Your Dorattinat -
White “hat Yoru Peete Short Jabs 0

Most ecompetely organized,

Free enterprise
Editor, Pacific Tribune:

Well, Brother Truman, that
great exponent of “free enter-
prise” has done it again.

- When the railroad workers
went on strike for their just
demands that became a “Na-
tional crisis” ang workers were
forced back to their jobs by
Truman's threat of army action.

Now the U:S. has another “Na-
-Wonal erisis’—the meat Short-
age. But does Brother Truman
call out the army and force the
eattie owning and packing house
profiteers to slaughter and mar-
Ket their cattle, of which there
has never been such an abund-
ance in U-S. history? Wothing of
the Kind! Instead, he removes
all meat ceilings, playing right
into the hands of the Profiteers,
who have been on strike
against the public and against
the sovernment decreed OPA.

Tf the common working man
strikes, that is anarchy and
agaist the governmeni.

If the profit crazy monopo-
lists hold out against the pub-
lic and against government
orders, that’s “free enterprise”
wonderous workings, these so-
ealleg democracies,

THOMAS P.
Vancouver, E.G.

The UPWA again
Editor, Pacifie Tribune:

This is in reply to an article
appearing in the October i8th
issue of your paper, written by

FEDERICT.

tz Clark, and headed “UPWA
Wegotiations.”’
£ agree with Mr. Clark, that

the UPWA is one of the most
Successful unions in this coun-
try and has the industry al-
this
in_itself is a major accomplish-
ment. The organization of the
packine industry has not been
accomplished by do-nothing tac-
tics, and the UPWA has made
more gains in the past years
than many organizations.

Mr. Clark seems quite put out
because the UPWA did not
strike to gain its demands for
@ master agreement, a wage in-
crease, and other improvements.
What he fails to consider is the
fact that our union stretches
from the Pacific Coast to the
far Eastern Coast, at Moncton,
NB., with one local or more in
almost every province and city
in Canada. The workers in
these cities have different con-

cepts of what is best for the
backing house workers, and it
is.the duty of the leadership to
See that the maximum amount
of unity is obtained. The work
€rs on the Prairies, in Quebec,

or the Maritimes, cannot be
ignored any more than the
workers on the Pacific Coast.
The Negotiating Committee 1s
elected by the local unions, and
they are the only ones who can
vote on the acceptance or re-
j€ction of any point, staff repre-
sentatives
vote. The delegates decide the
policy to be followed during
negotiations, and are respons-
ible not only to their own local
but to the national hook-up.

The agreement concluded be-
tween the UPWA and the “Big
Three’ packing companies
“Master Agreement” in the true
Sense of the word, in that it is
one 2greement covering all of
each of the company’s plants in
Canada. If 3 dispute arises im
future negotiations, and astrike
is necessary, all Plants will be
involved. ‘While there is a sep-
arate agreement with each
company, all agreements expire
On the same date and negotis-
tions take place at the same
time. Whether it is advisable
for the union to force the com-
Panies to unite under one head
for the purpose of negotiations,
is a matter of opinion, if the
convention should decide at
some future date to demand in-
dustry wide negotiations, then
it will be our policy.

Mr. Clark is in error when
he says their delegate had to
Sign twenty (20) local agree-
ments, the fact is, he may have
hag to sign twenty (20) copies,

but they were all the same
agreement, extra signed copies
are needed for local. unions,

plant Managements, national of-
fices, ete, and as he was a
member of the National Nego-
tiations Committee it is only
proper that he should sign as
well as the National Director of
the Union.

Votes for the acceptance or
rejection of a Master Agree
ment must be conducted on a
national basis and a large ma-

jority of the packinghouse
workers voted te accept the
agreement, the result of the

vote showed 3,206 in favor of
accepting and only 218 against,
on the basis of actual votes.
Many locals voted unanimously
to accept and in fact Mr.

TIM BUCK

National Leader. Labor-Progressive Party
: ..-. Speaking At...

PENDER AUDITORIUM

339 West Pender Street
Sunday, November 10 — 8 p.m.
NIGEL MORGAN

Provincial Leader, Labor-Progressive Party Reporting On The
LPP Provincial Convention ;

— Songs By —
JOHN GOSS — Famed Baritone and Choirs

GRAND BANQUET AND DANCE
in honor of

IM BUCK |:

National Leader of Labor-Progressive Party
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 38th—7 p.m. to 1 am. $

g NAVY LEAGUE SEAMEN’S HALL

111 Dunsmuir, near Cambie

, 209 Shelly Bldz.,

. Office,
| - be purchased at LPP Prov.
aise oie seools's Cooperative Bookstore, $37 W. Pender.

