Page 10

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

March 1, 1951

THE CO-OPERATIVE VIEW

DISTRICT PLEDGES HELP

TO CO-OPS

New committee for an IVA
conyention was the one which
dealt with the promotion of
Credit Unions and Co-opera-
tives among IWA_ members.
The report, submitted to the
delegates by Chairman George
Mitchell and Secretary Ed Lin-
der, was warmly endorsed in
the following terms:

Credit Unions and Co-opera-
tives have at several of our past
conventions been endorsed by all
the delegates attending. We feel
that the time has now arrived
when more concrete action is
necessary in order to more effec-
tively establish and extend Credit
Unions and Co - operatives
throughout all of District No. 1,
IWA. By so doing, we will add
economic’ strength to our Union
program of better wages and
working conditions. It is evident
that the most effective method of
increasing the purchasing power
of the dollar, safeguarding the
gains made by our Union in
wages, and providing economic
stability in times of strikes is
through co-operative endeavour
as expressed in Credit Unions
and other Co-operatives.

In_ reviewing the growth of
Credit Unions and Co-operatives
in British Columbia up to the
present time, it is gratifying to
note that there are already many
Credit Unions functioning
throughout all the Locals of our
Union. Credit Unions which have
been sponsored by Locals and
Sub-Locals are functioning and
continuing to make steady
growth. Some Locals, notably
1-357 and 1-217, have Credit
Unions in which the membership
is exclusively [WA members. The
other Locals 1-80, 1-85, 1-363,
1-118, 1-71, and 1-428 have Credit
Unions in their areas function-

ing ‘on a community basis, but in|

which a large part of the mem-
bership is IWA members.

IWA Co-operators

There are at the present time
approximately 3,000 IWA mem-
bers in B. C. who belong to Credit
Unions. It is estimated that
Savings on an average of $300.00
per member are invested in
Credit Unions. When it is realiz-
ed that there are now nearly
30,000 IWA members:in B.C. if
all belonged to Credit Unions and
had that amount invested, it
would represent a total sum of
nearly ten million dollars being
utilized in co-operative effort.
This would represent a real ad-
vance in aims of our Union to-
wards economic democracy.

This Committee feels that a
more rapid growth in Credit
Unions and Co-operatives could
more quickly be realized through
the implementation of the follow-
ing recommendations:

Recommendations

1, That this 14th Annual
Convention of District Council
No. 1 go on record as instruct-
ing the District Executive
Board to assist in Credit Union
and other Co-operative de-
velopment ‘by promoting and
co-ordinating Credit Union ex-
tension in British Columbia.

2. That Local Unions ap-
Feist a member in each Local

nion whose responsibility it
shall be to assist in the de-
yelopment of Credit Unions in
that Local by the dissemination
of Credit Union educational
material, report all news of
Credit Union and other co-
operative activity in that Local

Alex B. Macdonald

Barrister & Solicitor
Notary Public

to the Lumber Worker, where
a section of the paper would be
deyoted exclusively to it.

3. That the IWA promote
good public relations by en-
couraging IWA members to
support in: their respective
areas Co-operatives and Credit
Unions already set up and
functioning on a community
basis,

4. That the District and all
Local Unions invest a portion
of their reserve funds in Credit
Unions.

Sask’s Farm

Co-ops Boom

OTTAWA. (CPA) — Fourteen
Saskatchewan co-operative
farms, with a total of 165 mem-
oers, reported on their activities
recently to the province’s Depart-
ment of Co-operation. Two addi-
tional farms were incorporated
Jate in 1949 and four in 1950,
eringing the total present mem-
bership to about 205. In all they
own or lease approximately
69,000 acres.

Total income for the 14 co-op
farms last year.was $346,736. Be-
cause several of the farms were
incorporated during the year,
and so had little income in 1949,
these figures do not give a true
Picture of the average incomes
of farms which had been estab-
lished for a longer period. In
addition, 1949 was a dry year
which cut down income a lot from
the previous year when fairly
good crops were harvested.

Total assets of the co-operative
farms were $856,036, compared
to $501,532 in 1948. It is ex-
pected that these will total close
to a million dollars by the end
of 1950,

$125-A-MONTH
FOR CRIPPLED
VETERANS

Total disability pensions for
veterans should be raised from
$94: a month to $125, with all
other pension rates increased ac-
cordingly.

This is the demand of six vet-
erans’ organizations in a joint
brief to the federal government
in an effort to meet the high cost
of living for one of Canada’s
most deserving groups.

