le Begins 12th year as president of 12,000-member union By ERIC SANDERSON (Written for the B.C. Teamster) One of Canada’s youngest trade union leaders — Edward M. Lawson — has been re-elected for a fourth consecutive term as head of the Teamsters Union in B.C. Officially he is president of Teamsters Joint Council No. 36 whieh embraces eight locals and more than 12,000 members. Lawson was first elected presi- dent of Joint Council 36 in 1955 at the age of 24 for a three-year term. He was re-elected for an- other three-year stint in 1958 and for a five-year term in 1961. His re-election took place at the January meeting of the Council and he won handily over rank-and-filer Des Howe of Bak- ery Local 189. Lawson, now 37, is highly recognized by the International Union for his work in building the Teamsters image in B.C. He is currently serving his third term as Canadian representative of the Western Conference of Team- sters. . .. AS FEDERATION SEES IT By RAY HAYNES Listening to the radio re- cently, one would have re- ceived the impression that the darling of the Liberal-Socred establishment, Ed Lawson, had been endorsed over- whelmingly by all members of the local Teamsters Union in last month’s election. That is not the case. In fact, a close analysis of the so-called elec- tion brings to light a number of interesting points. : First of all, Mr. Lawson was not elected by a referen- dum vote as is the case in the IWA and many other trade unions. Mr. Lawson was elect- ed by a vote of the Teamsters’ joint council. It should be pointed out that the joint council is composed of seven representatives of each of the eight locals in British Colum- bia. FROM PAGE 1 According to the Teamster setup, a full turnout at a coun- cil meeting would mean 56 delegates. However, perhaps partly because the council in- cludes locals from all over the province, only 39 delegates “INTERIOR™ revisions and training pro- grams. Market conditions im- proved. At a conference held ‘February 8th, 1967, the em- -ployers suggested an exten- sion of the present agreement for one with Rone hae bihrm of ten cents an across- an hour effective February 1, 1967, and an additional in- erease of 24 cents an hour, report for th -Weldwood of Canada Ltd., such as increased shift differ- 1 entials, pcm Pi a a June. Arrangements were made to meet the employers’ committee February 21, 1967. This meeting was cancelled by the employers and the Union was advised that at an earlier meeting the employers had voted to reject the proposals of their negotiating commit- tee. This brought discussions on the proposed settlement to a halt. The Interior members are holding their Wages and Con- tract Conference in Kelowna, May 12-13, out of which will come the formulated contract demands to be presented to the employers. There is little doubt in the Union that the stalling tactics of the employers will react them. Indications are the Interior members are gM cet g's THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER __ AS TEAMSTERS SEE LAWSON'S ELECTION ... Lawson re-elected again as head of B.C. Teamsters ED LAWSON attended. Many of them were full-time, paid representatives under the direct supervision of headman Ed Lawson. Despite this obvious advan- tage, Mr. Lawson was only able to defeat an unknown bread truck driver, Des Howe, by a 26 to 13 vote, or 66 per- cent. To make matters worse, the taxi local which partici- pated in the vote is now down to 45 members in the prov- ince, and it is being dissolved and absorbed by the Cartage Local 31. Had the taxi local not participated, Mr. Lawson’s vote would have suffered even worse. But in true Lawson fashion, radio, television and news- papers were used throughout the day to helo build the Law- son image. You can accuse Mr. Lawson of many failures as a labour leader, but public relations isn’t one of them. There is no doubt, the re- election of Mr. Lawson for another five years (that’s right five years!) is not going to help heal the serious split within the Teamsters’ organ- ization. Two Teamsters’ locals have parted company, and have already set up offices far from the green-windowed building on East Broadway. Old King Pyrrhus once said: “One more such victory, and we are utterly undone.” LOCAL 1-424 ANNUAL MEET President Ross Inglis of Local 1-424 IWA reports that the local’s annual meeting will be held April 8-9, at the Simon Fraser Hotel in Prince George. The local is also holding a Wage and Contract confer- April 23, in the IWA George . RAYONIER COMPANY of Canada, whose large sawmill employing six hundred men was burnt down last August in New Westminster, is dickering with the city to purchase 14.7 acres of land to rebuild. The city has indicated it will sell the property to the company. for $147,000 but has stipulated that the firm must complete all buildings by February 28, 1969. Before the fire, Rayonier leased the land from the city at approximately $8,000 a year. Ray- onier’s plans call for the construction of a planer mill, recovery buildings and shipping structures and a railway loading building. Picture above shows the old plant burning out of control in what proved to be one of the largest fires in the city’s history. POWER SAW BAR PREVENTS KICKBACKS A new type of power saw bar has been designed by 4a faller on Vancouver Island which virtually eliminates - kickbacks and allows the saw to be self-feeding. Its designer, Elmo Lahtinen, a member of Local 1-80, has already rejected an offer for his design from one of the major power saw companies because he prefers to see the bar manufactured to fit all makes of saws. A number of the bars are presently in use on Vancouver Island and there is a growing demand from other fallers to have the bar mass produced. There have been no reports to date of any kickbacks and the fortunate few who have the bar claim it has boosted their work output. They also claim the chain requires much less tension and doesn’t jump off. Mr, Lahtinen, who was asked to demonstrate the bar at the recent IWA safety con- ference in Nanaimo, stated FOR SALE 3 armchairs $7.00 each 1 table lamp $5.00 1 coffee table $4.00 Telephone table and chair $12.00 Phone: 462-9671 ELMO LAHTINEN that while he wouldn’t guar- antee the bar would never kick back, it certainly wa safer than the bars presently in use. He added that the only drawback was the cost. Until the bar can be mass produced it will cost approximately ten percent more at the. dealer level. ;