THE

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

21,000 copies printed this week

Published Every Second Monday by
INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (CIO)
DISTRICT COUNCIL NO. 1

Subscription Rate: $1.00 per year

Editor: JACK GREENALL Advertising: MATT FEE
Room 504 Holden Building—Phone PAcific 4151—Vancouyver, B.C.
Authorized as Second Class Mail, Postoffice Dopt., Ottawa.

The deadline for the coming issue is 4 p.m.
Thursday, February 7, 1946

The Strike Vote

Since the conyention of IWA District No. 1 where a program
was adopted for 1946 contracts, many opinions have been expressed
concerning the demands that were made and the methods proposed
for approaching negotiations. Obviously when the IWA Negotiating
Committee goes to meet with employer representatives for a new
agreement, it must know in advance what the membership wants
and how far woodworkers intend to go towards implementing their
demands. The employers, likewise, have a right to know what they
may be faced with. Last year the IWA went into negotiations with
a no-strike pledge. The employers knew that and no one can say
they didn’t take some advantage from it. This year conditions are
different, and so is the approach.

‘The convention ordered a strike yote taken, and this vote will
be conducted on a district-wide scale by secret ballot sometime be-
fore negotiations start. AS SOON AS ALL LOCALS HAVE
OFFICIALLY ADOPTED THE CONVENTION PROGRAM,
BALLOTS WILL BE SENT OUT. In the meantime, a start will be
made towards building the fund. Buttons are now being made and
a special stamp is being printed for a permanent record of all
donations.

RBACTION

In the meantime, reaction is building its case and preparing
its main attack. Anonymous lotters, supposedly coming from IWA
members, have been used as a basis for editorial attack on the
IWA by some of the more reactionary news-sheets. Every effort
is being made to sow confusion and ditsrust of the union’s ob-
jectives in the minds of the general public.

The proposed strike vote receives the most attention. “The
IWA jis going to meet the employers with a loaded gun” is the
charge. “What possible use could the union have for a $100,000.00
Strike Fund when they are already collecting $1.50 a month from
every member?” is the query. Half truths, innuendo and demagogy
are being used already in an effort to discredit IWA proposals.

if anything was needed to further convince IWA members
that the convention proposals were correct, the type of attacks
now directed against us will do just that. In the minds of re-
actionaries, labor organizations are “good” organizations only when
they are docile, when no demands are made towards winning eco-
nomie gains for their members. Because the organized wood-
workers of B.C. adopted a policy during the war of “no-strike and
full production” for the sake of backing up our armed forces to
the limit in their struggle to destroy fascism, it appears they are
now expected to sacrifice some more, only this time in the interests
of big business.

Woodworkers in B.C. have a responsibility to other interests
than to big business. They have a job to do; to help win the
peace. They have a responsibility to themselves, to their families,
to returning servicemen, to every Canadian with a stake in Can-
ada’s future, which can only be fulllled when everyone able and
willing to work has a job, a home, and a share in the abundarice
that modern industry has made possible,

A fighting program, a fighting fund, and a fighting member-
ship will help win the peace for Canadian Workers.

Homes For Workers

On page eight of this issue appears a picture of a mobile house
built as a sample of what can be done to provide comfortable hous-
ing for workers compelled to live and work in isolated areas. The
house is one of the best so far demonstrated, as an answer to log-
ging camp accommodation. Comfortable and modern, it is suitable
for small families. It does not, and cannot, be presented as a solu-
tion to community housing problems in larger centers, but there
is no doubt that it will create wide interest in logging circles.

It has been prover beyond argument that the problem of jobs
in B,C. industrial expansion, and suitable homes are all one, It
has also been proven that this three way problem can only be
solved when government takes a hand and accepts responsibility
for its solution.

Many of the smaller logging firms and even some of the larger
ones, would be only too glad to expand were they able to stand the
expense of suitable housing for their crews. The answer in this
case, as in the case of small homes generally, is finance.

