February 8, 1943 Union Gains At Fraser Mills pe mighty sweeps of the Fraser River are synonymous with all phases of the logging industry. Logging camps on its bank utilize the rushing torrents of its higher waters to bring down logs to be boomed and towed to the cities at its mouth for conversion into the wood products on which a hundred industries depend . And on its north bank, just above the arched curve of the Pattullo Bridge, is the largest sawmill on the , Pacific Coast, Fraser Mills, the industrial barony of Canadian Western Lumber Company. A view of Fraser Mills from the Pattullo Bridge at New Westminster gives an impression of a vast residential area dom- inated by and dependent upon the industry represented by the smoking chimneys of this one large mill. Thirty-three years of bitter struggle have elapsed since Father O’Boyle brought out two trainloads of French-Canadian settlers from Sherbrooke in the Ottawa Valley and St. Romuald, Quebec, to work for the Fraser River Lumber Company, as it was then called, Through three decades the company has maintained its iron- clad rule over the whole economic and political life of settlers in the small community, And deceived by the company’s ‘paternalisti through the same period, un- policy, the millworkers have conducted a constant struggle for better conditions and union recognition, a struggle which in this past year has brought them definite gains and the perspective of complete victory for} union organization over company exploitation and intimidation. Fifty families, carefully picked by Father O’Boyle and as-! sisted financially by General A. D. McRae and Colonel David- son, then heads of the company, were brought out to work for the company. “Finding a shortage of labor in the province and not caring to employ many orientals,” the company preferred to bring in workers from Quebec in an endeavor to transplant to British Columbia and here reproduce a feudal domination over the economic life of the workers. Named after the first parish priest, the settlement was called Maillardville, and it was not until later that the present Fraser Mills townsite broke away from the Coquitlam municipality, of which Maillardville is still a part, and became a separate entity. How the company, which changed its name in 1910, one year after the settlement was established, acquired its right to a separate townsite is not quite clear. Oldtimers tell how the company accountant became reeve of Coquitlam when the townsite was split off from that municipality and point out that the. deal was consummated during the McBride administration which saw some of the most notorious land grabs in the province. Government Provided Freehold Land for Co. EO ANT, property is described as “80,00 acres of freehold tim- ber acquired by Crown grant in the Comox district and 60,460 acres leased partly from the Dominion and partly from the province of British Columbia.” Its booming grounds adjoin land owned by Co- quitlam municipality, which ren- ders sale of this land virtually im- possible. ‘Thus, in constituting its own land as a separate municipality, Fraser Mills establisiied, by a single stroke, a strangehold on the whole com- munity of Coquitlam and on the economic and political life of its employees. In 1912, when it was called “the} largest lumber company in the world,” Fraser Mills had a water frontage of 4,000 feet on the Fraser River, an area of 425 acres and a ten-hour working production out- put of from 350,000 to 450,000 feet of “every kind of wooden building material” on the three riggers still in use. Democracy Strangled In New Municipality _ live on company property, a man must work in the mill, but he can never own his own house or the land it stands on. When he quits work, either from old age, sickness or accident, he must move and seek help elsewhere, usually in Coquitlam municipality.’ When he dies, his family is asked to leave and no pension is provided by the company. No worker living on the company townsite has to pay taxes and his rent is only $15 a month. He has, however, to pay a ‘poll tax’ required by the government and $5 a year for school fees. School tuition is not provided by the company, but by the Coquitlam taxpayers, and the ‘poll tax’ does not, as it should, give the worker any right to vote in a democratic election of muni- cipal officers. True, the townsite does have elections, but since only property owners can vote, and no worker can own land in Fraser Mills unless allowed to do so by the company, obviously only those favored by the company can vote or administer townsite affairs. Reeve and councillors are usually company officials elected by accla- mation. Canadian Western Co. Controls District In addition, because of its finan- cial strength in the district, Fraser Mills is able to influence election of pro-company candidates to Co- quitlam municipality. - “Honest” John Oliver, Liberal premier in the ‘twenties, seeing the injustice of such a setup, tried to force Fraser Mills back into Coquitlam muni- cipality, but without success. Despite these obvious drawbacks, there has always been a waiting list for company houses because of the big economic advantage in low rent and freedom from taxation in con- trast to the high taxation and added responsibility placed on workers living in Coquitlam, who must carry relief costs for mill- By KAY GREGORY workers, maintain roads used by mill traffic and make up school de- ficits . [7 3S this watertight plan which established the company’s hold in the community and enabled it to maintain that hold in varying de- gree for 33 years. men had quit the day shift and gone to shipyard work, glad of an opportunity to break away. But then the company shifted skilled workers from night to day worl and all green men had to be broken in on the night shift. “Then they blamed me because But the effect of those years of company gain has not been lost It has served to disillusion them of the ‘paternnal’ on the workers. night production dropped,” he said, Instead of firing him outright, he was told that his work was unsatis- factory—after 33 years—and of- fered him a job in the plant, a less interest displayed by the company and convince them that their strength will be most effective when organized solidly in a trade union. The company’s _ stranglehold, first seriously weakened by the 1931 strike struggles is now being broken, Of some 1,600 workers em- ployed at the mill, more than 1,200 are members of the International Woodworkers of America. While in the past their struggles have mainly centered on economic gains, their chief demand is now for union recognition, for they realize that in