Truman Breaks U,S. Rail Strike
“Slave Labor Under Fascism’

The U.S. railroad strike of 250,000 locomotive engineers and trainmen is ended. Of

40-hours duration the railroad strike constituted the

transportation. For 40 hours

A great percentage of the
1,200,000 members of the eighteen
railway brotherhoods were direct-
ly involved in the trainmen and
engineers’ strike action.

U.S. President Truman issued
an ultimatum to the striking rail-
way bretherhoods on May 24th,
either return to work on a time
deadline or the armed forces of
the U-S. would take over opera-
tion of the U.S. rail systems.
-Truman, in typical strike-break-
ing tactics, appealed to the rail-
way brotherhood’s rank and file
‘over the heads of their leaders.

The following day the unions,
under the ominous threats of
Truman's speech, called off the
strike. Im-reply to a question as
to whether they would now ac-
‘cept the, president’s 18%2c per
hour increase, an official of one

ef the striking unions declared:

“well have to take it—or get a
bayonet in our ribs.”

Meanwhile Congress, at the
request of the President, will
“railroad” through 2 Bill, outlaw-
ing all strikes against the U.S.
government The . general “get-
tough” attitude of the U.S. ad-
ministration to the engineers’ and
trainmen brotherhood is an indi-
Cater of similar policies all down
the line on labor issues.

Comprising the most conserva-
tive section of the trade union
movement, the railroad brother-
hood’s action is symptomatic of
the widespread dissatisfaction in
‘workingclass ranks against reac-
tionary government policies. Dur-
ing the war years passenger and
freight traffic doubled and trebled
the profits of the rail companies.
While employee per-ton per-mile
preduction increased by 300 per-
eent, wages rose less than an

greatest tie-up in the history of U.S.

"337 -Strikebound rail systems were completely at a standstill.

overall 12 percent. -

Truman’s Friday night speech
and the “get tough with labor”
policy it indicated, is already
meeting with sweeping opposition.
President A. E. Whitney of the
brotherhood of trainmen charac-

SENATOR CLAUDE PEPPER
(Dem. Florida)

“. . . labor will not stand to have
its rights destroyed; you can’t
Strangle the American working-
mam... if the work of rail-
reading is so important to our
economy we have no right to ex-
pect the workers to subsidize the
industry with their labor and

peor working conditions.”

Strike Front Solid
In Island Centres

By AL DEWHURST

As I write this the greatest strike in the history of
British Columbia is entering its thirteenth day. The strike is
a demonstration of the determination of the woodworkers of

_ this province to win a better life for all.

The strike is an expression of
the solidarity of the workers of
the lumber industry behind their
union, the great International
Woodworkers of America. .

There “are
Boome, chief
among whom is &
the notorious
ihord Haw Haw
of the Stuart Re-
s€arch, who have
Stated that, the
Lumber Workers

-Came out on
strike very re- {
Tuctantly. ir.

Stuart of the Re-
search even went
80 far as to state
just three days
before the strike, thet he felt that
90 per cent of the workers would
refuse to answer the strike call.
Well, on May 15th at ii a.m. these
gentlemen were answered. There
can be no doubt of the unanimity
of the vote cast by the lumber
jacks on that day, for some
37,000 workers laid down their tools
on the appointed hour- To appre-
ciate the magnitude of this won-
derful job of organizatios, one must
have some knowledge of the scat-
tered nature of the industry, Lum-
berworkers are not concentrated in
one or two centres but are scat-
tered all over the province, work-
ing in hundreds of ppere ron? om
1oyi anywhere from ve m
x Peet naieana men. But, despite
the fact that thousands of the
workers ‘were isolated from one
another, with no way of knowing
what their fellow-workers were
doing, 37,000 woodworkers struck
2s one man.

On May 15th IE was in Port Al-
berni, the big west coast milltown,
the home of the big lumber baronsp
McMillan and Blogdel. At 11 a.m.

those big milis were shut down
for the first time in their history,
by the workers, who streamed out
of the gates in their hundreds.
Pickets were immediately. organ-
ized and a line thrown around the
plants. In short order the phone in
the office began to ring, it was the
reports coming in from the camps.
Sproat Lake reported the walkout
100 percent effective, then APL
camp i, then Franklin River and
SO on right down the line. The
"huge plywood factory, employing
70 per cent women, closed down
tight with the girls manning the
picket lines. This, in a town, that
only four years ago was a closed
company town and is now a2 strong-
hold of the TWA-CIO. Where was
Mr. Stuart’s reluctance on the
part of the workers! :

Port Alberni is probably the
best strike town in the province,
perhaps this is because the entire
economy is determined by lumber.
There the strikers are well organ-
ized, picket-lines are strong and
are manned night and day and all
committees are functioning well.
A strike cafeteria, run by the Wo-
men’s Auxiliary, is estabilshed in
the basement of the Eric Graf
Hall, where a striker can purchase
a, first-class meal for 25c. By the
way, the Eric Graf Hall, is union-
owned and is named after a grand
old pioneer in the struggle to or-
ganize the lumberworkers ‘of B.C.,
what a monument the workers of
Port Alberni have built to his
memory! 7

The city council of Port Al-
berni, where the president of the
_local union, Walter Yates, sits as
an alderman, are 100 per cent
with the strikers. They have

turned over huts of the city-

(Continued on Page 8)

See STRIKE, FRONT

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE THREE

terized it a “betrayal of labor and
the American people,” and he
pledged the full financial resour-
ces of his organization to send
Truman back to his corner store
in the next presidential elections.

