Page 4 B.C. LUMBER WORKER A Rod In Pickle ‘HE general condemnation of the Coalition Government which has rocked the province springs from profound and indignant disgust with its bureaucratic misrule. Pro- test has been spontaneous and has been as vehemently expressed by former supporters of the Government as by its political opponents. Public anger has temporarily obscured party lines. It is the anger of people who know right from wrong in pub- lic affairs and who cannot stomach the “public be damned” attitude of Victoria autocrats. The outcry from the man on the street is not only be- cause he has been hurt in the pocket. His intelligence and sense of public morality has been insulted. A govern- ment has committed a gross breach of faith, and has acted in callous disregard of publi¢ safety. Care of the sick has been placed on a dollars and cents basis, with the inhumane implication that those without enough dollars can go without hospital care. The stubborn unwillingness of the Coalition Govern- ment to consider the public angle with regard to Hospital Insurance smacks of the insanity of political suicide. People who have, with great difficulty, faithfully paid the already high premiums to insure themselves against the emergency of hospitalization, now find themselves without any certainty that they are so insured. Their confidence in assurances that the scheme was originally introduced for their benefit has been rudely shaken, They are now penalized for their reliance on the scheme by the demand that they pay more for still more uncertain benefits. By the demand that they pay in advance for an uncertainty, they are asked to back a fund, which the Government is not prepared to back whole- heartedly. They want Hospital Insurance, but they want it ad- ministered for the welfare of the contributors, for the purpose of genuine insurance against the emergency of financial disaster when overtaken by illness. N high-handed fashion, the Coalition Government has planned to high-jack another $4.2 million out of the pockets of the people. By that amount the workers’ ability to pay for goods and services, required for decent living, has been reduced, at a time when they are suffering most from price robbery. The final straw has been the attempt of the hospitals to extort the $35 co-insurance charge as the price of ad- mittance. Thereby the contributor is confronted with an emergency which he fondly hoped he had insured himself against. Naturally he rebels against the official attitude, which proposes to administer the hospital as an investment corporation devoid of humanitarian consideration for those in dire straits. Workers who pay the premiums by means of the pay- roll check-off are to be given another jolt this month. They have been arbitrarily placed in arrears, and will be re- quired to pay the new rates in a lump sum, for January, February and March. Those who have received benefits are asked to pay a second bill. Those who never received benefits, pay twice for something they never received. The Minister of Finance let the cat out of the bag. He dislikes all forms of social security. His words imply that we should return to the jungle law of the survival of the fittest, and “root hog or die”. 2 The distress has not been caused by hospital insurance, which if purposefully administered could bring great bene- fits to the people of this province. The fault lies with mal- administration of hospital insurance. The root cause of the present debacle is that hospital insurance is now directed by men, who never were convinced that hospital insurance was good for people. Organized labor has a rod in pickle for those who have foisted this political double-dealing on a long suffering electorate. A Square Deal E annual battle of the IWA to wipe out sub-standard conditions for the lumber workers of the Interior of British Columbia is now under way. Year by year, the effort has been made to expose and correct low wages and deplorable working conditions, stubbornly maintained by the Interior lumber operators. Substantial progress was made last year, when an organization drive gave more effective expression to the desires of Interior IWA members for a better deal. The warning given by the IWA went largely unheeded by the operators who have resorted to many evasions of the spirit of the master contracts. In some instances they have stymied all effort to make collective bargaining effec~ tive, Coast IWA members who are now pocketing their new wage rates and retroactive payments, have much at stake in the fight for a square deal on behalf of their brothers in the hinterland. Organization in the Interior is vastly more difficult than at the Coast. It is for this reason that at every opportunity, the militant spirit of the Interior workers should be stiffened by the Coast Local Unions of the IWA in terms of practical help and moral support. LOS == ENTRANCE negotiations. His successor will be Mr. John M. Billings, who since 1944, has been assistant manager of Forest Industrial Relations Ltd, and has understudied Mx, Stuart in prepa- ration for his new managerial post, Mr, Stuart will continue to act in a consulting capacity. Co-Author Master Contract Comment from IWA officials on the announcement readily ex- tended credit to Mr. Stuart for his co-authorship of the forest in- dustries master agreement. He has seen hi nization grow in scope until it is second in Can- of aggregate payrolls involved in a single master agreement. Said IWA officers: “We have known Mr. Stuart as a shrewd and determined negotiator on be- half of the lumber operators. Few could equal his extensive knowl- edge of the lumber industry, and the intricacies of the labor- management relations involved. Though we were required to cross swords with him on many occa- sions, as the employers’ repre- sentative, we held him in respect as a person, for his courtesy and integrity. “When the fight was over, we could always meet him without yankling or personal acrimony. We wish him good health and a less vexatious life on his farm at Langley. We will meet with his successor, Mr. Billings, in a spirit of fair and open dealing.” Mr. Stuart was formerly re- gional forester for British Colum- bia. He left the service of the Provincial Government to become manager of the British Columbia Loggers’ Association. On numer- ous occasions he represented the British Columbia coast forest in- dustries in missions to Ottawa and Washington. Meet Mr. Billings Mr, John Billings,-a graduate in economics of the University of British Columbia, began his career in the tie and timber branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He went to Canada Creosoting Company and served R. V. STUART RETIRES; J. BILLINGS TAKES OVER A name to which lumber workers have for many years attached a variety of adjectives, perhaps not always compli- mentary, will no longer be associated with IWA master contract Mr, R. V. Stuart has announced his retirement from Forest Industrial Relations Ltd. as foreman and superintendent, having experience at plants in Calgary, Winnipeg, Swift Cur- rent, New Westminster and North Vancouver, During the war he was engaged in personnel work with Burrard Drydock Com- pany, leaving there in 1944 to become assistant manager of Forest Industrial Relations, ada only to the railways in point | »s ~ When you co To Town... Gn ¥) YOULL NEED won re\ So don’t lose your pay-cheque. Soon as you get it mail it to us for safekeeping. 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