THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER ae > SE * el we OP eee ey a rin 38,000 copies printed in ‘this issue. Published twice monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOQDWORKERS OF AMERICA Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1 Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 874-5261 Editor — Pat Kerr Business Manager — Fred Fieber Advertising Representative — G. A. Spencer Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Western Canada in accordance with convention decisions. Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year. Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, and for payment of postage in cash. GUEST EDITORIAL - A GROWING THREAT ae massive expansion of pine ply- wood production in the Southern states poses a major threat to the wages and working conditions of woodworkers in Western United States and Canada. Built and operated by the same huge corporations that dominate the forest products industry in the West, the new pine plywood mills. are taking over a greater share of the market each month. International officers of the IWA have emphasized the importance of organiz- ing workers in these new plants, which, without exception, go into operation with a basic pay scale of $1.40 per hour, the U.S. federal minimum wage. First, these workers need the united. _ bargaining strength of a democratic trade union fo win a decent share of the profits that result from their productivity. And secondly, unless the southern workers’ wages and working conditions can be improved, woodworkers in the Western states and Canada will find. their col- lective bargaining position with the same employers has been undermined and weakened. Shop Steward, a membership leaflet published by Local 1-85, this month call- ed attention to the threat posed by the expanded production of pine plywood in the low-wage area of the South. The publication summed up production and pay statistics published in a daily news- paper series, and stated: ”“ |. . Since 1963, twenty-three soft- wood plywood plants have been built in the Southern states with a total of 34 plants expected to be producing plywood by the end of 1967. “It has now been established that the Western attitude that Southern pine is inferior to Douglas fir is a myth. Both woods are considered by government standards equal in quality, strength and resistance. Equal, too, in dollars and cents. “ . .. All large companies in the forest products industry (including Mac- Millan Bloedel Ltd.) are rushing hundreds of millions of dollars into the Southern United States to corral this vast, fast- growing timber resource and to take ad- vantage of the cheap labor rate. “The above information should be enough to convince all Union members that there is a growing need for one large and strong Union to organize these low- paid workers in the forest products in- dustry, so that they do not continue to be a threat to our established conditions. “This union must be international in scope in order to successfully compete with giant corporations that are doing business on both sides of the U.S.-Cana- dian border.” Reprinted in part from the International Woodworker WRITER CRITICIZES ARTICLES, EDITORIAL * ee ea THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER _ The Editor: I would like to comment on two articles and an editorial which appeared in the Lum- BER WoRKER’s 2nd issue of May 1967 and Ist issue June 1967. The two articles in ques- tion, “NDP members pledge Strachan full support”, and “Special Conference backs President Moore”, presented a biased viewpoint, which I suggest does not reflect well on-a newspaper like the LumBEeR WORKER: Both articles left the im- pression that the winners were victorious because their cause was right and the op- position was completely wrong. This I take exception to. I attended both affairs and fail to understand how you arrived at your conclusions. For example, your statement that the conference gave Lo- cal 1-85 overwhelming sup- port for its Gold River stand is just not true. The confer- ence, while admitting the Lo- cal’s right to such a stand, only endorsed the motion, “That this conference support the right of the membership of Local 1-85 in their attempt to work out a working rela- tionship with the Interna- tional Pulp Union.” With respect to the Strach- an article, your use of the ad- jectives “smashing and de- cisive” clearly indicates your failure to report the story ob- jectively. While I am a Strachan supporter I believe your choice of these two words can only generate fur- ther opposition. Because the opposition conducted lusty campaigns, which likely hurt a few peo- ple, don’t let the results drag the LumBer WorKER editor into voicing his personal opin- ions. My last point deals with your June editorial “Thank- less Task”. I concur with your thinking but feel that you would have been wiser not to have printed it. We are just beginning to have some suc- cess with our political pro- gram and your editorial is bound to have a detrimental effect on new members. They do not .understand how the party organization works and therefore will ar- rive at the wrong conclusions. Remember — not everybody has your background in poli- tics. The intent of my criticism is to be constructive and I hope you take it in this man- ner. A better paper by the same editor is the only pur- pose of this criticism. E. DeANNA 5 Mane, Gaeee Eprtor’s Nore: The Lum- BER WORKER made no delib- erate attempt to distort the Special Conference article or leave readers with an errone- ous impression of what took place. It has always attempted to be completely objective in its reporting and believes this objectivity was maintained in the article. TA TELL YA TH’ TRUTH . . . IN LOGGIN’ VOCATIONAL SCHOOL MY WORST SUBJECT WAS FALLIN! FEWER FARM WORKERS Few immigrants to Canada in the past few years have chosen to work on farms. According to a report by the Immigration and Citizen- ship department 2,362 joined the farm labor force in 1965 and 3,153 in 1966. In 1965 immigration was. about 146,000 and last year 195,000. This advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Control Board or by the Government of British Columbia. -