I ee ee

Newspaper Unions List Vancouver Daily Province Unfair To Labor 7

,

Vol 1. No. 18.

Five Cents

Vancouver, British Columbia, Eriday, June 14, 1946
Formerly PACIFIC ADVOCATE

Textile Strike Shows
Board Serving Bosses

MONTREAL. — Six thousand French-Canadian tex-
ile workers are on strike, demanding a union contract, a
general wage increase oi 25c per heur and a 40-hour week.
@he companies concerned are the Dominion Textiles and

Montreal Cottons, key industries in a powerful monopoly.

Blair Gordon, textile king, is
president of both companies. Five
textile mills are close@ down as
a result of the strike, which has
been in progress since June ist.

Im Montreal, Local 144 of the
Plumbers and Steamftters Union,
whose members have _been en-
Saged in construction ‘work at
two strike-bound mills, has ord-
ered itS men not to go through
the picket lines. Similar action is
expected from other building
trades unions. t

A last-minute attempt to avert
the strike efailed, after Mayor
€Cauchon of Valleyfied called a
Special conference of union of-
ficials and Montreal cotton heads.
After five hours W. E. G. Aird,
Managing director, summarily re-
jected the union’s proposals. Kent
Rowley offered several conces-
sions in return for which the
UWIWA asked for signature by
the company of a contract drawn
up by Judge Guerin, arbitration
board chairman.

Rowley issued a statement last
week charging the Quebec Re-
Sional Board with ‘conspiracy
and double-dealing.” The union
blast came after the board an-
nounced approval of Dominion
@Pextile’s petition for a three shift
speed-up in its Hochelaga plant.
Rowley pointed out that the
beard had previously rejected
these proposals in a formal sign-
ed decision.

He also stated that the
DUPWA had not been consulted,
and said: “It is clear that the
board’s decisions are meanmeg-
less and without weight if de-
cisions made one week can be

Completely reversed in an at-

mosphere of conspiracy and
double-dealing.”
Repeated attempts have been

made by union officials to get the
company to negotiate. The pro-
vineial minister of labor, Hon.
Antonio Barrette, requested Blair

Gordon to meet with the UTWA.
Perey Bengough, president of the
ELE, and Anthony Valente, in-
ternational president of UTAWA,
eifered to help. All efforts met
With adamant refusal on the part
Ci Dominion Textile Company to
meet the authorized officials of
the union.

ROWLEY
Canadian director, United Textile

R. K “KENT”

|be declared vacant unless

Workers of America (AFL)

LOGGERS MARCH ON CAPITAL
TO DEMAND WAGE PARLEY >

NANAIMO.—One of the greatest labor demonstrations in the more than
sixty years since the first trade union was formed in British Columbia is con-
verging on Victoria this Friday. Several thousand loggers and sawmill workers
and their supporters will end a march, which for many of them began
days ago when they left such distant points as Nelson and Prince George, out-
side the legislative buildings. There a representative delegation headed by
Harold Pritchett, |WA district president, will present their demands to Premier
John Hart and his provincial cabinet.@® F

This is the culminating point of a strike which began a month ago with the walkout
of 37,000 woodworkers from camps and mills throughout the province and the strikers are
determined that it shall be effective. They are invading the quiet streets of the capital to
demonstrate before the government and the operators their

ment be reached.

STMT

= B
Press Unions

Back ITU On

Province Issue

Vancouver Daily Province
was still closed down, unable
to hit the street with a single
edition, as the typographers’
strike ended its first week on
Wednesday.

Undeterred by threats made by
©. Leigh Spencer, Province pub-
lisher, that their positions would
they:
returned to work within a limit-
ed time, striking composing and
mailing room employees main-
tained their picket lines on Vic-
tory, Square. Supporting them in
their stand were pressmen and
stereotypers, who remained away
from work after stereotypers had
been given a free hand by their
international union.

Additional support was given to
the strike this week by four news-

paper workers’ unions, Interna-
tional Stereotypers and Electro-
platers Union, Local 88 (AFL);

international Photoengravers Union
Local 54 (AFL); International
Printing Pressmen and Assistants
Union, Local 60 (AFL); and Van-
couver Newspaper Guild, Local
Wo. 1 (CCL).

