Cc. LUMBER WORKER

- Who's Scared?

LET'S get down to brass tacks.

Any lumber worker who feels that he doesn’t know the
“pitch” about the present wage scrap with the employers
ae take time off to get the facts from his Union, the

If he takes this simple and easy step, he won’t be in
danger of getting confused by the gossip cooked up in the
front office.

The “pitch” is that the IWA is up against a real scrap.
The operators are trying to block the union at every turn.
To do this they are trying: to bluff the public and scare
the workers while they stall the works.

Everything now depends on whether or not they can
scare the lumber workers into knuckling down to their
ideas. The Union’s negotiators are not scared because they
are doing the job ordered by the membership, and they
know the facts about the employers’ bluff.

Boiled down, the issue is plain and simple. Lumber

workers are entitled to the better deal made possible by |

the great wealth of the industry. If necessary, they are
ready to fight for it.

On the other hand, the operators have made up their

minds that they will teach these “so and so’s” a lesson. ||}

They’ve enjoyed a soft touch for years and they want to
keep it soft, for themselves. They are trying to do this
by setting the IWA back on its heels.

They never did like the Union. They like it less now
because the Union wants a better split on the enormous
lumber profits so that its members can live better. They
know, as we know, that the easiest way to hang onto their
profits is to smash the Union if they can get away with it.

They’re trying to smash the IWA by breaking down
loyalty to the Union. They’re trying to smash it by using
tricks of the law for a “slow-down”. The one thing they
can’t beat or understand is the united fighting spirit of
the men on the job. That’s the real “pitch” in this scrap.

Table Stakes

‘HE employers have the crazy notion that the workers
jn the lumber industry should forget the past and
gamble with the future on their terms.

The “pitch” is that they expect the workers to gamble
on the future with their living standards and a deck
“stacked” against them. M

In every contract deal the same story has been handed
out to the Union. No matter how well they have done up
to bargaining time, the employers start hedging about
the outlook for the future.

They never want to talk about what they have already
salted away. They want to limit the deal by their lowest
estimate of what they expect to get, reduced to zero, if
they can‘get away with it.

The “pitch” this time is that everyone knows what they
have been making in the way of profits. Their profits on
the whole have run into the kind of money that’s beyond
ordinary decency.

With the chips they now have, it doesn’t make sense
for them to squeal about poverty, and expect the IWA to
look into’a crystal ball to guess the worst.

One solid fact cannot be missed in the deal for this
year. The employers have already piled up the chips that
will give the workers the kind of deal they deserve. The
settlement must be made, not on any future gamble, but
on what is already-on the table.

This year the battle is for table stakes.

Shimp Debunked

NOTHER angle that shows the “pitch” this year is the
employers’ effort to picture a slump in the industry.
The market picture is never perfect at any time. It has

been changing, but the operators are hard-pressed to paint
jt black enough for their purposes. The world still wants
their lumben / ds nee

K. market picture has changed, but only because
of ae ae from Earle bulk buying to individual
orders. Now they have admitted that they are picking up
these orders as fast as they can handle them.
veryone should note, that to fill these orders the mills

are putting on extra shifts to keep up with them and make
deliveries on time. ;

Also to prove them liars, the demand for Atlantic sea-
board orders is growing so fast they can’t hide it any

er. ;
ae other side of the coin is that lower wages for the
B.C. lumber workers help to break down the standards
already won by the Union in the United States.

F. D. R..once said that, the only thing to fear is fear,
The only thing the IWA has to worry about is that some
lumber workers may be scared of a scare made entirely
of tissue by the employers. ;

The man with the facts, knows the “pitch”.

G

SORRY, WERE RIGHT

OUT OF TURKEY.

LUMBER PROFIT

OTTAWA (CPA)—Canadian
corporations made $32 million
more in 1951 than they did in
1950—and did it after they paid
record taxes, set aside all the
depreciation, inventory and
other reserves highly-paid ac-
countants could think up.
That’s the story told by the
latest Financial Post summary of
corporation profits.

