Page Four

@: B.c. LUMBER ee aa

May 3, 1943
—

LABOR-MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE BOOSTS
PRODUCTION AT BIG CIRCLE “F” MILL

By RAE EDDIE, Employee of Canadian Western Lumber Company

At a meeting held in the Committee Room at the Time Office at the plant of the Canadian Western Lumber Company at Fraser Mills, a precedent was
set in the sawmill industry on the Lower Mainland of B.C. As far as we know, it is the only Joint Labor-Management Group in this area meeting together

to discuss methods of production and other problems affecting production directly or indirectly.
The object of this Joint Production Committee is not to put any extra work on any of the men in the plant but to produce a more even flow of lumber,

eliminating bottlenecks which tend to decrease production, not increase it. Also to raise production even with the prevailing manpower shortage and thereby

aid the war effort.

In line with the wishes of the Labor Department at Ottawa, and acting on instructions from his organization, the International Woodworkers of Am-
erica, Local 1-357, Mr. G. Micthell, secretary of the above local, communicated with Mr. J. Murray, manager of Canadian Western Lumber Company at Fraser
Mills and after an exchange of correspondence, Mr. Mitchell called a meeting of the employees of the sawmill at lunch hour. Mr. Sam Ostrikoff, shop steward

from the night shift, called a simi-
lar meeting for the night shift,
and the following members were
elected from both shifts: M. F.
Ryan, superintendent, and John
Hoyen, master mechanic, sat as
company representatives. From the
men we have M, G. Mitchell, re-
saw feeder; M. S. Alsbury, head
grader; M, F. Yearly, head sawyer;
M. C. Farrell, crane operator; 4.
Boileau, edgerman; R. Blake,
edgerman; M, Munsos, grader; M.
S. Ostrikoff, setter; P. Jacua, lev-
erman; K, Kavalinias, tallyman;
J, DeCaigney, trimmerman; N.
Lasko, boomman; I. Belanger, re-
sawyer; M. H. Phillips, leverman.

At the first meeting, M. F. Ryan,
superintendent of the plant, was
elected chairman, and Rae Eddie
was elected secretary. Three meet-
ings have been held so far. The
program is a general meeting held
on the first Wednesday of each
month, and another meeting is held
the third Wednesday of each
month, including Mr, Ryan, Mr.
Eddie and Mr, Mitchell and Mr.
DeCaigney, these last two being
chairmen of the day shift and
night shift committees respective-
ly.

The agenda of these general
meetings is, first: Reports on sug-
gestions that have come from the
previous meeting. This includes re-
ports on the progress made toward
putting the suggestions into force
as well as results of the sugges-
tions after being put into force and
disscussion of same. Second: New
suggestions with explanations by
the one suggesting them; and
lastly: Other discussions such as
whistle-jumping, absenteeism and
anay other points that have a bear-
ing on production either directly
or indirectly,

Due to the fact that it is a com-
paratively young committee and
also that the shortage of materials
needed in making some of the al-
terations in machinery, etc., some
of the proposals of the members,
though meeting with approval
have not yet been put into effect,
but most of them are under way.
‘Then there is a ruling that any
plant alterations, costing more
than five hundred dollars, require
a special permit from Ottawa, and
this cannot be imposed upon too
much,

However, in spite of all this,
there are a lot of good improve-
ments come out of it. A lot of

putting this chain back on sprocket
and into operation again. Mean-
while lumber from the head saws
was piling up awaiting the trim-
mer, thereby creating a serious
bottleneck. It was suggested that
metal aprons be put over these
chains to prevent this trouble.
This job is about half done, and
already there is a very decided im-
provement. Timbers coming from
the edgers have to be stopped
momentarily to allow side pieces
to go by. This used to be done by
a man, sticking pins in holes in
the floor in front of timber; be-
sides being a dangerous operation,
it was slow, as you had to walt
for the man to pick up these pins,
one at a time, insert them in the
holes, endangering his fingers at
the same time. It was suggested
that fingers be put in, operated by
levers at one side. This was done
and is very satisfactory. Now just
a flick of the levers and the tim-
ber is held.

Men pulling lumber off the sort-
ing chain, formerly had to drag it
sideways to the chain, requiring a
great effort, especially 2x12's.
Planks 40 feet long required four
men to pull them off chain, and
onto carrier loads to be taken
to their destination. At the sug-
gestion that the chain on sorting
table be replaced with what is
lmown as a roll top chain. This
chain has small rollers on top of
the usual chain. This requires half
the effort that it used to. Now
two mes pull a 2x12 plank, 40 feet
long, easier than four men used to.

