10

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

January 17, 1952

1-357 Exposes Poison Letters
“Commie” Cell

From Scheming

Fresh attempts to undermine the confidence of IVA mem-
bers in the democratically-decided policies of their Union have
recently been exposed by the officers of Local 1-357,,and the B. C.
District Council. A series of “poison” letters have been attributed
to LPP-Communist-inspired sources.

The contents of these mimeo-
graphed letters to IWA members
are held by District Officers to
confirm their earlier warnings
that LPP-Communist disruption
of the IWA would be again at-
tempted unless promptly repu-
diated by the membership.

Officials of Local 1-357 traced
some of the letters to the door-
step of persons known to have
been implicated in the attempted
secession move of 1948 and the
looting of IWA treasuries.

The familiar tactics of Commu-
nist disruption are seen in the
sentences of one of the letters
which reads in part:

“Many IWA members through-
out the province are alarmed and
deeply concerned about the policy,
or lack of policy, that LWA. offi-
cials are pursuing. The last wage
settlement in our contract together
with the escalator clause inspired
by the employers, was totally in-
adequate in face of rising living
costs and the last District Council
unanimously rejected the rank and
file woodworkers’ demands to
open the wage clause for upward
revision,

"All rank and file woodworkers
are concerned with month-by-
month wage cuts caused by em-
ployers’ profit gouging and result-
ant price increases, Yesterday's
wage increase had already disap,
peared and rising prices and in-
creased taxes on every level are
steadily depressing our standard of
living.

"The answer to these problems
is 10 return our union to its mem-

bership on a fighting policy dedi-
cated to the needs and require-
ments of the membership ‘and re-
ject the present policy of protect-
ing the interests of the employers’

"If you want the IWA to fol-
low a policy in the interests of
the woodworkers, it is necessary
that all members accept their re-
sponsibility and turn out to WA
union meetings and project pro-

&ressive policies. Help to elect
officers and delegates who are
pledged to fight for the member-
ship's interests.

"Come and help return our
union from its present position of
trailing all other unions to its
former position of leading Canada
in the fight for wages and condi-
tions.

“Issued by members in good
standing, Local 1-357, WA.’

IWA District Officers in com-
menting on the series of letters
pointed to barefaced hypocrisy
which expressed concern over the

The Record Speaks

In view of the attack made in a series of circular let-

ters by LPP-Communist agents within the IWA, on IWA
settlements, the District Officers released to this publica-
tion the following comparison between the terms accepted
by the WIUC in the Interior and those actually won, after
a prolonged fight, by the IWA.

IWA won a wage increaxe >
of 20 cents and hour plus

2 cost - of - living bonus
from September 1.

IWA improved union se- >
curity clauses.

IWA won a 4%-cent night >
shift differential.

IWA won two weeks’ va- >
cation after 5 years ser-
vice.

IWA won a wide range of >
upward entegory revisions

IWA gained improvement >>
in hours of work. ~

The WIUC settled for terms much lower than had
heen demanded by the Interior lumber workers at the
height of the struggle with the employers, and thus
weakened the bargaining strength of the workers.

WIUC settled for a 20-cent
Wage increase and no cost-
of-living bonus.

WIUC made no fight for
union security,

WIUC settled for a 4-cent
night shift differential.

WIUC made no improvement
in vacqtion clause.

WIUC revised only the rate
for gang sawyer.

WIUC contract made no im-
provement in hours of work.

needs and requirements of the
membership by those who form-
erly deprived the IWA membe:
ship of their own funds, proper-
ties and records in order to wreck
the Union.

Interior “Sell-Out”

They also pointed with scorn
to the “sell-out” engineered by
the. Communist-controlled WIUG
in the Cranbrook area during the
recent battle over the Interior
contract terms.

In these columns a contrast is
made between the terms on which
the WIUC settled in seven opera-
tions for which they had the bar-
gaining rights and the terms
finally secured by the IWA after
a determined battle.

The readiness with which the
LPP-Communist WIUC made a
bargain-basement deal with the
employers was utilized by the
employers in an attempt to lower
the wage structure for all In-
terior lumber workers.

By this betrayal of the work-
ers’ interests during a time of
struggle the LPP- Communists
have forfeited all claim to a hear-
ing from those who have gained
superior benefits through IWA
democracy, it was stated.

1952 Gee Sraqwire

142.

“I'm telling you, Sansdome, you'll
never get a head working on those
non-union jobs!”

Penny Protest

In Southport, England, every
union in the city rose in righteous
indignation when the city council
docked a municipal worker 54
cents because he left his job on
an oceanside dock to help save a
man from drowning.

Union leaders’ protests were

rejected by the city council with ga
the argument that “it’s a ques-@}
tion of discipline”.

As a result the unionists start-
ed a campaign to collect one
penny from every Southport
unionist and turn it over to the
docked laborer.

CARE IN

later law, passed in 1949, provid

course of the next fifteen years.

ALL UNDER 18 GET FREE DENTAL

NORWAY

OTTAWA (CPA).—According to a law enacted in 1936, all
| Norwegian school children under 18 years of age are entitled to
| free dental treatment. Individual municipalities have voluntarily
| extended the services to cover all from 3 to 17 years of age. A

les for a still further extension of

free and low-cost dental service to cover the whole population in the

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