September, 1968 _

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

INTERIOR STRIKE WAS A

SIGNAL VICTORY

Editor’s Note:

The outstanding achievement
for the Union during the past
year was undoubtedly the tre-
mendous battle waged by the
4,000 IWA Southern Interior
members to gain wage parity
with coastal members.

Few people, either inside or
outside the IWA, have com-
plete knowledge of the bitter
anti-union campaign con-
ducted against the strikers by
the Southern Interior opera-
tors who without doubt are
one of the most reactionary

groups of employers in Can-
ada.

For this reason the Lumber
Worker is reviewing in chron-
ological order, events as they
progressed during the long
seven-and-one half months
strike, which ended in almost
total victory for the Union.

It is unlikely that this strike
would have occurred but for
the inept and biased manner
in which the Minister of La-
bour manipulated to the ad-
vantage of the employers the
procedures for conciliation
and mediation as prescribed

in the Labour Relations Act. ~

UNION STRIKE VOTE

When a Conciliation Officer
recommended only that no
Conciliation Board be ap-
pointed the IWA proceeded
to conduct a union strike vote
of the entire membership in-
volved. By a majority of
97.5% the Interior. members
voted to authorize strike ac-
tion, :

The Minister then advised
the Union of his intention to
appoint an Industrial Inquiry
Commissioner. The employers
with the exception of Celgar
Ltd., demanded a government-
supervised vote. The Union
proposed that this vote be
conducted on August 14th, as
‘the contract expired August

31st, in accordance with the
custom of allowing the Union
involved a voice in the selec-
tion of the date for such vote.
This the Minister refused.

On August 11th the Minis-
ter appointed Mr. Justice
Munroe as an Industrial In-
quiry Commissioner but the
Judge was unable to com-
mence his hearings until Au-
gust 22nd. The Minister would
not allow the supervised strike
vote before the inquiry and
deferred it until September
29th after the Commissioner’s
report was made on Septem-
ber 7th. This juggling of dates
limited the opportunity for
any genuine mediation.

“POUND OF FLESH"

While the Union welcomed
the appointment of Mr. Jus-
tice Munroe and prepared to
co-operate with him, expect-
ing complete government im-
partiality, the Hon. Mr. Wil-
liston publicly expressed op-
position to the demands of the
Union and upheld the view as
then expressed by the em-
ployers. The Premier also
publicly indicated that it was
not the year for anyone to de-
mand his “pound of flesh.”

While the Union has the
greatest respect for the com-
petence and integrity of Mr.
Justice Munroe, the public
statements by Ministers of the
Crown created the impression
that the government was at-
tempting to set a frame of
reference for the Inquiry.
Certainly, these declarations
lessened the possibilities for

acceptance of the Commis-
sioner’s report.

The Commissioner had nei-
ther the time nor the oppor-
tunity to undertake mediation
such as successfully under-
taken by Mr. Justice Nemetz
in the 1966 settlement of the
dispute in the coast industry.
As explained in his report,
after five days of hearings the
Commissioner could only pre-
sent his own conclusions based
on the evidence submitted.
He could not discuss any area
of possible settlement with
the disputing parties as Mr.
Justice Nemetz did in 1966.

The Commissioner’s recom-
mendations were reluctantly
accepted by the employers
with some reservations but
were rejected by vote of the
Union’s membership in the
Southern Interior.

STRIKE ACTION VOTE

In the subsequent govern-
ment - supervised strike vote,
the members gave an over-
whelming majority vote in
favour of strike action, except
in a few operations. ‘These
operations were not struck.

Not all operations in the
Northern Interior authorized
strike action. A settlement
was therefore negotiated
which improved on the Mun-
roe report and brought the
employees closer to parity
with the coast. —

The central issue for the
Southern Interior woodwork-

ditions as coast woodworkers
for the performance of com-
parable work. This position
was grossly misrepresented by
the employers. The Union was
not demanding an immediate
Wage increase of fifty cents
an hour as claimed but rather
that parity conditions be
phased into the contract per-
iod in a reasonable manner.
It seemed intolerable to IWA
Interior members that they
should be denied all hope of
ever reaching parity with the
coast as once made effective
in 1951.

The demand for parity with
the coast seemed just to Inter-

ior woodworkers especially as
while performing the same
work at 50 cents an hour less
their living costs are from
10% to 15% above living costs
in the coastal region.

The Union undertook ex-
tensive research into the eco-
nomic position of the Interior
lumber industry and submit-
ted a well-documented’ brief
to the Commissioner.

