79, 1940

BERGEN LISTS
GAINS: OPTIMISTIC
FOR FUTURE

A practical and workable organizing
program that will put into life the gen-
eral slogans for “organization of the
unorganized” and “ a dollar a day boost
in pay” featured the report of District
President Hjalmar Bergren to the an-
nual convention of the B.C. District
Council held last week,

Pointing out that any organizing pro-
gram, to be successful, must be accom-
panied by an efficient union apparatus, ]
properly centralized under one leader-
ship and with its objective clearly before
it, the popular and capable District Pre-
sident laid down a number of proposals
for coordinating the work on all avail-
able union forces and predicted that,
with such an improved setup, organiza-
tion of the unorganized woodworkers
Was mainly a matter of getting out into
the big Association camps and contact-
ing the thousands of men who have al-
ready indicated their willingness to be-
come members of the IWA.

“At our last District Convention we
had the task of adopting a new policy
and program in line with the CIO and
the IWA policies, one that would meet
with the approval of the people as a
whole as well as woodworkers, and I
believe that we succeeded in making our
union an actual part of the commun-
ity,” Bergren declared. “But what we
failed to do was to work out a definite
line of action not only to bring the
union before the public but to suffi-
ciently increase the membership,’

In spite of certain shortcomings,
which he was confident would be
overcome during the next period as a
result of past experience, Bergren list-
ed a number of definite achievements,
including a considerable increase in
membership on a district scale, con-
solidation of the union and the obtain-
ing of new agreements in a number of
operations, and wage increases for
Several hundred men. This progress
was accompanied, he asserted, by a
strengthening of the active forces
working for the union as well as an
improvement in union finances,

After setting forth in some detail the
principal organizational problems facing
the IWA, the District President listed
a number of definite recommendations
including (1) elimination as far as pos-
sible, at least temporarily, of so-called
Jurisdictional lines established by the
various local unions and substitution of
® policy of centralizing the administra-
tion of the organizing campaign in the
hands of the District Executive Board;
(2) establishment of a CIO Regional Of
fice for Vancouver with the perspective
of a CIO Industrial Union Council for

" B.C, in the future, such a setup to act
4s the main organizing center for all
COI unions in the provifce; (3) endorsa-
tion of a general call for a dollar a day
pay increase throughout the industry;
(4) assist in the building of a stronger
international union by requesting the In-
ternational Executive Board for a sec-
ond referendum on Increasing the
per capita tax from 25 to 50° cents, as
provided for in his constitution; and (5)
taking of a referendum among all mem-
bers in B.C, for authorization to increase
dues payments from $1.25 to $1.50 a
month.

On the latter point, he gave as his

THE B.C. LUMBER WORKER

Page Three

tion in B.C,

Huge quantities of logs and lumber products are in demand today,
with camps and mills working at capacity rate. Lumber operators are
in a rush to meet the expanding market. Once more millions of dollars
will roll out from Canada’s foremost resources and much of it through
sweated toil of labor. Growing demands, bigger contracts, higher
prices, and more dividends. The main thing will be to get hold of the
money flowing out of the operations for those who OWN for a living.
But what about wages of those who LABOR for a living? Will they
increase automatically with dividends? No; you know as well as I do
that the only way for labor to get its rightful share of this increase
in the national income is to organize and get it for themselves. Work-
ers from coast to coast are faced with higher living costs while ‘wages
have remained much the same. In fact, the struggle for economic bet-
terment is becoming intensified as a result of additional taxes, higher
Prices, higher rents and so on right down the line. While a dollar was
equal to a hundred cents before September ist, it now equals only
about seventy-five cents. Organized labor must take the initiative
to rectify this unfair situation. The International Woodworkers is
leading the campaign of “Boost Our Pay a Buck a Day.”

It is time that everybody became organized in our industry; then
and then only will we be able to get the wages and conditions we are
entitled to. It is high time we all became members of a real, demo-
cratic industrial union, standing by it and supporting it. Do not
straddle the fence, but come in and do your share as a real member,
and give all possible assistance to your Union delegates in camp and
to the organizers when they visit you. This is the only way to rectify
your grievances and improve your economic conditions.

BC REQUESTS ANOTHER PER
CAPITA INCREASE REFERENDUM

VANCOUVER, B.C.—A request for a®by an overwhelming majority for the in-

second referendum ballot throughout the
TWA for an increase in the per capita
tax from 25 cents to 50 cents has been
submitted to the International Executive
Board by the B.C, District Council fol-
lowing approval of a resoluton on the
subject passed unanimously by last
week”s District Council convention.
The membership of the IWA in B.C.
strongly favor the move, since they voted
in the recent international referendum

opinion that the organizaztion in B.C.
would be greatly strengthened if the in-
ternational union was financially able
to contribute to the unionizing cam-
paign, the same holding true with an
increase in dues for B.C,

“We're members of an international
union,” he emphasized, “and as such,
We must always remember the fact
that the stronger we build the inter-
national, the stronger the union will
be in the districts and individual locals.
Without a strong international, we can
et nowhere, particularly in an indus-

try so closely linked on each side of
the border.”

