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y Bulletin Published by The B.C. District Council, International Woodworkers of America, (CIO), Affiliated with Canadian Cone Labor

VOL. 10. No. 8.

VANCOUVER, B.C., WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1941

Ce (251)

FORECAST SPEEDY
END TO LOCKOUT
IN DOLLAR CAMP

ICATIONS that the Canadian Rob-
ert Dollar camp at Nanoose, closed
since April’8, when the company locked
4 out the crew rather than meet a commit-
tee of the men regarding safety condi-
tions, may reopen shortly, are reported
this week by those close to the scene of
the dispute,

Anticipating an early reopening, mem-
bers of the Camp Committee of the Dol-
lar operation approached the manage-
ment on May 7 seeking to put forward
their proposals and offer their services
in expediting the move, but in the ab-
ence of H. D. Dollar, who was in Van-

8
Qe: they were unable to present their
case. AS a result the B.C. District Coun-

eil of the IWA, over the signature of
Vice-president Dalskog, embodied their
proposals to the company in the form of
a letter to Mr, Dollar.

‘The letter is as follows:

“Relative to the Canadian Robert Dol-
Jar logging operation at Nanoose Bay,
you no doubt are aware that a commit-
tee of employees waited on you May 7
with a view to cooperating with the man-
agement should you desire to reopen the
camp.

“Your employees would be pleased to
Imow the date you desire to reopen, and
to the manner in which they will be
rehired, but would respectfully suggest

Qo" such re-employment follow the usual
P

4

_ ARBITRATION AWARD

rocedure, either through private employ-
ment agencies or through the Govern-
ment Employment Agency in Nanaimo,

“The committee offers its services fur-
ther, if needed, to round up the local
employees. They would also like to pro-
pose a meeting between the management
and the committee representing the em-
ployees for the purpose of insuring the
highest degree of harmonious relations
between the company and its employees
in future, making toward a greater de-
gree of stability and productivity in
future,

“The suggestions hereto set forth are
made in good faith and if accepted in the
game manner by the company will be
beneficial to the interests of all con-

_ eerned.”

TEXTILE UNION WINS

_ VANCOUVER.—Time and a half for
overtime, seniority rights, holidays with
‘pay, and a general wage increase of five
‘cents an hour, were the concessions
by the employees of the West
Woollen Mills, as the Arbitration
i sitting on the dispute concluded

» employees, members of the Pacific
Workers’ Union, will meet this

represented In arbitration by the
ifle Coast Labor Bureau, and A, Mc-

22,000!

VANCOUVER LABOR
MAKES NEW GAINS

‘ANCOUVER. labor’s answer to

low wages and wartime speedup
is seen In recent sweeping gains in
industrial organization coupled with
a notable victory over an employer
in the courts.

In the first conviction in Canada
under the 1939 amendment to the
Criminal Code dealing with intimida-
tion, Merion M, Davies, manager of
the Langley Manufacturing Company,
was fined $100 and costs for “wrong-
fully dismissing Edward Sturgeon for
the sole reason that Sturgeon is a
member of a lawful trade union.”

Sturgeon is a member of the Metal
Workers’ Union of the Canadian Con-
gress of Labor, which is organizing
the plant,

Another big achievement was
chalked up by the same union last
week when Secretary Pritchett of the
Vancouver Labor Council announced
full organization of workers in the
American Can Company plent, —

Close to 800 Vancouver metal work-
ers have been organized by the Con-

By B. J. McCARTY
International Secretary-Treasurer, IWA

as Vail, Forks, Bellingham, Everett,
Anacortes, Sultan, Enumclaw, Cen-
tralia and Aberdeen saw lumber op-
erations completely suspended. In
Aberdeen alone seven big camps
were closed tight and others taking
similar action. Not since 1936, when
the lumber industry of the Pacific
Northwest was tied up in the giant
strike which brought establishment
of the union and union conditions,
have so many men-moved togethér
to enforce the conditions won dur-
ing the 1935-36 period,

Strike demands, formulated and unan-
imously approved by every member of
the Twin Districts several months ear-
lier, include a straight 7% cents an hour
wage increase, which would bring the
basic minimum wage to 75 cents an

| strike

WA Members Strike

Northwest Lumber Closed Tight
As Operators Stall Negotiations

: SEATTLE, Wash., May 12.— (By Wire) .—After nine weeks of fruitless negotia-
tions during which the lumbermen’s negotiating committee stalled off a decisive reply
to the IWA’s requests for a renewal of union contracts, 22,000 loggers, boommen and
millworkers, members of the Northern and Southern Washington District Councils of
the International Woodworkers of America were on strike this week in every major op-
eration in the state of Washington.

