Official Publication Internationa] Woodworkers of America,

B.C.

VANCOUVER, B.C., JANUARY 14, 1946

(361)

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Delegates to the Ninth Annual Convention, B.C. Dis-trict Council No. 1, Vancouver, B.C., January 4, 5, 6.

—(Sunday’s Photos)

Convention Adopts 3 Demands

25 Cents Per Hour Increase,

40 Hour Week, Union Security

An increase of 25 cents per hour in wages, a fortyzhour week and union security are
to be the three major demands of the [WA to the lumber operators in B.C. when nego-
tiations open for revision of the industry wide agreement on March 15th. The report
of the wages and contract committee, which proposed the three points, was adopted
with tremendous enthusiasm by unanimousstanding vote toward the close of Sunday's
Session at the Ninth Annual Convention of District Council No. 1, IWA, at the Hotel

Vancouver.

Complete unity ,around the
proposals was assured when In-
ternational Presiderit J. E. (Red)
Fadling spoke to the convention
and promised full support and
cooperation of the International
union in winning the demands.

Keystone Fund
Still Urgent

Efforts to settle the Keystone
strike in New Westminster made
further progress last week when
representatives of the IWA met
with Mr. Beach and Department
of Labor officials in Vancouver.

Anxious to get his mill oper-
ating again but seemingly un-
willing to meet the same con-
ditions as are in effect in other
shingle mills throughout B.C.,
Mr. Beach has made several
offers to settle the dispute on
his terms. Following the meet-
ing Jast week Harold Pritchett,
District President of the IWA,
expressed the opinion that a
settlement was now in sight.

Reason for the optimism was the
@ et that Beach has finally con-
sented to appoint a representa-
tive to act on his behalf.

Mr, Beach’s representative is
a lawyer, Mr. Arnold, who has
acted in a similar capacity be-
fore with gogd results. In the
meantime picket lines at the
Keystone Mill are fully manned
and the crew are as determined
as ever to win a signed agree-
ment. The issue of retroactive
wages back to February 1945 is
now in the hands of the court
and prosecution is being pressed
by the Regional War Labor
Board,

Funds to support the strikers
are still an urgent necessity and
‘all locals and sub-locals are
asked to step up the campaign
so that fad strike can be main-
tained il the fight is won.

delegate after delegate arose
and aligned himself and his local
union with the demands, follow-
ing which district president
Pritchett gave an inspiring ad-
dress outlining the tasks ahead.
“The time has come when we
should call a spade a spade,” he
declared. “We have here a real-
istic program. One that is de-
signed to gain for the wood-
workers and citizens of Canada
the kind of living standard the
war was fought to win.

DEMANDS REASONABLE ~-

The 40-hour work week is not
something new. It is already in
operation in large industries in
Canada, and has been fought
for, and established. by, organ-
ized labor both in Canada and
the United States. No one will
be able to say, or if they do say
it, cannot prove it, that workers
in war industry are overpaid,
and the 25¢ an hour is a very
modest demand. No government
ean say that you cannot have
union security by law, because
union security by law is estab-
lished in every democracy with
the exception of Canada.

After adopting our program
we must take steps to put it into
effect. We must be prepared to
strike if necessary, and we will
need a fund for this emergency
should it arise. The organized
employers backed by monopoly
capital are preparing to resist.
A hundred thousand dollars is a
goal we should set for ourselves
in preparation for an emergency.
A day’s pay from every wood-
worker must be our objective.
Our task is to carry further the
struggle started by the Windsor
Ford workers in winning ad-
vances for ourselves, the work-
evs of Canada and of the world.

We must go to the public and
tell them what our demands are
and what they mean to every
Canadian. Every British Colum-

| When the report was.submitted)bian has a stake im the wood-

working industry, and must be
shown what our demands will

mean to them in terms of living|

standards and social security.

