=== LunseeWorxea——— UNION BULLETI Published Bi-Weekly by the B.C. Coast District Council, LW.of A. OS —_—_— VOL. 1, No.7 VANCOUVER, B.C., JULY 28, 1939 No, 213 PLYWOOD MEN STRONGLY OPPOSED TO ‘ADJUSTMENT’ : ? EE re need for a strong and militant trades union! eo e amongst millworkers of this Province was emphasized to employees of Ra Cc oO h B.C. Plywoods this week, when between 50 and 60 men, most of them with 10 ens r Ss I families and some with aged dependents were ruthlessly laid off and re- placed with boys of 16 to 20 years. The Company which has so much busi- ness that it had to hire an additional shift the night after the replacement, claimed it was unable to increase the standard of wages as has been done in other veneer plants since the marked business uptrend. About six weeks ago the employees: presented the Management with a peti- tion requesting the Company for a gen- eral increase in wages in line with the increase given at Fraser Mills in May. ‘The Management then retaliated by lay- ing off many of their regular employees (most of whom had been in their ser- vice for several years). In the place of these men, whose minimum wage is 400 per hour, the Company evaded the spirit of the legislation by using another clause which permits the hiring of 33 and % per cent at 80c per hour. Organization of the International Woodworkers of America, who had been making some headway before the vicious payroll slash, has received considerable impetus since, with a number of the new boys joining up to strengthen the T.W.A. On Wednesday, 31 new applica- tions for membership in the Union were received. Strong resentment is being expressed in every department of the plant against the company move. Key men, who, it is estimated, have veeeived in the neighborhood of 10c per hour increases, are solidly behind their fellow workmen who have been laid off, and have voted by secret ballot with a clear majority to request the manage- ment to reinstate the men laid off. They have also made it clear that they are strongly opposed to any increase that means loss of jobs to their fellow work- mon. Also the Provincial Labor Depart- ment have been requested to intercede, and unless a satisfactory conclusion is reached immediately, collective action of the employees is threatened. ‘The International Woodworkers Union stands a hundred per cent be- hind the men in their struggle for a square deal. The officials of the B.C. District Council, our press and our weekly radio program are at the ser- viee of the Plywoods workers. If the men stick together they can force the Company to accede to their just and fair request, and only by this action ean their own jobs be protected. Only by forming “a strong organization, by becoming a part of the great Interna- tional Woodworkers Union with its af- Zealand, and by affiliating to the and Labor Council can real be made. Veneer workers’ Loggers Crushed To Death Imposed By Need Deathless Days Campaign After a short shutdown over July 1st, B.C’s lumber industry got off to a tra- gic start with another marked increase in the death toll. The list has reached 37 already with barely half the season passed; which is an increase of five over last year’s unusually high figure at this time, 37 Workers have been killed in Jogging accl- dents in B.C. since January Ist, 1939, With deep regret LW.A. learnt of the fatal accident of Wal- ter Bobiak at the Shaw Creek camp of the Industrial Timber Mills at Youbou. Bo- biak, who was one of the first members of our Union was also well-known for his activity in the Ukrainian Mass Organization. A large number of loggers and friends attended the funeral, held in the Ukrainian Labor Temple, at which Nigel Morgan, Vice President of the I.W.A. District Council, spoke briefly on behalf of the Union. Bobiak, who was 2 chaser, was almost instantly killed when his head was crushed between two logs. He is sur- vived by his widow and a little 6-year- old son. Another logger, Siddons, was killed July 19th at Headquarters, Courtenay. While unloading logs at Woods log- dump he was crushed when the cheese- block was knocked out and the pile came down pinning him against the brow-log. Siddons also leaves a wife and one child to mourn his passing. On July 18th, John Seabloom was killed by a “freak accident” when a sap- lng fell which broke his neck at Mer- rill, Ring and Wilson camp, Rock Bay. Besides the deaths which have been recorded, there has been an unusually high number of accidents, which points further to the need for organization and collective action to halt this needless slaughter annually. VICTORIA. — The British Columbia Industrial Relations Board has promul- gated two orders, effective July 18, one setting a $2.75 minimum wage for cook- house and bunkhouse employees in the sawmill industry, and the other provid- ing for semi-monthly payment of wages in the construction industry, : CJOR District Council officials of the In- ternational Woodworkers of America were considering a strong protest to Ottawa this week following the severe censorship imposed against last Tues- day’s “Green Gold” broadcast over csOR. Apparently cocking an attentive ear in the direction of Mr. H. R. MacMil- lan, lumber tycoon and generally ac- Imowledged to be one of the fifty big- gest industrialists in Canada, Station CJOR forced the I.W.A. to delete all reference to one of MacMillan’s plants, the B.C, Plywoods Limited, currently involved in a dispute over the dis- charge of 51 employees. So strict was the censorship that the LW.A’s speaker for the evening, AL Parkin, was forced to leave out any reference even to the words “plywood” and “veneer.” He was allowed only to refer generally to the plant as being “an important woodworking concern located in Vancouver,” despite the fact that the entire broadcast was written around the specific happenings at the B.C. Plywoods Limited. News broad- casts on the same incident over an- other Vancouver station were not cen- sored. Only “reason” given by the CJOR management was that mention of the firm’s name might involve the station in a libel suit. Nigel Morgan, vice- president of the B.C. Coast Council, in protesting the censorship, denied that @ mere statement of fact was in any way libel, pointing out that in previous broadcasts on the Blubber Bay situa- tion, the LLW.A. had frequently named the Pacific Lime Company with no ob- jection from the station. Union officials and the men involved in the B.C. Plywood dispute were un- animous in condemning the censorship as a direct infringement on the rights of free speech, charging that in this case the station management had ap- parently been influenced by the power wielded by the MacMillan interests. Modern Version Of “Loch Lomond’? You'll take Albania and Til take Roumania And Pil be in Moscow before you, For me and Benito will never meet again On the bonny, bonny banks of the Volga. i .