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NION BULLETI

Published Bi-Weekly by the B.C. Coast District Council, I.W.of A.

VANCOUVER, B.C., NOVEMBBER 14, 1939

oS

No. 220

Loggers Respond To
IWA Organizing Drive

IWA proposals for an industry-wide pay boost to offset
higher living costs—summarized in the slogan for a “‘dol-
lar a day”’ hoist—have taken held in every major lumber-

ing district on the B.C. coast and are finding a ready re-
Sponse from woodworkers everywhere, according to reports reaching

IWA headquarters this week from organizers in the field.
Facing the usual winter shutdown, which may last for several weeks
in some areas, and with theix wages indirectly cut approximately 20 per

BC District Council.

cent as a result of wartime profiteering in staple commodities, wood-
workers all over the Coast were quick to.approve the stand taken by the
IWA convention and the resultant drive

for higher wages initiated by the

Woodworkers generally are taking the stand that wage boosts are an

IWA gains in membership.

immediate necessity “if we're going to block present attempts to make
us work for nothing” and this new spirit is already reflected in recent

Principal result of the campaign to date has been the big gains reg-

: Council Offers
@F lection Slate.

With referendum ballots for interna-
tional officers and proposed constitu-
tional amendments already in the hands
of locé unions and many camp dele-
gates, IWA District Council executive
members this week gave blanket en-
dorsement to reelection of President
Harold J. PriteNett and other interna-
tional officialy and urged a straight
“yes” yote on all 16 proposed amend-
ments, 2

“We are asking the BC membership
to ‘vote ‘er straight’ on all issues be-
cause we believe a majority vote for
President Pritchett is a vote for the
yolicies of the CIO and the program of
organizing the unorganized,” declared
District Council President H. Bergren.
“Approval of the constitutional amend>
“ments, in particular the one calling for
the inerease in per capita payments
from the local unions to the interna-
“onal, is absolutely necessary, in my
since BC is one of the districts
| benefit most from any improve-
in finances in the international
: ; * ;
— Aeti of the District Couneil execu-

in endorsing a straight “yes” vote is
ih line with the majority vote at t

a

istered in the Cowichan Lake area, where Local 80, under the direction
of District President H. Bergren, has recorded two recent victories.

First definite achievement was the increasing of wages in the two
Youbou camps. This was followed a week later by signing of a new work-
ing agreement between the Lake Log Company and.the employees.

Several days Jater action for wage increases got wader way in an.
entirely new direction when employees of Camp 9, Englewood, after
a meeting in camp attended by almost every man, voted to open ne-
gotiations for a 15 percent wage increase and elected a committee of
ten to approach the management. They had already circulated a pe-
tition asking for the increase and handed it in to the office.

“If they are unable to reach a satis-
factory agreement, the men at Camp 9
have authorized the union to call for
an arbitrator under the Industrial Con-
ciliation and Arbitration Act,” reported
John MacCuish, organizer for Local
171, IWA, who with Organizer Ted
Gunrud called the meeting in the camp
last Friday, November 10.

.-Im his report to union headquarters
on Monday, MacCuish stressed the jus-
tice of the crew's demand, pointing out
that wage scales in Englewood are
among the lowest on the Coast. He also
emphasized that the men desired to act
strictly within the confines of the ICA
Act. :

Favorable reaction by loggers and
millworkers to the IWA “raise wages”
campaign proves that the workers in
the industry are receptive to the idea
of unionism and are waiting for the
IWA to step into their operation, in the
opinion of District Council officials.

LOG PRICES FIRMER:
HEMLOCK TAKES JUMP

Showing a firm tendency and indicat-
ing good market prospects; log prices, as
quoted this week by brokers, were as
follows: *

FIR—$10, $15, and $22 per M,, to $1
better.

CEDAR—(Shingle) $15, $19 and $21,
(Lumber), $19 and $24, with $1 extra
for all logs scaling over 1000 feet.

HEMLOCK-—$11 per M. camp run
—the price quoted by some brokers.

This is a sharp increase on pulp tim-
ber and holds out good prospects for
a firm market and steady operation
of pulp camps,

>.