ADMISSIGN TO DANCE ONLY AFTER 9 PM. .........- 50¢

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

are not allowed to

is a

Clark’s own local voted 34 to
14 for acceptance.

Last, but not least, what has
the UPWA accomplished during
its four years of organization.

@ it has organized all of the
“Big Three” plants, ang almost
all of the independents.

@ it has established Wnion
Security on an industry wide
basis.

e It has reduced daily hours
of work from 10 to 8, and the
weekly hours from 54 to 45.

@ It ,increased remuneration |

from 19 to 34 cents per hour in
general increases; night pre-
miums of 5 cents per hour in
all plants; 8 paid statutory holi-
days; improved vacation plans -
better systems of applying wage
rates; Guaranteed weekly and
daily hours in all but one chain
Gwhich had it before), minimum
rates have inereaseq from 40
to 79 cents per hour, in some

plants, and to 7314 in others for

males, and from 30 to 62 for
females, in fact some plants
were as low as 26 cents in 1940.

@ fhe UPWA contracts have
the best general provisions of
any agreements we have seen.

The packing industry is no
longer the lowest paid; in some
districts where we have locals,
females are still working for
26 to 36 cents per hour, and
males are hired at 45 to 55
cents per hour, many of these
are in the food industry which
must be organized by the
UPWA. :

We, too, hope the workers will
take a greater interest in their
union, se we can ¢0 on to
greater victories and more com-
plete unity. The recent settle-
ment of the UPWA has built
our union in many places, and
has added another 2,000 mem-
bers to our list, and we speak
of Swift in Edmonton, Alberta,
Burns in Calgary, Alberta, and
Kitchener, Ontario, and Canada
Packers in Montreal, besides a
number of independents in the
Province of Quebec.

I hope that the Pacific _Tri-
bune will publish this article as
I believe it to express the feel-
ing of a large majority of the
UPWA members in Canada.

JOHN LENGLET,
Publicity Director:
1207 Bay St., Toronto.

Business men, or — ?

Editor, Pacific Tribune:
The News Vendors Section of

the Building Service Employees

Union, which was just begin-
ning to organize when the Daily
Province was struck, has been
given the run around by the
Sun very nicely.

The news boys went into an
organizational drive while refus-
ing to handle or sell the “hot
Province.’ Recruiting new mem-
bers was made much more diffi-
cult by the fact that when a
news boy joined up his income
was cut greatly by refusing to
sell the scab sheet.

The Sun was very happy that

‘the news vendors were standing

on union principles, but kept on
passing the buck when it came
to signing the dotted line on
the contract. The Sun has held
out for clarification on the point
whether news vendors were em-
ployees or business men. When
Labor Minister Pearson ruled
that they could be classified as
employees, there was a sudden
cooling in the platonic love af-
fair between the Sun and the
News Vendors Union.

It certainly looks as if the
Sun Publishers have been try-
ing to use the splendid stand
taken by the Vancouver news
boys to further their own ends.
Possibly the Sun will have to
learn the. hard way.

i. P. SCHWARTZ.

“RB e
est Forei Z
s eign A GOOD tabor-fakir is never at a loss to find .

=. : a
>ecretary an alibi to\explain his policies and the poli-
cies of his government, when he speaks for a government, when :
they are contrary to the interests of the workers who elect them.

One of the tribe visited Vancouver last week and spoke under the
auspices of the GCF, a member of the National Executive of the
British Labor Party, Watson by name. Speaking of Communism and
the Soviet Union, his words were a sycophantic echo of those of
Churchill, a copy of Ghurchill’s oratory on the subject even to the
commas.

If the House of Commons Laborites are all of the same type as
this one, it is easy to understand the Associate@ Press report that
“the house roared with laughter? when Churchill Save them his own
definition of “reactionary”? —“An armed Communist advances upon you
and yeu react against him, therefore you are a reactionary.”

But it was in his fulsome eulogy of Bevin. “the best foreign min-
ister Britain ever had,” and his foreign policy that Watson used the

alibt.. His reason for the similar
ity, the single-mindedness of pur
pose, of the foreign policy of the
Labor Party and the Tory Party, is
that the financial intérests are
right behind Bevin “not because..
they support his policies but be-
cause they want to drive a wedge
in the support given him by the
labor movement.”

