Page Eight

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

LOCAL 1-367

“Arbitration Complete
Folly” Vows Neil Shaw

Outrig!
Arbitration Board procedure
as now conducted, is contained
in a statement of Neil Shaw,
Financial Secretary, Local 1-
367, to the members of the Ha-
ney unit.

In scathing language, Secre-
tary Shaw speaks of reliance
on biassed Arbitration Boards
for settlement of grievances as
complete folly and urges job
action as the only effective
means of securing the work-
ers’ rights.

His denunciation of Arbitration
procedure, as conducted, followed
his report on the recent Arbitra-
tion proceedings over the dis-
charge of Frank Furman, by
B.C. Forest Products Ltd. (Ham-
mond Division).

Evidence Conflicting

Members of the Board were:
John D. Ross, Chairman; M. M.
McFarlane, company nominee,
and George Home, Union nomi-
nee. The majority report, bind-
ing on both parties, upheld the
company decision to discharge
Furman as incompetent, although
a minority report was filed by
George Home.

A direct conflict of evidence
arose during the hearings. Three
company officials declared that
the dismissed worker had been
incompetent because too slow.
Ten Union witnesses all stated

that he was fully competent for
his duties, and that he had been
unfairly discriminated against.

George Mitchell, District Sec-
vetary-Treasurer, assisted Fin-
ancial Secretary Neil Shaw in
presenting the case on behalf of
the aggrieved member.

Minority Report

In the minority report, George
Home stated in part:

“I cannot agree with the ma-
jority members of the Board,
that faced with conflicting evi-
dence, we must accept the fore-
man as the only competent
judge of a man’s work... . To
accept such a premise would
destroy the hope and faith of
thousands of members of trade
unions who believe in some
semblance of democracy in in-
dustry, . . . This precedent
would allow foremen to dis-
charge whenever or whoever
they wished, without regard to
seniority.”

Shaw’s Statement
Urging an” appeal under the
ICA Act, alleging unfair labor
practices, Neil Shaw stated that
the discharge was distinctly dis-
crimnatory in character, and in-
dicated that the company. had no

intention to live up tl
letter or spirit of the contract.

Folly and Waste
“In view of the foregoing, I
like to very forcefully

be complete folly
to consider arbi-

ht condemnation of j

ably proves that any one of you
may be discriminated against at
any time in the same manner in
which Furman was discriminated
against, and in all probability the
Union would be faced with the
same problems in your case as
we have been faced with in the
case of Frank Furman.

Job Action

“About this time you may feel
that I am painting a pretty black
picture as far as seniority and
job security are concerned. How-
ever, I feel that the time has
come when we must lay our cards
on the table and be quite frank
and honest with everyone con-
cerned.

“The proper place to settle
these grievances is on the job
before it gets to the stage of
haying to apply for arbitration.
A lot of you may ask how you
are going to handle them on
the job, and I would remind you
that job action is still the most
effective way of the workers
being guaranteed that they will
get their just rights.

You’re Next

“Tt is essential that every mem-
ber of this organization realizes
the fact that a shop stewards
grievance committee and even
Local business agent has very
little chance of getting these
things settled as long as the com-
pany knows that the biggest per-
centage of men on the job are not
worried about Union affairs until
they get hurt themselves. That
He not what we join a trade union
‘or.

“We join a trade union so that
we will have power by the fact
that the men are united. As the
old saying goes “We either hang
together or we will hang separ-
ately.

“Therefore, in closing, I
would like to urge every mem-
ber to take a more active part
in their Union meetings and
functions of their Union, and
let us not be afraid to fight to
protect the rights of our fellow
workers because today it may
be your fellow worker who is
being unjustly treated and if
the companies are allowed to
get away with such action to-
morrow it will be ourselves.”

AEEP A FIRM GRIPS/
ON YOUR

JOB
. DAYTONS BOOTS ©
Xs / 3 Se

itt

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