac-
tion of the Council at a recent
meeting.

@ Announcement by Marine
Workers Delegate Bill White of
approval by the Regional War
Labor Board of $1.22%% wage rate
for field workers under jurisdic-
tion of his union, .with ninety-
eent rate for laborers, overtime,
40-hour week, travelling time and
room and board.

@ Acceptance with thanks of-
fer of Pacific Tribune, extending
radio facilities to Labor Council

@ Demand that War Assets
Corporation be compelled to pub-
licly declare sale, prices and buy-
ers of all public property disposed
of as surplus material. Resolu-
tion was submitted by the Marine
Workers Industrial Union charg-
ed mismanagement of sale of
Surplus material and forcing of
veterans to buy through retailers
at inflated prices.

King Government Recedes
On Security Promises

REGINA. The

-breakdown of

the Dominion-

Provincial conference is a heavy blow to the hopes for post-

whole nation. :

Premiers Drew of Ontario and
Duplessis of Quebec of Quebec,
speaking for the great monopo-
lists of this country, were the
chief obstacles to the success of
the conference. At the same time,
the recent sessions of the con-
ference also indicated that the
determination of the eKing gov-
ernment to carry out its prom-
ises of expanding social and
health services is fast waning
away in the face of big business
pressure, just as its determin-
ation to maintain price ceilings is
also waning away.

Nor can it be said that the
government of this province has
done everything possible to in-
form and arouse public opinion
as to the issues at stake and
their significance /in terms of dol-
lars and cents to the people of
this province. Premier Douglas
and his supporters should have
been in the very forefront of the
campaign to expose Drew and
Duplessis as the enemies of na-

‘war Progress held by the people of Saskatchewan and of the

tional unity and post-war pro-
BLESS:

Street Car System
Purchase Pushed
WINNIPEG. — Alderman Jacob

Penner, speaking on behalf of the
special committee on street rail-
way transportation matters, has
offered W. H. Carter, president of
the Winnipeg Electric Company,
$47,000;000 for an outright pur-
chase of the tramway system. The
offer draws to a final showdown
the dragging battle for a modern,
city-owned, and cheaper street rail-
way system. Despite attempts by
Alderman Simonite, the main vecal

chord of big business in council)

to impute guess-work to Ald. Pen-
ner’s proposed purchase offer prior
to the arrival of Carter at the
committee, the price was based
upon the companys own figures.

“Signed, Sealed and Delivered;” The

signing of the Soviet-

Iranian pact effectively blocked one of the Brynes-Bevin

anti-Soviet provocations.

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1946
Ly