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ta : €se are killer mines. They ys been.” This is the ‘ tit On of oldtimers at Spring- |. Who recall the first great ; he in 1891 which claimed EVES,

i Sole Griffin notes in

the aa British Columbia: rm fople’s Early Story, in ~? When Vancouver Island nes Were shown to be among . dangerous in the » With an annual death “Of 3.32 per thousand men

ved, Nova Scotia mines ‘, 4 €ven higher death rate

Se mberland mine at ‘ a ill Was one of the “kill- i. > that contributed to ; Peeling figure.

he almost 80 years it has M operation it has taken

Ves of more than 1,000 ers,

] Bs Mine was condemned as Moy ous” by a federal YY Bue Commission in 1946, Ips 10 years later, after the _isaster had added the be 3 of another 39 men to fo fath lists, Sam _ White- Tnitio, miner, reported that ley; + had steadily de-

a to have to clear i! Ng é Y the boxes (carts) as Nay ‘ the coal in. Now those | ity sae Piled with old props Hm, bers which should be bby, Out. To get out in a | bt i You have to climb in | he . them or climb over ig rs, Sometimes there isn’t

“Af He the 1956 disaster the Nea Tribune called for A | on “og investigation. HNMin, |, {eMands of the United Ae orkers of America for these DE Probe should be eter he present plan for tl, mal Inquiry into Spring- Iti, Ud be extended to all an Bons across the ap. tt» wrote, Hy se hearings should be i Vite the miners themselves Pix. ® give testimony. Ot- ; Math, pete show that mine utah second only to a Wing as the highest 6 ‘s Industrial fatalities a © country. ae of eesation for the fam- : Aeauat who died should Ty € and generous... 5 the Prevent repetition of q stration t tragedy the in- YY rea) Should be followed simp, ction, policed by the 11, top Mt and the unions, in ! Ni f a drastic improve- Safety conditions in inate * et the companies CONE or suffer the full es of the law.”

Ww fh. hat happened? The

commission of inquiry set up waited a full 13 months be- fore it reported. -

In December 1957 it found that the explosion had been caused by the dangerous loca- tion of an electric cable down in the mine’s depts.

It reported that officials of the provincial mines depart- ment and the company knew cf this condition for some time, but that “no blame could be attached to anyone.”

Once again an investigation became a whitewash for the company which is owned by the rich Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, now con- trolled by the A. V. Roe inter- ests. :

Since then Dosco has been concerning itself not with the safety of its workers, but with increasing their productivity.

Continued

‘MORGAN

“Only the fact that there is no such constitutional provi- sion is saving Bonner from impeachment or recall. He has forfeited public confidence.”

Morgan demanded that all forest management licences issued during Sommers’ term of office should be reopened.

“The LPP warned when the forest management licence scheme was first promised that granting in perpetuity of such fabulous giveaways would open the door to bribery and corruption,” he said. “In view of what the Sommers case hias disclosed, the whole policy should be re-examined.”

H-tests topic at peace meet

TORONTO — Main topic for discussion when the na- tional council of the Canadian Peace Congress meets here this weekend will be organization of a nation-wide campaign around the issue of stopping all nuclear tests.

xt xt x

In Downtown Vancouver last Saturday some 40 members of B.C. Peace Council and sym- pathizers demonstrated with slogans calling attention to current Geneva discussions of halting nuclear tests. Slogans urged passersby: “Protect your children — Stop the H-tests.”

“People were very sympa~ thetic,” demonstrators reported.

Latest figures show that in its collieries, output per man shift was increased from 2.82 tons in 1957 to 2.93 net tons in the period from January to July this year.

Through its chairman, Sir Roy Dobson, the parent com- pany reported four days after the tragedy that sales and profits were running “a. bit ahead” of the same period last year.

Dobson noted that there were bright spots in the out- look for coal marketing for Dosco.

Could this latest disaster have been averted? In the opinion of Charles Lipton, writing in the Canadian Trib- une of November 3, it could. He says:

“At Springhill, the coal seams are 4% to 10 feet thick. They are separated by shale ranging in depths from 70 to 100 feet. Much of this shale consists of sandstone and rock.

“Dr, G. C. Cummings, pro- fessor of geology at Dalhousie University, describes the sand- stone rock in this area as

HEY WERE ALWAYS KILLER MINES’

ho’s to blame for Springhill ?

being ‘very weak.’ “On the spot reporters state: ‘Often a coal seam fractures

C.S. Jackson (above) has been re-elected for a 22nd term of office as president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. Also re- elected at the UE convention in Toronto last week were Jean Pare, vice - president; George Harris, secretary-treas- urer; Ross Russell, director of organization.

Workers in the four main Vancouver and Victoria ship- yards have voted to reject a conciliation officer’s proposal for a 6 percent wage increase. Nineteen unions are involved in the dispute.

This week, attempting to justify employer’s refusal to reopen talks with the unions, J. W. Hudson, chairman of B.C. Shipbuilders Federation, as- serted that B.C. shipyard un- ions were “pricing themselves out of jobs and the industry out of the market.”

He asserted that high wages, “30 percent above those paid in the east.” were diverting nearly all orders to eastern yards.

Union spokesmen, who. re- gard the federation’s attitude as reflecting the employers’ concerted campaign against la- bor, contend that North Bur- rard in Vancouver, Yarrows and Victoria Machine Depot in Victoria, “have been living. for the past five years on govern- ment contracts and doing very well at it.” The say that al- though some wage categories are higher in B.C. yards, la- bor costs generally are lower.

And they point to the fact

Shipbuilders’ claim spiked by profits

that Burrard Enterprises, which owns both Burrard Dry Dock and Yarrows, has shown a steadily increasing profit each year since 1950.

under pressure after coal has been dug out.’

“Provincial Mines Inspector Hiram Thompson says: ‘Six major rock shifts were re- ceived between mid-March and the end of August this year (1958). They caused injuries to 14 miners.’ Pit No. 2 is said to be very susceptible to earth tremors.

“All this an accident?

“No. What is involved is not an accident, but the blind greed of the profit system.”

Among the messages from labor organizations sent to the United Mine Workers’ local: at

Springhill is this from the na-,

tional executive of the Labor- Progressive Party:

“In this situation, over and above the material assistance which the families of those who lost their lives, need and receive, public opinion must be aroused and won in support to measures to further strengthen safety regulations in the mines, so as to prevent recurrence of such disasters, insofar as humanly possible. '

“But in addition, the mining corporations ought to be com- pelled by law to establish a disaster fund for the protec- tion of the miners and of the families of those who become victims of such terrible catas- trophies.

“Neither the miners nor their families should have to rely on charity to meet con- tingencies such as this. one. They should be protected, as far as it is possible to do so by law, in view of the hazard- ous nature of their employ- ment.”

40th anniversary CONCERT Majestic Theatre

20 West Hastings Street

Sunday, November 16 — 8 p.m.

Colorful: program of Ukrainian music, songs and dances

starting at 6:30 p.m.

BANQUET

In conjunction with the AUUC provincial conven- tion, a banquet will be held at the Ukrainian Hall, 805 East Pender Street, on Saturday, November 15,

Attend these two events celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians

November 7, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3

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