B.

c. LUMBER WORKER

1st Issue, May

* The gloomy market predic-

tions which are usually trotted

out by the lumber corporations
when negotiations are under
way, are not so evident, when
business interests themselves
survey the future for the lum-
ber industry.

The following excerpts are
taken from an article appearing
in a recent issue of the Financial
Post, which displayed a special
supplement on business in B.C.

Statements made about the
lumber industry were:

“B.C.’s_ traditionally famous
lumber industry is forging ahead
to gain new ground in North
American domestic markets and
overseas markets.

Although the industry has
been overshadowed in recent
years by the pulp and paper
division of the province’s forest
industry, it has taken on a new
importance in ‘integration utili-
zation.”

Half of Canadian
Production

. Today the industry still holds
the position of producing one-
half the Canadian production of
sawn lumber. In 1951 this indus-
try produced an all-time high of
some 3.7 billion board feet of
lumber, During 1952 and last
year the industry dropped only
slightly to just over 3.5 billion
board feet sawn annually.

Exports Up

But it’s significant that despite
decreasing production sales to
new markets were high and busi-
ness good. In 1953 the propor-
tion of B.C. lumber sold outside
Canada reached the highest in
23 years.

The U.S. market took approxi-
mately 40% of the B.C. lumber
shipments, the United Kingdom,
14%, other countries 9% and
Canada (domestic), 379%.

Expectations for 1954 are that
the U.S. will. again take about
two billion board feet and that

- Canada (domestic) sales will in-

Operators Agree |
Prospects Good |

erease as the housing boom con-
tinues unabated in both Canada
and the U.S. along with indus-
trial capital expansion programs.

Plywood Prospects

The veneers and plywood in-
dustry in the province had record
sales to the end of October. At
this time production decreased
due to both a seasonal drop in
demand and too heavy a credit
margin on purchasing.

The domestic market utilizes
most of the B. C. production. The
future of the plywood industry
was highlighted in 1958 by the
completion of a $1.5 million ex-
pansion of MacMillan & Bloedel’s
Port Alberni mill. This company
supplies 48.8% of Canadian ply-
wood production.

The continuing and increasing
sales of plywood in the past few
years are directly attributable to
the growing popularity of ply-
wood in home construction, in-
dustrial construction and in the
home workshop. Stepped up ““do-
it-yourself” campaigns, plywood
showrooms and extensive promo-
tion through building and home
publications have contributed to
this rise in plywoods’ popularity.

The plywood industry has be-
come a recognized part of the
integration. The development of
the waterproof glue-line during
the last war has greatly broaden-
ed and diversified the plywood
market, The addition of a ply-
wood mill to an integrated opera-
tion will improve the utilization
value of the peeler grades of
Douglas fir by as much as 275%.

The shingle mills normally
take about 50% of the B.C. cedar
production, mainly those logs
with large knots, Because of the
nature of the logs and of the
product, shingle mills recover
not more than 41% of the cubic
content of the log. The xemain-
ing 59% is made up of about
24% solid wood and 35% saw-
dust.

Low Rental Homes
Evict Slum Ills

“Something More”

OTTAWA (CPA) — Since the affiliation of the Gen-
eral Federation of Jewish Labor in Israel (Histadrut) with
the ICFTU in Stockholm last summer, much interest has
been shown’by other nations in this powerful labor spokes-

2
:

_ OTTAWA (CPA) — Less than two years after they
moved from slum homes into Toronto’s Regent Park sub-
sidized apartments, families report better health, less

“nerves” and fewer family squabbles, better school

records,

The first comprehensive survey
of the social changes produced by
the Regent Park venture has just
been made public by its author,
Helena Toews, a postgraduate
student in social work at the Uni-
versity of Toronto and a public
health nurse, She interviewed a
cross section of Regent Park’s
647 families, and reports that
colds and other illnesses have de-
creased for half the families.
Nervous and heart conditions
were reported improved, and fa-
milies generally declared them-
selves more “contented” than in
their old quarters.

