Monday by

OF AMERICA (CIO)
DISTRICT COUNCIL NO. 1

21,000 copies printed this week

Published Every Second
INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS

Subscription Rate: $1.00 per year

Editor: JACK GREENALL Advertising: MATT FEE
Room 504 Holden Building—Phone PAcific 4151—Vancouver, B.C.

Authorized as Second Class Mail, Postoffice Dept., Ottawa,
@

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

Time To Halt

The resolution adopted by the IWA in Convention last January,
condemning the ownership of power saws by Union members, laid
down a definite policy for dealing with this troublesome problem.
‘A new argument in favor of immediate action to bring to an
end the situation that gave rise to the resolution, comes to the
forefront, This time it is a matter of compensation. Fallers and
buckers have gone to.work in some operations and haye been “hired”
by their fellow workmen, In some cases, the set of fallers are part
owners of the saw and operate as contractors and are classed as
self-employed. In many of these cases no proper steps are taken
to assure that the workers involved are covered by compensation.
Responsibility for such coverage has not definitely been fixed and
the so-called employer is often unaware of his responsibility.

It is unfortunate that some members are still unable to see
how operating a power saw on this basis is undermining the safety
and economic security of themselves and their fellow workers.

Similar situations arose in other industries from time to time
as the machine age advanced. Trade unions involved took severe
steps to protect the membership against abuses that threatened.
The welder, for instance, is not required to carry his own torch
and tanks. The logger no longer carries his. own bed roll and
billy can.

The power saw menace has not yet been solved. The time is
ripe for authoritative disciplinary action to be taken by members
of logger’s locals, Any further delay in taking this action will
only lead to the roots of this abuse going deeper into our economic
structure and causing much greater disruption when we finally
have to dig them out.

An Open Letter

From the Citizens’ Rehabilitation Council of Greater Vancouver
to Members of the Legislative Assembly:

One of the problems that both Government and Industry are
faced with at the present time is the inability of industries located
outside the city areas to engage married men with families by
Yeason of their being no houses to offer their employees. While it
is true that the larger companies have, and,are building, family
houses, it is also true that there are hundreds of smaller concerns,
willing and anxious, but financially.unable to do so.

Therefore it is suggested that the Provincial Government fi-
nance an undertaking to erect a number of portable family houses
for the use of industries outside the cities.

The portable house idea is,not a new one (and much to be
preferred to the prefabricated house), having been in common
practice in the logging industry for many years. It is suggested
that the plan could cover our basic industries—logging, “mining,
fishing, farming, ete. I will enumerate some of the advantages
in such a plan. é

1. It will ensure a steady reliable class of labor to our
basic industries.

2. It will afford our young married returning service men
an opportunity to enter the industries now very short of per-
sonnel by reason of lack of housing

3. It will relieve the over-crowding in the cities, which
now hold the larger portion of our population,

4. It will attract a great many of our people to the
rural districts and away from the cities, thereby building up
the Province and its baste industries.

It is a matter of record that nearly 78 percent of our popu-
lation live within eighty miles of Vancouver. The houses planned
are fully modern and can be constructed at low cost, not being
subject to the many building regulations in force in the cities.

It is suggested that the Government finance the undertaking
at three percent, repayable in ten years, houses to be taken over
by reliable companies, ‘who in turn would rent them out to their
employees on a non-profit basis at a rent set to amortize the

cost of the building only.
Arrangement could also be made for the purchase of the

homes by the tenants.
It has been suggested that this is a Federal matter, but we

contend that it is a Provincial one, inasmuch as it will develop

THE BC LUMBER WORKBE

at

By Don

Heading Out... 222

The Union Hiring Hall at 206 Holden Building has the distinc-
tion of being the only Hiring Hall in the lumber industry where the
members of the IWA have the opportunity of casting their ballot
on the 1946 program of our organization, The membership is keenly
interested in the points that must come up for consideration. The
discipline that was maintained during the war period in holding
to the “no-strke pledge” will now be of extra value in the struggles
that are to come.

