THE B.C. LUMBER WORKER B.C. LUMBER WORKER Published Every Second Monday by INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (CIO) DISTRICT COUNCIL NO. 1 Managing Editor: B. J. MELSNESS Room 504 Holden Building — Phone PAcific 4151 — Vancouver, B.C. Make Payments to: IWA-CIO District Council No. 1 © The deadline for stories for the coming issue is 4 p.m. Thursday, Blood Bank ,RGANIZED labor in the Province of British Columbia is being asked by the Canadian Red Cross to build a mighty Blood Bank in preparation for the coming invasion of the Axis stronghold on the continent. Here again, as with the “Hand- shakes” campaign, trade unionists will have an excellent op- portunity of fulfilling their patriotic duty to our fellow workers on the firing line. 4 Thanks to’ the inventive genius of the late Dr. Bethune, who pioneered the famous blood plasma, our fathers, sons and brothers, wounded on the battlefields for our fight for freedom, have a good chance to live and defeat*the battle grave. It is significant to note that wounded fighting men may re- quire from 1 to 7 blood transfusions to save their life and it requires 2 to 3 contributors to make up one blood transfusion. As the request of the Red Cross officials of this Province, org- anized labor is convening a delegate conference on February 18th at 8 p.m. in the Hotel Vancouver for the purpose of prop- erly organizing a trade union campaign for permanent blood donors and at this Conference will be represented all organized labor, regardless of affiliation. General Pearkes, the Chief Commanding Officer of the Canadian Armed Forces on the Pacific, will address the Conference, who himself was saved by blood transfusions on the battle field. There are little or no effects to the contributor of blood and certainly no monetary advantage; but organized labor’s blood can be the means of saving many thousands of lives of fellow trade unionists who have dedicated their lives for our cause. THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED. that the Blood Bank Conference of labor be a success and that plans be formulated to encourage every able male and female trade unionist to donate blood periodically to our heroic fighters for democracy, freedom and victory! Wage Control Order ‘HE government’s most recent Wage Control Order has been * aptly termed a “straightjacket” and this is mild language. The persons responsible could not have done a much better job of shackelling the trade union movement if they had been ad- vised by the highest officials of Nazidom. The new order pro- vides big business with all the artillery it needs to obtain superfluous profits at the expense of the workers. In passing this measure, however, the present administration has in our opinion scooped for itself a grave in which it will eventually find itself passing into what is commonly referred to as history. All across the Dominion a rising resentment against this Jatest and most glaring injustice to labor is flooding govern- mental offices with protests and they must be continued until the order is rescinded. The entire labor movement must rise as a man and demand the return to labor of its right to demand fair compensation for a day’s work and its right to strike to obtain decent hours and working conditions. When this new government control measure is coupled with the other actions of big business we see unfolded a rather in- sidious if not gruesome plot designed to torpedo and destroy the entire progressive movement in Canada. Big business through their hired hierling Gladstone Murray, former CBC head, are launching a drive, by radio, the press and every other means at their disposal, which poses the issues of the day as that of Free Enterprise vs. Socialism. One of their enlightening state- ments of purposes: “WE SHALL PROTECT FREE ENTER- PRISE AS THE MOST EXPEDIENT, OR RATHER THE SOLE POSSIBLE, ECONOMIC ORDER” has in it a familiar ring. It has been said before—BY HITLER IN 1926. Organized labor must heed the alarm; it must rally to the eall and defeat the purpose of those who utter these statements. Labor must rally to prevent a repetition in Canada of what happened in Germany after 1926. