_ Claretta Orton,

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Bi-weekly Bulletin Published by The B.C. District Council, International Woodworkers of America, (CIO), Affiliated with Canadian coer of Labor

VOL, XI. No, 13.

VANCOUVER, B.C., SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1942

‘Broadway-G@>> Printers Ltd.

(273)

Conference Asks Upward Review
Of Wages To Stabilize Lumber

IWA, ILU OFFICERS
ADDRESS MEET

Stirring accounts of the progress and
activities of fellow-workers in the United
States, both in the lumber industry and
in longshoring, were ‘given to delegates
to the IWA Midsummer Conference last
weekend by IWA Int'l Vice-President
Carl Winn and Roscoe Craigeraft, vice-
president of the International Longshore-
men and Warehousemen's Union,

Introduced by President Harold Prit-
chett as a “co-worker of Harry Bridges,”
Brother Craigeraft gave an excellent pic-
ture of the efforts of the dock workers
on the Pacific Coast to hurry up the load-
ing of vital war materials “so that the
boys over there can get the job over with
that much quicker.”

Pointing out that his was the first
union to introduce the Industry Coun-
cil plan, supported by the IWA, Craig-
craft explained that the board had two
union representatives, two company
representatives, and an impartial gov-
ernment chairman, The board, he said,
had been successful in increasing pro-
duction 15 per cent, which meant a gain
approximately of two days in loading
one ship,

“Two days’ gain can mean a lot in
the shipping industry,” he stated, “be-
cause the sooner we can get the sup-
plies ‘over there’ the sooner we can get
the war over with.”

Int'l Vice-President Carl Winn gave a
resume of the gains obtained by the re-
cent 4-District-Council negotiations with
the War Labor Board. -

‘They had obtained, he said, something
which the IWA had been fighting for for
a long time, standardization of wages,
obtaining a general 7% cents per hour
general wage increase, with 25 cents ad-
ditional for night shift workers.

“We asked for and got a standardiza-
tion of $7.20 a day for chokermen and

(Continued on Page 2)

Fifty-seven delegates, representing some five thousand members of the IWA, met for a one-day Mid-

Summer Conference at District Headquarters in Vancouver last Sunday and drafted a program demonstrating
clearly their understanding of the significance of the titanic struggle against Hitlerism to prevent the destruc-
tion of labor and all other democratic institutions and the fascist enslavement of the world. The delegates unani-
mously pledged their every ounce of energy in the battle of production for an immediate offensive in 1942. They
voted complete and wholehearted support to a “Production for Victory” program and pledged to make effective
the joint labor-management production committees suggested by Elliot Little, Canada’s Director of National Se-

Harold Prtehelt-
Resident

Present Watch To
Vice-Pres. Bergren

Providing in item on a lighter side
to the vast amount of business dealt
with at the IWA Midsummer Confer-
ence last weekend was the presenta-
tion to Hjalmar Bergren, vice-presi-
dent of the B,C. District Council, of a
gold Lorie. watch by the members of
the District in appreciation of the fine
work and cooperation shown by
Bergren during the past few years,

President of the District Council
until the election of Harold Pritchett
to that position last Christmas,
Bergren has been instrumental in the
organizing of new sub-locals at Che-
mainus and Hillcrest, and has put in
many thousands of hours of work or-
ganizing other camps up and down
Vancouver Island.

IWA Ladies’ Auxiliaries
Elect New District Council

A tremendous step forward in the ‘organization of Ladies’ Auxiliaries
_to the IWA in British Columbia was the formation of a Ladies’ Aux-
iliary B.C. District Council at the IWA Midsummer Conference last

weekend.

©
Representatives of nearly all Auxili-

aries in the District attended the con-
_ ference, and were addressed by Mrs.
secretary-treasurer of
Federated Women's Auxiliaries in
seattle,
Officers for the new Council were
ted at the meeting and six different
locals are represented. Mrs,
Brown, Lake Cowichan local, was
d president; Mrs, A. Dewhurst, Al-
vice-president; Mrs, John Wag-

three years; Mrs. McDonald, Courtenay,
trustee for two years, while the position
of one-year trustee was left open for a
delegate to be elected by the Ladysmith
local, unfortunately unable to send dele-
gates to the conference.

In addressing the main body of the
conference during the afternoon session,
Mrs. Orton stressed the appeal sent out
by CIO President Phillip Murray to all
affiliated locals to set’ up Ladies’ Auxili-
aries as an unfailing means of assisting
unions during strikes and difficult
periods.

