a ct on, Published Bi-Weekly by the B.C. BC LuncentWonnen UNION BULLETI Coast District Council, LW.of A. VANCOUVER, B.C., OCTOBER 10, 1939 > No. 218 LAKE LOG Hundreds Will Attend Third _ IWA Convention Over 300 Delegates Expected From All Parts Of U.S., Canada KLAMATH FALLS, Ore—This lumber- ing center is preparing to welcome the jargest number of convention delegates im the history of the International Wood- workers of America as reports from dis- trict councils and local unions indicate an estimated 313 delegates will attend the opening sessions of the Third Annual Convention scheduled to get under way here on October 18, According to Secretary-Treasurer B. J. McCarty, the coming convention will see at least 100 more delegates in attend- ance. The 1938 meeting was attended FE by 212 delegates. Representation will cover almost ey- ery lumbering area in the United States and Canada. Delegates will attend from the southern pine district of Alabama, and another contingent will represent St. Louis, Mo. A group of 25 delegates will arrive by specially chartered bus from Duluth, Minn, The B, C. Coast District Council will also be well represented. Heading the B. C. contingent will be President H. Bergren of the District Council and three other delegates from the Cowich- an Lake area. Local 71 will have one, possibly two delegates, while the newly organized Local 217, Plywood and Ven- eer Workers, I.W.A., will be represented. Nigel Morgan, vice-president of the District Council ,has already left for the south where he is attending the sessions : of the C.1.0. convention, which opened ea (Continued on Page 4) WAGES DROP AS DIVIDENDS RISE Real wages of Canadian industrial Workers have been reduced by as much as 20 percent during the past five weeks through a sharp increase in the cost of living—but, dividend payments by Can- adian companies to stockholders mounted to $22,458,998, the highest pay- ent on record for any September in For the same month in 1938, ‘oupo nelippers collected the “measly” gum of 19 odd millions of dollars. Biggest dividend slices were paid out by the big metal mining concerns—such _as International Nickel—but companies ‘and corporations that make their money ‘selling food commodities are also hand- “ing out big dividend checks as a result ‘of extra profits made through boosting cost of staple food products to the earner, while wages remain sta- OUTLINES PROGRAM CIO PRESIDENT JOHN L. LEWIS, who opened the sessions of the second CIO Convention in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 10, with a warning to American and Canadian labor against attempts to destroy civil rights at home under the guide of wartime necessity. Commenting on the CLO convention before leaving for the Golden Gate city, Harold Pritchett, IWA president, declared the meeting “would be one of the most significant events in Pacific Coast history. “ft will be particularly memorable to IWA members as a tribute to the CLO woodworkers and other CIO unions that have Jed the fight in bringing trade union benefits to the workers of the West.” WINS ARBITRATION AWARD Union Prepares For 20 Percent Increase By A. GREENWELL, Sec’y, Lake Logging Sub-Local Fresh from arbitration board hearings which resulted in an amicable agreement between employees and the company for reinstatement of W. Laird, discharged last June 29, I.W.A. members in the Lake Logging Com- pany camp were preparing this week to meet the company in further nego- tiations on the issue of a 20 percent increase in wages to meet a corres- ponding increase in the cost of living. CHAIRMAN GIVES TEXT OF AWARD- \OLLOWING is a copy of the findings F of a board of arbitration in the case of W. Laird of the Lake Logging Com- pany, forwarded to E, A. MacLennan, “A board of arbitration composed of Mr. H. W. Hunter, Mr. E. A. MacLen- nan and Mr, K .F, Duncan, chairman, appointed under the terms of a working agreement subsisting between the Lake the company, was convened at Rounds, B.C, on Thursday the 22nd instant to in- quire into the matter of the discharge of W. Laird on June 29 last. “after hearing the evidence of the representatives of the employees on the one hand and of the management on the other, the chairman made the following decision; “That the company re-employ W. Laird in some other capacity at the earliest Possible moment, it being understood that such re-employment take effect in a-reasonably short time. Death Toll Reaches 48 In B.C. Woods; Five Dead Last Month Six more deaths since the last issue of the Union Bulletin—all of them in the month of September—brought the death toll in B.C. logging camps to 48 this week and gave ghastly evidence that by the end of the year the fatality list may equal and even exceed last year’s total of 63 killed. Latest victims of combined speed-up, infractions of safety regulations and company officials’ carelessness, a direct result of lack of union organization, were as follows: Oscar Larson, faller employed by the Merrill and Ring operation at Squamish, killed’ when a falling tree struck another and uprooted it. Larson was hit by one of the roots. Aged 57, Larson is survived by a brother who works at the same camp. Frank Voitkevic, 44year-old native son of Vancouver, and employed by the H. and R, Timber Company at Harrison Lake, killed instantly on the loading platform when a log slipped from the tongs. He leaves a wife and two daugh- ters, Valerie and Lorraine, in Vancouver. Adolf Johnson, employed at the Bloe- del, Stewart and Welch camp at Menzies Bay, died in Campbell River hospital of injuries received when struck by a sapling. Johnson's only known relatives are believed to reside in Norway. Jens Johnson, employed on the Lake Logging Company steel gang, was fatal- ly injured while lighting fires to burn slashing, A verdict of accidental death with no blame attached was brought in by a coroner's jury. As tribute to the effectiveness of organization and an effi- cient Safety Committee, Johnson's death was the first in the unionized Lake Logging camp for a considerable length of time. Hideo Matsukura, Japanese faller, kill- ed when struck by wind-blown snag in the Hillerest operations near Duncan. A coroner's jury returned 2 verdict of accidental death with no blame attached. George Parker, worker in a logging camp at Nanoose, nine miles north of Nanaimo, passed away in Nanaimo Hos- pital following an accident while burning slash Friday. He was crushed by a rolling log. The Lake Log camp committee was instructed by the Sept. 22 general camp meeting to arrange hearings with the company on the proposed boost in wage scales, while a recommendation was ap- proved by the meeting urging all work- ers in the lumber industry to make the 20 percent wage increase an industry- wide slogan. Reinstatement of Brother Laird, dis- charged by the company for alleged in- efficiency, followed the setting up of an arbitration board which heard the case, and is held as a tribute to the effect- iveness of organized action and the am- icable relations existing between _the———~—\_ company and the Lake Log crew. The arbitration board, which compris- ed Secretary E. A, MacLennan of Local 80, representing the men; H. Hunter for the company, and K. F. Duncan, chairman, met at Rounds on Sept. 22 and recomemnded that Laird be reemployed “at the earliest possible moment.’ The Lake Log crew will be represented at the third annual convention of the I.W.A., being held in Klamath Falls, Ore, on Oct. 18, by one delegate. The ways and means committee of the sub-local is now busy raising finances to defray the expenses of the delegates from Local 80. Dues collections for the month of Sep- tember from this camp amounted to $630 (Continued on Page 4) NEW IWA GAINS IN WEYERHAUSER ‘ENUMCLAW, Wash—Members of the T.W.A. Local 2-157 will have some big gains to report at the coming Third An- nual Convention as a result of their smashing victory over the White River Lumber Company, part of the giant Weyerhauser concern, after a month's strike action. The strike, affecting more than 700 men in the mill and woods operation, not only won company recognition of four grievances which culminated in tho dispute, but gained a new agreement which is an improvement over the con- tract under which the men formerly worked, The new contract, described as “the best Weyerhauser agreement on the Pacific Coast,” provides for full senior- ity rights, full union recognition, 40- hour week, 8-hour day, and time and a half for overtime.