- s

nt by point, the Union’s Negotiating Committee dealt with the bargaining
s advanced by the employers in 1952, and which they are attempting to repeat
to mislead the Conciliation Board. The contrast between the operators’
the union’s rebuttals, and the subsequent developments charted for the
ie Union as hereunder. 5

_ Employers’ 1952 Claims”

Union’s 1952 Contentions

The Actual Record Shows

‘Many plants being forced to

Any plant shut-downs were
psychological moves by the Em-
ployers—actually no reason for
panicky attitude.

Except for period of the strike,
efficient plants were in full op-
eration the whole year.

2. Impossible to maintain a
balanced order file in the future.

Orders would not come automa-
tically. Employers would have
to be competitive but the mar-
kets were available.

Discounting the large U.K. or-
ders placed in 1951, the orders
are as well balanced as the
industry has ever experienced.
(Exhibit 2, Page 74)

8. U.S. market too selective.
Business on a day-to-day basis.

Greatest portion not selective.
What is can be handled by the
better equipped B.C. Mills.

U.S. orders heavy ever since
Canada completed U.K. order in
October. Day-to-day has become
month to month.

(Exhibit 3, Page 75)

4. Australia, South Africa and
other sterling area completely
shut-off or drastically curtailed
due to stringent dollar pur-
chasing.

A temporary hurdle that “de-
mand” will not overcome. Still
believed that B.C. would gets
its full share of such markets,
regardless.

B.C. shipping to these sterling
areas as much as the Employ-
ers care to ship.

(Exhibit 4, Page 76)

5, For the first time in 30 years
B.C. exporters were not able to
sell freely on off-shore markets.

This was an exaggerated claim
without any real foundation in
fact.

(Exhibit 4, Page 76)
Need we say more?

6. 100 million feet a month to
U.K. being replaced by order
files of not more than 1 or 2
million feet per month,

No way of knowing this to be
true but doubt the bleakness
being. shown before the Board
regarding U.K. market pros-
pects for the future,

Still shipping to U.K. markets
at rate of nearly 50 million fect
per month which is average for
a 10-year period on past order
records,

(Exhibit 4, Page 76)

7. Domestic market quiet.
Home building down.

Union information runs counter
to this contention. Canadian
business good and going to con-
tinue to improve.

Domestic market very good.
Home building up nearly 50%
over previous high year.

8. Prices going down in various
grades.

Agreed that this was true but
pointed out that a reduction
was necessary to remain com-
petitive,

Prices, particularly in fir, have
dropped. They had to come
down from last quarter 1951
high or Canada would have
priced themselves out of the
market.

9. Housing starts_in U.S. were
dropping. Production too high
for consumption, Business not
as good as 1951.

Housing starts.in U.S. were not
dropping. U.S. market able to
take all that could be produced.

Housing reached 1.2 million
starts for 2nd highest year on
record. Continues at this same
pace today. Shipments from
Northwest surpassed all prev-
jous records. U.S. consumed 1.2
billion feet more lumber than it
was able to produce.

10. Should not be expected to
pay wages comparable to U.S.
Northwest because B.C. mar-
kets are principally the sterling
areas,

Did not agree that this was a
yalid argument and still main-
tained that there was a very
definite relationship between
operators and markets in both
countries.

Approximately 40% of export
going to U.S. Prices maintain
a U.S. relationship but costs are
far below—as are wages.

11. Must face world competi-
tion.

Who else able to, give any
strong competition for the soft
wood markets of the world?

Only Soviet Russia is a factor
and politics limit her efforts
indefinitely.

12. Higher productivity in U.S.
lumber industry than in B.C.
Says it takes 21 man hours to
produce 1000 bd. ft. in B.C.

This has never been proven by
the Employers. Union believes
the contrary may be true.

| Ft.

Productivity in U.S. Douglas
Fir area is 15 hrs. per M. Bd.
In Canada it is approxi-
mately the same.

(Exhibit 5, Page 77)

_ 18. Shingle industry in very

_ poor condition. Only operating

to take care of old and regular
customers,

Conditions in Shingle industry
are what the Employers make
it. They have a monopoly on
the top quality red cedar
shingle market.

Plants worked steady two shifts
to take caré of large volume of
squares for “old times’ sake”.

