THE B.C. LUMBER WORKER Sawmill News | “Every Reader a Correspondent” REPORTS pose ea ea CHIPS and SAWDUST By GREEN-OHAIN PETE VICTORIA. Sitting in the Hall at our annual meeting I noticed .. . Brother Tommie MacDonald all smiles at _ the imerease of membership. Good returns for all his hard work as _ Organizer. We all like our Tommie and are going to put him over _ the top as well as the Local... . _ Nigel Morgan greeting old friends with a “Hi Gordon and “Hello Ed.” And he really fired some ___ heavy broadsides before the even- _ ing was through. Come over again Nigel the membership is in- creasing by leaps and bounds. Ask Secretary Wainscott... . Brother ‘Lidgate our hard working Past President kiving up his chair to Brother Clark with a smile which said, “You are really welcome.” Good luck to you Bro. Clark, bring the rest of Camerons with you. . . . Brother Darshan Singh recording very hard as usual and all pepped up over the East Indian attendance. ... Brother Teddy Logan with his special meeting pipe, sitting in a cloud of smoke, but very much awake and pleased with the turn of events. . . Brother Bill MacPherson with those fire pair of shoulders ready to carry all the troubles of the Local. We are glad to see you Bill, you mem- bership packing Papa... . A few lady members, God bless them. No. man can do without them... . - The boys all going home with a 4 happy feeling that Victoria is go- ing to come out tops—Card No. 77. First Death For 1944 ‘The first death recorded for 1944 oeccurred on January 17 when Ed. Higgins, one of the oldest loggers on the B.C, Coast, was instantly a killed. A crane, _ which he was ‘Operating, 1 red him be: | Weedworken Pinning him be- | “nave been neath the wreck- 1s , ied in B.C.’s age. It is not * lumber in- definitely dustry since _ known how the Jan. 1, 1944 Recident oc- curred but it is believed that he ‘Was caught somehow while trying to escape from the overturning ___ He was the son of W. A. Higgins, ‘one time a well known logging itor on the coast. Being a ber of the IWA, Brother Hig- was liked by everyone | When in VANCOUVER Stop at COLUMBIA HOTEL LICENSED PREMISES Victoria Elects Officers; Good Progress Reported Membership Drive Shows Good Results At Lemon-Gonnason’s Very happy to report that Local 1-118 has really started the New Year off with a bang, thanks to the hard working Shop Stewards and Executives of this Local. The highlights of the past week have been the establishing of an office in Room 23 and 24 at 1116 Broad St., and also the rapid growth in membership at the Moore-Whittington Plant, which is now very close to being 100% organized. In fact I never saw so much enthusiasm? since thé time Chemainus Mill was organized. On going over there the other day the sentiment was so evident everywhere, that I was expecting the General Man- ager to come running out at any time and ask for a card. Arrange- ments have been made to hold a meeting on the 26th for the benefit of these Brothers, and from all indications it will no doubt be one of the most successful meetings ever held in this area. As to the rest of the operations here fine progress is being made on the 15th. Application was made to the Labor Dept. for Certification of the Horton Shingle Co., which has been practically 100% organ- ized for the past several months. At MacArthur's Shingle Mill, which is now 90% organized, Certifica- tion will be applied on the 15th of February. At Camerons and Lemon-Gonna- sons, through the continued activ- ity of the Shop Stewards, especi- ally Brothers Clark, Potts, Smith- son and Whitehouse, we are now well on the road to passing the 51% mark in both operations. Several applications have also come in from the other operations, and to take care of them a program has been drawn up arranging for a series of meetings, starting at Moore-Whittingtons on January 26th, and continuing at least once a week, until every worker in this area can say: “I am now a member of Local 1-118 International Wood_ workers of America. UNION HIRING MEANS JOB SECURITY ———— All Work Guaranteed Service Jewelers Dealers in Diamonds, Watches and Jewelry EXPERT WATCH & JEWELRY REPAIRING H, Zlotnik, Mgr. 28 E, HASTINGS _ Vancouver Join Your Friends 2* COURTENAY HOTEL “The Loggers’ Headquarters” G. TATER — PROP. COURTENAY, VL The first repercussions of the Local 1-217 Holds Annual Meeting, Elects Officers At a meeting in the Audi- torium of the Holden Building, January 9th, the members of