that there is

JNDICATIONS are that once
‘again the cost of living index
is to hit a new high, Even before
this index is made public, we can
see that the following one will
be even higher with sugar, tea,
coffee, domestic fats and beef
leading the parade.

In some quarters, the increase
in wages to the woodworking in-
dustry is being held responsible
for the increased cost of living.
‘The daily press, however, tells us
that panic buying is responsible.
As ever in the markets of free
trade, goods are not priced ac-
cording to their value, but rather
as to how badly the public wants
the product.

To induce the public to buy a
product, two articles are offered
for sale at less than twice the
price of one; should the public
indicate, however, that they would
like to have two articles instead"
of one, then we have what the
press calls “panic buying” and
two articles are then sold for
more than twice the price of one.
Being people who work with our
hands in mills and camps, we
fail to understand the intricacies
of big business.

In the last few weeks, we have
watehed lumber prices make re-
peated advances to a point where
the actual producer of wood prod-
ucts is once again not receiving
a fair share of the value of the
product produced.

‘This price increase is due to the
demand for wood products and
not because of wage increases.
We know this is true because
lumber prices went up before the
general wage increase as well as
oing up after the increase. The

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

*—L ENGINEERS CAUGHT IN
BIGHT OF CONTRACT LINE |

ee eee wecaing « wircug erat ol the [WA in B.C, with Local Unions fully conscious
"of the necessity of getting the viewpoint of the logger and the plant worker across to the other guy as

oo. his fireside at home.

Giving Local 1-357, IWA, New Westminster, strong competition is Alberni’s Local 1-85, IWA.
You will see from the attached extracts from a broadcast over CJAV by President Walter Allen
real “bight” to the broadcast, the fiirst reprinted in the B.C. Lumber Worker. Get

friends and neighbors, too, to listen to IWA broadcasts.

your

The 124; cent per hour in- |
crease in pay, recently gained |
by the IWA, will become effect- |
ive for_these engineers retro- |
active fo June 15. We feel this |
is the march back. To the |
brothers yoting today we say, |
“Glad to see you; welcome |
home”. i
The Women’s Auxiliary of the}
IWA are looking for additional |
members. A meeting was held in
the Local Union office last night. |
Mrs. Joy Hickford, president of |
the Auxiliary, can be contacted |
through the Local Union office, |
by the wives or friends of Union
members willing to assist in the.
refreshment booth on Labor Day, .
Sept. 4. |

Getting “caught in the bight”
is an expression common to all
residents of logging and lumber-
ing towns. Camp Safety Com-|
mittes know from experience that
when a man gets in the “bight of
a line”, there are serious results |
—to put it bluntly, a man who
finds himself in such a situation |
is generally found :.. the weeds by |
someone sent looking for him. |

The vigilance of Camp Safety |

|Committees and the demand by!

sound thinking loggers for safer
working conditions in the woods |
is reducing the accident fre-|
quency. Credit is due to those|
men thinking, teaching, and prac-|
tising safety. Today it is some-|
one else — tomorrow it may be |
you. Think Safety, teach Safety,
and especially work Safely. |

Tonight, we wish to use the ex- |
pression “getting caught in the
bight” to explain another serious
situation in local sawmills.
situation which. was
informed membe

During the past few years, a line
was drawn through the organized
ranks of labor in B. C.’s sawmills
by people who it would appear
had an axe to grind.

In recent months, that line has
been looped out to include more
workers in these same sawmills.
Power plant crews being men who
deal in steam have little or no
knowledge of the caution neces-
sary in handling lines, so did not

i
i
|
|

out, workmen on either side are
in danger of bights which may
be in such a line.

In the early part of this. year,
a 6-cents anj hour across the
hoard wage increase was negoti-
uted for the Lotal AFL certified
pulp mill. This raise gave a wage
scale of:

$1.58 for 2nd class engineers,
$1.21 for firemen.

Prior to these negotiations, the
rates. in IWA certified mills for

|crease. We are told-the engineers

|
firemen were two cents per hour

higher, and for engineers, were

one cent per hour. higher than in|

any other industry in B.C.

On June 15 of this year, the
IWA settled negotiations for a

wage increase of 12% cents per|,

hour. The AFL certified engin-
eers and firemen in these [WA
plants were offered a similar

|wage increase of 12%4 cents per

hour. This increase would have
given the 2nd class engineers
$1.65 and the firemen $1.30—
nine cents per hour more than in
the pulp mill.

We do not claim to be, and

realize that any time a line is run! have no. intention of becoming,

authorities on craft unionism. The
decision of the engineers to turn
down such an offer is beyond our
understanding. We hear the fire
men would have liked to accept
it. The Conciliation Board set up
to handle further negotiations,
brought down its findings last
week. A finding of 12% cents
per hour across the board

and firemen have applied to take
a strike vote.

We have no record of ‘a whistle”
punk deliberately stepping into
the bight of a line and then giv-
ing the go ahead signal, if one
ever did, we know what hap-
pened. ‘

This is not the time for pre- ”
dictions, but we wish to be clear
on one point—whistle punks may
have on occasion pulled out a
straw line, but it takes a good
rigging crew to tend the main
line to keep clear of the haul
back.

If anyone has a tail that wags
their dog, we ‘would like to see
it, but even more would we like
to see the dog that lets it. ¥

eee et

lumber companies are charging
all the traffic will bear. The ques-
tion uppermost in everyone’s
mind these days is will such a
heavy traffic continue along
smoothly, or will there be a traf-
‘ fic jam? \

One of Vancouver’s big daily |
papers, in a recent issue, was
lauding the lumber manufactur-
ers for their generosity towards
the building trades who are work-

ing on school and public building

contracts. The manufacturers, it

seems, are not putting into effect
: their recent lumber price in-
crease to those contractors who
do not have a security clause in
‘their contract whereby an in-
crease in material costs can be
added to the final contract price
of the building. i

We are, however, not handing |
out bouquets for such a policy by
the lumber companies. This pro- |
gram has said endlessly that the |
welfare of the working man is
not accepted by big business as |
being their concern. In this, their |
latest action, they substantiate |

our claim; because the» lumber
manufacturers cannot reach, via
some building trade contract, in

_to the public purse for additional

profits, they do not increase the!
“price ‘of lumber supplied for such |

contracts, %
“Where the building contracts
» a sliding scale, the lum- |
has been increased, We |
/ see that Johnny Q. Public |
pays for schools ;
is once again |

{
dy
[|

‘A BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Local 1-217, IWA, Credit Union, meet to examine report showing success-
forecast by | ful operations for preceding six months. (Left) H. Bardsley, J. Simpson, Art Evans, Robert Watters,
of the IWA.| George Fries, Wm. Gray and J. Lucas.

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