B.C. LUMBER WORKER

EDITORIAL
On Course

"THE IWA has set its course for this year’s coast

negotiations. Although the Union has taken a
somewhat different tack to meet adverse winds,
the sailing directions are the same as before. The
ship will reach its destination with greater ease.

The delegates attending the Wages and Con-°

tract Conference met a changed situation with a
realistic approach, that has since won general
commendation from the trade union movement in
. the province, as well as the rank and file lumber
workers. : :

Year after year wage increases have been won
in the past after strenuous battles. In the heat of
battle vitally important improvements in working
conditions have been sacrificed. This is the year
therefore, to emphasize the establishment of high-
er living standards through better working con-
ditions.

The value of the eight contract demands will
approximate the equivalent of a wage increase of
seven and one-half cents. The additional values,
which cannot be reckoned in dollars and cents are
even greater than any wage increase that could
possibly be negotiated this year.

It was a most significant decision as all the
delegates were aware. They dealt with the ques-
tion in a manner that should silence any of the
Union’s critics. : c

The needs and desires of the lumber workers
as reported from the job, were thoroughly can-
vassed. All the facts regarding the trends of pro-
duction, sales, and profits in the industry were
reported upon by the Union’s Research Depart-
ment. The possibilities of gains through negotia-
tions were then carefully gauged. Decisions were
finally reached by majority vote.

The decision to refrain from presenting wage
demands this year cannot be construed as a weak-
ness. It was plain common sense. With pending
economic adjustments in Canada and the United
States the workers in the industry desire the most
satisfactory assurances possible of steady work
this year.

The IWA demands take all the factors into
consideration, and are designed to improve and
stabilize conditions for the industry, by improving
and stabilizing the living and working standards
of the workers.

The principal cost items for the employers are
the six additional paid statutory holidays, and the
medical services plan. If accepted, these improve-
ments in the contract will so improve morale and
efficiency that additional costs will be more than
offset by the resulting gains fo the employers.

Union shop conditions have been long overdue.
Under union shop conditions, the IWA will be
freed from the necessity of constantly battling for
bargaining rights, which the employers are as
constantly endeavouring to snatch away.

It must be obvious, that full union security will
spell greater harmony on the job, and enable both
labor and management to give greater attention
to the welfare of the workers whose output must
hold the industry’s competitive world market
position.

: In many important respects this year’s nego-
tiating program takes the long range view of
important objectives. The Union is looking for-
ward to conditions as they should exist four or
five years hence. ;

This makes the demand: regarding contract
workers of prime importance. Ultimately contract
work will disappear because of technological ad-
vances, if not through the wish of the workers
concerned. In the meantime, steps are urgently
necessary to protect these workers against pres-
sures that are whittling down their earnings, and
increasing the deadly hazards of their work. _-

The Union’s program is a well-balanced pro-
gram, certain to achieve results that will spell the
betterment of standards for all the workers in

the industry. ; ase

%- Your Space Boys!

Readers
Vhinll

STRIKE FUND AN INSURANCE

The Editor,

I noted there were leaflets
passed around suggesting that by
buying union-labelled goods, we
are putting job insurance into
effect.

To me job insurance takes
many forms, and the best forms
of all, is a strike fund.

It is a well known fact that a
labor force can never pit itself
against an employer group, dollar
for dollar in its economic battle.
On the other hand, let us not lose
sight of the fact that, because
we did not achieve victory in the
political field, we are obliged to
struggle with whatever weapons
we can muster to gain a decent
standard of living in the econo-
mic field.

Sheer guts and perseverance
do not win strikes. It takes
money, our present-day medium
of exchange and the more the
better.

Thus, the strike fund is a
worker’s best and necessary in-
surance, just as necessary and
important as a fire insurance
policy on your house. It insures

against many things which I will

endeavour to name,

Against lack of
the Union.

Against evasive attitude of
employers in meeting worker’s
grievances. :

Against brush-off of union’s
contract demands.

Against procrastination of
negotiations.

Against possibility of strike
action.

Against prolonging of a
strike if called.

Against strikers and families
going hungry.

T do not venture to say that a
strike fund can insure all con-
clusively against these things,
nor can I predict that a strike
fund is a cure-all insofar as our
future strike action ramifications
are concerned, but I am sure if
a substantial strike fund is es-
tablished, the dangers of which
we intend to insure against, could
be minimized.

We are living in an era where
unemployment and job reduction

prestige in

are the order of the day. For this

reason it is doubly imperative to
have a strong strike fund to back
up our Union, The Union would
\then be in the position to dis-
| charge its obligations to its mem-
bers,

We must remember that this
fund is ear-marked solely for the
juse of our members on strike
and must not be transferred for
other uses.

Vote “yes” on the assessment
ballot and you get yourself the
best insurance in the world, so

far as your immediate needs are
concerned.

Fred Soon,
Chinese Representative.

THANK YOU

The Editor:

May we take this opportunity
to thank all those at the conven-
tion, who so generously donated
to our strike fund.

IWA Strike Publicity

Committee:

E. D. Perrin, Chairman
H. E. Pedersen Jr.
Creston, B.C.

BARNETT OPPOSES
S.C. INTERFERENCE

OTTAWA (CPA)—A Social
Credit member told Parliament
this week that he did not think
that a trade union should use
its funds to support a political
party. Three M.P. trade union-
ists reminded him that was a
matter for the unions con-
cerned and not for Parliament
to decide.

C. E. Johnston-(SC Bow
River), speaking in support of the
CCF Bill for the voluntary re-
vocable check-off of union dues,
said that he objected to trade
unions taking part in politics.
Unions should not use their
funds to assist political parties,
he suggested.

Tom Barnett
“Would you let the manufac-
turers in?” asked Stanley
Knowles of the LT.U. (AFL-
TLC). Mr. Johnston said that, as

an organization, they should not
do it either, “but two wrongs do
not make a right.”

Claire Gillis of the United
Mineworkers jumped up and said
that union contributions to a
political party had nothing to do
with the check-off Bill before the
House. He was followed by Tom
Barnett of the I.W.A. (CIO-CCL)
who suggested it might “be bet-
ter to allow the unions to settle
that matter themselves rather

than for us to try to settle it
here.”

Motor vehicles: Only 80 out of
every thousand shipped by Cana-
dian factories last year were for
export as compared with 185 out
of every thousand shipped in
1952,

There were 525,782 trucks and
automobiles owned by Canadian
farmers in 1951, three times as
many as the 157,022 owned by
the farmers of 1931,

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