FOREST INDUSTRY CAN AFFORD IT

IWA wage demands

At a press conference in}
Vancouver this week International i
Woodworkers of America (IWA):
B.C. District President Jack Moore|
outlined the major points of a new!
1968 wage contract covering some!
28,000 lumber workers in the Coast!
industry. :

These demands had been earlier
formulated in a Wages and Contract
Conference held in Vancouver,
February 23-24 by a delegate body
representing all Coast local unions.

Moore pointed out that the 40-cent:
wage gains made in the present
contract, which expires in June were
eaten up by steadily rising living
costs, and by all indications that
spiralling will continue.

Key points on the IWA proposals
for a new contract include:

@A 50-cent an hour across-the-
board increase for all

lumberworkers.

e@ Double-time for all overtime

work in place of the present time-and-
half rate. This demand is designed to,
spread available employment by
penalizing excessive over-time work.

e@ All employees to receive one
week’s severance pay for each year
of service, when services are
terminated through retirement,
plant closure, etc.

e Additional statutory holidays for
mill and camp lumberworkers.

e Demand that companies assume
all costs of protective clothing and
safety equipment. Under present
conditions workers in the industry
are compelled to furnish a wide
range of safety equipment at their
own expense.

@ An increase in loggers travelling
allowance to and from the point of
hiring. Under present contract
arrangements this is determined by
days. worked, resulting in travel
penalties upon the employee.

e A union-administered Health and

CP hits distortions
of report on Ukraine

Recently the Communist Party of
Canada published a report of a
delegation it sent to the Ukraine to
study the situation there. This report
has been widely misrepresented by
the capitalist publicity media. This
week the Central Executive
Committee of the Party issued the
following press release dealing with
this question:

“Ever since the Communist Party:
delegation visited the Soviet Ukraine,
and published its conclusions, the
capitalist press has attempted to
distort it to suit its cold war anti-
Soviet purposes. This distortion is
particularly evident in the false
claim that the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union has deviated from a‘
principled Leninist position on the
national question and is pursuing a
policy of Russification.

“These claims are completely,
false.

‘‘The triumph of socialism has also,
brought with it a flowering of culture}
of all the nations inhabiting the:
Soviet Union. This is not to suggest
that mistakes are not made in the
course of building a system of
society free of exploitation of man by

LOTT :

CK WX 10:10/P.M.

1130k.c, SUNDAYS

COMMUNIST PARTY’S
WEEKLY RADIO
COMMENTARY

by NIGEL MORGAN

man. But neither is it to deny that
where and when mistakes are made,
they are corrected and socialist:
democracy ever extended.

“This is a continuing democratic
process inherent in a system of
society which has the means of self

correction, growth and development.

‘Those who now try to build up an
anti-Soviet campaign will not

succeed in face’of the great advances’ .

made. by the Ukrainian people,
materially, in art, culture and
science; and the Soviet Union’s
indefatigable struggle for world:
peace and friendship amongst all

peoples.”

Women’s Day
functions to
aid Vietnam

International Women’s Day will be
observed in Vancouver by a film
showing and tea on Sunday, March
10, 1 p.m. at the Fishermen’s Hall,
138 E. Cordova St. Called under the
theme of ‘‘Women of the World for
Peace’’ special emphasis will be on
the heroic women of Vietnam.

A film, ‘“‘Women on the March’,
depicting the struggle for women’s
rights, will be shown. Feature
speaker will be Vancouver’s
outstanding woman lawyer, Elspeth
Munro Gardner.

In Delta, Mrs. Sheila Young,
executive member of the Canadian
Aid for Vietnam Civilians, will speak
on ‘“‘Women’s Role in the Coming
Century”’ at an afternoon tea at the
Nordic Centre, 7820 - 6th, Burnaby,
Sunday, March 10, 2 p.m.

In Nanaimo the film ‘“‘Women on
the March’’ will also highlight an
afternoon function at the Tickson’s
home in Wellington, Sunday, March!
17 at 1:30 p.m. Invitations have been
mailed out. Feature speaker will be
Mona Morgan of Vancouver.

Proceeds from all International’
Women’s Day gatherings will go to
medical aid for Vietnam.

MARCH 1, 1968—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 12

Welfare Plan totally paid for by the,
industry, with the weekly indemnity
raised to $75 per week (Present Plan:
is jointly administered by union-
management, with a weekly
indemnity of $50 for 39 weeks).

e A Monday-to-Friday 5-day work’
week for all cookhouse and
bunkhouse staffs, with overtime
rates to apply on all time worked
Saturday and Sunday.

e Anincrease in vacation time, with
a corresponding increase of 2% over
present vacation pay-schedule.

These and other important
demands were presented by

CT

fully justified

Moore indicated that the consumer .

‘President Moore as the prime
demands which the IWA will project
in this year’s negotiations for a new
wage contract, and which it is
expected will get under way soon.
IWA proposals are based upon a one
year agreement.

