2nd Issue January, 1968 AT PACIFIC LOGGING THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER STRIKERS HIT BACK AT CONTRACTORS On January 8, at 5:30 in the morning approximately 45 members of Local 1-405 of the IWA employed by Pacific Logging Company Ltd. in Slo- can City (West Kootenays) Set up a picket line at the junction of Highway 6 and Lemon Creek Road in antici- pation of a Company sponsor- ed attempt to have its con- tractors restart logging opera- tions on a timbersale located 12.5 miles east of the afore mentioned junction. Pacific Logging Company Ltd. operates a sawmill at Slo- can City and employed ap- proximately 155 IWA mem- bers in that operation prior to being struck by Local 1-405 on October 3, 1967. Pacific Logging Company Ltd. further employs three contractors on an independent basis and these contractors form the mainstay of the Company’s log production operations. The contract for falling, skidding and loading of logs is held by VOYKIN Bros. Contracting Ltd., the contract for logsorting is held by DONALD Bros. Earth- movers Contractors Ltd. and the contract for loghauling is held by A. A. ANDERSON Trucking. The IWA picketers were successful in preventing the logging trucks, crummies, fuel trucks and other vehicles from entering the Lemon Creek Road, which leads to the timbersale in question. The contractors got in contact with Mr. William Walters, General Manager of Pacific Logging Company Ltd., who shortly thereafter appeared on the scene and upon his in- structions the RCMP detach- ment of Crescent Valley was notified. At 7:30 am. three RCMP officers arrived and according to the IWA picketers were very cordial and polite in the ensuing discussions with the strikers. The picketers decided to march five abreast and eight deep onto the Lemon Creek Road thus clearing the high- way in accordance with the RCMP’s suggestion and still preventing the contractors’ mobile equipment to proceed to the intended place of work. After a march of approxi- mately 342 miles in freezing temperatures on a snow-cov- ered logging road the IWA picketers once again estab- lished their picket line and dug in for a long cold siege. A huge campfire was started; water, coffee and food sup- plies were brought in and a heroic episode in the history of the IWA — if not in the history of the labor movement in British Columbia — started to unfold. The IWA picketers report that the frustrated contractors and their employees made several attempts to break the spirit of the strikers by try- ing to run a logging truck tor stated: Sum going to work if I have to shoot of you bastards to get there.” Later on one of the Union key-men was threatened to have “his throat slit from ear to ear after this is all over.” Overly-anxious in his de- sire to have the IWA picket- ers branded as “violent” Mr. William Walters ordered his hired hand Barin Yoshida — who holds a black belt in the sport of judo — through the picket line, while he focussed his camera on the Union members, hoping that a fight would be started. The IWA picketers involved in these incidents are to be commended for their deter- mined but restrained attitude. At no time did they get in- volved in name calling and/or fisticuffs. Anybody who has ever been on a picket line, where scabs are trying to break through, knows the amount of temptation and emotion involved. Our IWA picketers behaved themselves beyond reproach under exten- uating circumstances. The picket line was main- tained night and day until Judge Gansner — local Judge of the Supreme Court of Can- ada in Nelson (B.C.) — after hearing an injunction applica- tion by Pacific Logging Com- pany Lid. issued a restraining order limiting the amounts of picketers to six at any given time. ' In retrospect it is safe to state that the action of the General Manager of Pacific Logging Ltd, Mr. William Walters, will have far reach- ing effects on the future la- bour-management relation in Slocan City. His so-called con- cern for a log shortage at the end of the current strike is complete hogwash. If he were really concerned about the welfare of the community, he should tell the. people that do his bargaining — the IFLRA — to get off their fannies and get down to serious negotia- tions with the IWA. As far as the contractors and their employees are con- cerned, they should have real- ized that all strikes end soon- ‘er or later and that time will heal the wounds of possible financial difficulties. Creatures that cross-a legal picket line are never forgot- ten. In trade union language they are known as SCABS, and as such they become out- casts of society. The life of a scab is a mighty lonesome existence. A justly deserved award for placing greed above principle. _ and proceeded to work. A bla PICTURED ABOVE IS CASEY OBARA, woods foreman of Pacific Logging Company Ltd. in Slocan City, clearing snow at the Company’s sawmill operation in anticipation of the arrival of logs, which are being produced behind a legal IWA picket line by the following three independent contractors: Veykin Bros. Contracting Ltd. Donald Bros. Earthmovers Contractors Ltd. and A. A. Anderson Truck- ing. AFTER THE COMPANY obtained a restraining order from Judge Gansner — Local Judge of the Supreme Cou Nelson (B.C.) — contractors and their employees hideced the legal I.W.A. picket line (6 picketers at any one time) 3 ck day in the history of labour- management relations in the community of Slocan City. DETERMINED I.W.A. PICKETERS marched 3% miles in freezing temperatures on snow-covered logging roads in front of company’s and contractors’ mobile equipment to re-establish legal picket line. 1.W.A. CAMERA was on the spot while Jack Munro and Ezner DeAnna (business agents for Local 1-405, I.W.A.) talk to the picketers gathered around the campfire in the middle of the night. MR. WILLIAM WALTERS, Manager of Pacific Logging Company Ltd., ordered his hired hand Barin Yoshida—who > holds a black belt in the sport of judo—through the Union’s re-established picket line in order to provoke an incident. He later signed an affidavit against some of his striking employees. FRUSTRATED AND ANGERED by the quiet determina- tion of I.W.A. picketers, several contractors and their employees tried to provoke picket line incidents by threat- ening the lives of Union members.