: Labor Protests Seamen Arrests, Demand Govt. Take Over Ships | IWA VOTES SOLIDLY FOR REJECTION OF PROPOSALS Striking woodworkers, through their delegates to the Internationa! Weod- workers district council, this week unanimously rejected Chief Justice Gor- ‘don Sloan’s proposals for settlement and called for direct negotiations with VoLi. No. 17. Five. Cents Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, June 7, 1946 Formerly PACIFIC ADVOCATE operators “to bring about an early and just settlement of this dispute.” Delegates representing 14 union locals came to the district council meet- ing armed with the authority of mass meetings of their memberships, typical of which was Local 1-71 which rejected the proposals 1398 to 2. - : “Your 15 cents proposal will not sufficiently offset the rising cost of living. and pro- posed shorter work week,” the union told Chief Justice Sloan. “Your 44-hour week pro- posal likewise will not provide jobs for veterans and unemployed war workers, while your proposal en voluntary re—- vocable checkoff, lifted from our union security proposals, by it- self is meaningless.” @perators promptly rejected the request for direct negotiations, re- peating the phoney cry of their highly paid prepaganda agency about “union democracy” and de- working week, so, wham!, A few months ago this seaman and his buddies were running the Nazi blocade to carry the tools of victory to the fighting fronts. Now he wants a 56 instead of an 84-hour and democracy” flattens him out with 400 Ibs. of muscle in the best Hitlerite style. (See CSU strike, page 3). Rupert CCL-AFL Unions Aid IWA PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.—Aid began to flow from this Rorthern port to the strike- bound town of Terrace this week as a joint CCL-AFL committee dispatched $200 for the IWA pickets there. Three hundred and twenty men @re out in Terrace in the first Strike in its history. Conditions in the Terrace camps are a dis- Grace to the twentieth century, with men still packing their own bindles in 1946. There are no showers, no dry rooms, no sanitary facilities, and Many men cook and eat in the Same hovels. The operators have treated the men like cattle in the camps and is on a par with their stub- borns refusal to meet the TWA demands, and their persistence in é attempting to run poles through the picket lines. Both their at- tempts along these lines have run into disaster to date, the last load being dumped in the main street of Terrace by a ‘flying squad of forty pickets. Bruce Mickleburgh, secretary of the Prince Rupert Teachers’ 1lio- cal, spoke to the community of Terrace at the ball park follow- ing the May 24 sports celebration, eallinge on every man, woman and child, especially veterans, to get in the front line of the bat- tle to win the peace with the IWwA. Further support from Prince Rupert was indicated when fish workers on the waterfront dis- patched 100 Ibs. of fresh fish, which they claim is only the ini- tial shipment. Such merchants in Rupert as the Rupert Butchers and the Grand Cafe have also made ship- ments. A growing section of Ru- pert is determined to see the Strike won in Terrace and throughout B.C. Mmanding a secret vote on the proposals. The fact was that the 37,000 strikers had already ef- fectively voted with their feet. Wot one man was back at work and the mass meetings demon- strated that no one would return unless the operators conceded more of their excess profits. Only immediate reaction of the provincial government was a statement from Tabor Minister George Pearson that he ' would discuss thé rejection by phone with federal Labor Minister Hum- phrey Mitchell. Earlier, before rejection of the proposals, he had conferred in Victoria with jKarley Larsen, IWA international vice-president, and Harold Pritchett, district president, Developments in the strike sit- uation followed swiftly upon Chief recommendations for:: i. A wage increase of 15 cents an hour. : : 2- Am average 44-hour week in the logging industry, with 43 hours to be worked from April to September inclusive and 49 hours for the remaining months, and a straight 44-hour week in the mills. 3. No union security, but a voluntary revocable checkoff. Provincial Labor Minister George Pearson, taking official action in the strike for the first time since its start on May 15, followed this up with an appeal to the TWA and the operators to accept the recommendations. Qn Monday the union asked for a 48-hour extension of the deadline for reply, which ‘was granted, and publicly questioned inquiry procedure. Justice Gordon Sloan’s action last Saturday in making public his |{ (Continued on Page 8) See IWA 2 Miners Open Parley On Wage-Hour Issue Negotiations opened in Vancouver on Thursday this week between mining operators and the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (CCIQ) for an agree- ment covering gold and copper mines in the province. Daily Province Printers Strike The anti-union editorials that have been one of the most con- sistent and least popular features of the Vanceuver Daily Province will not be appearing in their regular format for an indefinite period. The International Typographical Union went on strike on Thurs- day this week and by their ac- tion closed down the last of the Southam newspaper chain. Others in the chain, Ottawa Citi- zen, Hamilton Spectator, Kdmon- ton Journal and Calgary Herald, have already been struck by the Typographical Union in a _ dis- pute arising out of the Winnipeg Tribune’s refusal to conclude an agreement satisfactory to the union. There is a possibility that the strike may spread to the Van- couver Sun and the WNews-Her- ald where agreements with the union expire at the end of this month. Unlike the Province, where the management has been able te block organization of editorial and business office workers, employees of the Sun and News-Herald not covered by printing trades agree— ments are organized into locals of the Vancouver Newspaper Guild. Recognition of the Typo- graphical Union’s picket lines by. these workers would prevent any attempts to publish makeshift editions as the Southam chain has been able to do in other centers. Opening of negotiations follow- ed a conference of operators and union representatives called by Mines Minister R. CC. MacDonald: The union, backed by an over- whelming strike vote at Bralorne. Picneer, Copper Countain and other mining centers, is asking for 23 centS an hour wage in crease and the 40-hour week under a single agreement. Operators have offered 6% cents an hour wage increase and refused to ne gotiate a single agreement cover- ing all operations. Excluded from negotiations is Consolidate Mining and Smelting Company at Trail and Kimber- ley which has just concluded an agreement with the union pgrant- ing wage increases by categories averaging 15% cents an hour. Some 2,500 men are affected by the current negotiations. Export Ship Steel VICTORIA.—Steel is being ex- ported from Canada to build Gan- adian Pacific and Canadian WNa- tional ships in other countries while the future of the shipbuild- ing industry on the Coast is jeop- fardized by lack of work. This was the charge levelled by the policy committee of the Ship- yard General Workers’ Wedera- tion in a statement released here this week. Charges Dropped — FORT WHLLIAM.—Charges of desertion laid under the Ganada: Shipping Act against five stril- ing seamen were dropped when the city court here was informed by the prosecution that it _had been instructed to present no evi- dence.