Moore laid strong emphasis on the
steadily rising cost-of-living and
spiralling prices which affects every
workingclass family budget, and
which makes the demand for wage
increases inescapable. The IWA
leader stressed the fact that wage
increases of 15-months or two years
ago, which looked big at the time,
are ‘‘now totally inadequate’. Since
the last wage increase in the IWA,

WONDERING WHERE
YOUR MONEY GOES 1

TURN THE PAGE AND TAKE A GOOD LOOK!

Reproduced above is the front page of a four-page leaflet being distributed by

High Prices, High Profits and High Taxes Are
the Real Culprits Digging Into Your Pay Cheque

IWA local 1-217. It is packed with facts and figures showing the need and

justification for a 50¢ an hour increase.

price index had risen by 8.1 percent
or more, and there is nothing to
indicate that it will not continue on
an upward spiral.

Moore told the press conference
that the B.C. lumber industry is “in
very good shape’’ because of the
heavy demand for lumber products
at home and abroad. The profits of
the lumber companies were never
higher, and quite adequate to meet
any increased wage demands put
forward by the IWA without cutting
too deeply into record profits.

President Moore made it clear at
the IWA press conference that the
IWA did seek to jointly participate in
such a fact-finding body, providing
one point in its terms of reference
was accepted; viz, that the lumber
companies open their books for union
scrutiny of their profit balance
sheets. This the lumber companies
flatly refused to do, but now seek to

put the onus of scuttling the

government’s fact-finding proposals
upon the IWA instead of themselves.

Some Press representatives at the

IWA conference sought to establish-

the IWA’s wage demands of ‘18
percent’’ as being exorbitant,
President Moore stated that their
percent figure was in error, but even
if near correct, “the IWA is entitled
to a much greater share of the vast
wealth it produces, and something
better than the generation before us
got’.

Other members of the IWA
Negotiating Committee challenged
the ‘18-percent’’ press argument,
but less than two hours later the ‘‘18-
percent” theory was being peddled
on local radio stations, with all the
stock arguements of ‘‘high wages’
as the root cause of inflation thrown
in; indicating that already the
moulders of public opinion are
getting set to line up behind
government-managementattacks
upon all unions involved in
negotiations for increased wages and
improved standards of living.

“Despite the outcome of the vote
of confidencein parliament, all signs
point to an early federal election,”’
William Kashtan, leader of the
Communist Party, said in an
interview in Toronto.

“Each of the old line parties are
desperately jockeying for position so
as to place the blame for an election
on the other,’’ he added.

‘‘While the immediate cause of the
defeat of the Liberal government
was the ‘mini budget’, the underlying
factors go much deeper. They have
to do with Canada’s future as an
independent, united and sovereign
country, the ability to work out a
relationship of equals between
English speaking and French Canada
to formulate policies of full
employment, stable prices and rising
living standards, and make Canada a
vital and independent voice for
peace,’’ he said.

“In this regard,’’ Kashtan
remarked, ‘‘Liberal policy is at a
dead end. Its ‘stop and go’ economic

policies find their reflection today in |
rising interest rates, a slowdown in |
economic growth and as a’
consequence, rising unemployment. .

This is compounded by attacks on the

Canadian dollar emanating from the :

‘Need left coalition’—Kashtan

U.S.A. arising from the currency
crisis.”

“The Conservatives make a lot of
noise about the inadequacies of
Liberal government economic
policy,” he went on. ‘‘But the Tories
have not spelled out what policies
they would pursue. Where they have
spelled it out as in medicare which
they oppose, it more than suggests a
calculated effort to shift to the right
under false slogans such as defense
of ‘free enterprise’ and the ‘right of
individuals’. There is no reason to
doubt though that their economic and
social policies will be directed to
strengthening monopoly control at
the people’s expense.”

“Tn: any case monopoly interests «
are working overtime to shift

Parliament to the right. They would

like nothing better than to change the ©

composition of Parliament in the

sense of bringing about the election ©

of a majority Government which
would be less responsive to the

pressures of the Canadian people,” —

Kashtan asserted. ‘‘In either case
they would get what they want, a

strong Government to ‘save the.

dollar’ by curtailing social security

measures and lowering living:

standards.

“The U.S. has a finger in this
operation also. It too wants a ‘strong
government’ which would be more
amenable in support of its foreign
policies and overall economic
policies. The U.S. Government is far
from happy with the timid opposition
expressed by Parliament to its war
in Vietnam and with the proposals of
the Watkin’s task force which would
impose some restraints on U.S.
subsidiaries in Canada. The pressure
on the Canadian dollar is in fact part
of an effort to shift Canadian policy
to the right and make it more
compliant to U.S. imperialist aims.

‘Democratic opinion should be
mindful of the various forces at work
directed to bring about a coalition on
the right. What the people of Canada
need,” he added, ‘‘is the forging of a
coalition of the left including all
democratic forces to defeat this
threat.”

“The Communist Party,” Kashtan
stated, ‘“‘will be convening a meeting
of its Central Committee before too
long to analyze these developments
and work out its electoral program
and policy in light of the developing
situation.”’