obtaining the right to -bargain! collectively through their own | union they will strengthen their demand for joint discussion with the management of the problems} of industrial relations and in- creased production. Oldtimers Rebelling Against Injustices LDTIMERS, who have worked for the conipany since settling here in 1909, realize very clearly how the company has dominated their lives. In the words of one woman, who came here with the first French-Canadian families, “Y’ve had enough of that company. I’m sick of it.” Cempany Ignored Workers In Need She told me how her husband had worked for the company for 31 years. He was sick for two years and during the whole time of his illness, the company did not offer to contribute even a loaf of bread towards their maintenance. A load of wood from the mill for heat was charged on a boarder's pay, because the head of the house was “not working for the company.” The family was only allowed. to con- tinue living in the company house because the same boarder, another pioneer who came out with Father O’Boyle in 1909, was also working at the mill. Another oldtimer told how he had worked for Fraser Mills for the whole 33 years, but had re- cently been goaded into quitting after expressing sympathy with the rapidly growing union organization. “When the company tried to set up a so-called union itself,” he said, “{ told the boys it was no good. I showed them that they never saw any minutes of the committee meetings and didn’t know what was being done, ‘You should stick to your own union, that’s the one,’ I told them, I couldn't join the union myself, I was. foreman,” he added. 5 Organization Will Win Improved Condi Formerly night foreman in the big mill, he explained that many skilled job at lower wages. Disil- jusioned, he quit and now has a good job in another mill. Union Leads Struggle For Better Conditions (HESE are the workers who re- member what gains they were able to make through union soli- darity. They remember with pride how the whole community stuck together during the 1931 strike, even though they had to subsist for weeks on fish caught from the Fraser River—if they caught any! Workers Recall Strike At Fraser Mills in 1931 They also remember the gains they obtained from this strike, even though it was not wholly suc- cessful. Wage increases were given to the whole mill after the strike, and since then, every time any deé- ree of organization has made it- self evident the company has raised. wages. Conditions in the Oriental and Hindu section of the community were greatly. improved after the strike, although rents collected for the miserable shacks called houses in which the Oriental workers live must have paid for them a hundred times. ICTORIES are constantly being chalked up for the union now and the workers are not going to be easliy digsuaded from pressing their demands. A in the Coquitlam élections added fuel to the fire, when workers for the first time elected their candi- date, Percy Smith, vice-president of Fraser Mills EWA Local 1-357, as councillor in ‘the municipality. Conditions in the mill and the problem of stepping up production are two things with which the newly chartered union local is vitally interested. While it is anxious to see production increased, safety measures have also to be considered and many accidents have occurred which could have been prevented had proper safety measures been taken. Safety Measures Would Prevent Accidents Quite recently, Ex+Councillor Tom Allard’s only son died as a result of injuriés received three years ago in the mill when his hand was pulled off in the roller case and he received a severe blow in the stomach which caused peritonitis. Although the blow was received at the time of his accident, and an autopsy has now revealed that death was caused by complications from his blow, Amedie Allard was only given compensation for the loss of his hand, His hospital bills had to be partly paid by his father because the company medical aid only allows for public ward treat- ment, yet his condition from peri- tonitis necessitdted a private room, This accident is,one which could have been prevented and guards have since been placed in front of the roller case to prevent similar tragedies. Since this occurrence, the company offers a bonus to workers who suggest measures to prevent accidents in the mill. Other mills award prizes when the acci- dent rates is reduced in certain de- partments. Many other proposals have gone in from workers through their union to help cut down acci- dents and save lives. Dace! development in Fraser Mills is the setting up of a production committee to try to iron out the bottlenecks in the produc- tion of lumber needed for the war effort. Lumber Production Down, Says Oldtimer Production figures given me by one old time worker do not com- pare very favorably with the pro- duction quoted in 1912, but there are probably many factors to ac- count for this. One is that in those recent victory! early days, mills were getting bet- ter logs, but now, because of the constant drain on timber, logs are smaller, Fraser Mills is also still operating on the same three riggers it had in 1912, but many other ad- ditions and alterations have been made to the plant since that year. In the 1926-29 boom, the com- pany floated bonds to build a cedar mill, which never operated and was jater torn down. A veneer sash and door plant was added, with the result that Fraser Mills is now the largest mill on the coast, operating three full shifts. Co. Refuses Cooperation To Boost Prduction Knowing, as only workers on the job can know, what measures could Ibe introduced in various depart- ments to speed up production, the union shop stewards’ council elect- ed a production committee from among the most skilied workers in the mill and submitted several pro- posals, which if put into effect, would iron out many of the hold- ups. Instead of welcoming the possi- bility of joint cooperation between its employees and management to assist in production, the company rejected the proposed production committee and insisted that mem- bers of such a committze should te elected from the whole mill, thus holding up application of union pro- posals and preventing immediate speeding up of production. Union Makes Big Gains In Organizing Mill Members of the Fraser Mills local feel, however, that they will be successful in obtaining their production committee and that it will be instrumental in solving many production problems in the mill, in the same way that they believe that their union will not be defeated again, but will grow and in going forwarl, advance the interests of all workers in that district.