He called this an alibi, but it
is not really that; it is an evasion, -
of the truth .and here are a few
Tories themselves to give the lie
to Mr. Watson.

Churchill, speaking at a Scot-
tish Conservative rally in Eidin-

burgh, reported in the News.
Chronicle 30, 4/1946. “Unionists
{the Tories’ name for thémselves)
Save full support io the broad
continuity of British foreign pol-
ley, and they were at Gne with the
Government in its open and Manly antagonism to international’
Communisnt at home and abroad.” Mr. Watson did not say it quite;
so well since he is “not an orator as Churchill is.”

The (Yorkshire Post, acknowledged mouthpiece of the Tories
since the Times became a “three-penny edition of the Daily Worker,”
owned by Anthony Eden’s family, in one issue shortty after the last
Labor Party Conference, reproached the leaders for advising Com-
munists to join the Labor Party as “loyal” members, in the follow-
ing news item. It might have been thought that Labor would be
a trifle more particular and would have refused to believe that
people holding such views could have been of assistance to the
Socialist cause.” Not quite as polished as Churchill but meaningful’ -
as Mr. Watson! :

A fine old “friend? of the British workers, Lord Balfour of
Inchyre reported in Reynolds’ 4/471946, vented himself of the follow-—
ing: “The Government does well in one direction onhy. Mr. Bevin has ;
followed the main line of the Coalition Government’s foreign policy.
He has gained the admiration of British citizens but the anger of
a large section of his own supporters.” Fine old British citizens, what!

Another fine old British gentleman. pardon. citizen, Sir David
Robertson, Tory M.P. for Streatham, was quoted in the South London
Press of May 3, 1946, extending the good wishes of his Party. “We
wish Mr. Bevin ‘God speed’ and our best wishes for the future. The
stumbling block is Russia. Mr. Bevin is a great Woreign Secretary.
-.- We admire the stand he is making and it is a great pity his own
party does not back him up as we do. The Same gang wished Cham- -
berlain ‘God speed’ too, when he left to sell his country at Minich.

And the women Tories, we must not forzset their support of the
policies of the Labor government. The headline in a IGancashire
paper read: “Lady Rochdale Fears Union With The Communists.”
“Speaking to an audience comprised of the Rochdale Women’s Con-—
servative Association, she said “Our way of life is worth preserving,”

THINGS Look BAD — WHat
WITH THE HOUSING CRISIS,

“but it was in danger and she “felt considerable anxiety as to whether

or not the Labor Party was sufficientiv strone to resist affiliation
with the Communists.” How dreadfully touching, don’tcher know!

Fate of on Gomme more about the Tories, local ones this time.
Anarchist y At a Tory confab. in Vancouver last week, one
of the speakers was-the foundry owner. McDonnell. MILA. He made
one assertion we wiSh were true. According to this member for Van-_
couver Center, Vancouver has “more Communists per capita than
any other city in Canada”

Statisticians who work without figures can get much better
results than those who limit themselyes to established facts. Mc-
Donnell’s estimated figures in this case are at least as bad as those
he used in trying to prevent the exploited foundry workers from
getting a raise in their miserably poor wages or in telling the court
how many ribs he had cracked.

MeDonnell’s presence at that Tory muster, however, was not the
only one that interested us. Another. familiar -name appeared in
the press report—that of Leon Lotzkar. He is a delegate to the Tory
provincial convention.

i remember when Lotzkar blew into town (that is the right
Wobbly phrase). He was 4 wild-eyed, boisterous, rip-snorting revo-
lutionary. The reds were not red enough for him. He wanted to
fight the cops as he had been doing where he came from (at least
he claimed to). He wanted free speech fights organized when there
Was no issue at stake,

He belonged te the anarchist wing of the ITIWW. He was muddle-
headed and confused, and like all anarchists his role was that of
disrupter. Politics was out and the state was a shadow. Now,
having amassed a fortune in the junk business, his anarchist pro-
gram us tossed overboard and he is a delegate to the Tory convention.

we Must Te propaganda of the economists is getting re-
xXpPOort sults in queer ways. We must export, we are told.
I have just learned that B.C. is breaking new ground in this field,
exporting missionaries. A freighter left Vancouver this week for
South Africa with the first cargo. Let's hope they make some im-
pression on Smuts: s

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, i, 1946