Y BOOST DEMAND GAINING GROUND

TWO MORE LOGGERS
KILLED THIS MONTH

Death Rate Close to
1938 Record Total

EPORTS on the deaths of two
more loggers — Hugh Clarke

and Harry “Red” Manion—since the
beginning of November, boosted the
death rate to 58 this week, a grim re-
minder of the need for drastic action
by organized loggers in demanding
observance of safety regulations, This
yorr's total is within five of the 1938
record, when 63 men lost their lives.

Clarke was em-

ployed as a brake-

man at the Hill-

crest Lumber Com-| oe
been killed in
logging acel-

pany operations
dents in B.C.

and was well
known in the dis-

since January
1st, 1939,

trict.

Manion, a truck
driver, was injured
on the job while employed at the
Cyr’s and Allen operations at Port
MacNeil. He died from his injuries
several days later in Vancouver Gen-

IWA STRENGTHENS
POSITION IN LAKE
LOG OPERATIONS —

New Agreement To
Provide High Wages,
Checkoff For Dues

COWICHAN LAKE, BC—Represent-
atives of employees of the Lake Logging
Company opened a new chapter in the
history of the IWA here last week when
they negotiated an agreement with offi-
cials of the company covering all of the
325 men employed in the camp and at
the operations of the Crofton Export
Company, a subsidiary of the Rounds
and Hunter firm.

In addition to a committee of seven
directly employed by the company, nego-
tiators for the men included Nigel Mor-
gan, IWA District Council secretary, and
Tod MacLennan, secretary of Local 80,
while the company was represented by
Manager H. W. Hunter, Kenneth Rounds

eral Hospital,

Lodge Protests
On First Aid

Workers at the Fraser Mills plant of
the Canadian Western Lumber Com-
pany ave again pressing for a more effi-
cient first aid administration as a r
sult of a serious accident several days
ago when an employee, W. Arran, had
his hand caught in one of the live rolls
and completely torn from his arm.

Due to the fact that the first aid room
is over a quarter-mile from the plant,
Arran was forced to wait for assistance
in the time office for a full 15 minutes.
Meantime the City of New Westmin-
ster’s ambulance had been sent for and
it covered the seven and a half miles
from the city to the plant to pick up the
injured man before the first aid man
was able to be notified and cover the
quarter mile from the first aid room to
the time office,

Recently a majority of Fraser Mills
workers had signed a petition urging
the Safety Committee to move the first
aid room closer to the mill itself, but
the request was turned down with no
adequate reason given.

The Safety Committee is comprised
of Shipping Foreman Jones, Plywood
Factory Manager Jordan, and the planer
mill foreman, Taber.

- Arran’s injury was not the first in
which there was delay in giving first
aid treatment, according to old employ-
ces of the plant. For years men seri-
ously injured have had to suffer untold
agonies either traversing the distance to
the first aid room on foot, being carried
on the back of a fellow worker, or

transported on a clumsy carrier utilized

ior the emergency.

and Earl Olts.

Chief points in the new working
agreement include: (1) recognition of
the employees’ committee; (2) . recog-
nition of the employée-controlled
safety committee; (3) highest standard
of wages in the industry; (4) hours of
work in accordance with provincial
statutes; (5) the checkoff system for
payment of union dues and assess- -
-ments; (6) no discrimination because
of union membership; (7) rehiring of
regular employees after seasonal shut-
downs,

The agreement. will remain ih effect
until May, 1940, and covers all employ-
ees, all of whom are members of the
IWA.

Signing of this contract marks the
fourth year of amicable relations be-
tween the management and crew of this
operation, during which the men have
enjoyed higher wages, better working
conditions and a higher measure of job
security than any other camp on the
Coast. More than that, they have been
able, through an efficient safety com-
mittee, to produce the best safety record
of any operation in BC.

‘The camp is generally regarded as a
model of what is possible throughout the

industry with establishment of a strong
IWwA.

LABOR DISPUTES IN
CANADA SHOW INCREASE

OTTAWA, Ont. — Faced with rising
living costs and resultant lowering of
real wages, workers across Canada were
turning to strike action to enforce de-
mands for higher pay this month as
Labor Department statistics showed a
higher number of strikes during Septem-
|ber, 1939, than the previous year. In
|September of this year, according to the
|Labor Gazette, there were 17 strikes, in-
[volving 8,804 workers as compared with

{15 strikes, involving only 2,132 workers,
lduring September, 1938,