re Ty yea { usu x pret ae 4 stonttAoti sy) Vol 18 No. 25 Pltone MUtual 5-5288 23 Authorised as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa = 1p VANCOUVER, B.C. FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1959 the great majority of A members endorse strike on, the union will speed ) plans to hit the bricks, awaiting the official re- of the government- ised balloting. e IWA has a $2,000,000 ike fund and is in a good 0 on to win its demands ough strike action, if nec- minority conciliation board ort submitted by Jim Bury, union’s nominee, proposed vage increase of 15 percent 26 cents per hour, which- r is greater,” for a one- period. resent base rate for work- involved is $1.72. The un- is demanding a 20 per- t hike. n Bury’s report he pointed that productivity, or out- it per man per hour, had creased sufficiently for man- e in labor costs. - of the Results of a strike vote now being carried on by the IWA mong its 27,000 members in the coast lumber industry will be mown June 25, one day before a government-supervised strike te is held. IWA decided to hold its strike vote after union istrict president Joe Morris had’ dismissed a majority con- tiliation board recommendation of a 12-cent boost spread over years as ‘totally unacceptable.” “The employers failed to produce any meaningful evi- dence to offset this produc- tion argument except with some broad statements on how very difficult it would be to gather such informa- tion,’ Bury wrote. The IWA- strike ballots asked: “Are yau in favor of accepting the majority report conciliation board? Will you authorize strike ac- tion if deemed necessary by IWA policy committee?” The union leadership’s rec- ommendation is that strike action be authorized. Last. IWA strike was in 1952, and lasted 45 days. It re- sulted in a 5% cent hourly pay hike, a cost of living bonus and some fringe bene- fits. Last year the IWA sought a 16 percent increase, but when é6perators adopted a “hold the gement to absorb wage in- ~ line” policy the union leader- 4 s; without an actual’, ship buckled under and set- 'tled for not a cent. x et ‘paid post only last Janu the chair and very po Technically it dealt only with acceptance of the resignation of third vice - president Mel Kemmis—but everyone knew, “and the debate demonstrated, that the real issue at stake was preservation of union democ- racy. It was the executives back-door hiring of Whalen that brought about Kemmis decision to quit that body. Confusion in the method of tallying left the actual result in some doubt, but the chair refused to entertain a motion to hold a second, secret ballot. Although tellers had been ap- pointed by the chair, the ac- cepted count of the south sec- tio was made by VLC sec- retary E. A. Jamieson alone, Other counts were made twice, on a ruling of the chair, amid a general hubbub. The debate was kicked off by the presentation of a leng- . thy, mimeographed document submitted by the executive officers and distributed to delegates and the press. Read by secretary Jamieson, it de- fended the action of the ex- ecutive in hiring Whalen at $125 a week “plus reasonable expenses” and denied Kemmis’ statement that the executive uses “back door” and “shen- anigans” methods. Kemmis took the mike to ‘answer the attack made ‘against him in the document, “which I had no opportunity +o see before this meeting.” He referred to secret meet- ing of the executive, and when ‘Whalen and Jamieson shouted denials, said: ~ “As you deny these facts, I am forced to tell the whole story. At a special meeting Whalen asked to be put on the ‘payroll. I refused to go along with this until the question ‘came up before council, and I offered to put $10 a week out wf my pocket into a pool to ‘help Whalen if he was in fin- ancial difficulties, I had seen the financial. statements and was worried about Whalen’s Vancouver Labor Council, overtime, divided right dow board decision to put preside basis, after delegates had rejected an att own the mi By BERT WHYTE heavy expenses — about $340 last month, I believe. “Later I was called by Jamieson and was told that Whalen had put in a bill for five weeks at $125 a week, and asked if I would okay paying the bill. A couple of days later a meeting was held and Jamieson told me I was the last member being polled and the other executive members had agreed to pay Whalen. So I agreed, too. “Then, with no further dis- cussion, a member moved that Whalen be put on staff. I said I couldn’t go along, as I felt it would split the council wide open. I suggested bringing a recommendation from the ex- ecutive to council and I would endorse it and leave the matter to delegates to make the de- cision. This was rejected. “The executive stand was that they had the constitution- al right to hire Whalen. If the VLC delegates failed to agree I was told ‘they can put us out at. the next election.’ ‘J couldn’t go along with this, I take the stand that if you are constitutionally right but morally wrong, then you’re wrong. “T did not go to Sun report- er Doug Collins with the story. He phoned me and read me the story he had already written. He told me he knew Whalen had been hired, and asked me pointblank if it was true. You can’t cover up things forever—and be put in a posi- tion where you can’t tell the truth. e “I believe the council is off track because its leader Lloyd Whalen is off track — he’s heading for a paid job and that’s all that matters to him.” Other contributions to the debate: Syd Thompson: “This un- holy mess is doing untold harm to the labor movement. Re- sponsibility lies with the ex- perienced leaders of this coun- WHALEN ON PAYROLL: ANK AND FILE RILED in a stormy meeting which ran an hour ddle Tuesday night over an executive dent Lloyd Whalen on the payroll on a special empt to make the presidency a ary. Result of a standing vote (badly bungled by ssibly inaccurate) was announced as 143 to 142. cil. I went to the press be- cause every worker in Van- couver is talking about this matter and I wanted my mem- bership to know that I will not have any truck or trade with this sort of thing. My person- al opinion is that so long as Whalen leads this council we'll never clear up the mess. He should resign from the presi- dency.” Whalen interjected: “Sam Jenkins has priority over you in demanding my resignation.” Thompson retorted: “Jenk- ins hasn’t the reputation for beating you that I have.” Charles Lamarche: “I was instructed by my local (IWA 217) to oppose the executive but I am supporting the ex- ecutive. What will be the re- sult I don’t know.” (Voice from the floor: “You'll go the same way as Whalen.”) Orville Braaten: “The rank and file are fed up with the energies of this council having to be expended on a fight over whether a person goes on payroll. Our._members do not oppose the hiring of an assist- ant secretary, porviding he is not also the president of this council. Kemmis took the only stand he could take.” Sam Jenkins: “It’s time we cleaned up our back yard, I say Whalen should resign to- night. And we should vote against Kemmis’ resignation.” Lloyd . Whalen: “I’m not going to resign. ll be around long enough to walk over the graves of some of those who — have degraded themselves in this matter. I remember in the war years some of these same: people accused me of being a Hitler agent. I fought back then and Ill fight back now.” Bud Hodgins: “This is a house divided. The solution might be to accept Kemmis’ Continued on page 2 See WHALEN ON PAYROLL a : i 2k Coe — ee