4 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER CONTINUED FROM PAGE “TAKES ISSUE" Lumber workers are reasonable people but the em- ployers in a newsletter directed to our homes have at- tempted to describe us as unreasonable. They say that our demands are “highly impossible” and that they awill cripple the largest payroll industry in the province. Let us apply our reasoning to this statement, clearly in- tended to alarm reasonable people. They find it impossible to conceal the fact that their accumulated profits have reached astronomical propor- tions. Thai is the real reason why they have, for the first time at this stage, admitted that a wage increase is due. They hope, however, that this announcement might soften our militancy. The employers find ii impossible to deny that their profits could easily finance our demands. They attempt to claim that these huge profits must be retained to safeguard the future of the industry. We ask you to noie that, while we have been patiently waiting for necessary contract improvements, they have steadily increased their net worth. Actually, they are now able to meet our demands and at the same time continue their program of capiial expansion. ; The fact is carefully concealed that they are distri- buting these profits now by way of increased dividends to shareholders already in affluent circumstances. Also, that a large share of these increased profits are being drained off to the United States or Eastern Canada. We already know that our payroll is the biggest in the provincial economy. We recognize that this payroll is the biggest prop for the public’s spending ability which keeps the industrial machine running. The Union wants io keep it so. We ask the public to take a good square look at what the employers are doing to this payroll. They have skimmed off their excessive profits at the expense of workers, who have been displaced from employment in the industry. We do not oppose mechanization on principle, but we cannot close our eyes to the fact that the new machines in the lumber industry have spelled unemployment for many. In a five-year period the number of workers in the industry has been reduced by twelve per cent. That is a startling figure, obtained from official sources, when it is considered in terms of the tragedies of unemployment. Through mechanization and the speed-up the em- ployers have been able drastically to lower their labor costs per 1000 board feet of lumber, and take greater profits by making fewer men produce more lumber. As they skim off the profits from a record-breaking pro- duction, they are at the same time whittling down the payroll by employing a smaller work force. Who is crippling what, we may well ask? Their plans for the future contemplate a still smaller work force. For this reason, little has been done about job security for those at present employed in the indus- try. Their counter-proposals in the negotiations have clearly indicated their intentions. Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is April 16. April 9, and for news copy April 10. Deadline for ad copy is A AARVAT Published Twice Monthly on the First and Third Thursdays by INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 Editor . . . Grant MacNeil REGIONAL OFFICERS b 502 Jack Moore Jack MacKenzie Jack Holst ..... Bob Ross . Fred Fieber _.. _T. Wyman Trineer, Walter F. Allen Presidents, ..2. lst Vice-President ... 2nd Vice-President .. 3rd Vice-President ... Secretary-Treasurer Int. Board Members .... Address all communications to: FRED FIEBER, Secretary-Treasurer 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. TR. 4-5261 - 2 bscription Rates ........-..-...- $2.00 per annum one Representative G. A. Spencer Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa, Authorized ae for Payment of Postage in Cash. 27,500 COPIES ‘PRINTED IN THIS ISSUE SAY . . . THESE ONES HOOKED TOGETHER GO SWELL... The wage-earners’ spending for the necessities and amenities of life are of greater importance to the pros- perity of the province than the personal spending of a few millionaires. Our employers are grasping the benefits of automa- tion in a manner that makes automation a curse instead of a blessing. As they pursue this policy they lower the effective demand on production. Still worse, they in- crease the burden on the community inevitably caused by their contribution to an unemployment situation, for which they accept no responsibility. Our demands are calculated to reverse this trend. Higher wage levels stimulate the demand on production and enable the greater consumption of goods imported to pay for our lumber exports. Our proposals for greater job security will aid the community by halting a reckless scrapping of skilled workers onto the social assistance lines. In short, we propose that the employers should share their excess profits with the community by first sharing them with their employees, who form the largest single group of industrial workers in the province. This is a social responsibility which they have so far evaded. Let us be frank about these matters, so openly frank that they must act fairly and justly in this year of reckoning. USE YOUR THERE Bill Gives Workers Break Provisions for garnishee of workers’ wages are eased under a bill introduced in the Ontario Legislature. The maximum which can be taken from an employee’s gross wages to pay off debts is cut from 30 per cent to 25 per cent — whether taken voluntarily or involuntarily. The bill divides this amount into two parts. The employee can assign up to 18 per cent of his wages himself to pay for such charges as pension premiums and credit union debts. Only seven per cent of his wages can be taken from ‘ him without consent by gar- nishee. Under the previous legisla- tion, there was confusion about how much of the 30 per cent figure could be assigned in the voluntary or involun- tary categories. IS AND SAVE POSITIVELY NO FINER LOGGING BOOT ON THE MARKET TODAY AT ANY PRICE YOUR FEET. W. J. HEADS BOOT FACTORY LTD. 21 EAST HASTINGS ST. VANCOUVER 4, B.C.