Every trade union in Canada
must: be reached and have our
program outlined to them, so
that they too will have the op-
portunity of supporting us. The
IWA membership in the States,
the CIO and our government
representatives must all be
reached and solicited for sup-
port. However, the main job
rests with ourselves. To win this
struggle we will need every
ounce of organization and de-
termination we can muster from
every member on the job right
up to your district and interna-
tional leaders. Let us resolve to
go out from this convention and
do that job so that when the test

(Continued on Page 3)

Mill Death
Starts Toll

The first fatality of 1946 in
the lumbering industry occurred
on January 7.

Daniel Berg,
age 17, while
helping to load

Doce a raracta ea weciuee (atte
killed in BC’s | Bburne __ Saw-
lumber in- | mills, Vancou-
dustry since | ver, lost his
Jan. 1, 1946 | footing and fell

into the bin,

He was buried beneath the saw-
dust and suffocated before he
could be rescued,

A belated report of a fatal
accident during 1945 has just
been received. In early Decem-
ber, Bob Walters, 18 years old,
was crushed to death under roll-
ing logs, He was an employee at
Canadian Forest Products Camp
“G,” Englewood.

Wages And Contracts

Report of tne Wages and Contracts Committee
to the Ninth Annual Convention District No.
1 }WA, adopted by unanimous standing vote.

It is the considered and unanimous opinion of your committee
that the program which we are placing before you for your
adoption cannot be implemented in any other way except by an all
out struggle on the part of our membership jointly with the unions
in the basic industries of this province and throughout Canada as
a whole, and the objective should be for the whole trade union
movement to join in tne concerted effort to obtain for all the work-
ing people the demands that we are placing here.

The attack that the reactionary monopolists have launched
upon thé common people and especially upon the labor movement
throughout the western world and in the far east, is all of a same
pattern. The intervention in China and Indonesia is reactioary
monopolist inspired and cannot be separated from the position that
the reactionary monopolists are taking in our own-country against
the working people as pronounced by spokesmen from big busi-
ness such as mentioaed in your Officers’ Report in the statements
by Victor M. Drury and C. H. Carlysle, where they are demanding
that wages be cut and that the workers’ living standards be reduced.

With this in view, your committee, after giving careful con-
sideration to the 16 resolutions that were submitted to the com-
mittee, wish to make the following general observation:

The proposals submitted in these resolutions follow along a
similar trend, some going further than. others, but in all, the main
demand is for a shorter work ‘week, a substantial increase in pay,
and union security, to be embodied in our next agreement.

In giving consideration to the demands for our 1946 agree-
ment we must take special cognizance of the position the employ-
ers are taking in regards to labor; how they express their arro-
gance towards labor by refusing to negotiate in good faith, as can
be seen in the negotiations that have taken place between the
union and representatives of the Northern and Southern Interior
Lumber Manufacturers Association.

FORWARD STEP

Our Union, as a whole, both the membership on the coast and
the membership in the Interior, in unity with all other major
unions of Canada, must not look backward but must look forward
to securing the peace by fighting for a program that will give
full employment, that is, work to everyone who is willing and
able to work at a decent wage which will provide good living con-
ditions, decent housing, adequate sustenance to maintain health,
educational opportunities and leisure time.

With the technological development and increased produc-
tive capacity of Canadian industry, these improved standards
are now obtainable for all of the Canadian people and must be
obtained if we are to avoid going back to the chaotic condi-
tions that existed during the 1930’s with hundreds of thousands
unemployed, and only starvation, misery and despair, the out-
look for the future to our young people—the conditions which
prevailed throughout the world as well as in Canada and which
bred fascism and militarism and eyentually brought about the
Second World War.

We cannot allow such conditions ever to return, because allow-
ing such conditions to return would bring about another war. Only
by maintaining and increasing the purchasing power of the people
of Canada can we maintain full employment and jobs for all. The
terrible war that we have just come through, and for which hun-
dreds of thousands of our young people went out prepared to
sacrifice eyen life itself, and many did lose their lives, to win, was

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