Within a few hours after the strike was called at midnight on May 8 the strike was
100 percent effective on all operations within the jurisdiction of the Twin Districts.
From the giant Weyerhauser operations to the smallest gyppos—camps, sawmills and
plywood plants—picket lines were drawn solidly. Such well known lumbering centres

OPERATORS OFFER
WAGE REDUCTION

Special to B.C. Lumber Worker
EATTLE, Wash. — Continued stalling
by the West Coast Lumbermen’s As-
sociation in an obvious effort to “wear
down” the negotiating committee of the
I.W.A. forms. the background of the mass
involving some 22,000 loggers,
boommen, plywood plant and sawmill
workkers which took effect throughout
northern and southern Washington on
Friday, May 9, according to Ilmar Koi-
vunen, IWA vice-president and chairman

of the IWA Negotiating Committee.
Climaxing nine weeks of negotiations

hour; union shop and union hiring; holi-
days with pay and abolition of busheling.
While strike lines were being drawn,
negotiations were still in progress in Ta-
coma between the IWA Negotiating Com-
whose chairman is Int'l Vice-
President Imar Koivunen, and the Lum-
bermen’s Labor Relations Committee.
In an attempt to confuse the strikers
and misrepresent the issue to the public,

gress in the past few months.

(Continued on Page 4)

Small Likelihood

Prevailing opinion as to the intention
behind the statements were that the
logging operators were merely following
their consistent policy of annually creat-
ing “blue ruin” rumors so as to offset
any tall of wage Increases to keep up
with rising profits and to create among
the working loggers a feeling of insecur-
ity concerning their jobs.

Support is given this position by the
regular monthly analysis of market con—
ditions in the lumber industry as seen
by the “B,C, Lumberman,” official organ
of the sawmill and logging camp opera-
tors.

In the April issue of the magazine, for
cample, the following quotations on mar-

[ket trends appear:

Lumber Market Trend Shows

aN statements by R. V. Stuart, secretary of the B.C. Loggers
Association, concerning a threatened shutdown of B.C. logging
camps due to lack of shipping facilities, was questioned this week by a
number of observers familiar with the situation.

Of Shutdown

“Today, however, practically all the big
export mills are adapted to the handling
of rail business, and North America rail
markets are furnishing a steady and
very satisfactory demand for nearly all
items produced, although the mills could
use rather more cutting business

“@xport lumber shipments from British
Columbia were satisfactory during March
and the aggregate movement from the
quarter compares very favorably with the
figures for the first quarter of 1940...

"Most British Columbia logging camps
are still very busy, and fir is moving
fairly well at current market prices, as

(Continued on Page 3)

between the union and employers, during
which the operators consistently brought
each meeting to an indefinite close by
pleading their committee “lacked full
authority to act,” last-minute conferences
were held on May 1, 3 and 5, at which
the operators industrial relations com-
mittee flatly rejected all IWA demands
and presented counter-proposals unsatis-
factory to the men.

Concluding that the operators Were in-
terested in stalling indefinitely in the
hope of forcing through a compromise
agreement favorable only to themselves,
the IWA Negotiating Committee reported
this situation to a conference of IWA
locals in Olympia on Tuesday, May 6,

(Continued on Page 4)

U.S. COAL MINERS WIN
IMPORTANT VICTORY

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Wage increases

for close to half a million workers were
chalked up last week by the C.1.0. when
the United Mine Workers of America, led
by President John L. Lewis,
dollar-a-day increases for some 400,000
workers in the nation’s soft coal mines
plus the first vacations with pay in the
history of the coal industry. ;

gained

Victory in the five-week-old strike

came when southern coal operators, who
had refused to come up to the scale paid

by northern operators,
UMWA demands and will meet the union

in negotiations to eliminate the 40-cent
differential.

capitulated to

Lewis said the wage increases will be

retroactive to May 1, 1941,