President William Green of the
American Federation of Tabor
denounced Truman’s’ strike draft
program (using the army to op-
erate the railways) as “slave la-
bor under fascism.” Truman’s

the strike, and his proposed bills
for drafting all strikers into the
army and to outlaw strikes
against the government, ‘clearly
indicates, as ‘expressed by AFI.
leader Green that “the govern-
ment is on the side of private
industry — against labor, and #is
‘moving towards fascism.’

Following Truman’s anti-labor
action in connection with the rail
strike, both AFL and CIO “unions
are moving into widespread po-
litical action to defend the rights
of the workers and preserve the
progressive policies of the Roose-
velt. administration.

threat to use the army to break.

A year ago the slogan. was: “Use Trailways for war—not
pleasure.” President Truman’s May 24th speech on the
U.S. railway strike suggests a new slogan: “Use the rail-

ways for war—upon the trade unions?”

Unionists

Immediate reaction of trade
unions throughout the country
was to flood the departments of
justice and labor . with -strongly
worded protests against the po-
lice attacks.

Justice Minister Louis St. Laur-
ent this week blandly disclaimed
all responsibility for arrests of
striking seamen, members of the
Canadian Seamen’s Union on the
Great Lakes and the St. Lawr-
ence where the union has tied up
70 ships in a strike arising from
its demand for an Shour day to
replace the present 12-hour day.

St. Laurent’s
in reply to a wire of protest sent
by James Thompson, Pacific
Coast vice-president of the CSU,
which stated:

“Seamen on the west coast
are greatly perturbed by sirike
breaking activities on the Great
Lakes. We hold the government
responsible through the Can-
ada Shipping Act. We demand
that arrests of seamen cease-
and that those arrested be re-
leased.”

Similar wires of protest were
Sent by Ald. R. K. Gervin, sec-
retary, Vancouver Trades and
Labor Council; John Turner, sec-
retary, Vancouver Labor Council;
Harold Pritchett, secretary, B.C.
Hederation of Labor; and a num-
ber of unions in this province.

“Neither the department of
justice mor, as far as I know,
any other federal department
has had anything to do with
the arrests of which you com-
plain, nor would it be proper
for the government to attempt
to interfere with the processes
of the courts of justice,” St.
Laurent stated in his wire to
Thompson. “Your request for
amendment of the Canada Ship-
ping Act will be referred to
the department of transport
and labor.’

St. Laurent’s reference to the
Canada Shipping Act, under
which the striking seamen were
arrested, was an evasive govern-
mental response to the union’s re-
peated démands for deletion of
an obsolete clause in the act
whereby penalties can be applied
against seamen for “absence
without leave.” This is the charge
against some 50 seamen arrested
between Montreal and the head

of the Great Lakes.

disclaimer came

rotest Mass Arrests -

In Great Lakes Seamens Strike —

TORONTO.—Use of the Canada Shipping Act to arrest seamen picketing Great
Lakes ships in their strike to support wage and hours demands of the Canadian Seamen’s
Union this week provoked clashes with police in Montreal, Toronto and other Ontario
ports. But despite operators’ efforts to man their ships with non-union crews and the

f

SULLIVAN
“. . . tired of phoney proposals”

Jd: A. “PAT

arrests of many strikers there was every indication that the seamen would hold solid.

Millard Offer —
Rejected By
Steel Local —

HAMILTON.—The United
Steelworkers of America,
Stelco local, last week reject-
ed recent proposals of C. H.

Millard, union director which’

offered to settle with the com-
panies at less than 19% cents
per hour and passed a resolu-
tion calling for strike action
within three weeks in collabora-
tion with the Sydney, Nova.
Scotia and Algoma, Sault Ste.
Marie locals. In Oshawa, WLocal
1817 pledged full

mum weekly wage and 40-hour
week.

Big Three Unity Vital Te
Peace, Says Hillman

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—Sidney Hillman, president of
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, told 1,100 cloth-
ing union convention delegates last week that war has be-
come a “serious and terrible possibility” because “cracks
have begun to appear in the war-born unity of the Big Three.

Unity of the United States,
Great Britain and the USSR is
the cornerstone of peace, he de
clared.

“The American people demon-
strated their recognition of this
fact,” he continued, “by the un-
animity with which they rejected
the Churchill proposal for an
Anglo-American alliance, which
could only be directed against
the Soviet Union.”

But rejection of Churehill’s
proposal is of itself not sufficient,
he pointed out. :

“Any attempt to combine
against or to isolate any one of
the three great powers must
inevitably lead to disaster.”

Applause swept the boardwalk

amphitheatre as Hillman listed
the World Federation of Trade
Unions as an example of inter-
national cooperation, which gov-
ernments should emulate.

“We must not,’ he Said, “use

our Military might or our enorm-:

ous economic power to influence
or coerce them. :
Hillman expressed impatience

with the Wnited Nations Secur-
ity Council’s delay in dealing with
Franco’s fascist government in
Spain.

“Franco has been under invyes-
tigation by the democratic world
Since 19386,” he said, “and the
evidence, including that of our

own State Department, is volum- ©

inous and conclusive. If there
must be a2 further inquiry, as the
Security Council has’ now order_-
ed; let it be speedy and final.
And let it end in concerted ac-
tion to quarantine this

spot of fascism and give full

support to the Spanish people in

their struggle for liberation.”
FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1946

support te
strike action to attain the union’s ©
Mational objective of $33.60 mini-

plague -