oe

~

Officers’ Report to the An-
nual Meeting of Local 1-85
IWA, Port Alberni, March 9,

while painting a bright pic-

ture of accomplishments dur-
ing the year, warned that the
increased servicing and oper-
ating costs might necessitate
the Local seeking a dues in-
crease in the near future.
Guest speakers at the well
attended one-day meeting in-
eluded Regional President
Jack Moore; NDP-MP for
Skeena Frank Howard; and
_ Tom Barnett, long-time mem-
ber of Local 1-85 and the
NDP candidate in the Comox-
Alberni Federal by-election.
Moore in his address to the
meeting stated that unions are
being blamed for today’s in-
flation. “You ask the average
person around the country
what’s causing inflation and
they tell you the unions be-
cause they get these wage in-
creases and it automatically
pushes the prices up, but we
know, this is not true,” said
Moore.

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

OFFICERS’ REPORT SHOWS»

: PORT ALBERNI LOCAL
: HAVING RECORD GROWTH

the employer to get a wage
increase. “You never hear the
stories about the many hun-
dreds of things the trade un-
ions do without any fuss,
which ends up getting very
beneficial things for the mem-
bership and the community
as a whole, but every time we
get into a struggle or strife
we make front page news.

“Everytime we settle a con-
tract in which we get a wage
increase the impression is left
that the increase is going to
cause some kind of inflation,”
he stated.

He pointed out there were
a few publications the unions
could still get their story
across in, such as the Lumber
Worker, Job Steward and the
Barker which “all carry the
story of the working man’s
point of view. Now the gov-
ernment has started to block
off that one means of com-
munication that we have and
our people are going to have
to rely, if the labor papers go
out of existence, on the public

MEMBERS OF LOCAL 1-85 pay close attention to the

Officers’ Report during the Local’s Annual Meeting March
9, in Port Alberni.

“What has actually happen-
ed,” he said, “is that for a
number of reasons and one of
them is the strike in the
Southern Interior where for
seven and one-half months a
large segment of the produc-
ing area of North America
was shut down, there is a

large demand and a shortage
of lumber - plywood products
and our employers have taken
advantage of this and gouged
the market for every penny
that people in desperate need
are willing to pay.”

He said somewhere along
the line the IWA is going to
be blamed for these price in-
creases and inflation that are
“attendant” upon us. “And
people get this impression that
wages cause inflation .. . that
unions are asking far too
+ much . . . when they get a

ts wage increase prices have to
go up... and where do they
get that impression . . . by
and large they get that im-
pression from the public press

_ who are promoting this type

an idea,” he said.
Moore noted 9 every time
Story appeared pertaining
labor union, it was always

the union in a

press and all the impressions
they might get.

“There’s no doubt there is
inflation and every time we
open negotiations we have a
devil of a time trying to get
Wage increases which will
only keep us abreast of the
price increases much less get-
ting ahead of the prices,

Frank Howard in his ad-
dress told the meeting that
the voters in Comox-Alberni
have a certain obligation to
the rest of the people in Can-
ada.

He stated lots of Canadians
would like to be able to cast
a ballot in the by-election on
April 8, to show Prime Minis-
ter Trudeau their dislike of
his policies. The just society
is a phrase which is disappear-
ing from government conver-
sation of late, he added.

The Skeena MP pointed out
that time and time again they
have tried to get tax exemp-
tions for loggers who have to
put out extra costs for safety
clothing, hard hats and tools
while there are others in our
society who get “generous”
treatment in tax deductions.
“There’s no problem for per-
sons in business to be able to
deduct dozens and dozens of

expense items. There’s no
problem for a_ professional
man, doctor, lawyer, to deduct
for travelling expenses. Cer-
tain people in our society can
make deductions on their in-
come tax form for expendi-
tures they make but the only
person prevented from doing
that is the person on a wage
income, whose taxes are de-
ducted at source and he does
not see it. When you fill out
your form at the end of the
year, there’s not much oppor-
tunity to list items on there
such as expenses for travel-
ling, expenses for tools, for
hotels, for maintaining two
homes if you happen to live
in camp and maintain a home
in some other place and are
things which we think are not
compatible with anybody’s
sense of a “just society.”

The Officers’ Report dealt
with a wide variety of sub-

2nd Issue
March, 1969

INFORMAL DISCUSSION of Tom Barnett’s by-election
campaign was held by this foursome at the banquet given
by Local 1-85 to honour the work of the Job Stewards and
Committee Members March 8. Group from left, Tom Bar-
nett; Frank Howard, NDP-MP for Skeena; John Squire,
Local Recording Secretary; Jack Moore, Regional President.

jects and pointed up both the
good and bad features devel-
oping in the industry. It stated
during the past year all Ap-
prenticeship Training pro-
grammes were completed and
most-tradesmen now have a
Government Certificate of
Competency and receive the

21 cents an hour for this cer-
tificate.

It scored the heavy duty
mechanic test, which it said,
was too difficult and unsatis-
factory resulting in many
competent mechanics with

See “REPORT’—Page 7

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