mith nat i otal 5 hae

- Ontario textile strike
for pay raise, 40-hours

By VAL BJARNASON
Organizer, United Textile “Workers of America

TORONTO.—On June 25,

650 employees of the Monarch

Knitting Company walked out of their ancient sweatshop.
Suffering for generations the fate of all textile workers, the
members of Local 106, UTWA, joined their 6,000 Quebec
brothers and sisters in the battle for wages and union condi-

tions.

Having won several important
improvements in their shop under
previous union contracts, the work
ers could tolerate no longer the
anti-union policy of their new em-_
ployers, the Monarch Knitting
Company. The notorious union
busting Central Ontario Labor Re-
jations Intitute has for six months
delayed and frustrated every ef-
fort of the union.to negotiate a
Satisfactory agreement.

Phe union’ efforts to bring the
Substandard wage rates of 35 to
50° cents an hour into line with
even the lower-paid workers in
other basic industries, was met with
a bead-on. assault. In place of the
415-cent an hour wage demand the
company offered 21% cents to the
majority of production ‘workers.
The company’s final “sacrifice”
(aiter an affirmative strike Vote

of over 90 percent) was to offer
time and a half after 40 hours in
Place of the 40-hour week demand
ef the union. The last straw was
the company’s refusal to give any
kind of union security — this to
employees who had previously won
maintenance of membership and
the checkoff. No alternative re-
mained but strike action.

The first week of the strike has
seen powerful picket lines 24 heurs
=a day. Not one scab has crossed
the line—the plant is closed tight.

Parrotins Blair Gordon, textile
emperor, the company says they

will not negotiate until the em-4

ployees return to work. Echoing
her 6,000 brothers and sisters in
Quebec, Mrs. Doris Barless, presi-
dent of Local 106;¢says: “We won't
So back to work until we have a
signed agreement.”

Tribute toa omeule
--Gordon Shunaman

£ | “HE Vancouver labor movement and the young

people of

the Fairview district suffered a sad and almost irrepar-
able loss last Friday in the sudden death of Gerdon Shuna-
man at the early age of 33 years. : :

Suffering from an
quently confined him to
age, carried forward the

bed,

incurable heart condition that fre-~

Gordon, with undaunted cour-

struggle for a better life for his

fellow man, organizing, educating and lecturing — winning

friends and supporters: among

in contact.

Born on a farm in southern Sas-
katchewan, Comrade Shunaman
Save long periods of strenuous ef-
fort to organizing and leading the
farmers in the prairie dust-bowl
during the hungry 30’s, while at
the same time carrying the heavy
load of operating the farm on be-
half of his aged parents—a load
that doubtless did much to bring
on the sickness'from which he died.

Stricken with a sudden heart at-
tack at the door of his farm in
the fall of 1940, and unable any
longer to operate the farm, Gordon
and his wife, Gladys Shunaman
(mew secretary of Local 217 TWA)
came to the Coast the following
year. :

Eiver since his arrival here and
with the ominous figure of death
ever hovering at-his elbow, Gordon
Save his every minute to helping
and guiding the struggle for hu-
man progress. It was no uncom-
mon sight to see him lying in bed,
scarce able to do more than speak,
advising and directing his co-
workers in their immediate prob-
lems. Between spells of sickness,
when not engaged in some outside
organizing activity, he weuld be
found digging through books, mak-
ing excerpts to be used at the edu-
cational classes he conducted
among groups of friends.

Endowed with a keen and pene-
trating mind, Gordon also possess-
ed, in very: large degree, that rar-
est of qualities among men—the
ability te win and hold the friend-
ship and loyalty of all those with
whom he came in contact. It was
these qualities that enabled him a
year ago to found and organize
the Fairview Youth Club, a wide
organization embracing a large
membership of young people from

~46 to 35 years of age. The work

he did to launch the Club and keep
it going was the work of a Titan
a stupendous accomplishment
fer a man suffering from ever-
more-frequent spells of sickness.

At the time of his death he had:
just commenced a study class in
Political economy among young
people from the club.

His pasing was characteristic of
the man and his work, of his abil-

of his

all those with whom he came

ity to combine recreation ‘with
education and carry on to the very
end. He had been out for an eve-
ning of entertainment with a group
young friends and had
brought them to his home for a
cup of coffee and a few words of
political discussion when he drop-
ped dead at the table. He carried
out the tasks he had set for him-
self right up to the very last sec-
ond of life. No man could do more.
And could he have chosen the way.
of his passing it would have been
the way of his choice.

As Comrade Bennett remarked
at the funeral service, Gordon
lived as though aware that he had
but a short span of life ahead and
must use every minute to its ut-
most limits. The work he did will
assuredly bear fruit in the hands
of the young people he organized
and taught as new recruits for
man’s ceaseless struggle for a
better life. Keenly aware of what
he himself had been cheated out
of by a brutal and rapacious social
system, he wanted to win a greater
measure of opportunity and happi-
ness for others. He has gone from

“our midst young in years, but not

without leaving his signposts for
progress on the pathway of time.

The hundreds whom Gordon
knew and worked among and who
loved, respected and admired him
in return join in extending their
sincerest sympathy to his young
wife, who helped him so much in
his work, as well as to his other
relatives in Saskatchewan.