Flective Service.

Delegates from the logging section in-
structed District Officers to prepare a
survey with a view to presenting a brief
to the Regional War Labor Board asking
stabilization of wages equal to the high-
est in the industry, while sawmill work-
ers voted for stabilization with a 65c an
hour minimum wage, the 44-hour week,
and call and stand-by time. Opposition
was expressed to the recently enacted
“job-freezing” Order-in-Council on the
basis that it would not produced the de-
sired results; and the government, instead,
urged to eliminate sub-standard wages
and conditions which are the basic cause
of the large fluctuation.

The conference, at which loggers, saw-
mill workers, plywood workers and shin-
gle weavers were represented, submitted
a number of proposals, as a basis for
futyre work, to bring about a one hun-
dred percent organized industry and to
improve and stabilize wages, hours and
working conditions with a view to im-
proving the morale of the workers in the
interests of an all-out war effort.

A considerable part of the convention
was taken up with the discussion of the
establishment of Production Committees,
with a recommendation being adopted
that, wherever possible, camp delegates
accept the challenge of Elliot Little — to
see that the workers in their operation,
by a majority vote, elect their represent-
atives to act on management-labor com-
mittees; sending in the name of their
nominee to the company; C. S. Henley,
representative of the Director of Selec-
tive Service, Federal Building, Vancouver,
B.C.; and to the IWA B.C. District Coun-
cil. Delegates expressed the belief that
the Production Committees should center
most of their work in the following direc-
tions:

() to devise
production;

(2) improve planning, with a view to
eliminating any bottlenecks due to labor
shortage, priority problems, etc.;

(8) plan for better utilization of ma-
chinery;

(4) assist in the training of and the
systematic breaking in .of new person-
nel; and

(5) through management-labor coop-
eration, increase self-discipline and im-
prove morale,

Citing Hitlerism as the greatest enemy
of labor and the people, the IWA pledged
its full strength to this program to win
the battle of production and pave the
way for the successful operation of a

improved methods of

(Continued on Page Five)

“Today we are educating our women
that this war is labor's war,” Mrs, Orton
remarked. “And if we don’t win it, we
have lost everything. In every step that
is necessary to win the war, women play
an important part.”

IWA RESOLUTION
ON SECOND FRONT

Realizing that now is the time to
strike at the Axis forces and assure
victory in 1942 for the Allies, mem-
bers of the IWA in Midsummer Con-

ference unanimously passed the fol-
lowing resolution for the opening of a

second front and pledged their aid in
supplying materials needed for this
venture:

“Whereas the fall of Tobruk, following
upon the loss of Singapore, Java, Burma,
Hong Kong, the Phillipine Islands, clearly
indicates that the continuous flow of
supplies and reserves is necessary for
waging a successful war; and

“Whereas the German-Fascist. military
machine is the heart and driving force
of the Axis powers; and

“Whereas the invasion of Europe by
the United Nations would shorten the
communication and transportation to
keep up the continuous flow of supplies
and reserves and the conquered people
of Europe would take heart and arise
to give aid and assistance to the over-
throw of the Axis powers;

“Therefore be it resolved that this
assembly in Midsummer Conference of
the IWA-CIO B.C. District Council go
on record for the immediate opening of
a second land front in Europe and re-
iterate our pledge to do our full part
to provide the materials needed for the
successful prosecution of an offensive
war.”

LOGGER KILLED
AT LAGOON BAY

Death of John Oscar Wihksne, chaser
at Kelley Logging Company, Lagoon
Bay, QCI, brought the woods’ death toll

up to thirty-two this

month, Wihksne,
whose home was at
2316 Prince Edward

Woodworkers
have been _ | Street, Vancouver, was
killed by ‘a skidding
m B.C."
Killed in %-0°5 | jog during logging op-
dustry since | erations at the Lagoon
Jan. 1, 1942 | Bay camp.

Members of the
IWA heard with regret this week of the
death of an old-time member of the
union, Andy Blomquist, who died in Van-
couver General Hospital on July 7, 1942,
from a blood-clot following an operation
to remove his tonsils.

A belated report received recently told
of the death of Kenneth MacFarland,
who was drowned toward the end of
May, when a rowboat capsized at Camp
A-35, Pacific Mills, QCI,