VANCOUVER, B.C., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1941

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‘VOL. 10, Ne No. 6
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BILL’ STEWART
TAKES OVER IWA
ORGANIZING JOB

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Securing the
services of William Stewart, former sec-
retary of the AFL Hotel and Restaurant
Employees Union, as assistant sawmill
organizer for the LW.ofA, was an-
nounced this week by District Council
Secretary Nigel Morgan.

Stewart, one of the best known of the
younger labor men in the city, was ousted
as secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant
Employees Union shortly after conclusion
of the Hotel Vancouver strike by a
group of A-FofL, reactionaries headed
by Bengough, Jamieson and Showler of
the Trades and Labor Council. His ouster
was concurrent with his exposure of the
AF.ofL. phonies’ successful sellout of
the hotel strike, which forced the men
back to work under conditions little
better than those prevailing before the
walkout,

In announcing Stewart's appointment,
Secretary Morgan expressed confidence
in the new organizer’s ability to handle
the diMcult problems confronting the
sawmill section of the organization.

“Actually, the A.F.ofL’s loss is the
T.W.of A’s gain,” Morgan declared. “Un-
der the energetic and capable guidance
of Brother Gibson, head organizer for
the sawmill section, wa have made some
real progress in tne past few months.
Undoubtedly, with Stewart's assistance,
the work will go ahead much faster.”

Decision to appoint the new organizer
was first made at the quarterly meeting
of the B.C. District Council, held in Na-
naimo on March 30, at which time dele-
gates unanimously approved text of a
resolution presented by the executive
officers seeking authority for his appoint-
ment,

TOLL MOUNTS AS
FIVE MEET DEATH

With this issue we add five more
names to the growing list of fatalities
in the lumber industry, bringing the
total to 19 deaths since the first of
this year.

A, Bruneau, 40, chokerman, was in-
stantly killed on March 27, while em-

Ployed at Bloedel’s

Camp 4, Menzies
Bay. At the Frank-
lin River operation

of the same com- piccawarmers
* ve been

pany, Carl J. John- | yea in BOs

son, snag faller, Tuimiber le

was fatally injured
on March 18.

Charles Lee, 82,
met death on March 27 when the log-
ging truck in which he was riding
overturned near Wilson Creek.

Takeo Ono, Japanese, employed at
Mayo Bros. Camp, died in Duncan
Hospital on March 17, a few hours
after being hit by a snag.

On April 2, Andrew Olson, 56, Nor-
wegian logger, was killed at Soder-
man's Camp, Havana Channel.

In addition to the five known deaths,
an unconfirmed report has been re-
ceived of a logger being killed at the
Esperanza operation.

dustry since
Jan. 1, 1941.

CIRCLE F. BALANCE
SHEET SHOWS PROFIT

Showing an operating profit of $1,618,-
939.00 in 1940 as compared with $1,326,
482,00 profit in 1939, the Canadian West-
ern Lumber Company (Fraser Mills)
statement has recently been released. In
1939, this company made seventy times
the profit of the preceding year.

While the actual production of lumber
decreased by over six million feet in
1940, the advanced prices realized $362,
165.00 more returns than the greater pro-

Decision to ask for conciliation came
at a full meeting of the crew, numbering
110 men, which was addressed by H. J.
Pritchett, secretary of the Vancouver
District Labor Council, and H. Bergren,
president of the I.W.A. District Council.
Vote on the question was unanimous and
the delegation to meet Pearson, headed
by President Bergren, will press for a
full investigation of the circumstances
surrounding the lockout as well as issu-
ance of provincial relief pending reopen-
ing of the camp.

A second committee will meet with the
Nanaimo City Council some time this
week seeking its support in ending the
shutdown,

The lockout was ordered in direct vio-
lation of the collective bargaining clause
in the Criminal Code, -which-grants worl
ers the right to belong to a union with-
out fear of discrimination, H, J. Prit-
chett told the Lumber Worker on return-
ing to Vancouver.

