Page 12

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

August 16, 1951

Geo. Mitchell Reports

The UNION’S BUS

WCB Probe Vital

‘THE enquiry now being conducted by Chief Justice Sloan into
the administration of the Workmen’s Compensation Act is

receiving little publicity in the

daily press, but this should not

allow its importance to be disregarded by trade unionists. The
Provincial Government will be under definite obligation to imple-
ment the recommendations of the Commissioner. His decisions
may easily determine the extent to which compensation benefits

may he raised,
ey of pride that the
IWA is the only
trade union rep-
resented continu-
» ously at the en-
quiry during its
final and_ crucial
stages. The in-
terests of the
Union in the en-
7 quiry have been
entrusted to the Secretary of the
District Safety Council, William
Gray, and his able cross-examina-
tion of the employers’ witnesses
has earned commendation from
all trade unionists,

No Deductions!

Our Union is not blind to the
efforts being made by the em-
ployers to scale down compensa-
tion benefits, in complete disre-
gard of the pressing needs of dis-
abled workmen. On one point
alone, we must carry the battle
to the’ government—namely the
proposal to again levy check-off

"WHAT — HE TRIED T0 SELL

YOU A SUIT THAT. DIONT FITS.

TRY THE HUB, MY BOY, ANO.CET
YOURS WITH EASY CREDIT”

COMPLETE SPORTS

OUTFIT

$50.50
ONLY

$17.00 Down

Balance in 12 Weeks

No Interest - No Carrying
Charges

Union Made Men's Wear

45 East Hastings St.,
Vancouver, B.C.

It is a matter |

|deductions for the medical fund
of the Board,

In no other province is this
done, B.C. was the last of. the
| provinces to forego this provi-
sion. It would be a retrograde
step to again place any additional
burden on the workers in indus-
try in respect of compensation.

Two other provinces now pay
compensation benefits at the rate
of 75% of former earnings—Sas-
katchewan and Ontario, No good
reason exists for any further de-
lay in making similar provision
in British Columbia. At the same
time, the $2500 ceiling on earn-
ings upon which compensation is
based should now be lifted in ad-
justment to increased wage rates.

Not Enough

The employers have conceded
that pensions for the widows
should be increased, but only by
another ten dollars a month. This
also is another point on which
the IWA must press for sadly
needed reform.

When the IWA representative
sums up the evidence in support
of IWA views on compensation,
it will be found that another out-
standing service to the whole
working force of the province has
been rendered by the IWA.

Pity The
Poor Rich

OTTAWA (CPA) — The “Fi-
nancial Post” (July 28) stirs the
self-pity of its faithful readers
with a table showing the size of
“YOUR income” in terms of 1939
dollars, first deducting income
tax and surtax, then interpreting
the balance according to the offi-
cial cost of living index.

Under this method of figuring,
'incomes are reduced to slightly
over one-third of their face va-
lue. However, the Post confines
its survey to these incomes:
$3,000; $5,000; $7,000; $10,000
and $20,000, The $20,000-a-year
man will no doubt feel enraged
by the information that after
taxes he has only $13,388 left in
cash, which means only $7,381 in
buying power. ‘

But this may be compared with
the low man in the table, at
$3,000 a year, who has $2,800
left after taxes and finds it worth
only $1,555 in buying power.

The cost of living index is un-
fortunately NOT graduated ac-
cording to incqme, If anything, it
works in reverse, since in prac-
tice the most inflated items in
the indéx (food, rent, etc.) ac-
count for a bigger part of the
poor man’s expenditures than the
rich man’s.

Publication date of the next Issue of the B.C. LUMBER 4
WORKER is September 6, Deadline for ad copy is August 30

and for news copy August 31,

=

@

President ....
Ist Vice-!
2nd Vice-President

DISTRICT

kK}

BC LouceetiWorver

Representing the Organized Loggers and Mill Workers of B.C.
. PUBLISHED TWICE MONTHLY BY
INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (CIO-CCL)
“ B.C, DISTRICT COUNCIL No. 1.