The existing Housing Act is inadequate. It doesn’t provide for
mass production of homes at reasonable rents, and it fails to solve
the problem of the increased cost,of building homes at the presenu
price of materials. Pre-war building costs are used as a basis for
house financing under the Act, and a prospective owner has to meet
the difference between actual cost and “lending value” in addition
to his 10 or 20 percent down payment. The plan is prohibitive for
anyone on a small income, and its failure to provide the means for
mass home building has cost already, and threatens to cost this
country in the future, millions of dollars in lost opportunity. °

Other groups besides labor have recognized the problem and
are petitioning the government to solve it. With the campaign

ing in intensity, labor is well advised to intensify its efforts
now to. influence the government to take immediate action,

By Don
a a » Barbour

Heading Out

Local 1-71 which has the distinction of being the parent Local
of the IWA in B.C., has now implemented the unanimous decision
of the District Convention to increase the per capita to 3¢ per mem-
ber per month to the Union Hiring Hall. As the other Locals of our
district are holding their annual meetings at this time, it is hoped
they will also give very favorable consideration to this phase of
our organization.

History proves that while our organization was weak, that is;
the period when we had few members, no agreements, and ex-
tremely anti labor legislation, we also had an alarming number
of workers black-listed. It is apparent that the two went hand in
hand to the detriment of the well-being of all the people of B.C.,
and while the leadership of that time tried to break down the bar-
riers that lead to trade unionism, real progress was not made until
large numbers of workers decided to join the IWA, so that today
many of the ills of the past are partly forgotten.

The program of the IWA for the future, and the program in-
cludes housing, is one that should receive the fullest support of all
the members. It may be well to call to mind that when Mr. Howe
called up 93,000 Canadians 21 years old in 1941 for the armed forces,
33% were physically unfit and 50% of the remainder were without
enough education to pass the airforce test. The 21 year old of 1941
was 12 years old in 1932, so let us bear in mind that we have 12
year olds in 1946 just as we had in 1932. Certainly the housing
needed in Canada, and the world in general, to which the lumber
industry is basic, means, if the program of the IWA is implemented,
that never again will such a calamity befall the youth and people
of Canada.

It is obvious that only the organization of the unorganized has
made possible the gains we now enjoy, and the farther organization
is extended the more will the gains extend. Job control by our
union is just one more way of strengthening our organization, and
we can rest assured that as long as the Union Hiring Hall is doing
business, with excellent prospects of further increase, that the
effectiveness of the black list to prevent militant workers from
obtaining employment recedes into the background.

The increased financial support of the other Local unions in
following the lead of Local 1-71 is the answer to any person or
persons who try to prevent our union assuming full collective bar-
gaining.

In conclusion, we have dispatched to the job during the month
of January more men than any one previous month,

Labor, Church, Veterans
Establish Unity Group

A positive step towards the establishment of a broad democratic
front for the purpose of winning the peace for the common people,
was taken early this month in Vancouver with the establishment
of a Church-Labor-Veteran Foundation. Established by a group of
leaders from the three organizations, the group has issued the
following statement:

“The Church - Labor - Veteran
Foundation represents a fellow-
ship of men and women who be-
lieve that both the Church and
Organized Labor are deeply con-
cerned with human freedom, jus-

tice, brotherhood, world peace
and community. They see in
modern farm, labor, and war-vet-
erans organization and the
Chureh potential allies of de-
mocracy and the Kingdom of
God. ‘The major emphasis in
each group may be different, but
their basis is the same. They be-
lieve that the teaching of the
Hebrew prophets and Jesus
Christ should be applied in the
field of industrial relations. This
Foundation seeks to create a bet-
ter understanding and closer co-
operation between these groups
and stands ready to co-operate
with all individuals and groups
who are anxious to build a new
world upon the basis of brother-
hood.

universities and colleges with
our modern industrial problems

through group discussion and
special lectures.

