fl SVAN THE WESTERN CANADIAN i gg Incorporating Fhe ©.C. Lumbermerher Official Publication of the Jalerwatlenal Weedworkers of sémertea Regional Council No. 1 Authorized as Second Class Mail, ‘Post Office Dept., i { \ dit wR Ottawa, and for Payment of Postage in Cash Vol. XXXII, No. 10 VANCOUVER, B.C. 5c PER COPY 2nd Issue May, 1965 STRIKE. ENDS Officers of Local 1-417 IWA, report that the Colum- bia Auto Customs Ltd., Sal- mon Arm, which has been strike-bound by the Union for the past 13 months, is go- ing out of business and the Local has suspended its pic- keting of the firm. The Local has secured a signed agreement from the - Company to comply with a previous Labour Relations Board order to pay over to two of the strikers money owed to them which has been tied up in the courts. Cornelius Dedood and Ar- vett Wirch will receive the sum of $1,322.88 and $786.24 respectively less the applic- able income tax and U.LC. payments owing. Dell Welder, Local Finan- cial Secretary, states that all the strikers have been placed in acceptable employment elsewhere. The Local struck the firm March 19, 1964, following the Company’s refusal to sign a collective agreement. Its man- agement openly admitted it was anti-union and wanted no part of the IWA. The Company now admits that the public’s support of the strike plus the loss of its Chrysler franchise, made it financially impossible to re- main in business any longer. OFFICERS ELECTED Two officers of Local 1-80 IWA, were elected to top positions in the Nanaimo and Dunean District Labour Council following the Local Union’s re-affiliation to the Council after an absence of two years. Loeal President Weldon Jubenville was elected Coun- eil 2nd Vice-President and Del Pratt, Local Business Agent was elected an Execu- tive Member. Delegates appointed to at- tend Council meetings from the Local were Fernie Viala Weldon Jubenville, Del Pratt, George Popplestone, Hugh Robinson. The Labour Council which recently changed its name from Nanaimo and Dis- trict Labour Council to its present one, has twenty-two unions affiliated to it and an approximate membership of 7200, Weldon Jubenville in nouncing his Local re-affilia- to the Council stated, “We in Local i believe os the way labour can truly ae rightful role in so- ts is to rr see ALBERT ROSE. recently retired business agent of Local 1-357 IWA, New Westminster, trys out lazy-boy chair presented to him by the Local Union at its monthly meeting May 30, as his friends wish him a long and happy retirement. $2,/00 AWARD A record award of $2,700 has been won by Local 1-405 IWA, Cranbrook, for one of its members unjustly dis- missed. An Arbitration Board in an unanimous. decision, ordered the Galloway Lum- ber Company, Galloway, B.C. to pay the discharged em- ployee, Earl Gorrie, $27,000 in lost income and reinstate him to his job with all rights and privileges. ; The Company, ignoring the fact that it had the weakest of cases, spent three years and thousands of dollars bat- tling the Union and the La- bour Relations Board to keep Gorrie fired. The case which should have been settled by grievance procedure eventually wound up in the Supreme Court of Canada to which the Com- pany had taken the Labour Relations Board over a tech- nicality dealing with the ap- pointment of the Company’s Arbitration Board nominee. The decision has been hailed in labour circles as a tremendous victory for the IWA Union, and Regional Presi- dent Jack Moore stated that the case was an object lesson for those employers who leave too much control in the hands of their subordinates. Because the case has so many facets to it and bhe- cause of its importance to the Union, the complete chrono- logical record of events, writ- ten by Elmer Atwood, Finan- cial Secretary of Local 1-405, is reported in this issue of the Lumber Worker on page 7. INSURANCE COMPANIES SCALPING INDIANS The Indians never scalped the whites in the early days like the car insurance com- panies are scalping Indian members of his Local Union, charged Murray Drew, Presi- dent of Local 1-118 IWA, Victoria. Hopping mad over the lat- est car insurance rate in- crease in five months, Drew called for action by the Pro- vincial government to curb the dictatorial methods em- ployed by the insurance com- panies and to bring in a com- pulsory ear insurance plan of its own. He called the new increase of 1590, “unjustified” and “disgraceful” and said it would work a real hardship on some members of his Lo- eal, particularly the Indian members who already were paying through the nose for car insurance. These companies, he stated, had a cute gimmick of can- celling or refusing to renew policies of Indians living on the reserve. No reason was MURRAY DREW . «. he charges ever given in writing but by phone they would state that Indians living on reserves couldn’t be sued. The Indians were then forced to apply for insurance through the assigned risk plan which cost them fifty percent above the previous premium because, technically, they had been refused insur- ance by the first company. Drew stated that this was a classic example of how the insurance companies blatant- ly bilked the public. He cited another example of an Indian living on the Brentwood reserve whose public liability insurance was cancelled but not his collision and fire-theft policies. The reason why not? The com- pany concerned had an in- terest in the finance company that loaned the man money to buy the car. This littl caper, Drew pointed out, gave fine protec- tion to the finance company and completely disregarded the interests of the public. FROLEK SUIT The motion of Local 1-417 of the International Wood- workers of America repre- senting the strikers at Frolek Sawmills Limited, to secure an interim injunction to pre- vent the Company from dis- criminating against four of the strikers, was heard June 1 in Supreme Court chambers by Justice Gregory. By consent of both parties, the motion was not proceeded with at the time, and will be laid over until the trial of the suit of the five strikers against the company for an injunction and recovery of wages for a period of the strike. It was also agreed to facili- tate an early trial to take place in the city of Kamloops if an early date can be ar- ranged. Examination for dis- covery, (that is preliminary examination of the nature of evidence by legal counsel for the parties concerned) will take place during the court summer vacation. Earlier, in negotiations, the IWA charged that Frolek’s had made the signing of an agreement contingent upon the’ dismissal of five IWA strikers. JACK MUNRO NEW APPOINTMENT Jack Munro, Local 1-405 IWA Business Agent and President of the Nelson and District Labour Council, has been appointed to the Advis- ory Committee of Notre Dame University in Nelson. Munro’s appointment was announced by E. T. Staley, President of the B.C. Federa- tion of Labour, who also an- nounced that Federation Sec- retary Pat O’Neal had been appointed to Notre Dame’s Board of Governors. In welcoming Notre Dame’s appointment of the two labour officials Staley said that this University is the only one in B.C. which has recognized labour’s im- portance and the contribution it can make to higher educa- tion.