1st Issue
March, 1969

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

THE WESTERN CANADIAN

LUMBER WORKER

Published twice monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOQDWORKERS OF AMERICA
Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1 Affiliated with AFL-C1O-CLC
2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 874-5261
Editor — Pat Kerr Business Manager — Fred Fieber Advertising Representatives — Elizabeth Spencer Associates

Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Westérn Canada in accordance with convention decisions.
Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year.

38,000 copies
printed in this issue.

Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post. Office Department, and for payment of postage in cash. Sp?

EDITORIAL

AN URGENT NEED

THE present furore over university ad-

ministration should not obscure the
urgent need for training and re-training
of workers in the technical skills now
required by industry.

Thirty per cent of those graduating
or dropping out from the secondary
schools intend to seek jobs in industry
for which special skills will be required
to ensure job security.

Workers with seniority in industry are
being displaced in greater numbers be-
cause of accelerated mechanization.
They, too, urgently require re-training in
the new skills now in demand. It is folly
to throw workers at their peak of produc-
tivity on the industrial scrapheap. The
increased provincial social assistance roll
is an ominous danger signal.

In this situation the operation of Can-
ada Manpower becomes of vital import-
ance.
Canada Manpower officials has missed
the mark. The proper target for criti-
cism is the provincial government, for its
indifference to the re-training needs of
the work force.

As pointed out in the article on re-
training published in this issue, the Fed-
eral Adult Occupational Training Act en-
ables a liberal and broad approach to the
problem. As education is within provin-
cial jurisdiction, the provision of facili-
ties for re-training is a provincial responsi-
bility. By no stretch of the imagination

Outright condemnation of the -

can it be said that the existing facilities
are adequate or in tune with present in-
dustrial requirements. It cannot be said
that training is provided for many new
job opportunities opening up by reason
of technological advances.

Better provision should be made to
enable workers who for various redsons
are unable to meet the academic quali-
fications now demanded by industry to
regain lost ground.

Retraining should be more carefully
geared to actual job opportunities that
the re-training may be rounded out by
on-the-job training on the part of the new
employer.

Since Canada Manpower is ready to
finance the re-training required by pres-
ent or former members of the work force,
why should any ambitious worker’be
denied such training through provincial
government indifference? Also, the de-
mand for skilled workers justifies greater
effort on the part of the employers to give
attention to on-the-job training properly
related to institutional training.

There is an urgent need for a survey
that will disclose all aspects of this prob-
lem. The need is beyond the reach of
collective bargaining. Federal and pro-
vincial levels of government, manage-
ment and unions must co-operate to Up-
grade the skills of workers entering in-
dustry and those now in industry whose
jobs are being rendered obsolescent.

(6)

TH’ GUY TO ASK ABOUT TH’ UPPER LEVELS IS OLD
BERT HERE... HE’S BEEN DRIVIN’ LOGGIN’ TRUCKS

ON TH’ COAST FER YEARS.

SESE ORES TE ESE ERT ELS.

INVESTIGATION NEEDED
OF SOCIAL WELFARE SYSTEM ~

A thorough investigation of
the country’s social welfare
system — not refusal to ex-
tend it — should be the Fed-
eral Government’s policy, the
Canadian Labor Congress said
here.

In its annual brief to the
Cabinet, the Congress said a
study should determine the
system’s adequacy and wheth-
er it is properly integrated.
Current Government policies
were failing to meet the needs
of the times. :

“Canadians should by now
be able to take it for granted
that a highly developed and

complex industrial state like
Canada should as a matter of
course expand and improve
its social legislation, the CLC
suggested. “Yet we are con-
fronted by the fact that your
Government, far from moving
‘in this direction, seems actu-
ally bent on halting any fur-
ther developments.”

The CLC expressed concern
about the Government’s de-
clared intention to review its
role with regard to medicare
in 1972. This was inhibiting
the participation of some of
the provinces.

SS

BAETZ

“GUARANTEED ANNUAL INCOME Pos

Ideas about the cost of a

guaranteed annual income are
exaggerated, Reuben Bae tz,
executive director of the Can-
adian Welfare Council, stated
recently.

Giving the keynote speech
to the annual educational con-
ference of the Ontario Feder-
ation of Labor, he comment-
ed: “I am convinced that the
whole question of a guaran-
teed annual income is much
more a social, moral and poli-
tieal one than an economic
one, because even today we

do not knowingly allow thou-
sands of Canadians to starve
to death.

DEGRADING RECIPIENTS

“We do eventually, often
after plaguing, ‘bugging’ and
degrading the recipients, pro-
vide them with enough money
to get by.

“Hence the net cost of a
guaranteed income, whether
through a negative income tax
scheme or some other ap-
proach, would not be as as-
tronomically high as some
suggest.”

Mr. Baetz contended that
Canadians show much genu-
ine concern about poverty but
he also noted a “discouraging
degree of phoniness and hypo-
crisy.”

LABOUR SCORED

He found government,
newspaper and labor move-
ment people who have back-
ward attitudes.

“Some of the most articu-
late anti-poverty leaders in
this country are to be found
in the labor movement,” he
said. “Thank goodness fox

REAL LAND SHARKS

“Mr. Rubin described how his company, which he described as a manufacturer of
real estate, is keeping more of its own production.

“The original profit on a piece of real estate, Mr, Rubin said, may be $300,000.
However, the profit accruing from the benefits of the mortgage on this property can

amount to $60,000 annually, Capitalizing this on a 10-
arrived at, or twice the orginal profit.

times basis, a figure of $600,000 is

“It is for this reason, in most cases, we don’t sell the properties unless we can hold

on to these benefits.’ ”

their leadership and courage!

“But also in the labor move- ‘

ment I have run across some
right wing reactionaries who
would make some of the Can-
adian Manufacturers’ Associa-
tion leaders look like left wing
‘pinkos.’

“This attitude shouldn’t
really surprise us because,
thanks to the labor movement,
the many thousands of mem-
bers in organized labor are
now protected from poverty
to a substantial degree.”

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Mr. Baetz said Canada com-
pares favourably with the
United States and most of
western Europe in developing
social justice.

He added: “We have a long
way to compare with Sweden
—a country which has clearly
demonstrated that a high de-
gree of social justice destroys
neither free enterprise nor
initiative.”

Fighting poverty in a coun-
try like Canada means more
than raising the incomes of
some poor people, he said.

“Perhaps poverty in a rich,
urban and industrialized coun-

try like ours can best be sum-
med up as meaning exclusion
of the minority from the ever-
expanding comforts, opportun-
ities and self respect accorded
to the majority.”

INTERIOR
BANKING!

It was a hot day in the small
Interior town when the bank
inspector entered the bank.
He was quite disturbed to
find no one in sight and peer-
ing into the cashier’s office he
discovered several of the em-
ployees playing poker.

Determined to teach them
a lesson he tripped the alarm
and ducked into a vacant
office.

The clang of the alarm had

barely died down when the ©

doors of the pub next door
Popped open and the bar-
tender entered the bank bal-
ancing a tray of beer and say-

ing, “Coming right up gents!”

ver