In a joint statement the four
unions held the Province to be
“unfair to organized labor as a
whole” until such time as the
Southam Company agreed to en-
ter into negotiations with the In-

(Continued on Page 8)
See PROVINCE

“Remember Cornwall” Is
Union Slogan In East

By ROBERT LAXER

The Battle of Cornwall is

tory. In fifteen days of rapid-fire developments, the weavers,
papermakers, rayon workers—the people of this wonderful
little city—have set-the pace for our whole country.

Twenty-seven ships are tied
up in the 75-mile front between
Cardinal and CGoteau. Never was
a strike more solid. Never did
a town in Canada so rise as
one man in battling for the 8
hour day.

Shipowners hoped Cornwall
would be the weak spot of the
seamen’s strike. Instead, this
town of 5,000 CIO and AFL
unionists rallied so completely at
each critical moment that even
the 40 RCMP and 60 Provincials
were unable to break the strike.

Don’t think the shipowners and
their willing helpers in Ottawa
and Queen’s Park havyven’t tried
everything. The scandalous at-

tack on stores and offices by 60

line

now a saga in Canadian his-

hoodiums sent from Montreal is
now on the record for all Ca-
nadians. The people know who
is responsible for violence.

Not content with all the lies
and violent attacks, the shipown-
ing magnates haye tried to ridi-
cule the young seamen for sleep-
ing on union hall benches. fit is
to the credit of these 350 young
fellows, many of whom served in
the merchant marine during the
submarine days, that there have
been no complaints, that discip<
has been exemplary. Most
of the boys here are between 18
and 20. fit is their first experi-
ence in the labor movement.

(Continued on Page 8)

D. N. PRITT, KC.
and British M-P., who arrived in
Montreal this week to take part in

the defence of Fred Rose, M.-P.

insistence that a just settle-

Over the past week their own
union representatives, officials of
the labor department and repre—
sentatives of the operators have
been conferring on negotiations
which on Wednesday ended
blankly against the operators’
stubborn refusal te go further
than the Sloan proposals. If the
unanimity of the strike itself, the
determination to win what the
employers can well afford shown
by rejection of the Sloan propos-
als, has not convinced the opera-—
tors that their calculated stalling
is futile, they believe this display
of strength will help to make up
the operators’ minds.

They are going to Victoria to
tell the operators that fifteen
cents an hour is not enough
when living costs rise month by
month. They are demanding the
40-hour week so that more of
them can face the future ‘with
Some certainty of a job. And they
want to make it clear that they
will compromise on nothing less
than the kind of union security
their experience has shown them
they need.

More than 350 smail operators
have signed the 1946 agreement.
If they can do it, the big bosses
can. Across the line the union
has the 40-hour week If they
can have it, so can we. This is
their attitude and it’s a militant

(Continued on Page 8)
See DWA LOBBY

Foundries Closed light

In Month-Old Strike

Picket lines thrown around city foundries and metal
plants by Vancouver District Metal and Chemical Workers
Union (CIO) on May 17 after refusal of managements to
negotiate with the union for a 25-cent an hour wage increase
and the 40-hour week still held firm this week as the strike

ended its first month.

Some 800 orkers in 35 plants
are affected by the Strike.

Earlier this week the CIO union
re-established its picket lines
around five plants manned by
members of the AFI, Moulders
Union on the ground that cer-
tain AFI. representatives ‘were
attempting to conclude agree-
ments conditioned by the outcome
of the strike detrimental to the
interests of all workers in the
industry.

Reporting to Wancouver Labor
Council on Tuesday this week,
John FErame, strike committee
chairman, charged that leaders
of the AFI, union were “working
with the bosses to break the
strike.” .

He added that while members
of the AHI. union probably had
not known of the agreements
their leaders were trying to con-
clude, the AFI workers in the
plants concerned had asked for
pickets to be put on their plants
again “so that they might not be
involyed in anything that might

See CORNWALL

be called strike-breaking.”

D. N. Pritt, M.P.
At Rose Trial

D. N. PRITT, K.C., M.P.,
arrived in Montreal this week
to take part in the defense
of Fred Rose, M.P. charged
under the Official Secrets Act
in connection with the cur-
rent “espionage” issue.

In spite of repeated efforts: of
the defence to have the date of
the trial postponed until Pritts
arrival, the prosecution proceeded
With the case rejecting all such
pleas and intimating fhat under
Quebee laws the British lawyer
M.P. would not be permitted full
recognition in Quebec courts. E

The espionage “trials” are being
held under heavy police guard.

(Continued on Page 8)
See PRITT

5