@..: B.C. LUMBER wormn _ B.C. LUMBER WORKER Published Bi-Weekly, Every Second Monday by ‘B.C. DISTRICT COUNCIL, International Woodworkers of America Editor: NIGEL MORGAN Managing Editor: B. J. MELSNESS _ Room 504 Holden Building — Phone PAcific 9727 — Vancouver, B.C Make Payments to: “I.W.A., B.C, District Council” ____ British Columbia Needs Collective Bargaining NYTHING that holds back any part of the Canadian people from playing their full part — anything that divides our nation or dampens their ardour — means Jengthening the war and killing moré _ Canadians to win it. ; : N eae OF LABOR PEARSON recently acknowledged that - one of our greatest needs in the field of industrial relations "was sound collective bargaining legislation. His statements in this "connection were the result of years of intimate association with in- _ dustrial disputes, as head of the government's Department of Labor. JOUBTABLY, an improved labor act, guaranteeing labor certain basic fundamental rights is essential to the mobolization of all] our manpower. It is also necessary to promote closer and more enthusi- astic co-operation between labor and management to increase vitally needed war production to a maximum. In the lumber industry there is no factor that is interfering with the attainment of this co-operation ‘as much as the flat refusal of certain employers to recognize the right of their employees to bargain collectively through the organization of their own choice, E CANNOT give our best to fight the Axis in the front while certain elements who apparently fear trade unions worse than they do Hitler, are tearing up the rear. Labor owes it not only to itself, but to the country, to see that the social and economic gains that build the foundation for that great freedom, FREEDOM FROM WANT, are guaranteed. Labor has proven on the battle field and in the camps, mills and factories that it knows how to sacrifice, but to sacrifice basic rights already recognized in other democratic countries for years past, means simply to agree to the undermining of morale of our workers and soldiers, Elements who have fought labor at every step are mobilized ‘as never before to prevent labor obtaining its just rights, so labor must impress upon our government in Victoria that this war calls for courageous leadership at home as well as on the fighting fronts. Queen Charlotte Arbitration ~ Witness Sees Woods Strike Unless Contract Is Signed : Tf the arbitration board conducting enquiries into the dis- pute between four Queen Charlotte Island logging companies and their employees, does not pass in favor of the men, there _ will likely be a strike. This testimony was given by Paul Kim- aM ola, donkey engineman of Albion, first witness called when the hearings were resumed at the Courthouse at 10 a.m. Saturday. Kimola, first of three witnesses sent them. _ tobe heard at the present sittings,! “Why'do you want a signed union _ is a naturalized Canadian of Fin-' agreement with the company? Why nish birth, He was questioned at’do you want the board to recom- by John Stanton, counsel'mend a signed agreement?” asked ys ‘for the International Woodworkers | _ of America, of which he is a mem- “This conciliation business has ‘been going on for 15 months now,” d Kimola. “It is the opinion ling. “If the board doesn’t pass favor- , I think the men will walk it, or strike, and go some place h there is union recognition +,» in the mines or fishing.” i CHECKED MEN. had been holding the men because they knew that uce wes vital to the war work. Kimola said that through the union, the men had gained better ns in the camp wash-house, ‘tion of bunkhouses, life on ships which carried them ‘their jobs, safety first measures, more comfortable mattresses e camps, tioned as to his union ac- he stated that he was em- in Morgan's camp, Huxley and that he had belonged since 1933. FOR CONTRACT, nent was produced show- of 72 men out of 84 asking him to repre- ‘the men that the operators are! said that the union of-' Mr, Stanton. “Why does a man and a woman get married?” replied the witness: “To legalize it. They can live to- gether without getting married. But they marry to make it legal. If you have an agreement with the operators according to law you have something to hang on to.” C. H. Locke, K.C., counsel for the operators, said there was not “a signed agreement with this union in B.C.” Mr, Stanton said the signing of an agreement was the crux of the whole case, Asked if he knew any reason why the operators might not want to sign an agreement, witness replied: “Just human nature and profits. The union is going to ask for cer- tain improvements and those im- provements cost the operators money.” He was quite emphatic that the Canadian members were solid be- hind the war éffort, He had tried to enlist; and he and other mem- bers had bought war bonds to the extent of about $15,000, Members of the board are: Judge Harper, chairman; R, H. Tupper for the employers; Arthur Turner, MLA, for the employees. Camp 6 Wants Collective. Bargaining Made The Law To the Editor: Allow the committee at Camp 6, Youbou, a little space in our most summed up in-a resolution drafted and mailed to the Minister of Labor for British Columbia: “WHEREAS it is essential to ensure maximum production for victory over the Axis; “BE IT RESOLVED that the Minister of Labor establish and main- tain when established the confidence of all organized labor by intro- ducing amendments to the ICA Act, such as compulsory bargaining; the right of labor'to belong to an organization of their own choice; company unions to be outlawed and arbitration proceedings speedéd up.” Brother Editor, we certainly think that these things are essential and must be done not only for the worker but for the benefit of all those who are fighting to subdue fascism. This is paramount if workers are to take their rightful place and responsibility in producing the maximum material for the defeat of the Axis, Is it not true, Brother Editor, that most of our industrial problems laying on the doorstep of our government, is because there are em- ployers