The veterans’ group represent-
ed the Army, Navy and Air Force
Veterans’, Corp Association,
Paraplegic, Pensions, War Ampu-
tations and Sir Arthur Pearson
Association of War Blinded.

Five other demands are:

1, Rates and allowances for
wives and dependent children
be increased, the wife’s allow-
ance to $35 per month, eldest
child’s to $20, second child’s to
$16, and all younger children
to $12.

2. Children maintained by
widows of disabled men be
given orphan rates.

3. Widows of war disabled
should receive increase pro-
portionate with increase sought
in basic pension rate.

4. Deadline for pensions for
widows, wives and children of
First War Veterans to be ad-
vanced to May 1, 1951.

5. Pensioners be entitled -to
free hospital treatment for
conditions other than those to
which they now have free en-
titlement.

Total of workers employed at
re-afforestation in Britain has
risen from 4,600 in 1945 to 12,000
today, and in 1949 some 43,886
acres of land were replanted,
mostly in broad leaf trees such
as beech and oak.

Out of 40,000 houses built in
Sweden in 1949, more than 35,000
were built by co-op, municipal or

joint agencies.

400,000 GET

PAY BOOST

Brightest spot in the 1950 bulletin of Provincial Labor Stand-
ards was news from backward Quebec.

An increase of 20 percent in minimum wages for most un-
organized workers came into force December 16,

Factory, store, garage, hotel, office, building service and tele-
phone workers were among the 400,000 men and women affected.

FRED SOON, Chinese Organizer, confers with Shop Stewards Kong

Jim (left), and Soo Chong (right), at Alberta Lumber Co.

B. C. LEADS IN 40-HOUR.-

WORK .WEEK

Aggressiveness and militancy
of trade unions in B.C. is proved
by Labor Gazette statistics on
working conditions in different
provinces, :

Ontario leads in the five-day
week without any hourly limita-
tion—75 percent of industry—
but in the strict 40-hour, five-day
week, British Columbia is far
ahead with 65 percent of indus-
try following those conditions.

REGIONAL COMPARISONS

Five-Day Week

Ontario, 75 percent; B.C., 65
percent; Quebec, 50; Prairies, 45,
and Maritimes, 10.

Five-Day 40-Hour Week .

B.C., 65 percent; Ontario, 30;
Prairie, 25; Quebec, 15, arid Mari-
times, three.

Throughout Canada, the elec-
trical industry leads in the five-
day week without the 40-hour
week without the 40-hour limita-
tion.

The Prairies pay more double
ems for Sundays than anywhere
else.

McDonald, Trustees.

GROUP OF EATON EMPLOYEES installed in o ffice by C. H. Millard,
ment Store Organizing Committee,
Left to right, C, H. Millard, who conducted the in
tary; L. Nielsen, Vice-President; D. Griffiths,
Norman, President; M. Fisher, Treasurer;

CCL, as the first elected Executive Committee of Local 1000,
stallation ceremony; W. Edwards, Financial Secre-
,, Corresponding Secretary; M. Brown, Trustee; C.
M. Littlejohn, Recording Secretary; G. Cotton and A.

vice-chairman of the Depart-

ortly amateur soprano seeking a
job im vaudeville went to an agent
with a list of the “numbers”. she could
sing. The ae glanced through it

then looked up at the girl.
"You've got a pretty big repertoire,
haven't you?” he Esty
“Well,” replied the singer, blush-

slightly, “it's the breathing that
ea cade z :

1143 Granville St.

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2-Day Service on Dry Cleaning

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VANCOUVER, B.C.

ECA FUNDS
FOR UNIONS

A three-man CIO team, which
includes Victor Reuther, educa-
tio director of the Auto
Workers, ise now in Europe to
help trade unions there,

Reuther said the group might
recommend that government and
industries be required to set up
labor standards before any fur-
ther funds are allocated by the
Economie Co-operation Adminis-
tration.

It is charged, too, that Mar-
shall Plan funds have been used
to make rich industrialists even
richer. Some money should be
used to strengthen unions, look
after the workers’ rights, and
improve standards of living, say
the three men.

Se

| JAKE J. FRIESEN

Representative

L | MUTUAL LIFE OF CANADA

Branch Office
475 Howe Street,
VANCOUVER, B.C.

Easter Bunnies

for the Kiddies!
Baby Rabbi

‘one of the

217, IWA)

Call, Write, or Phone:
778 East Sand ‘sh ot
VANCOUVER, B.c.

FResor 247)