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B.C. LUMBER WORKER™

Fight For Justic
UMBER workers in the Interior of the province have
decided to fight this year for the same wages and work-
ing conditions as now established on the Coast. The jus-
tice of their demands can no longer be ignored. Their
militant attitude is summed up in the slogan adopted by
them, “No contract, no work”.

They demand the wage rates made possible under the

Coast master agreement, starting with the base rate. of
$1.2914, plus category revisions and the cost-of-living
bonus.
They have a right to claim these wages. Living costs
are as high, and in some respects higher throughout
Interior communities. Their employment is less regular,
because of more Severe winter conditions. Life has not
been rosy for those dependent on the lumber industry for
a livelihood in the Interior.

In the smaller operations conditions are deplorable, and
necessarily sap men’s health more rapidly than where
more modern equipment is installed. Accidents are more
frequent because of the almost total lack of safety pre-
cautions.

The notion that there is some economic necessity to
maintain lower wage levels in the Interior is sheer
bunkum. The operators in the Interior market their lum-
ber in the same markets quite as profitably as the Coast
operators. Their capital investment is lower. Low wages
inflate their already swollen profits.

The cruel fact is that the employers have set out to
exploit workers who have found it difficult to organize
because of geographic conditions. Their opportunity to
organize was further handicapped by many years of
neglect by the District organization prior to 1949.

Many employers pay a higher scale than they are will-

ing to write into a contract, a fact which betrays their
intentions,

‘THE attitude taken by the majority of the employers in

the Interior toward collective agreements is well-nigh
medieval. Many are outspoken in their opposition to any
form of trade union organization.

Some employers employ every known strategy to avoid
signing agreements even after certification has been
secured and the master contract terms negotiated.

Observance of an agreement when signed is the excep-
tion rather than the rule. On evéry hand complaints are
received by the IWA that contract provisions are being
ignored in the matter of hours of work, and seniority.

An effective grievance procedure is difficult to secure
and equally difficult to police. At many points the
employers have tried to browbeat their workers into sub-
mitting to unfair conditions. They have taken advantage
of the fact that an Interior worker in a small community
is often at a greater disadvantage in getting other employ-
ment than if he were living in one of the larger centres.

These conditions make the present negotiations in the
Interior a top priority matter for the IWA. Organization
is the only means to correct the situation. It must be
organization that binds together the various groups of
workers in the Interior. It must be the kind of organiza-
tion that gives them confidence and adequate facilities to
wage a successful fight.

The Interior conditions present a top priority matter
for all Coast lumber workers. A low wage area in the
industry is a threat to the wage standards of every man
in the industry. Eg

There will never be a better opportunity for the Union
to secure a fair deal for the Interior lumber workers. The
operators are fearful of any interruption in production as
they are anxious to hold their present profitable markets,

The lumber workers themselves are in a more militant
frame of mind than ever before. They are fully prepared
to struggle.

They know the strength of the Union at the Coast and

* are counting on the assurances already made that the
Coast Local Unions will back their fight to the limit. With
some help-from the Coast they can soon overcome their
present handicaps and proceed under their own steam.

E desirability of effective IWA participation in this
underlines the importance of raising more funds to
expand and strengthen the organizational facilities of the
District Council. The one method to raise these additional
funds, recommended by the District Convention, is the

special assessment of $2.00, to be submitted to referendum
in June.

It is vital that the District should place experienced
organizers in the field throughout the Interior. The In-
terior Local Unions lack the financial resources for work
of this nature. The additional help required must be
furnished through the District organization, and will be
made possible only through approval of the assessment,

One $2.00 deduction from a year’s earnings at the
Coast will not cause anyone any hardship. The total
amount when made available to the District will provide a
sum which will enable Interior prea ation on a much

i ale than is now possible,
Se eaily spell the difference between defeat
or victory in the IWA fight to better wages and conditions

for IWA members in the Interior.

HEARD WHAT
THE MAN SAID/

The Editor:

Reader Austin Bourn’s letter
in the May 8rd issue is one of
the most interesting and provoca-
tive letters you have printed for
some time. All your readers will
agree that the B.C. Lumber
Worker must put the “Union’s
business” first, but what is the
Union’s business? That is the
$64.00 question,

Brother Bourn has done a ser-
vice to the IWA by putting on
paper, the narrow, ultra conser-
vative, terribly old-fashioned
view that the field of the trade
union movement should be limit-
ed to hours, wages, and working
conditions. This view can and
should be challenged.

Can collective bargaining give
dignity to our senior citizens,
protect our health, banish unem-
ployment, change the Compensa-
tion Act or prevent inflation from
taking food off our tables?

Can collective bargaining pre-
serve peace in the world?

If we, as trade unionists, are
to protect our lives yet alone
livelihoods we've got to get out
onthe highways and byways and
fight for them,

DIZZY
SPIRAL

The Cost of Living keeps go-
ing up and up.

The national average in March
jumped 2.1 points to a new level
of 181.9.

Vancouver had the highest re-
gional jump, of 8.4 points, to a
level of 182.6, the highest in the
city’s history.

Trade Minister Howe forecast
in February that the index would
either stay at the March 1 ‘level
“or at worst show an increase of
not more than half of one per-
cent.”

The food index—and especially
butter prices—helped the boost,
but so did clothing, home furnish-
ings and “miscellaneous”.

Prices have not yet reflected
defense spending, so the worst is

Tony, No Isolationist, Defends Editor

the Union’s business.
I would like to carry on further
correspondence with Brother —
Bourn in your columns and would
invite a reply from him,
Submitted by:

Tony Gargrave.

One of the battlefronts is the
B. C. Lumber Worker. Labor
has a gigantic job to do outside
of plain “union matters and the
B.C, Lumber Worker can make

our task easier.
So far, Mr. Editor, you have
done a fine job in looking after

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