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District Council No. 1.

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Vol. XIX, No. 45

2 ‘

June 23, 1949

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5e per copy

Vancouver, B.C.

eIWA RECOVERS $136,000 STRIKE
eFUND AS ‘WIUC’ CLAIM COLLAPSES

1950 Contract

DAILY SESSIONS HELD
IN BARGAINING TALKS

Negotiations on the 1949-50 IWA master agreement are now

under way.

On June 16, the IWA Policy Committee met the employers’

@...:; Forest Indust:
wages and working conditions for

Relations Ltd., to start bargaining over

the 185 operations in the Coastal

region, which set the contract pattern for the B.C. lumber industry.

Following consideration of pro-
cedure, and the preliminary ex-
ination of amendments to the
Qessin: contract tabled by both
parties, the bargaining confer-
ence agreed to resume sessions
on June 21, and to continue daily
sessions thereafter,

At time of going to press,
bargaining had not progressed
to the point where any state
ment could be released,

IWA SPOKESMEN

Spokesmen for the TWA are:
J. E, Fadling, International Pres-
ident; J. Stewart Alsbury, Dis-
triet President; George Mitchell,
District Secretary-Treasurer;
Tom MacKenzie, International
Board Member; Andy Smith,
President, Local 1-357; Joe Mor-
ris, President, Local 1-80; Tom
Bradley, District ist Vice-Presi-
dent; Reg Faint, Local 1-85; Vir-
gil Burtz, International Research
Director, and Jack Squire, Busi-
ness Agent, Local 1-85.

Qn the employers’ side of the
bargaining table are R. V. Stu-
art, President, Forest Industrial
Relations Ltd.; J. M. Billings, W.
H. Hefferman and D. Ritchie.

DEMANDED

A thorough-going revision of

the new contract advanced by the
IWA representatives included:

A. 15-cent an hour wage in-
erense across the board.

Union shop conditions.

A welfare plan, maintained

by the employers, and to pro-

vide full medical and hospital
services, sick leave pay, and a
$1000 indemnity for death and
dismemberment.

Reduction of board rates to
$1.50 a day.

‘A basic daily minimum rate
for fallers, buckers, and shingle
sawyers of S16. |

A basic daily minimum rate |
for shingle packers of $12. |

Enforcement of the forty-
hour week for ail shifts.

Improved seniority
ions,

Limitation of probationary
period to 15 working days, or
21 calendar days.

WHAT'S
INSIDE

CONTENTS |

provis-

oughly representative

Commenting on negotiations on
the “Green Gold” radio program,
June 16, International President
Fadling ‘stated in part:

“I wish to give an assurance on
behalf of the International Exec-
utive Board, that with all our re-
sources, we stand behind the
B.C. District Council in present-
ing the demands of the workers
in the B.C. section of the lumber
industry.,

“The demands which were pre-
sented today on behalf of the
lumber workers are just and rea-
sonable. They were presented after
thoughtful and careful considera-
tion by representatives of all our
Locals in. this province. The bar-
gaining will be directed by a thor-
Policy
Committee elected at the District
Wages and Contract Conference
last April.

The International officers in at-
tendance act as consultants and
advisors. Any proposed agree-
ment will be submitted to the
rank and file membership for ac-
ceptance or rejection. The demo-
cratic procedure of the IWA
gives the workers concerned full
control over their own bargaining
decisions and strategy.”

NO CLOWNING THIS. YEAR

“We will bargain ‘with deter-
mination to secure acceptance by
the operators of the demands pre-
sented by the lumber workers.
The evidence in our possession
fully justifies each and every de-
mand. Our bargaining will be
above - board and business - like.
There will be no such perform-
ance as staged last year by Dal-
skog and Pritchett. Their clown-
ing over side issues was a smoke-
screen to hide their neglect of the
real issues, and the fact that they
were mainly concerned with LPP-
Communist purposes.

“This time it will be different.

{We will bargain in good faith
land expect the operators to do

the same. We will not employ
threats nor will we yield to
threats. We have entered the
bargaining conference with the
firm conviction that the owners
of the industry are well able to
provide higher/living standards
for the workers in the industry.
“Lumbering is the major basic
industry, with forty thousand
workers, whose spending on
goods and services for their
homes keeps the cash’ registers
ringing in the communities where
they live, Only as they prosper
will their communities prosper.”

NOTICE
Would anyone knowing the
whereabouts of Mr. Arthur
Stanley Price, please contact
the District Office, 426 Main
Street, Vancouver, B.C.

Dalskog To
Pay $1323

Ernie Dalskog, vice-presi-
dent of the “WIUC” has
been ordered to pay $1,323
to Local 1-71, Internationa?
Woodworkers of America
(CIO-CCL).

The order came from the Su-
preme Court in a judgment given
in Vancouver on’ June 9, when
Local 1-71 successfully sued Dal-
skog for the balance of a $1500
loan, the ex-IWA president got
from a Vancouver bank with the
funds of Local 1-71 as security.

Dalskog, who made no effort
to repay the loan when the
bank’s demand was made on
October 4, 1948, one day after
the breakaway move by the
Communists, did not even de-
fend the suit.

Dalskog obtained the money on
June 18, 1948, from the Cana-
dian Bank of Commerce, Victory
Square, on the backing by two
other ‘renegade officials, Nils
Madsen and Don Barbour, in
their capacity of officials of Local
1-71, TWA.

PERSONAL LOAN

The money was secured on a
personal promissory note, pay-
able on demand.

As soon as the bank saw Dal-
skog had fied the IWA, the “de-
mand” was made. He could not
pay the money, and the bank ac-
cordingly settled the outstanding
amount of $1323 from among the
assets of the guarantors, (trust-
ees for the membership of Local
1-71).