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Say What You Please Post-War Plans CARD NO. S-8 SENDS IN THE FOLLOWING: We hear much these days about post-war planning and job secur- ity after the war, the common factor in all the proposed plans is the complete ignoring of the women. We could forgive this in post-war periods if anything was being done in wartime. In the last few months many girls have been laid off in war plants and onlly a few have gone to work in other war Industry and at wages comparable to that which they were receiving. The girls in most cases like the jobs that they have been given and would like to continue. I for one would like to hear more mention of work for women in peace-time industry in- cluded in these post-war plans. Good Conditions THE PRESS COMMITTEE AT JEUNE LANDING WRITES: The conditions in this camp have improved greatly in the past few weeks. There have been a few complaints about the food since the new cook came but it was not his fault and a meeting with the man- agement brought results so that now the cook has plenty of stuff to work with and everything is fine. There has been quite a lot of new machinery arriving here late- ly including a couple of new crum- mies which have pleased the boys no end. e Most of the men went down for the holidays but are now back in camp raring to go. The married men and their families were given a dinner by the company and re- jfair. However, the foreman is try- At the last meeting the boys dis- cussed the union shop and were unanimous in their desire to see this clause included in the next agreement. Camp Moving CARD NO. 3955 IN POWELL RIVER WRITES IN TO SAY: The cook in this camp is ex- cellent and the crew is hoping |that he will stay. He has been com- plaining about the rationing so it is hard to tell just what will hap- pen. The rest of the camp is only ing to do his best to fix things up and improve the camp. There are only a few members in this camp at the present time but quite a number have said that they will join up right after payday. Unjust Discharge CARD NO. 271, LOCAL 217, SAYS: At the Evans Products new mill at the foot of Main St. the crane operator and hooker were both fired as a result of the negligence of the head electrician. The elec- trician when hooking up the crane failed to allow enough clearance causing the brush holders to be broken off. The crane operator was instructed to shut down for one hour to allow repairs to be made. Upon his return he found the cur- rent on and considered the change completed. He therefore proceeded to swing the boom around and the motor quit. Inspection showed that the whole brush assembly had been broken. The superintendent, Charlie Short, fired the operator and hooker, both ported that a good time was had | by all. soldiers on six months forestry work leave. I wish that the editor would let~ me go home and get some sleep. — The cause of my weariness is an_ honest attempt to track down a story which to all reports hap- pened in the vicinity of that fair — city of Duncan. Not being able to — find time to go over there and conduct my own investigation I have had to rely on my operators who seems to have slipped up on some of the mist important clues. The principles in the case seem to have left for parts unknown which is bad. I do know, however, that the story concerns a steak. ‘The steak was not eaten but still no trace of it can be found. This is very baftling and the thing has given me the jitters. So much so that I found myself on the verge 3 of a nervous breakdown. I tried using my old cureall but found that even a whole month's ration would not help so the case will not be solved before the next issue. I am determined that I will find the answer to this mystery of “Who the hell got the steak at Duncan?” The other day I went into the Hiring Hall and found our man- ager, Brother Dalskog, looking rather dejected. I says, “What's the matter, Ernie, don’t you feel well?” And he say, “Well, old- timer, it's like this. Here we have a lovely hiring hall and nobody to send out. The boys don’t seem to realize that the hiring hall is one of the main means which we have at our disposal of consolidat- ing the union, They don’t seem to understand that this is also the best way to once and for all get rid of the fink hiring agency and the blacklist. They have to be made to realize that they must register if the hiring hall is to be a success.” Boys, those are words of wisdom. It is high time that we got busy and made it a point to register at the union hir- — ing hall when we come to town. Just for fun I asked Dalskog to send me out on a job. He looks me up and down and says, “Why, you old derelict, you couldn’t last a half day on the job in the con- dition you are in.” Well, I'll ad- mit I was rather shaky but it was — nothing that a good week or two in the bush wouldn’t fix up, My pride was hurt and the only way I could regain my self-respect — was by challenging my attacker to a duel. This was my big mistake as I soon found that perhaps Ernie was right and that I was not as good as I had thought. I did man- age, however, to outdistance gee opponent in the hundred yard fa that followed, ss You know, boys, this new e Bt order that. the gover a handed down is really something = When I read it I got so mad that = I almost had all my hair pull out before I realized what I | 7 . yore See BULLCOOK — Page