ed a formal organization under the
Societies Act of B.C. The name of
the association is the NIC Forest
Industry Trades Association. The
letters NIC stand for Northern, In-
terior and Coast.

The constitution, as registered
with the registrar of companies in

- Victoria, lists the following pur-
poses for the trades association:

a) To further the interests of
trades people in B.C.;

b) To provide channels of com-
munication to trades people in
B.C.; and

¢) To promote education within
the ranks of trades people in B.C.

I recently spoke to a tradesman
who is actively involved in this soci-
ety and he outlined the policies of
his group as follows:

@ To promote trades upgrad-

ing;

@ To work towards standardi-
zation of work hours for all trades;

@ To oppose the extension of
the classification described as tech-
nician (whom they refer to as super
tradesmen);

@ To standardize trade guide-
lines;

@ to get more protection
against contracting-out;

@ To standardize the ratio of
apprentices to tradesmen;

@ To improve apprenticeship
training, at plants and in schools;

e@ To gain more respect for ap-
prentices in the work place; and

@ To establish full banking of
overtime for all tradesmen.

When I asked him if the society
was set up in opposition to the In-
ternational Woodworkers of Am-
erica, the Canadian Paperworkers
Union and the Pulp, Paper and
Woodworkers of Canada, the
three major unions in the industry,
the answer was a definite no.

To drive home his point he gave
mé an undated circular which, he
said, was issued recently by the
society as an open letter to all
tradesmen in the forest industry.

On page two, I found the follow-
ing statement:

“To set the record straight, this
should not be seen as a condemna-
tion of our unions, or an attemptto

break away. It should be seen by
tradesmen as a recognition of the
fact that with all due respect to our
individual unions and its leaders at
all levels, they simply have not been
able to act in our best interests be-
cause of outside pressure from
non-tradesmen.
‘We feel that through the Asso-
ciation we could remain in our own
unions and remain a lobby group
strong enough to assist each other
in settling different problems,
which we certainly can not do oper-
ating in a vacuum from each other.
“The Association is being set up
in such a manner that members of
one union will not dictate to mem-
bers of other unions.”

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

When I pressed for more infor-
mation as to thespecifics of the ma-
jor grievance of the tradesmen who
formed the association, I learned
that the relationship between the
basic rate for unskilled labor and
the tradesman’s rate was the main
issue. Here is the picture as it was
given to me:

@ In 1973, the rate for IWA
tradesmen was set at $6.50an hour,
by an hourly increase of 63 cents.
The new rate was 146 percent of the
then base labor rate of $4.45 an
hour.

e@ Because of across-the-board
settlements since 1973 (flat in-
creases instead of percentage in-
creases), the tradesmen need $1.66
an hour to put them back into the
position they established in 1973.
In short, the tradesmen argue that
their wage rates have declined in re-
lation to the base rate in the lumber
industry, in terms of the differen-
tial they enjoy.

My contact put it this way: ‘“We -

should fight. for percentage in-
creases in all future contracts, or
before long everybody will be
working close to the base rate.”’
As of June 15 this year, the [WA
base rate will be $9.96 and the
trades rate $12.885 per hour. This

CAIMAW still striking
for equal pay demand

The ‘‘chauvinistic attitude’ of
the Kenworth truck manufacturing
plant in Burnaby towards seven fe-
male employees is spurring about
350 male workers to continue their
strike to back demands for equal
pay for work of equal value for the
seven. The strike is now into its
third week.

‘*The scenario for the strike was
set,’’ according to Jess Succamore,
president of the Canadian associa-
tion of Industrial and Allied Work-
ers union (CAIMAW) negotiating
for the Kenworth workers, when
Hugh Ladner of the Labor Rela-
tions Board arbitrated unequal
wages by refusing to use the equal
pay principle as the basis for new
base rates in May, 1980.

Shortly after the arbitration
case, the union’s negotiating com-
mittee offered to recommend ac-
ceptance of the company’s two-
year wage offer of 12 percent and

percent increases for plant
workers if the discrimination
against the seven women was drop-
ped, and wage parity established.

The company refused to bring
the women’s wages up, not because

it would cost them much more to-

equalize the pay, according to Suc-
camore, but because it was “‘a mat-
ter of principle.”