14, Log prices in sharp decline
and promised to go lower.

Union agreed but saw no dan-
ger of the “bottom falling out”
of the market. .

Prices generally in line ‘with
U.S. Douglas Fir Coast area.

the last academic year from 60,-
381 the previous year. The one
percent is significant when con-
sidered alongside Labor Minister
Gregg’s recent statement that
although only 11,000 graduates
were Jeaving our universities this

| Spring, more than 18,500 open-

for graduates and

while the number was being in-
creased each week.

The drop in overall university
attendance between 1952-53 and
the previous year was greater
among men than women. Male
students declined from 46,946 to
46,390 while the number of fe-
male students fell from 13,435 to
BAN Ba ii a ies

Do you old-timers ever think
of the feeling when the members
of the Union were a tight-knit
group fighting with enthusiasm
and spirit against the arrogance
and oppression of our employers
and against the poverty, insecur-
ity and social degradation of our
families and ourselves?

Of course, a lot of the oppres-
sion we used to fight no longer
exists. In the old days we fought
against dirty blankets, cold, dirty
bunkhouses, unfit food, and
enough to keep our families from
immediate want,

Those were close, hard objec-
tives and if we were kicked out
of camp or the mill we exchanged
one misery for another that could

.| be only:slightly worse. Life itself

seemed hardly worth living in
those days if we could only look
forward to the continued arro-
gance of the employer, if we
could not look forward to some
of the little luxuries, some secur-
ity for our families and our-
selves.

We fought with our hearts and
our brains, and with our fists and
cork boots when we had to,
against the arrogance and op-
pression of the employers and
against the poverty and insecur-
ity of our loved ones.

Today’s Demands

Today we are talking the
Union Shop and a Guaranteed
Annual Wage—the last two ob-
jectives in our struggle against
poverty and insecurity. If, in the
face of success, we can continue
in our constancy and our soli-
darity as a union membership,
then soon we will enjoy the ac-
complishment of the last of our
old objectives.

It is not too soon to take out
of our hearts, where only have
we dared to keep it, that prize
for which we have so long fought
—the ultimate in self-respect —
partnership with the employers
in our industry, the end of social
discrimination between ourselves
and our employers.

We will have to fight for that
partnership and rightful place in
society, and we will have to earn

B. Macdonald

Barrister & Solicitor
Notary Public

751 Granville Street
VANCOUVER, B.C.

eeaieezces TAtlow 6641

it, but let’s think about it as we
go forward to attain Union Shop
and the Guaranteed Annual

Wage.
No Dream

A dream, you say? The good
food, the first aid attendants, the

clean sheets, and the Grievance ©

Committees wexe all dreams a
few short ‘years ago. Our imme-
diate job is to win our wages and
conditions this year, and then our
success is four-fold:

1. We win the wages and con-
ditions we need immediately for
a better life.

2, We win the bosses’ respect
as people who know how to get
what they consider is fair.

8. We hasten the day of our
full partnership in our industry,
because by winning the respect
of the employers we are building
confidence in our single-minded-
ness, our reliability in a tough
0, we are increasing our stature
as desirable partners.

4, We are helping bring about
a proper distribution between
profits and wages to the point
where if either are to be increas-
ed, they can only be increased by
the next logical step of enlisting
the brains, enthusiasm and under-
standing of the men on the job.

Let’s stand behind our Union.
The prize is the stuff of life
itself!

"WHAT. — HE TRIED 70 SELL

YOU A SUIT THAT DION'T FIT?.

TRY THE HUB, (Y BOY, AO GET
YOURS) WITH EASY CREDIT!”

Home of Union Made
MEN’S WEAR
AND FRIENDLY
SERVICE

45 EAST HASTINGS
VANCOUVER, B. C.

SOLICITOR TO THE 1W.

LY
Led prad
es
SANDWICH

WHITE BREAD
hice
=
BROWN
MA geod

—=> = FE
BALANCED
RATION

Sliced pica

riched Flour.

As an aid to better nutrition all G.B. White Bread

fs now made with Vitamin Enrich
The white flour content of such loa:
Ration, Brown, Rye and Special M

B., CKWX — 5:30 p.m, Monday thru Friday”

White Flour,
‘6 Balanced
is also En-

June 18, 1953

THE PRIZE

By OLD TIMER

|