= i Loner 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,