A feature of this submis-
sion which concerned the gen-
eral public was an analysis of
the advantageous special for-
mula used to fix stumpage
fees in the Interior. In a de-
gree this formula subsidized
the production costs and mini-
mal profits of the operators.

‘This deserved public con-
sideration because the Interior
lumber industry was no long-
er a conglomeration of small
companies. Large corporations
either based on the coast or
in Eastern Canada had bought
out most of the small com-
panies. Some of these like
B.C. Forest Products -Ltd.,
Crown Zellerbach of Canada,
Weyerhaeuser, etc., paid the
higher wages denied Interior
woodworkers to their employ-
ees at the coast.

The wealthy corporation,
Noranda Mines Ltd., with ex-
tensive Interior holdings, had
actively exerted pressure
close to intimidation on small-
er companies to maintain an
uncompromising attitude in
negotiations with the Union.
The Interior lumber industry
was dominated by these large
corporations, all of whom
were financing extensive cap-
ital expansion.

Celgar Ltd. bargained in-
dependently but at first took
the same position as the In-
terior Forest Labour Rela-
tions Association. As a gov-
ernment - supervised strike
vote was not requested, strike
action in Celgar commenced
September 19th, 1967, but on
January 9th, 1968, a settle-
ment was negotiated in which
full parity with the coast in
stages was conceded.

Thus approximately 1,200
workers employed by two
large corporations with Inter-
ior operations — Weldwood
of Canada Ltd., Quesnel, and
Celgar Ltd., Castlegar — en-
joy full parity with the coast
in contract conditions. Con-
trary to the views expressed
by members of the govern-
ment both companies are now
profitably expanding produc-
tion, taking full advantage of
the rising lumber prices pre-
dicted by the Union.

The IWA had offered to
sign a similar agreement with
member companies of the In-
terior Forest Labour Rela-

tions Association but was re-
buffed.

Social Credit MLAs on
various occasions claimed that
the strike was not supported
by the membership. The rec-
ord showed that the IWA
Negotiating Committee was
elected in a democratic man-
ner by the membership and
that all major decisions relat-
ing to the strike were first
approved by vote of the mem-

Fey

si

MEMBERS OF LOCAL 1-423 IWA Kelowna, employed

LO

at the S. & K. Plywood, are shown casting their vote for
strike action August 8, 1967. This operation voted 100% in

favour of striking.

bership. It was highly absurd
to allege that Union leaders
today can order and continue
a strike on this scale through-
out widely scattered opera-
tions contrary to the wishes
of the membership.

The IWA Negotiating Com-
mittee had repeatedly inform-
ed the employers’ Association
of its readiness to negotiate
a mutually satisfactory settle-
ment. At every meeting the
employers adhered to “take it
or leave it” offers and refused
to consider the Union’s coun-
ter-proposals.

Under pressure from Inter-
ior communities, a resolution
of the B.C. Legislature urged
the parties to return to the
bargaining table and continue
bargaining until a settlement
had been reached. This
brought Conciliation’ Officer
John Sherlock back into the
picture again. *

On April 18th Sherlock,
acting as a mediator, recom-
mended a wage increase of 68
cents an hour, which could
not be accepted by the nego-
tiating committee.

COAST PARITY NEAR

Direct negotiations were
again resumed with the result
that the wage increase was

upped to 72 cents an hour
over three years as follows:

On return

to work - - 34 cents an hour
Jan. 1, 1969 - 12 cents an hour
Sept. 1, 1969 13 cents an hour
Jan. 1, 1970 - 13 cents an hour

The committee restored to
the master agreement those
provisions recommended by
Mr. Justice Munroe and drop-
ped by the employers.

In addition, the expiry date
of the contract was moved
from Sept. 1 to June 30, a
point that weighed heavily
with the Southern Interior
membership and which had

been bitterly opposed by the
employers.

Agreement was reached to
drop all court cases: to pro-
vide for settlement of loggers’
marshalling points; and main-
tain continuity of M.S.A., C.U.
& C., and Health and Welfare
coverage. The time on strike
was held to count toward
qualification for 1968 and 1969
vacation years. This document
was signed by both parties
on May 5th.

Thus as Coast and Interior
negotiating periods in 1970
will now virtually coincide,
the Southern Interior mem-
bership have high hopes that
the 14-cent differential (re-
duced from 50 cents) will

open the door to full parity
with the Coast.

MEMBERS OF LOCAL 1-417 IWA employed at the K.P.
Mill in Merritt voted 52 to I in favour of strike action.

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