During the war period many arguments were put forward that
“now is the time to bargain due to the shortage of labor,” ete.
These were difficult to combat. As I was an organizer for the
IWA during a goodly part of the war years, I was in a position
to know, and to have followed the lines of least resistance
would perhaps have been the easier but not in the best interest
of the workers.

The enthusiasm shown by the membership today for our pro-
gram is one factor that will assist the negotiating committee to
bring to fruition-the objectives unanimously endorsed in Con-
vention, and if the.facilities of the Union Hiring Hall are used
for this purpose then it also has an added value to the IWA.

We are looking forward to a further extension of business
because more members than ever before are coming to the Union
Hiring Hall and this will also mean that available jobs will be
filled more quickly than has been the case in the past.

Need Price Control In
Peace As Well As War

“Can controls work in peace time?” This is of special interest
to industrial workers. Unless Canadians support controls of prices
for a definite postwar period, history will repeat itself, and infla-
tion will follow the war as it did previous wars. Controls can be
maintained, if people of Canada realize the need for them and
observe regulations.

“How long should controls last? As long as the demand for
goods exceeds the amount of good produced.” Until production
levels can meet consumers’ requirements the threat of inflationary
prices will remain, and controls will be needed to meet this danger.
All through history prices have risen with each ensuing year of
a war. Following this rapid rise, prices have always fallen so
steeply that businesses have collapsed and thousands of men and
women have been thrown out of work. After World War I prices
rose for several reasons: goods continued to be scarce; workers
were moving about; and veterans were finding their way back
into civilian life. Scarce goods became scarcer, and prices continued
to rise. After World War II the same trends are seen plus a de-
liberate policy of Big Business to hold back consumer goods and
a sitdown from producing needed goods.

Hello boys: :
What a hullabaloo the head-
lines of the papers these days
are making, but most of the
people I see have a bigger grin
on their faces than ever. Only
one person said to me, “Ah you
can’t trust these Russians” and
I said, “Brother, I trusted them
at Stalingrad. You remind me of
the guy who was crossing a very
shaky bridge and he kept re-
peating “Good Lord,” “Good
Devil” and finally when he- got
safely across said “to H--- with
both of you.”

When we read of “authorita-
tive source” “official circles”
stating this, that or the other
thing, then we think of “sailor
beware.”

What loggers and sawmill work-
ers are concentrating on now is
25c¢ per hour across the board,
40-hour week and union security.
The only atomic power that log-
gers know about comes in bot-
tles, looks like coal oil and tastes
like Capilano B.C, (that B.C,
stands for Before Chlorination.)

Well boys, it seems to me some
one, if not exactly lying, are
handling the truth damn care-
less like. In the first place, Mr.
Truman stated that the whole
secret of the manufacture of the
atom bomb is the sole property
of United tSates. Then what the
heck would anyone seek such in-
formation in Canada? Of course,
I have been trying to’tell people
that I had the atom bomb figur-
ed out a long time ago, but no-
body listens to me,

When I was in Australia I saw
the aboriginies using a weapon
they call a boomerang. You throw
this weapon and if it don’t hit
the target it comes right back to
you so you can use it over again.
If you don’t watch the boom-
erang closely you are apt to get
a whack on the head from it.
Boomerangs are a fairly good
weapon in the hands of an ex-
pert but sometimes: the target
moves and I reckon the people
no longer believe “authoritative
sources” “official circles” holus
bolus anymore,

We find very few people today
like the parson when reading
from the Bible that had two
pages stuck together. His ser-
mon began, “and Noah took unto
himself a wife” but the two
pages being stuck together car-
ried over to where Noah was
building the Ark so it read, “she
was forty cubits long and forty
cubits wide and tarred within
and without with pitch”. The
parson was rather flabbergasted
and read it over the second time
with the two pages still stuck,
and exclaimed, “Well, I never
heard of a woman so big but if
the Bible says so it must be so.”

when a Union Sister writes to a
Union Brother how does

close? The official
is: “fraternally yours” means.
longing to a brother,
brothers, men of the sar
brotherhood” so, owing to the in
ferior position of the f oi
relation to males, Union

should sign “Re

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