Heading the profit list were
the International Nickel Co. Ltd,
which made $63 million in 1951
(up from $49 million in 1950),
Consolidated Mining & Smelting

the year before, and Seagram’s |
(distillers), who made $43 mil-
lion in 1951.

Biggest increases were chalked
up in the lumber business, now
pleading poverty in union nego-
tiations on the west coast. Lum-
ber profits rose by almost 50%
from 1950 to 1951, according to
the “Post” survey, with B.C.
lumber king, H. R. MacMillan,
heading the parade—his net pro-
fits rose to $16 million from a
1950 total of $7 million. Nineteen
pulp and paper firms, in an indus-
try which is also resisting wage
(only part of the CPR empire) |demands, made $85 million in
which brought home $51 million !1951, 12% up from 1950’s $77
in place of $42 million garnered | million.

S HIGHEST

Lumber Profits Higher

Despite record lay-offs and tra-
gic conditions in textile towns
throughout Central Canada, the
34 “hard pressed” textile firms
included made $17 million in 1951,

only slightly less than in 1950—_

and they paid more dividends
($10.2 million compared to $9.6
million).

_Average return on invested ca-
pital for the 326 companies re-
ported on by the “Financial Post’®
was 12.5%. That means they'd
make enough to buy themselves
out all over again in eight years,

Returns for lumber companies
ran to 26% on invested capital,
for metals firms, to 22%.

B.C. FEDERATION OF LABOUR

“WORKMED COMPENSATION ACT” of 1916 came into opera-
tion 1st January, 1917.

1st January, 1917 Rate 55% on a maximum of $2,000
Session 1935 .. ate 6224% on a maximum of $2,000
Session 1938 . ate 6624% on a maximum of $2,000

Sloan Report

ate 6624% on a maximum of $2,500
PRIOR TO THE 19.

VINCIAL ELECTION

. +. a Government-Labor Committee was established with’ nine
representatives from the three major bodies of Labour and equal
representation from the Government.

MAY 18, 1945—Statement by Minister of Labor at Opening Session
___ of Joint Labor-Goyernment Committee.

“The primary purpose of this committee is to give consideration
to various resolutions which have been presented to the Government |
by various labor unions, represented on this Committee, ‘The hope of
the Government is that out of the deliberations of this Committeo,
recommendations may be made which can be accepted by the
Government.” |

Recommendations presented by Labor . . . |

B.C, Federation of Labor “Increase in compensation payment |
from 66% % to 100% of earnings.” i

B.C. Executive of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada
“That 100% compensation be paid in all instances as requested by a |
majority of workers’ organizations in B.C.”

Standard Railway Organizations of British Columbia “That com-
pensation be increased to 75%.”

PRIOR TO THE 1949 PROVINCIAL ELECTION

March 10th, 1949: Hon. G. S. Wismer, Attorney-General and
Minister of Labour. “It must be realized that in dealing with the
Workmen’s Act we are dealing with the money of industry... ‘The
Government has definitely decided that there shall be a full invests:
gation into this matter . . .”

November 7th, 1949 ; | ; Sloan Commission commenced,

March, 1952, Rate 70% on a maximum of $3,600,

SLOAN REPORT: ‘To raise the maximum to $4,000 and the per-
centage to 75, as has been done in Ontario, would add an additi,
cost for these two items of $3,590,000.” Sonal

APRIL Lith, 1952—VANCOUVER NEWS-HERALD:

“4 10-point Charter of Labor reforms is promised by the CCF
Workmen's Compensation will be increased to 75% and the maxi.
mum income basis will be raised to $5,000.”

SUPPORT P.A.C. — SUPPORT YOUR FRIENDS

THE RECORD SPEAKS

C.O.L. Joker

._ OTTAWA (CPA) — Increases
in the price of auto repairs,
street car fares and newspapers
were more than offset by reduc
tions in the cost of { od and
clea ane March, as the
price index fell fr 289.
Hee ell from .89.1 16
aes desea at eight points
above the 181.8 le i
joel. level of April 2,
The drop in the food index
from 241.7 to 240.2 reflected only
fractionally very substantial cuts
in farm prices as surpluses piled
up in the hands of packing houses
and other middlemen,

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