One company official

have threatened mass discrimination
against union members. Well over 90
percent of the crew hold cards in the
I. W. of A.
Wages were not included in the list
of proposals placed before the manage-
ment by the camp committee. Specifically
they asked for louder whistles on the
donkeys, a guard rail on the dump, and
covers over the crummies. Dollar, owner
of the camp, who met the committee,
rejected the safety proposals and imme-
diately posted a notice closing the oper-
ations.

In an attempt to avert the dispute, the

is alleged to

duction in 1939,

men then asked for a re-registration of

DOLLAR CAMP CREW LOCKED OUT

Federal Labor Laws
Violated By Company

NANOOSE, B.C., April 14—Crew of the Canadian Dollar camp,
locked-out.since last Tuesday after the camp committee had interviewed
the management seeking improved safety conditions on the job, moved
this week to end the deadlock by preparing to meet with Labor Minister
George S. Pearson to request appointment of a conciliation officer.

employees for a return to work, but Dol-
lar refused the offer and threatened to
institute a new policy of hiring all men
through Black's agency in Vancouver.
Previously many of the men had been
hired direct from Nanaimo.

A tnira mass. meeting of the locked-
one crew has been called for Wednes-
day, April 16, which will be addressed by
Pritchett and Don Barbour, CIO wood-
workers organizer from the Courtenay
area.

Sam English, president of the United
Mine Workers local union in Cumber-
land, has already pledged the full support
of his organization, likening the Dollar
camp lockout to the shutdown of the
Cumberland mines.

Labor men-on the Island, after being
jacquainted—of the facts ofthe lockout,
are especially critical of the fact that
the company dared to disregard the
men’s demands for improved safety con-
ditions, despite the enormous number of
men being killed and injured each year
in the large operations,

LOCAL 80 CALLS
IMPORTANT MEETING

The next meeting of I.W.A. Local
1-80 will be held in the U.M.W.A. Hall,
Nanaimo, on Sunday, April 20, com-
mencing at 1 p.m, A number of import-
ant matters are scheduled to be dis-
cussed, including opening of the new
local headquar‘ers in Nanaimo as the
most central point of the area covered
by Local 1-80. All Sub-locals and camps
and mills under the jurisdiction of
Local 1-80 are urged to send delegates
to the meeting.

50,000 Miles-'The Saga of the Loggers’ Navy

‘TRIM, 45-foot diesel powered cruiser
pokes her nose into a small bay
“somewhere on the B.C. coast” and
_ with engine idling eases gently in toward
the booming grounds of a logging camp.
Even before she slips into her mooring
alongside a boomstick, a logger standing
in the door of a bunkhouse passes the
word around and men begin drifting
_ down to the beach to welcome the new
arrival, while up in the office the “push,”
glaring for a moment out of a
turns to his timekeeper and
_ growls: “Here's that damn ‘Loggers’
_ Navy’ again.”
‘The cause of this little flurry of activ-
“ity that has broken the customary after-
supper period of calm and drawn the ire
ee spree SS motor rene! “Laur
” operated since 1986 by Local 1-
In Woodworkers of Amer-

‘and soon to be joined in service by
. ” the

M.V. “Annart”’ — New Flagship of Fleet

'The “Laur-Wayne,” known from Van-
couver Harbor to Queen Charlotte City
ag the “Loggers’ Navy,” provides a chap-
ter unique in the annals of trade union
history in North America, perhaps the

Since 1936 the little craft, built

world.
in 1911 and structurally unsuited to the

dangerous waters of the northern B.C.
coast, has carried Local 71 organizers

By AL PARKIN

ging is carried on, and for the greater
part of that time under the command of
Captain John MacCuish, president of
Local 71 and its top-flight organizer. On
all such trips the vessel carries union
literature, general labor information, spe-
cial leaflets—sometimes printed on board
—all the material needed in the work of
building the union in the B.C. camps,

ST step toward putting an organ-

izing boat into service was taken
early in 1986, at the time when B.C. log-
gers were considering an industry-wide
organizing campaign, and one look at
the map of the B.C. coast gives ample
reason for the move. If you run a line
100 miles east from Vancouver inland to
the Harrison Lake country, then trace
your line northwest, as the crow flies, to
Prince Rupert, then due west to the

into every district of the coast where log-

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