INo greater evidence of the re-
spect in which he was held could
be found than in the large crowd
that gathered for his funeral and
the vast number of floral wreaths
stacked high on the casket that
held his mortal remains.

Parewell, Gordon, your memory
will live long.—B.

Mrs. Shunaman desires to con-
vey her-sincerest thanks for the
many messages of Sympathy ex-
tended to her and for the large
number of floral tributes re-
ceived.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE

— PAGE 3

IWA district
council plans
big program

A campaign for retention
of price controls and re-im-
position of controls on staple
geeds now exempt is prom-
ised in the program adopted
last weekend by the British
Columbia District Council of
the International Wocdwork-
ers of America, meeting in
Vancouver.

The campaign for price con-
trols was only one of several re
commendations made for strength-
ening “the political action phase”
of the union’s activities as part
of an organizational program to
yconsolidate gains made in the re-
cent successful strike struggle.

Another recommendation, noting
that the ITV7A obtained its great-
est Support from municipal coun-

ceils on which there were labor
and other progressive members,
was that the union should “or-

Sanize active support in civic and
municipal elections on a non-

partisan basis for election of la-
bor representatives.”

Intensification of the campaign
for abolition of P.C. 1003 and PC.
9384 and for enactment of a na-
tional labor code was another pro-
posal endorsed.

The Coalition government came
in for severe criticism “for ‘the
way it came to the assistance
of the employers’ group in trying
to break the strike,’ and Finance
Minister Herbert Anscombe, pro-
vincial Conservative leader, ‘was
Singled out for his “red-baiting:
campaign against the leadership
of the union.”

Organizational proposals en-
dorsed by the council included:

@ Amn intensive campaign back-
ed by district and international
resources, to organize Interior

areas from headquarters to “be
established at Kelowna.
@ t&xtension of union educa-

tional work.

@ Hstablishment of a youth or-
ganization “within the fold of our
organization.”

© Building of women’s 2uxiliar-
jes with district assistance and
continuation of the successful
women’s broadcast launched dur-
ing the Strike. .

Hitlerism in
tory Toronto

Anti-semitism in Toronto as
seen by the “Toronto Daily
Star”:

“It is a disgraceful thing that
a veteran, Or anyone else for
that matter, should lose his job
in a Toronto hardware store
because the customers ‘did not
like being waited on by a
Jew.’

“The man in question was
educated in the schools of the
district in which he recently
found employment after re-
turning from service in
France. He was good enough
to serve his country overseas,
but not good enough, it seems,
to wait upon his fellow citi-
zens when they were buying
hardware.

“These who complained
about him and lost him his
position should be ashamed of
their narrowness and prejudice.
They have the consolation of
imowing that their attitude is
exactly that which Hitler ap-
proved and practised.”

Striking hardrock miners of

the Granby Consolidated at

Copper Mountain, B.C., on the march for a 29¢ per hour
Wage increase, a 40-hour week and umion security.

Left to right, Geo.

Anderson,

pay, longer life.”

business

local LUMMSW
agent, Mike Pero and Frank Hamilton, picket Captains
and Angus Campbell local union president. Banners read,
“Sherter hours, more

“We are also ‘investors’ in B.C., we fought to save it from
Hitler, now we fight to save it from the monopolists and

the trusts.”

Mitchell favors higher
wages for workers -but!

Biggest labor item and biggest any item in the House
these last days was the Budget which Finance Minister Tisley
brought down the other day. Already labor Ieaders have
passed comment on the affair, and the comments have not

been lauditory.

Gabor Minister Mitchell in sup-
porting P.C. 2432, the amendment
to PC. 9384, stated that he had
“been in the labor movement long
enough to Know that the real
target of labor is to raise the real
standard of living,” but after this
burst of wisdom, added his fears

that “any untoward advance in
the present wage structure is
going to do two things: either it
will force price up, whereupon
the increased rates will count
for naught, or it would force a
buyers’ strike to curtail produc-

tion and of course that would

mean unemployment.”

Some public-spirited citizen
sheuld mail the minister a copy
of any of the several union memos
on the question of prices and
profits. He could learn something
from it. However, it is good to
see the minister concerned with
the fact that if manufacturers
have to increase their wages they
soon won't be able to purchase
their own products.

In honor of Dominion Day the

Canadian Citizenship Bill was
made law, However, as it is not
yet in final form it does not
become’ effective until next Jan-
uary. Canadians will ‘therefore
become Canadians in six months’
time.

The wage drive was given a
boost the other day in the House
when Mr. Pouliot (Temiscouata)
and Mr. MacNicol (Davenport)
were discussing salaries of bank
heads. Mr. Pouliot said that he
had obtained information that
Graham Towers, Bank of Gan-
ada head, had a salary of $30,000.
Said Mir. MacNicol in comment
ing on this wage situation, “A
Salary of $30,000 is a mere pit-
tance!”’

In the meantime 6000 textile
workers, 2,500 hard rock miners,
800 moulders, 11,000 rubber work—
ers, 4,000 electrical workers, and
sundry other groups are on strike
and holding their picket lines
tight, because they believe the
margin between the ‘pittance’ re_
ceived by Graham Towers and
their own wage levels is far too
wide. Like the IWA, they intend
to close the gap a little in favor
of higher wages, shorter hours
and union security.

MMMM MMMM
For A Successful Jubilee
Picnic, Sell Your Tickets

ATAU UT TeTe e TCUc
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1946