who refuse to allow workers to unionize and have representa tives of their own choosing? Is it not true that experience has demonstrated that the recognition of the right of employees to self-organization and to have representatives valuable paper to express the views of the workers in this camp, as ¢ Hello, Boys! Morgan gave me a letter to read that he received from Brother Henry Lehti. This brother has al- ways been an admirer of the old bullcook. Once, when I forgot to turn in my column, he wrote in threatening to cancel his Lumber Worker sub, unless my column ap- peared regularly. This time, here's what he writes: “Just received your Lumber Worker, and that old“Bull- cook is still as-conceited as ever. If I thought he could read, I would write him a letter, saying what I think of him.” Well, Brother Lehti, you can write. I will get one of my con- genial girls around the office to read the letter. I will have to admit of their own choosing for the purpose of collective bargaining is often an, sesential condition for industrial peace? Is it not true that the refusal to confer and negotiate has been one of the main causes of strife? Every paper we read brings to us more strife whose cause can be easily traced back to this same cause, Is it not true that the refusal of employers and the government to sibility be described as a attitude of peace? The equivalent of this among nations is the refusal to have diplomatic relations, an act just short of war, and God knows we have enough wars and surely we do not want strikes, because such strikes or loss of work hours would be very profitable to Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. In conclusion, Brother Editor, may we quote the following by Adam Smith from the “Wealth of Nation”: “We rarely hear, it has been said, of combinations of masters, though frequently of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination. We seldom, indeed, hear of this combination, be- cause it is the usual, and one might say, the natural state of things which nobody ever hears of.” Fraternally yours, IWA COMMITTEE, INDUSTRIAL TIMBER MILLS, CAMP 6, YOUBOU. TIMBER SLASH By E.M.T. I once was a place of beauty, I may never grow TREES again. Where wild creatures could roam |I’m no longer a place of beauty recognize the unions and to negotiate with them could not*by any pos-| Found safe shelter beneath my trees. But men have a way of destroying Those things they should treasure most, And their talk of giant forests Might some day be just idle boast! I once was a place of beauty Where age-old fir trees grew; Where spruce and hemlock and cedar Had been standing for centuries, too. But now I’m a barren hillside, With just a tree left here and there For loggers don’t think of to- morrow _ Or perhaps they just don’t care! They don’t realize that re-foresta- tion For the generations to come, Will mean timber—and work for others, When their present supply is done! Tho’ it’s years since they stole all my treasures I'm still hoping,’ but waiting in vain— And except for a few odd seedlings at ease; And the deer and cougar and Where the deer and bear and bear : cougar Have gone to seek safer shelter— My slopes are too barren and bare! I’m covered with roads and debris, They call me a “timber slash”— Crystalized cables and misplaced tools : Wasted wood, and a lot of trash! Tho’ I know that I’ve served my purpose , I can’t help but feel they're mean; They promised—but still I'm wait- ing : For those trees, so young and green. se And I'd do all I could to help them To grow big and strong and tall So that someday they’d be worth cutting— But it's no use; I can’t do it all! They've just left me a barren hill- side Which even the animals shun; Tiio’ I've" tried, I can’t hold water, I'm too exposed to the summer sun. I've no more any claim to beauty; They've broken my spirit at last— They won't help me grow for the future, And they've stripped me of my past! that I can’t read, because when I |was a very young lad I could not go to school as I had to go to work. When I decided to go to school I found out that the school |was closed that day. I took it for granted that the teacher closed the school because she found out that I was just starting as a pupil, It was years after that I found out that there is no school on Saturday. If you go to see the moving pic- ture "Gentleman Jim,” you will see a great drama, The hero's girl tells this: “You certainly are conceited; always bragging about your ability as a fighter.” Corbett answers, “Baby,” says he, “when you are as good as I am, it is not conceit, it is just plain facts.” You know, I agree with this gentleman, Now, boys, you know Brother Lehti is in the airforce. By the time you read this column, he will have graduated from the airforce school in Manitoba. More than that, on Jan. 18, he became, as he says himself, the proud father of a bouncing baby daughter, Con- gratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Lehti. This is not all. Brother Lehti is coming home for a visit sometime early in February. Now, boys, a lot of things are happening now in the IWA. I am not permitted to comment on head- line happenings. Every time I do, the editor tells me: “Why, you can’t print this kind of stuff. You are liable, etc. etc.” But here's a personal matter I want to take up with you boys. That is, my “re- muneration.” What I mean is this: For years I have been writing “our column” without pay. I got to the polont where I figured it is at least worth “a cent a point.” When I hits Morgan for the “do-re-me” he says: “I am sorry, old timer, sal- aries and pay are frozen for the duration;~and being as you got nothing from us for your work, we capt raise the ante.” Boys, can you beat this! Because I was good enough to give the B.C. Lumber Worker a weekly column “when they couldn’t get anyone else to do it,” and now when I am damn sure they couldn’t get anyone at all, they refuse to pay me. So, boys, if my work is sluffing a bit, don’t blame me. I am dissatisfied and until your editor talks turkey, he's certainly not going to get produc- tion.