Page 4

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

July 5, 1951

No Cheap Labor

TERN economie facts refute the trumped-up arguments
of the employers in defence of low wages in the Interior
of the province.

Their profits have almost doubled. Meanwhile soaring
living costs have depressed the value of the workers’ low
annual earnings to an all-time low. i

The fallacy that there exists a distinctly separate lum-
ber industry for the Interior was exposed by the IWA at
Terrace. The justice of a uniform standard of wages and
conditions for men performing the same or similar work
was amply demonstrated. Columbia Cellulose Co. Ltd. had
to cede the point.

Alcan has had to pay top coast wages, with the addition
of an “isolation” bonus and fare differentials.

The arguments for low wages at Western Plywoods,
Quesnel, do not hold water. If lower grade logs are pro-
cessed, they are bought at a much lower price than at the
coast. If the output is an incomplete product, it furnishes
a cheap backing and filler for the more expensive coast
product.

The employers’ bargaining palaver cannot any longer
conceal their plotting for excessive profits.

They are buying cheap logs, buying cheap labor,
and selling their product at the highest prices known
in the history of the Interior.

The workers pay the highest prices in the.province
for food and clothing, work a shorter year, and are
expected to take it and like it.

Some employers prate that economic conditions in the
Interior do not warrant decent wages. They gloss over
the facts with empty generalities.

When forced to do so by any shortage of skilled labor,
the employers find it possible to pay above scale and still
continue profitable production. The Northern operators
have found it possible to include advantages in the contract
which are denied workers in the Southern District. Their
whole case rests on their power to bludgeon the workers
into submission.

Sweet reasonableness has never been a virtue of the
Interior operators. It will take something else than sweet
talk to bring them to a reasonable mood.

Interior lumber workers will get a square deal only by
confronting the operators with an organized strength on
the job, that will be recognized as capable of fighting for
a square deal. Either this, or they will have to migrate to
sections of the province where trade union organization
has already established a fair wage scale.

Reuther Is Right

ERY soon, lumber workers in B.C. will be able to cal-

culate the amount by which the IWA cost of living
bonus will increase their wage rates for the next six
months. The foresight, which made provision for this
clause in the contract will be appreciated in view of the
marked increase in living costs since January 1.

At the same tme, the outlook is far from comforting.
Uncontrolled profits, uncontrolled prices, with controlled
wages, all add to the headaches which at present torment
breadwinners with growing families.

The forthright speech of Walter Reuther, International
President of the UAW, to trade unionists in Toronto re-
cently should arouse Canadian workers to furious thinking.

Wage increases will not buy adequate living standards,
while profits and prices run wild, and every wage increase
is multiplied threefold in increased prices to the consumer.

Every price increase is the equivalent of a wage cut,
yet as Walter Reuther pointed out, any employer attempt-
ing wage-cuts would be all but crucified.

There is a touch of cruel irony about the situation.
Workers who as youngsters wondered about the Great
Depression, now as breadwinners worry for the same
reasons about the Great Inflation.

Then their parents were broke and lived on hamburger,
now they and their children live on hamburger (at 95c)
and are broke.

While we forget the joys of a juicy roast of beef or the
flavor and savor of a broiled steak, serve one pork chop
instead of two, and cut down on the children’s butter, milk
and eggs, the large food monopolies gather in greater and
greater profits.

The unmanageable family budget is no longer a joking
matter. For the majority of the workers’ families it is a
tragedy of miserable and needless deprivation in the midst
of plenty. i

Bargaining with the employers will never solye the
problems of price control, quality control, credit control, or

profit control.

It requires bargaining of another sort; the bargaining
which the Canadian Congress of Labor describes as politi-
eal action. It is the profit-makers’ control of the politicians
that is cutting wage values to the bone today.

Reuther had the answer. To fill our ice-boxes with the
good food we should have, we must fill the ballot boxes

Organization Would Prevent This

Editor's Note: The following let-
ter is published as indicating some
of the problems which arise in small
unorganized logging camps at re-
mote points where prompt investi-
Gation is not always possible, An
alert grievance committee would
quickly settle the matter or prove
the complaint groundless.

The Editor: .

I feel obliged to write you a
short letter out of respect for my
fellow workers regarding A. D.
Deveny’s camp at Simoon Sound.

I live up here with my family
and have my home on a float. We
were towed into Deveny'’s camp
and I had to ask for a little help
to tie my float. Anywhere I have
ever been towed it is customary
to get a hand to tie up without
asking.

Then came boat day and
Deveny did take our mail out but
left it in the store instead of the
post office and did not bring our
mail back, Under these condi-

UAW Votes
For PAC

TORONTO. (CPA)—One hun-
dred and forty-two delegates
from the industrial unions of On-
tario met in closed session re-
cently to discuss political action
in support of the CCF.

This marked the first time that
every major union in the Ontario
Canadian Congress of Labor set-
up was represented at an OFL
conference,

And for the first time, the big
United Automobile Workers
Union identified itself 100 per-
cent with the new political action
drive aimed at the next provin-
cial election, which will likely
come in 1952. 5

George Burt, UAW Canadian
director and president of the On-
tario Federation of Labor, said
that his union is fed up with the
Conservative government’s labor
policies. Labor legislation favors
employers, he said, and the new
Fair Employment Practices Act,
and the Equal Pay for Women
Bill, are just so much window-
dressing.

Other UAW representatives
made it clear, too, that the auto-
workers, as well as all CCL
unions, resented the brush-off
they got from the Federal Cabi-
net when they presented their
annual brief a few weeks ago.

tions I quit after working three
and one-half days.

Now I am refused my cheque
until A. D. Deveny gets back
from town. I informed My
Deveny in plenty of time to have
my time made up before he left
for town, but Mrs. Deveny told

partner quit the same day I did
but did not inform Mr, Deveny,
Mrs. Deveny paid him off, so it is
a clear case of stalling as far as
I am concerned,

I hope this will serve to keep
some unsuspecting worker out of
a situation like I got into.

J.C, Davidson,

me I would have to wait. My}

ee

Waen you GO To TOWN...

Wey &

¢ U}
: w YOULL NEED

py MONEY!

So don’t lose your pay-cheque.
Soon as you get it mail it to us
for safekeeping. If you wish to
cash all or any of it, we will do
this by mail, too. “Banking-by-
Mail” with us protects your
money until the time when you

- need it,

GLIP THIS COUPON». Send
ing my pay against loss, and

me all information about protect=
“Banking by Mail”,

ted 1838
Vancouver Branch, Dept. B. 3, Vancouver, B.C.

14 branches to serve you in British Columbia,

ANS

with good votes on election day.

On DIAMONDS, JEWELRY, SILVERWARE,

B. C. COLLATERAL LOAN BROKERS LTD.

77 EAST HASTINGS, Cor. COLUMBIA

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