‘Address all communications to
GEORGH H. MITCHELL, Secretary-Treasurer
45 Kingsway - Phone FAirmont 8807-8

if Vancouver, B.C.
Subseription Rates.
Advertising Representative..G_ A. Spencer
‘as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept. Ottawa
COPIES PRINTED IN THIS- ISSUE

>

OFFICERS:

$1.50 per annum

1-357 Leads Way In BCHIS Probe
Of ‘Chronic’ Sickness Limit

ONE of

Legislature next session

the major issues which will undoubtedly come before the

will be that of the treatment of

chronic and so-called chronic hospital cases by the B.C. Hospital

Insurance.

Of specific interest to the IWA

is that the issue was in the first
instance raised by alert officials
of Local 1-357, New Westminster,
who recognized in its right light
an injustice to one of its mem-
bers. :
The case of Napoleon LaFond,
Mohawk Handle worker, asked to
pay a $380 bill several months
after the tragic death of his in-
fant child.

During these months, Brother
LaFond was under the impres-
sion that he had been fully cov-
ered by BCHIS for the treatment
to his newborn child.

Local 1-357 officers immediate-
ly asked BCHIS to explain why
Bro, LaFond should have to meet
the Bill, and officials in Victoria
eventually decided that the child
had died of an acute illness.

In the previous classification of
“chronic” the parents had only
been entitled to a specific time of
free treatment. The $380 bill was
paid by BCHIS.

And now the snowball is gath-
ering weight.

An eight-man board of MLA’s
has been touring the Interior of
British Columbia, sounding the
local hospitals and inhabitants on
the working of the compulsory
hospital system.

“Remote control diagnosis”. is
how cases of the type of the New
Westminster one have come to be
called—where officials in Victoria
sometimes decide whether a pa-
tient who may be hundreds of
miles away is “acute” and en-
titled to free treatment or a
“chronic”.

Flagrant Example

In Vernon, the MLA’s found a
case which one of their number
termed as “the most flagrant ex-
ample of remote control diag-
nosis”,

It concerned a man dying of
cancer but it was only when the
man died that the BCHIS re-
versed its decision and paid the
bill for which the man’s heirs
would have been responsible.

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Officials of the Jubilee Hospi-
tal, Vernon, filed the correspon-
dence with the enquiry board.

BCHIS had classed the man as
a chronic invalid, and the hospi-
tal wrote: “He is dying and can-
not be discharged. It is requested
that he should not be cut off your
responsibility.”

The medical consultants branch
replied in a letter received al-
most the day the patient died:

“Tt seems quite obvious to us

that this man is not in need of
the resources of an acute general
hospital.
_ “I regret to say that the case
is terminal, (near to death),
there is no inference that BCHIS
should pay.” =

Before the board, doctors have
maintained that.a doctor in Vic-
toria can’t accurately make an
estimate of a patient’s condition.

18-month Delay

At Kamloops, it was stated
that it took BCHIS 18 months to

decide that a 90-year-old woman
wasn’t entitled to free hospitali-
zation, and sent her son a bill
for $1336,

This story was told by T. J.
Clemitsen, of Westwold.

At Kelowna, Major Hugh
Games complained that a cil
nursing home had to accept a
man 80 days after he had a heat
stroke, although doctors said_he
needed acute treatment. BCHIS
had refused to accept him as a
free patient, saying he was a
chronic case.

The mayor said the man was
so acutely ill that a special nurse
had to be hired to look after him.

The demand for a clear state-
anent of the position of so-called
“chronic invalids” is growing
throughout B.C.

This is another case where the
IWA has been in forefront of
bringing to light a deficiency in
government policies.

The trouble with our country is
that there are too many wid
open spaces entirely surround
by teeth—Chas. Luckman.

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