2nd Issue February, 1963 No Protection “Loggers Tricked AN _ THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER Eddie Tells House By IWA REPORTER VICTORIA— “The actions of the Provincial Department of Labour and the Board of Industrial Relations are de- serving of the most severe criticism for their irrespon- sible actions in regard to overtime regulations and the indiscriminate granting of overtime permits,” stated Rae Eddie, MLA, (NDP-New Westminster) during the Bud- get Debate here. The New Westminster member, speaking from long experience in the forest pro- ducts industry launched into a scathing denunciation of the ruling of the Board of In- dustrial Relations which “throws the door wide open to removal of protection for hours of work in the logging industry.” He summarized the result- ing situation as follows. Overtime permits are be- ing granted to employers who have laid off regular employ- ees, and re-arranged work schedules of skeleton crews, Workers Replaced By Geese A report from the Wall Street Journal states that the Mexican farm workers em- ployed by American cotton growers are being replaced, not by machines but by geese. The reason: Growers in the cotton regions are finding that geese — specifically the White Chinese variety — can do weeding better and more cheaply than men with hoes. “Cotton goosing,’ as the use of geese for weeding is called, has been employed on a small scale for half a cen- tury. In recent years, how- ever, the technique has spread rapidly as cotton farm- ers, their profits squeezed by rising costs and declining markets, have sought to trim labour bills. Farmers say it ordinarily takes two geese per acre for weeding cotton; 12 geese do the work of one man. After the geese finish their weed- ing chores in the spring they sometimes are sold to proces- sors for marketing as food. But some farmers keep geese —which have been known to live as long as 25 years—from year to year; a goose requires only about 50 cents worth of food annually to supplement its diet of weeds. The geese seldom wander, being poor fliers. They do have their shortcomings, cot- ton growers admit. Some- times they get too big and cotton. Farmers in on the basis of permission to work extra hours. Unlimited work hours are now permissible on the pre- text that only preparatory and maintenance work is done. This broad definition, as applied to the logging in- dustry, allows the overtime performance of work form- erly considered as regular production work. The amended regulations leave the power of interpret- ation entirely in the hands of the employers. There is no provision for consultation with the Union concerned to determine whether overtime work is of an emergency nature. The amended regulations destroy the protection origin- ally intended by the Statute against successive hours of work. The employers are given the “green light” to im- pose overtime at will. The employers have dis- covered that penalty rates for overtime is no hardship to them. It is less costly to pay penalty rates than to hire regular employees and pay the benefits to which they are entitled. By this action, the Board has turned the clock back fifty years for loggers in the matter of hours of work. It is anticipated that in ad- dition to the attack on the amended regulations made by Rae Eddie and other Opposi- tion members that necessary amendments to the Hours of Work Act will be introduced during the present session. SREP Local 1-288 Makes New Gains Members of Local 1-288, IWA, voted by a large ma- jority in a referendum bal- lot to accept the terms of the unanimous Conciliation Board report which recom- mended a wage increase of sixteen cents an hour over a two-year period plus other fringe benefits. Negotiations which com- menced last June 15, were conducted for the Union by Local President, Rod Bea- ton; 2nd Vice-President, Lloyd Lundquist; and Fin- ancial Secretary, Ron Grant. Forest Industrial Relations Limited handled the negotiations for the Lumber Inspection Bureau. = The terms of the new = agreement call for an in- = crease of eight cents an = hour retroactive to June 15, : 1962, and a further eight cents an hour effective June 15, 1963. A major break-through was the Bureau's accept- = ance of a clause giving re- = cognition of past service in = the industry to five and = twenty-year employees for = vacation entitlement. : The contract also gives = an additional week’s vaca- | tion for inspectors with twenty years service. The new agreement, which terminates June 14, 1964, is being printed into booklet form for distribu- tion to the members at an HUTT 0 00 AEA MAUL MUT ee oS STRIKING LOGGERS IN KAPUSKASING, ONTARIO, are shown here being lead off to jail. The strikers, mem- bers of the Lumber and Saw- mill Workers Union, a di- vision of the United Brother- hood of Carpenters and Join- ers, were charged with riot- ing following a dispute with non - union woodcutters in which three union members were shot down in cold blood. Fourteen hundred loggers in Ontario participated in the strike called to establish the forty-hour work week. UNDER ARREST .. . The riots occurred when the loggers found that the 1000 farmer-settlers in Kapu- skasing, were breaking the strike by supplying pulpwood to the companies. The union men were killed when they attempted to pre- vent the farmers shipping the pulpwood. Nineteen settlers were subsequently charged with non-capital murder. A total of 237 loggers were charged with rioting. Following the riot, an agreement was worked out, = z Wen wo I q Barry Mather, MP for New Westminster, in the Commons: “There were an English- man, an American, a French- man and a Canadian each of whom was asked to write an essay on the subject of the elephant. “The Englishman wrote on the subject under the head- ing ‘The elephant and the British Commonwealth’; the American wrote under the heading ‘Bigger and better elephants’; the Frenchman wrote on ‘The elephant and sex’; and the Canadian wrote under the heading ‘The ele- phant: Is it a provincial or federal responsibility’?” ST and the men are back at work. The agreement’s main feature is acceptance by all parties of binding arbitration on all points at issue. Joseph Laforce, president of the Kapuskasing local, said the union is not happy with the terms of the return. to work agreement. He said the agreement was “forced” on the union by the Ontario gov- ernment. In common things that round us lie Some random truths we can espy, The beauty of a searching root The comfort of a mighty boot...” (WITH APOLOGIES TO WORDSWORTH!) A pair of DAYTON 6401's a 4 " J e 4 um” “ fter no less than THREE CONTINUOUS YEARS’ TOUGH WEAR in the B.C. Woods va ‘ .. ARTISTRY IN es VANCOU WN G)// earner VER. B.C.