SWINGING TO THE MUSIC. These children are
enjoying themselves playing the wood organ at EXFO,
the Forest Centre Project which is planned for B.C.
Place. This and other exhibits and demonstrations can
be seen at Creekhouse, beside the market on Granville
Island, June 13 through September 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Tuesday through Sunday.

FOREST CENTRE
OPENS JUNE 13

It’s a roaring, spinning, piping good time
as B.C.’s Forest Foundation kicks off a
summer show, EXFO ’80, on Granville
Island.

There’s the roar of the chain-saw biting its
way through a spartree; the whirl] of ‘the
wheel turning the treadle lathe; and the
musical tones coming from the xylophone
and the wooden organ pipes.

These are only a few of the things a visitor
to the Foundation’s free exhibit will see
June 13 to September 1. Hours are 10 a.m. to
5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

Purpose of the show in this temporary
location is to preview The Forest Centre to
the public.

Exhibits such as the treadle lathe need the
help of a visitor’s foot or hand to bring them
to life.

Fight a forest fire — computer style. The
person playing the computer game attempts
to squelch the blaze before the fire levels
stands of valuable timber.

Feel you way through a wood species rack
with 30 different types of wood. At the
microscopes, see reasons for the differences
in textures and feel.

Try the wooden xylophone; which wood
species give the sharpest or lowest notes?

One of the world’s smallest sawmills will
process pint-sized logs.

Feel veneer and see it made into sheets of
plywood.

Try your hand at paper making.

Craftsmen will demonstrate wood work-
ing, cabinet making, wood sculpting, and
other wood-related jobs or hobbies.

The B.C. Forest Foundation is a joint
industry, labour, management, education
and government board charged with build-
ing and operating The Forest Centre, which
will be built in the B.C. Place Complex on
False Creek.

PAPER MAKING:
Paper will be made by hand with participa-
tion of the public.

PLYWOOD MAKING:
The demonstrator will make 9’ x 9’ sheets of

plywood out of veneer, allowing the public to
feel the materials before and after the sheet

is made.

SAWMILL: ;
A working model of a sawmill head-rig
(owned by BCIT) will be demonstrated to the

public.

12/Lumber Worker/May, 1980

TREE PLANTING:
There will be a tree-planting demonstration,

showing the normal techniques of tree
planting.

TREADLE LATHE:
A reproduction treadle lathe will be operated
by young visitors under close supervision.

MAKING THINGS:
Craftsmen demonstrate various wood work-
ing techniques, musical instruments,
cabinet making, wood sculpting, etc.

COMPUTER FIRE GAME:

Based on micro-computer with colour screen
presentation. Visitors attempt to put outa
hypothetical fire which starts and spreads
across the screen.

THEATRE:
The films “Spar Tree’, “Cooperage”’ and
others will be shown in a small automated
theatre.

“TELL US WHAT YOU THINK”:
A feedback exhibit. Visitors will be asked to
write down their impressions, criticisms,
and suggestions.

ORGAN PIPES:
Organ pipes can be blown by pumping
bellows.

LOG PUZZLE:

Visitors can reassemble a log from the
lumber which was cut from it — a sort of
jigsaw puzzle.

MICROSCOPES:
For examining tree cells, wood, paper, etc.

XYLOPHONE:
Some different wood properties can be
“heard” on this wood xylophone.

SPECIES RACK:
About 30 different wood properties can be
picked up and examined.

QUIZ BOXES:
Visitors will answer ’’true”’ or ‘“‘false”’ to
questions on these Quizzes. The full answer
and explanation is given after the choice is
made.

STRESS EXHIBITS:  ,
A plexiglass tree model is stressed; these
stress lines can be seen because the model is
placed between light polarizing sheets — the
“photoelastic” effect.

JOE MORRIS
BURSARY

The IWA Regional Executive Board meet-
ing May 14, approved the establishment ofa
$2,500 Labour College of Canada Bursary in
tribute to Joe Morris, the former Canadian
Labour Congress president who prior to
going to the CLC was IWA Regional
president for ten years.

The Bursary will be available to union
members wishing to attend the Labour
College and who have the necessary
qualifications.

LABOUR BOARD
BACKS EMPLOYEES

The Ontario Labour Relations Board
recently decided in favour of the Canadian
Union of Public Employees in a case where a
company’s hiring policy was designed to
discriminate against union members.

The company Metropolitan Parking Inc.,
has been ordered to employ and compensate
CUPE members who were refused jobs

when the firm outbid Toronto Auto Park
(Airport) Ltd. for a federal contract to run
parking lots at Toronto International
Airport.

CUPE had been negotiating a first agree-
ment with TAP when the company lost the
contract. TAP let go all its employees and
Metropolitan Parking advertised for staff,
receiving 270 applications containing quali-
fications, experience and past employment
records.

However, the selection was made at
random without consideration of the infor-
mation or the familiarity of TAP employees
with airport parking arrangements.

The board ruled that the company’s policy
was implemented to avoid hiring a work-
force heavily weighted in favour of a trade
union. The company could not reject TAP
employees outright without signalling its
true intention of discrimination against
union members, the board said. Neither
could it use a rational selection process
based on an applicant’s skills, ability or
experience because this would inevitably
result in hiring the bulk of TAP’s work force.

“This is a more subtle form of discrimina-
tion than an outright refusal to employ
TAP’s employees,” the board said. “But for
many individuals it has exactly the same
effect. They were denied an opportunity for
a fair appraisal of their applications for
employment solely because they were trade
union employees.”

SWEDES SUFFER
IN SEVENTIES

Economically speaking, the latter part of
the seventies proved to be a lost cause for
Swedish employees. Unemployment in-
creased substantially by Swedish standards
between 1976 and 1979 (unemployment is
usually slightly over 1%). It was not until
late autumn 1979 that unemployment began
to decrease slightly, despite the fact that the
economic climate was favourable through-
out the year.

This emerges from a report published by
the LO’s Press Department in November
1979. The report examines a large number of
aspects of the Swedish economy: unem-
ployment, real income trends, trends in
consumer prices, food consumption,
employment in industry, housing costs, etc.

The real wages of an average Swedish
industrial worker fell by 6% before taxes
between 1976 and 1979. This represents a
loss of one and a half month’s income in
terms of purchasing power.

Consumer prices rose more than they did
even during the worst inflation years of the
fifties. In 1977 food prices rose by 17.2%,
while the general price level rose by 13%.

Food consumption fell in the same year
for the first time during the seventies, partly
because of the fall in real wages and partly
because of the steep increases in prices. The
general price level rose by something
approaching 10.5% in 1979 and very marked
increases in prices are forecast for 1980.
Milk, for instance, is expected to become 25
orex per litre more expensive.

Rents also rose very sharply. On average
rents rose by almost 23% between 1976 and

1979.
Employment levels in industry also fell

markedly. Between 1975 and 1978 120,000
jobs in industry disappeared, 40,000 of these
in the mechanical engineering industry.
Only a small proportion of these jobs in
industry re-appeared with the economic
upswing enjoyed in 1979.

«1 krona = 100 ore = US$0.24