Concluding his report on a strong note
of optimism, President Bergren declared
as his firm opinion that the year
1940 “may quite possibly see the final
establishment of unionism in a majo¥
part of the industry.”

“I am confident,” he said, “that if
we all determine to get behind the pro-
gram being worked out at this con-
vention, then around about the end of
the year we'll be able to say to our own
International President, Harold Pritchett,
as well as CIO President John L. Lewis,
we've done our part in realizing the CIO
objective of ten million CIO members
within the next five years!”

crease, although the measure was de-
feated by a narrow margin on an inter-
national scale.

The resolution as approved declares
that “the membership in B.C. has long
recognized the fact that organizational
work would be tremendously strength-
ened if the international union was fin-
ancially able to contribute to the B.C.
organizing campaign,” and stresses that
the work of “organizing the unorgan-
ized on both sides of the line is being
seriously hampered by the small per cap-
ita tax now paid, being lower than any
other international union of the CIO.”

The convention resolved to “instruct
the B.C, District Council to petition the
international Executive Board to call for
@ second referendum among all IWA
members . . . such a referendum being
provided for in the constitution of the
international union.”

“Once bitten, twice shy,” says the fam-
ous English writer, H. G. Wells, looking
back on his experience.as a war propa-
gandist in 1914-18. “I am not going to be a

stalking horse for the government any
more.”

Won Loggers
Quilt At Convention

Winner of the Autographed
Loggers’ Quilt given away at the
conclusion of the Third Annual
Convention was Ticket No. 97,
going to Nick Antifaev, 5750 In-
verness Street, Vancouver. The
quilt which will be made up in
the Union colors of green and
gold, will bear the signature of
some 150-odd woodworkers,

istrict Officers Report Progress
Haul In The Slack!

Living costs have soared since the outbreak of war, and if workers’
living standards are to be protected, wages too must be increased.
This hard fact underlies the slogan “Boost Our Pay a Buck a Day”
which forms the central theme of loggers’ and millworkers’ organiza-

WAR THREATENS
UNION RIGHTS,
MORGAN WARNS

“Living costs have soared since the
outbreak of war, and if workers living
standards are to be protected, wages too
must be raised,” Nigel Morgan, District
Council Secretary and International
Board Member, told delegates to the Con-
vention.

Delivering his report to the member-
ship on the administrative accomplish-
ments of the past year, Morgan also out-
lined the salient political issues confront-
ing B.C. Woodworkers, and presented an
analysis of the effect of Canada's war
legislation on labor’s democratic rights
and civil liberties, The Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse are still riding; War,
Unemployment, Exploitation and Misery
are still pounding their way across the
face of the world, and they have all
four ridden much closer to the Canadian
People during the past year, he said,
Declaring that war comes wrapped up
in candy coating with tinsel and patriot-

ism and high-sounding ideals, he con-

demned it as being the same old bundle
sold by the same high pressure sales-
men,

Pointing to our fatlure to lend any
help whatsoever to China while she is
being ruthlessly raped and plunderea by
Japan, or to do anything to help the
democratically elected governments of
Spain and Czechoslovakia, he said he
found many people today highly suspic
cious of the present so-called “war for
democracy.” The present censorship of
labor news and radio broadcasts, the
raiding of workers’ homes and papers,
the arrest of such prominent and reli-
able Canadian citizens as C. H. Millard,
Secretary of the Canadian CIO, is en-
couraging this feeling, and rightly so.

He further cited the reports of the
executions of British subjects for advo-
cationg “dominion status” for India, the
disbanding of 42 French trade unions,
the abolition of 219 progressive peoples
organizations in France, the forced
“twelve hour” day for French labor, as
definite signs of conditions which pre-

viously were only credited to the fascist
barbarians,

Regulations under the War Measures
Act were also scored for taking Hab-
eas Corpus rights, another below-the-belt
shot at democracy. . . . The cost of liy-
ing has risen approximately 17% without
a corresponding increase in wages; war
profiteering is proceeding unabated, as
are also speculation and monopoly on
munition profits; and as if to add insult
to injury, “nuisance taxes” or indirect
taxes are being levied on the necessities”
of life instead of surtaxes upon those
excess profits and high incomes and
taxation of luxuries, which are enjoyed
only by the favored few.

‘The biggest war we have on our hands
today is the battle to prevent Canada’s
fifty Big Shots from destroying demo-
cracy right here at home, Morgan
warned, “Democracy starts in our own
backyard, so let's abolish poverty and
want at home before we go abroad to
fight for it; for if democracy doesn’t
mean freedom of speech, radio, press and
assembly and a just share of the na-
tional ineome, it doesn’t mean very
much.”

It is up to the L.W.A. as B.C’s most

(Continued on Page 4)

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