Variable speed has been suggest-
ed for the edgers, allowing the
speed of lumber going through the
edgers to be varied according to
whether it is a large piece of lum-
ber requiring a heayy pull on saws
or a light piece not pulling hard
on the saws.

Aside from actual production
changes and other points are taken
up. For instance, a complaint was
registered regarding “whistle-
jumping.” That is men chucking
off the job by punching the time
clocks before the whistle to quit
blows. Out of the production com-
nilttee, a suggestion came that thé
lunch hour be shorted by five min-
utes, and the quitting whistle blow
five minutes earlier to allow the
men an extra five minutes to catch
the Bus, This is working very sat-

isfactorily up to now.
Besides all this, we think the

trouble and loss of time in the
mill was caused by the set of
chains, taking the lumber from
one of the. automatic trimmers,
short pleces of lumber used to drop
on the return chain and the
_ sprocket forcing the chain off the
‘sprocket and of course making a

improvements coming out of these

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meetings definitely have the effect
of raising the morale of the men
in the plant for the reason that if
a man is having difficulty in do-
ing his job, probably through no
fault of their own, things do not
go as they should, and consequent-
ly, he has to “fight” the job all

have logs not so good, where there
is_a lot of waste in trimming out
rotten parts, knot holes, etc., the
production will naturally go down.
So you see, it would be hard to
set a hard and fast rule by say-
ing, for instance, we have in-
creased production, so many thous-

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the time. If you can make some
changes in machinery or other-
wise to remove his difficulties, he
is a much happier man. Only last
week at the conclusion of our
meeting a man walked up to Mr.
Ryan, superintendent, and said,
“Thanks a lot, Mr. Ryan. That
roll top chain is sure a wonder-
ful improvement; it makes our
job just half as hard.

As we have been in operation
less than three months it is hard
to point out any actual gains in
production, in figures. A sawmill
differs from an ordinary factory
in that the raw material varies in
quality, for instance, in cutting
good logs, where there is little or
no waste in trimming, etc, the
production tally will go away up
and possibly the next day, we will

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change.

But it is heartily agreed by both
the management and the men
working on the job that there has
been a lot of improvement since
these meetings have been going
on, from a standpoiont of safety
as well as production,

‘The manufacturer of lumber in
a modern sawmill could be likened
to the production of automobiles
on an assembly line, where each
man has a job to do on the car as
it passes ‘by him. He may put on
a wheel, a fender, or something
else. Likewise the lumber in a
sawmill is conveyed on a continu-

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ous system of moving chains and
rolls, etc. It is cut off the log
at the head saw, and goes on
through the mill and each man in
that mill has his own certain job
to do on that lumber as it passes
him, It may be to run it through
an edger to make it square edged
or it may be to trim the ends, to
put a mark on it to signify its
grade or its destination, or many
other things that take place in
the manufacture of lumber.

So you can see that if any one
man in the plant is having trou-
ble with his part of the operation
his lumber piles up behind him
until it interferes with the man
behind him, and so on down the
line and we have what is known
as a bottleneck, The main object
of a production committee is to
iron out these troubles and create
an even flow of lumber through-
out the plant, thereby increasing
production and at the same time
it would naturally be of a better
quality. All tending to lessen the
effort required on each job. A hap-
py worker is not an exponent of
absenteeism,

M, F. Ryan and J. Hoyem have
to be commended for their co-
operation with the workers on the
committee in endeavoring to put
into practice the suggestions com-
ing out of these meetings, and also
in listening to anything the men
have to say regarding their jobs.
They are seriously handicapped by
the difficulty during war time in
getting materials and equipment
necessary to make some of the al-
terations necessary. Commendation
is also due to those members of
the committee who work the night
shift, They have to give up some
of their leisure hours, that is they
havev to come in a couple of hours
before their shift starts. So far
their attendance has been excel-
lent. The fact that such a com-
mittee exists at all is due to the
energy and progressiveness of the
executive officers of Local 1-357 of
the. International Woodworkers of
America, as it was at their insti-
gation that the committee was
organized and put into operation.
‘The organization of the committee
was accomplished by the hard
work and ability of the secretary
of the above-mentioned union, G.
Mitchell. i.

Our ambition is to eventually
have several production commit-
tees operating in the different
units of ‘this big plant, and each
of these committees would send
their representatives to a master
production committee where all the
major problems would be threshed
out. We think we have something
here that, although it came about
during war time, will exist in
peace time as a necessary part of
every operation.