Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1947-09-19
Washington
LaborReport
BY Paul Slfton,
LPA. Columnist

that produce 100000 tons a
year. During a strike running
from February into June, loans
were obtained, interest free,
from cooperative credit unions
to which about three out of
four miners belong. In addi-
ton, co.ops throughout Nova
Scotia voluntarily made sub
stantial contributions to strike
relief funds.
In his 1947 annual report,
A. S. MacIntyre, managing di-
rector of the Nova Scotia Co.
op Union, stated that that or
ganiza ion had contributed
S593; % co.ops had given
$1,000 and the Credit Union
League lin addition to loans)
had given $1,000 AS important
as the money and the loans
was the sympathy and moral
support back of them.
Practical cooperation is not
a one-way proposition. In the
midst of the strike, when hard.
ship among miners families
was acute and there was talk
of pulling out the maintenance
men, farmers co-ops were hit
by a shortage of a new ferti.
lizer made by grinding the
steel Stag from the big Sydney
mills.
The president of the local,
up to his eyes in pressing
strike matters, had paid no at
tention to it. When the short.
age became acute, representa-
tives of the Coop Wholesale
appealed to local cooperators,
who were also members of the
UMWA. These cooperators in
turn appealed to the local pres
ident. The question of author
izing the manning of the stone
crusher came up at a union
meeting Despite the tense
strike situation, a motion to
permit the manning of the
crusher carried overwhelm-
ingly. This, according to Mrs.
John Delaney, wife of one of
the most active Glace Bay CO.
operators and herself the au-
thor of basic Coop PAM
phlet, Shopping Basket Eco
nomics," could not have hap
pened a few years ago.
COOPERATION
This incident proved drama
tically the growth Of under
standing and practical CO
operation between miners and
farmers resulting fr o m the
operation of coop credit un-
ions, coop stores, and the CO.
op wholesale where represen-
tatives of miners, steel work
ers, farmers, lobstermen and
fishermen get acquainted.
Housing, one of Glace Bays
most acute needs, is being inn
proved by three new coop
housing groups. With loans
from the Nova Scotia govern
ment six-room.and-bath houses
are being built at cost of
$4,000. This development fol
lows the pioneering work of
DR.. j. j. Thompson at the near
by Reserve Mines in the fun
damentals of cooperative phi
losophy and method.
Sydney is a hot union town,
mostly steel workers at the
big integrated Dominion plant.
The Sydney Cooperative So
ciety has 500 member families
and operates three clean, we'll
stocked and well.operated re-
tail stores. The president OF
the Society Is Laurence Mac
Isaac, who has the steel work
ers' pallor and a quiet but in
tense belief i'm the value of the
cooperative movement. He Is
also president of the Cape Bre-
ton Coop Whole Society, made
up OF AS local co-ops having
from one to five stores each.
It's membership includes the
old British Canadian Cooper
ative which started more than
80 years ago at Sydney Mines
with a harter permitting
branch stores. The new coop
erative movement frowns on
branches outside a single com.
munity, believing that the pa
irons Of each store must par
ticipate in management in or
der to keep the enterprise truly
cooperative in spirit and opera.
ton.
The Coop WHOLESALERS busi,
ness Is running at the rate of
$1,500,000 a year, 1t is. in
turn, tied In with the central
coop wholesale at Monckton,
New Brunswick, which, along
with centrals in Quebec, On
tario and the western prov.
inces, is a member of the Inter-
Provincial Co-ops, Ltd, with
headquarters at Winnipeg.