Kenworth spokesman Ed Blouin
said it was “‘not a major economic
issue” but that it might cause
“‘whipsawing . . . they’ll try to get
higher wages here, and then negoti-

_ ate for thesame settlement with our

competition.”

Succamore challenged the com-
pany’s principles, noting that Ken-
worth pays its data processors in
Montreal a higher wage than their
‘counterparts in Burnaby.

“The data processors start at
13.4 percent more than the base
rate and can earn up to 14 percent
more than the top rate in the St.
Therese plant outside Montreal.

‘In Burnaby, the data proces-

sors start at 14.8 percent less than:

the base rate and 18.2 percent less
than thetop rate,”’ he said. He add-
ed that CAIMAW has received tre-
mendous support for its stand in
backing the equal pay demand.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —-JUNE 13, 1980— Page 12

means that the tradesmen will be
receiving 129 percent of the base
rate. The Association argues that
they should be receiving 146 per-
cent of the base rate, as they were in
1973, which would bring their rate
up to $14.54 per hour.

When I asked about the special:
adjustment that the IWA negotiat-
ed for the trades in the last round of
negotiations, I was reminded that
the adjustment is included in the
current trades rate which is held to
be unsatisfactory.

I worked in an industrial-type
union for 27 years and the question
of flat, across-the-board increases
or percentage increases was a bone
of contention in nearly every set of
negotiations. Those on the base
rate, along with most of those be-
tween the base rate and the rate for
the trades categories, consistently
demanded a flat, across-the-board
increase, that is, a given sum per
hour applied to all categories. The
trades (and others at the top of the
scale) usually insisted on a percent-
age increase. :

The trades argument was very
simple: A fifty cent an hour differ-
ential over a laborer in, say, 1950,
was one thing. But the same 50 cent
differential in 1970 meant an awful
lot less, as a percentage of the base
rate, and as a factor contributing to
a given standard of living which the
tradesmen figured they were entitl-
ed to because of their long apprent-
iceship and the value of their labor.
Inflation and rising prices have also
contributed to the dissatisfaction
of tradesmen where the differential
has remained constant, or relative-
ly constant, in cents per hour over a
long period.

Of course, the lower paid work-
ers are usually dead set against any
percentage increase. They argue
that such increases tend to widen
the gap in dollars between the base
rate and the trades, to the detriment

’ of the lower-paid worker. If Ihave

heard the following simplistic argu-
ment once, I have heard it a thou-
sand times in my union career:
“‘Why. should a tradesman get a

-bigger increase than me? We both

buy our groceries in the same store
and it costs me just as much to feed
my children as it costs him.”
However, it was my experience
that the moment a laborer, a truck
driver, a semi-skilled worker, or a
lower-paid clerical worker felt that
his other responsibilities had in-
creased substantially, that worker
demanded that the union should

‘obtain a special adjustment in pay,

through a move into an existing,
higher rated category, or through
creating such a category.

In some cases, the same laborer,
truck driver or stenographer who
got a special increase would then
scream blue murder against going
for a special adjustment for the
trades and other highly skilled cate-
gories, after first rejecting the idea
of a percentage settlement. The
society we live in tends to foster this
kind of competition and division
between workers. _

There is no easy way to reconcile
the divisions that arise among
working people on the basis of
craft and occupational differences.
A union leadership faced with this
problem must fight as hard as poss-
ible to win the highest possible base
rate and to guarantee that all the in-
termediate and higher categories

obtain rates in line with their train-.

ing, skills and responsibilities.

There is no universally accepted.
yardstick by which we can measure:
how much a millwright, pipefitter,

electrician, welder or operating en-

gineer is worth in relation to a la-

borer. Among the factors that

must be bornein mind is the market

factor. For example, if a mill-
wright, electrician or pipefitter in
the IWA sees his rate slipping badly
in relation to rates in construction
and, say. certain other industrial
unions, ‘he will demand that his
union should do something about

it.

Apparently, the IWA leadership
recognizes that there is a problem
and is beginning to do something
about solving that problem.

