LABOR’S VOICE FOR VICTORY

Ss —

5 Cents

Ik. No. 12

Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, March 27, 1943

ouble Shooter

MALCOLM MacLEOD

{E'S Malcolm MacLeod, busi- 85s agent of the Boilermak- nd iron Shipbuilders Union, Wo. 1, and, during the last weeks of dispute over the 5 status, its busiest member. ‘Zeod has come to be the sym- Ow that other leaders of the are prevented from function- @ all that is progressive and svatic within the Boilermak- ttup. He represents the real sts of the overwhelming ma- of the membership. ile a small group of phonies— them on the fingers of your

scurry around between the 1ouse and a lawyers office plans to disrupt, to hinder, smash Canada’s largest single union, Macleod is the man Spends his days and nights ng with the members, with hop stewards, to block the ef disruption. Where the eS are attempting to tear he and the membership are ne hard, and successfully, to up.

: how successful that work een, in spite of court injunc- and legal delays, is seen by ict that within the past few ‘the union has grown to the of 1,000 new members. addition, hundreds of mem- unable to pay dues at the the unicn was illegally sus- d by the CCl, have been ht back inte good standing sh a system of “showing of / Supervised by Macleod and 10p stewards.

this has been done during a / of almost indescribable con- . It speaks well for the mem- DS determination to hold Tanks, and their hard-won Conditions. It speaks well for Im Macieod’s own activity in ne on successfully under the difficult conditions,

New Ships Praised By Seaman

Enthusiastic commendation for the type of ship being turned out by Vancouver ship- yard workers, coupled with criticism of the government’s selective service policy which recruits experienced seamen

for the army and mans the nation’s ships with inexperienced ‘Jandlubbers,” was given by a Van- couver seamen just returned from

Ja voyage to Pacific war fronts in

an interview with The People this week.

“These ‘Fort’ class ships which are being turned out in local yards are fine, seaworthy craft,” he de- clares. “The crew’s quarters are comfortable, and the ship itself

handles as it should handle in any kind of weather.”

He was critical, however, of the fact that many of the ships are manned by crews supposed to: have been given a six-week training eourse at a Prescott, Ontario mar- ine training school, but who are not qualified to handle the jobs given them under conditions now prevailing at sea.

He cited the example of a crew ef inexperienced firemen sent aboard his last ship who were un- able to maintain a full head of steam due to their lack of train- ing.

“As a result,” he said, “we fre- quently found ourselves unable to make more than five or six knots an hour in areas known to be pa- trolled by enemy ships and subs, despite the fact that the ship was capable of doing eleven and a half Iknots under normal conditions.”

Failure by the government to provide members of the Canadian Merchant Navy with travel privil- ege similar to those enjoyed by other sections of the armed forces was also questioned by this inform- ant, who desires to remain anony- mous.

When his ship arrived back in Vancouver recently, he and 12 oth- er Vancouver men were told they would be shipped out*on another Pacific voyage. Since they faced the prospect of several weeks in port, the local men decided to volunteer for the dangerous Murmansk con- voy route and applied for trans- portation to an Atlantic port. They were told that the government-op- erated Manning Pool would not provide transportation, and on fur- ther enquiry, discovered they would not be granted the privilege of half- fares given army, navy and air

-| force men,

Metal Union Challenges

Consolidated

Organizing Drive Sweeps Into Trail

TRAIL, B.C.—The first mass meeting of smelter employees in three years packed the Rialto theater on Sunday to hear Harvey Murphy, International representative of Mine, Mill and

Smelter Workers (CIO), who

“If the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company has the enlightened labor policy claimed, and if the international union

cannot secure more than 51 per- cent of the employees as members of the local union, the union -will step out of the picture.”

Trade unions had been given a go-ahead signal by recent amend- ments to the ICA Act, Murphy said, adding that it now remained for the workers to take full advantage of this legislation,

Opposition by 5S. G. Blaylock, Consolidated president, to the changes made recently during the Session of the legislature was scored by Murphy, who said the union intended to find out whether the relationship between Consolidated and its employees was as happy as represented by Blaylock. Only people opposing the changes, he said, were Canadian Manufactur- ers’ Association representatives and delegates from the Workmen’s GCom- mittee from Trail.

“We will see if that action repre- sents the feeling of the workers in Trail,” he added.

Official policy of his union, Mur- phy explained, was to prevent dis- ruption and strikes and to work

ithe employees of Consolidated were

>

declared that:

for all-out production.

The established union in ‘Trail would be operated by a majority vote of the men in Trail, Murphy explained. Only strength of the workers was their power of or- Zanization. Murphy referred to an article carried in the Vancouver Province quoting Blaylock as saying

“one happy family.”

“If, as the story says, they were happy,” Murphy went on, “why did the company oppose legislation in their interests?”

A resolution commending action of the legislature in passing TGA Act amendments was passed enthus- iastically.

The meeting heard greetings from CIO members in the United States, delivered by C. J. Powers, International district board mem- ber, who said regulations under which he had crossed the border prevented him addressing the meet- ing. :

Following the meeting many ap- plications were received for mem- bership in the union.

The meeting was held under the auspices of Local 480, TUMMSW.

Welders Call Brief

Sitdown

A brief sitdown strike by members of the Welders and Burners sub-local of the Boil- ermakers Union in South Bur- rard yard this week was settled

within four hours after Busi- ness Agent Malcolm Macleod had eonferred with the management and won a settlement of the men’s grievance.

Action was taken over payment of “dirty money” for welding of plates which had been freshly paint- ed. The condition had previously been protested on a number of oc- casions, since welding on freshly— painted steel creates heavy fumes dangerous to health of the torch operator. Failure by company offi- cials to take note of the condition forced the men to put down their tools asthe only means of en- forcing recognition of their request.

A Boilermakers Union member later told The People that proper coordination between the depart- ment responsible for painting the plates and the welding shop would avoid such incidents.

“This is only one case where lack of simple planning of the work ereated a minor crisis,” he declared. “There are many instances in all yards where departmental gears clash, and this points again to the need, stressed by all unions in the yards, of functioning labor-manage- ment committees.”