IWA Local 1-217 heard reports of delegates to the District Convention in New Westmin- ster. The reports dealt mainly with the need for a speed up in the organizetional campaign stressed the necessity of the trade unions taking political action and place the reins of government in the hands of Labor. The meeting, which was the annual meeting of the local elected the following of- ficers: President, Bert Melsness; Ast vice-president, Doug. Chaplin; 2nd vice-president, Roy Procter; 8rd vice-president, Alice Pack; re- cording secretary, Cyril Bliss; fi- nancial secretary, Gladys Shuna- man, Warden Smith; conductor, EBURNE CREW BUCKS CO UNION The Eburne Sawmill Company last week attempted to initiate in their plant at Marpole a company union, and called a meeting of the crew. for this purpose. It ap- pears, however, that their efforts are being strongly opposed by the organized membership of Local 1- 217 working in that mill. A committee has been elected to conduct a ballot in the near fu- ture by which the employees of the mill will decide whether they wish to have the IWA or the Com- pany union as their bargaining rep- resentative. The campaign is under way by the Local Union for mem- bership in this mill and latest re- ports are that the boys are sign- ing up, with every possibility of a majority of the employers being IWA members before the vote is conducted. HILLYARD‘S RADIO SERVICE Repairs Tubes — Btteries Phone 195 Box 239 DUNCAN, B.C. Don Watts; trustees, Axel Ness. Committee elected were: Educational committee, Bert Melsness, Don Watts, Wally Ross, Doug. Chaplin, Cyril Bliss; social committee, Geo. Tapping, Alice Pack, Ken Gallant, Don Watts, Charlie Thomas, Gladys Shuna- man. ‘The meeting also elected as dele- gates to the Vancouver Labor Council the following: Bert Mels- ness, Alice Pack, Harold Pritchett, George Tapping and Doug Chaplin. Continued ~ BULLCOOK doing. I finally came to my senses and decided that something must be done and in a hurry. The best way that we can make sure that this thing is done away with is to send in lots of protests and keep sending them until those little men in Ottawa realize that we mean business. The whole thing made me wonder what Mr. King would look like with a little black mous- | tache. * pee ; STEAM BATHS! 40. Lorne Street NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. Across from Court House 1 Open Tues. to Sat. 10 am. to 10 Ipm. Oil and Electric Massage. ‘el. 2264. Proprietor, M. Varila ! LIGHT CRUISERS Always the BEST e Ask for them In the oi Or Order Direct from A. W. JOHNSON & CO. 63 West Cerdova St. MAr. 7612 — Vancouver JOHNSON’S Labor Board Denies Ruskin Wage Increase Hammond Cedar Mill To Reopen Soon —Wage Question Before Board. new wage control order as far as the IWA is concerned was felt last week in the turn-down by the Regional War Labor Board of an application for an in- crease in the wages of the employees of the Allan McDougal & Butler Shingle Co. at Ruskin. The board ruled that there would be no increase in the present scale because “no gross injustices existed.” This regardless of the fact that the wages are from three to five cents lower than in other mills of the same size and as much as ten cents lower than the going scale at such mills as Alaska Pine and Fraser Mills. ~ The scale applied for was agreed upon by the management and was a joint application by the IWA and the company in the manner ap- proved by the Board. The appli- cation was presented to the Board ‘|prior to the deadline set in the new order and therefore should have come under the provisions of the previous order. Another application has now been sent to the board jointly by the union and the company re- questing that they be allowed to make personal representations in a final attempt to effect a reason- able settlement. While this section of IWA Local 1-367 is fighting ior decent wages the workers at Hammond Cedar, members of the same local are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Board’s consideration of their case. The union and the manage- ment of the Hammond Mill met the Board last week and an at- tempt was made to get the two parties to come to some agree- ment. The company remained adamant in it’s desire to establish a lower rate for cedar mills. As no agreement could be reached it is now a matter for the board to decide. The Hammond mill is expected to reopen within the week having been closed for repairs since prior to the new year.