The Barker (official publication
of Vancouver IWA Local 1-217)
reported in April that a motion de-
manding that the Regional Council
of the IWA negotiate a substantial
wage revision for tradesmen was
approved at a tradesmen’s confer-
ence held March 24 in Vancouver.
As the IWA is the largest union in
the industry, this is a significant de-
velopment.

The conference was chaired by
regional president Jack Munro,
who pointed out that the Regional
Council could take no action on the
rate revision demand until it had
been submitted to all local unions
for approval.

Other items discussed at the
meeting included pre-apprentice-
ship training; non-indentured help-
ers; the need to update the apprent-
iceship agreement; the ratio of ap-
prentices to tradesmen; shift sched-
uling; selection of trainees; ap-
prentice training; availability of
schooling; seniority; trades rates
and-trades lines.

As the current forest agreements
held by the IWA have another year
to run, it is possible that the de-
mand for a revision will not be
taken up before the next round of
negotiations.

All members of the IWA, un-
skilled, semi-skilled and trades are
faced with heavy layoffs and an un-
certain future. Any unnecessary
quarrels over rate differentials can
only cause serious divisions at a
time when all members of the
IWA, along with the members of
the other two unions, should be
united around the kind of policies
that will guarantee maximum em-
ployment and the best possible
rates for all workers in the industry.

_ It-is to be regretted that the
tradesmen from nearly every part.
of the province have felt it neces-
sary to set up an association under
the Societies Act to serve as a per-
manent lobby within the three ma-
jor unions in the industry, with a
formal constitution and a dues-
paying structure. However, it must
be noted on the positive side that
the sponsors of this society are urg-
ing their members to work within
their unions in order to obtain re-
dress for their grievances. It would
have been better if the IWA had
created a structure for the trades
within that union, butit didn’t hap-
pen that way.

It is not my job to pass judgment.
on the leaders of the IWA who
claim they have done a good job in
representing their tradesmen.
That’s for the membership of the

IWA to decide, including trades-

City or town
Postal. Code

Donation $

* the trades in the TWA number

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive. g
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 i

Read the paper that fights for labor — :

1 am enclosing:
1 year $100 2 years $180) 6 months $6 oC
OldO NewL Foreign 1 year $12 0

Wood t trades form own organization

men. However, as long as this sub-
stantial body of tradesmen is dis-
satisfied, the union has a serious
problem to which it should address
itself as expeditiously as
The tradesmen, on their part, must
recognize that their main enemy
the monopoly group that
the industry, and not their fellow
workers or the union. ae
The new association claims

proximately 10 percent of
membership of that union. Ob
ously, if such a large, key bl
continues to be dissatisfied wi
their representation, the end 1
can only be division and disru)
tion. It doesn’t have to be that Ways
provided there is a willingness
the part of the leadership and
tradesmen to tackle the proble
constructively.

SUDBURY — The president’
Local 6500, United Steelworkers
America, has called for a count
wide inquiry into mining de
The call by Dave Patterson follo
the death last week of two mi
miners at the Inco operations
Sudbury. 4

In an interview with the Tribu m
Patterson said: ““There have D¢
10 mining deaths in Ontario si
the beginning of the new
Those deaths combined with f0
deaths in Grande Cache mine &
lier in the year, and now the news
the gold mine disaster at Val d
Que., cry out for a comprehe:
national inquiry.” .

In commenting on the own most
recent deaths at Inco, Patterson
said the deaths were avoidable.
‘Bill 70 (the mine safety |
tion) has to be rigidly enforced,
as a follow-up on Bill 70, our
mand that mining should be recog-
nized as a trade, should be ins tut
ed. A trade classification for min: —
ers would mean an appreniotP
program, as well as contin’
dating and safety refresh?
courses.”

And further to the recognitio?
mining as a trade, Patterson ae |
“The bonus system has to be {
changed, and moved away fromme
wards for production to a S: ed. |

he i

where safety can be rewate
When the bonus system is tied
it is to increased production wile
out increased safety conscious
then you have a system that
miners.”’
“If it takes a shutdown of na
dustry to protest these deaths, en
it’s a measure which we as a 3
will have to begin looking to,” Pa
terson concluded. :

oot
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