5. To attempt to resolve the
differences and misunderstand-
ings which may arise between
agricultural and industrial work-
ers and to endeavor to secure
close cooperation with them.”

AF of L Leaders
Demand Unity

NEW YORK,—(ALN)—Five
hundred AFL officials voiced
support this week for official
World Federation of ‘Trade
Unions’ representation in the
United Nations Organization. In
& message to U.S. Secretary of
State James F. Byrnes in Lon-

don, the AFL leaders urged the
American delegation to support

The following are some of the
aims:

1, To provide a consultative
committee whose business it will

be to ascertain the truth on any
matter brought before the Foun-
dation and to take such action
as may be deemed advisable on
unanimous decision.

2, To provide opportunity
through public meetings, etc, for
the discussion of critical issues
as they arise.

8. To facilitate conferences be-
tween Church and Labor and
Veterans’ Leaders on matters of
concern to all.

4. To acquaint students in our

jSentation on the

the WFTU’s claim, adding:

“American labor is vitally in-
terested in assuring internation-
al cooperation for world security
and well-being WETU repre-

UNO will go

far to speed and help achieve

the attainment of these objec-
tives. Because the WFTU rep-
resents more than 70,000,000 of
the world’s organized workers,
it is the only organization that
can speak authoritatively for
world labor.” The message was
sponsored by the Committee for

Well Boys:

On the skidroad and in the
“shady bowers” where loggers
gather to oil up their tonsils, all
a feller can hear these days is
“what the signing of the 1946
agreement is going to mean,”
Now the hemlock is going to be
used for building houses instead
of making gun cotton, and the
main job is to see that the people
who build the houses get a chance
to live in them, it seems to boil
down to the qeustion of how best
to win the objective.

There was some fine profits
made during the war by the big
lumber operators and these boys
are loking forward to making
even greater profits in the
peace. The problem is to guaran-
tee that everyone gets his fair

share of the things that peace-
time Canada can produce. Like
the fellow said, “he didn’t object
to anything in the world, not
even bed bugs, but he did object
to the way they (bed bugs) made
their living.” If anyone thinks
this is pertinent then it is purely
intentional, and if anyone is in
doubt as to what I mean I will be
glad to explain further.

I saw Nels Madsen on Hast-
ings Street the other day, and I
am told that he was nominated
unopposed by Local 1-71 for the
position of President. When I
heard this, my mind went back~
to the Spanish Civil War, and I
thought it was a strange turn of
events that we make Nels Mad-
sen President of one of the big-
gest Locals of the IWA just
when Franco of Spain is just
about ready to receive his come-
uppance. “It has been a long
fight, Nels, but your old bull-
cook promises you his whole-
hearted support in the big strug-
gles to come, and I want to as-
Sure you that the members of
Local 1-71 picked a real man
when they picked Nels Madsen.”

However, now that demands
have been made. and the wood-
workers have declared what they
want from the operators in 1946
already the reactionaries are
starting their campaign to dis-
credit the IWA It seem that
some of the newspapers, particu-
larly on Vancouver Island, have
been making some pretty vicious
attacks since the Convention, It
reminds me of the good old days
when every attempt to organize
the workers caused the bosses
to hold up their hands
in holy horror. The bosses are
pretty well organized today, and
it takes a tough organization to
compete with them. It reminds
me of a little boy who was walk-
ing around the shore of a big
lake with his father. They came
to a Sawmill and the boy asked,
“Who owns this mill.” The father
replied, “The Lightening Log
Company.” A little further on
they came to a Pole yard, the ©
boy asked, “Who own the Pole
yard,” and received the Y
reply. They walked on a bit fu
ther to another sawmill, The
boy asked, “Who owns this mill”
and the reply again was
Lightening Log Company.
ing deeply, the boy asked,
owns the Inke, daddy.”
‘The father replied, “Oh, God ow
the lake”. So the boy again
ed, “Well how did God man
to get the lake away from 1
Lightening Log Company?”

AFL Participation in the WFTU.

So long boys.

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