Now the money will be recov-
ered from Dalskog personally and
again placed among the assets of
the loggers’ local.

Indusizy Toll

FIVE MORE
MEN KILLED

There were five fatal accidents
in the B.C. Logging Industry in
May...

According to Workmen’s Com-
pensation figures there were also
195 accidents in April, and 260 in
May, which came under Compen-
sation. t

In sawmills and shingle mills
there were 299 accidents, sash
and door operations 8 accidents;
veneer plants, 14; pulp and paper
operations, 13, making a total of
334 accidents; 150 in April and
184 in May,

This brings the number of fatal
accidents for 1949 up to 21 and
of other pensionable accidents to
2,299. A terrible toll for a five
month period.

In court on Friday, June 17,
the legal representative of the
so-called Woodworkers’ , Indus-
trial Union consented to a judg-
ment from Chief Justice Wendell
B. Farris, ordering the strike
fund returned to the B.C. Dis-
triet Council.

PROPERTY RETURNED, TOO

This was the money for which
Dalskog went to jail when he
would not tell where it was hid-
den, until he had served 27 days
in Oakalla.

The court did more than or-
der the return of the strike
fund. It ordered restored to
the B.C. District Council all
office furniture, equipment,
supplies, records and sundry
effects now in the custody of
the court registrar.

It took eight months to bring
the “WIUC” and their renegade
leaders to their senses over the
return of the strike fund. Thanks
to the persistence. and. indomit-
ability of International, District
officers and the IWA counsel, A.
T, R. Campbell, the fight has been
won.

The officials of the renegade
organization named in the IW
A’s action have been ordered,
too, to pay the union’s legal
costs,

These will amount to about
$7,000.

These costs will be assessed
against the following people:
Ernie Dalskog, Harold Prit-
chett, Hjalmar Bergren, John
Forbers, Bert Melsness and
Don Barbour.

They were named both as in-
dividuals and as officers or mem-
bers of the “WIUC”.

ANOTHER $60,000 TO GET

But the legal fight to recover
all the monies and properties of
the various IWA Locals through-
out B. C. is not yet over.

IWA officials are claiming, in
outstanding lawsuits, the recov-
ery of another $60,000.

District President Stewart Als-
bury, and Local 1-217 head, Lloyd
Whalen, had to leave a session of
negotiations with Forest Indus-
trial Relations on Friday to at-
tend the court.

On behalf of the District Coun-
cil, IWA, President Alsbury made
the following statement after the
judgment was announced.

| JUDGE ORDERS MONEY PAID TO DISTRICT COUNCIL

The $136,000 strike fund is back in the hands of the IWA!

The registrar of the Supreme Court of B. C., in Vancouver, this week handed a
cheque for $136,941 to the B. C. District Council of the IWA, bringing to a successful
conelusion, the eight months’ fight by International and District Officers to foil the trai-
torous attempt by union splitters to take the law into their own hands.

“The return of the strike fund
vindicates completely the stand
we have taken throughout this
long legal fight. We don’t want,
and never have wanted, to take
all these issues into court, but
we knew all along that the-only
way to bring people like Dals-
kog and Pritchett to their senses
was to show them that we would
stand no nonsense.

“How they ever thought they
would get away with hiding the
strike fund belonging to the
membership of the IWA, I'll
never comprehend.

“FEAR OF LAW”—ALSBURY

“And no matter what phony
propaganda excuses they may
come forth with now, you can
take it from me that they. have
agreed to the return of the strike
fund because of one thing, and
only one thing—fear of the con-
sequences of law-breaking.

“But we have not finished yet.
And we won't, until we have fin-
ally cleared up all-the rest of the

-|money involved, another $60,000.

“The strike fund battle has
been won at a time when we
most needed it, now that we are
in the middle of very difficult
negotiations.”

The court order split the money
into two groups — the sum of
$130,032 actually held by the reg-,
istrar, (ie. the money handed
over by Dalskog when he came
out of Oakalla), and $5,908 in the
Imperial-Bank, Hastings and Ab-
bott, Vancouver. :

This action was the.main law-
suit started by the IWA imme-
diately after the “disaffiliation”
move by Pritchett and Co., on Oc-
tober 3, 1948,

The IWA first-obtained injunc-
tions “freezing”. all assets of the
B. C.. District Council. The hear-
on Friday, June 17, was the final
upshot of those injunctions.

Nanaimo Couxt Case

Mr. Justice McFarlane granted
a Crown application in Nanaimo
on June 9 for-a stay of proceed-
ings in the case of four “WIUC”
members charged with the theft
of IWA furniture and fixtures
from Local 1-85.

The men are Owen G. Brown,
Fred Wilson, Olaf Olson and

Siegfried Carlson.

1-217 SOFTBALL TEAM |

July 2—Camphbell River.

Out of the games played

Vancouver Island.

TO TOUR VANCOUVER ISLAND

Arrangements have been completed enabling the soft-
ball team of Local 1-217, IWA, to play a series of exhibi-
tion games on Vancouver Island, July 1, 2 and‘ 3, ‘The
scheduled games will be among the leading sports events
at Campbell River and Courtenay on the holiday weekend.

The schedule of games as arranged to date:
July 1—Afternoon, Courtenay.
July 1—Evening, Campbell River.

July 3—Campbell River or Ladysmith.

the Vancouver team has won 7, tied 2, and lost 2. ‘On the
strength of this record, members of Local 1-217, IWA,
confidently anticipate a triumphal tour for their team on

y

in their division this season