Disease Control

Doctors in the area told Miss
Toews Set Regent Sas tenants
co-operate more readily to con-
trol disease, “They are not go-
ing to stand for skin diseases,
ul und those things, when
have a clean and sanitary
They are not as depressed
were,”
were enthusiastic
the change in children’s

Absenteeism has

the eo cleaner ||

Gambling convictions have de-
ereased spectacularly in recent
years, and in 1952 numbered only
2,656. There were two and one-
half times as many in 1949, six
times as many in 1945, and 15
times as many in the peak year
of 1936. There were 369 convic-
tions for every 100,000 popula-
tion in 1936, more than 20 times
the 1952 ratio of 18,

* 8 &

Butter and Cheese Factories:
59.39% were owned by individuals
and partnerships in 1939 but by
the end of the war the proportion
had dropped: to 49.1% and by.
1952 to 41.3%. In the same in-
terval the proportion owned by
co-operative associations
inereased from 20.39% in 1939 to
33.5% in 1945 to 40.6% in 1952.
Incorporated companies owned
20.4% at the start of the war,
17.4% in 1945 and 19.1% at the
end of 1952,

“OLD DOC”

| There are some obvious dif-
ferences between the aims and
activities of Histadrut and those
of North American style unions.
As I. Skikne, a member of Hista-
drut’s International Relations De-
partment, puts it:

Something More

“To understand the Histadrut,
it is necessary to see it as some-
thing more than an effective
trade union organization engaged
in the constant task of defending
and advancing the interests of
the worker in his place of work.”

This is not to deny that Hista-
drut has already achieved for the
Israeli worker an enviable list of
benefits. The eight-hour day, the
engagement of workers through
the general labor exchanges, sen-
iority and family allowances, sick
leave with pay, annual holidays
with pay, maternity leave with
pay, consultation with the. union
on dismissal, employers’ contribu-
tions to the Workers’ Sick Fund
and to the Provident Funds, and
recognition of the workers’ or-
ganization and of the rights of
workers to organize and bargain
collectively, are standard parts of
collective agreements. Another
important achievement is the fact
that in Israel wages are tied to
the cost of living index. Wages
are adjusted every three months
by means of a sliding scale of
cost-of-living allowances.

What, then, is the “something
more”?

A. Skikne desribes it this way: !

man for the new state of Israel.

“A labor movement guided by the
ideals of co-operation, of mutual
aid and of the establishment of a
new human order—without ex-
ploiters or exploited’. . . The
economic problems of the country
did not revolve around the tradi-
tional question of nationalization
nor was there any question of
the taking over of capitalist en-
terprises which did not exist. The
paramount task was to create
enterprises where noné had exist-
ed, and at the same time to train
the workers to man them. The
Israel labor movement was thus

Gained

By Histadrut Members |

Histadrut is indeed “something
more”. It has instigated housing
co-operatives which have already
put up 30,000 housing units,
housing some 125,000 people. It
has a number of credit and fin-
ancial institutions. On the cul-
tural side it publishes a daily
newspaper, Davar; it has work-
ers’ colleges, a publishing house,
a professional theatrical society,
and a wide program of adult edu-
cation and vocational training.

Arabs Welcome

78% of Israel’s wage earners
are members of Histadrut. Arab
workers may become members on
an equal footing with Jewish
workers. Histadrut is composed
of over thirty national unions
which embrace-the industrial
worker, the farm worker, the

perforce from its first days a?clerical worker, the skilled and

builder of: a new economy and
the architect of a new society.”

Coop Communities

So we find Histadrut originat-
ing the large new agricultu
operative communities, the
butz”, which have tr:
the barren land to a fertile, fruit-
ful countryside. Arising from
these communities (wi i
radically new social organization)
is a nationwide marketing co-
operative called “Tnuva”, and
“Tnuya” has extended into indus-
trial fields. Then there is His-
tadrat’s contracting agency, Solel
Boneh, which employs 15,000
workers in its contracting opera-
tions and another 9,000 workers
in twenty different industrial en-
terprises, which include quarry-
ing, foundries, glassworks, a
company for the manufacture of
sanitary earthware and a cement
pipe factory.

the unskilled worker, the mem-
ber of the liberal professions.
Workers’ wives occupied in.their
own households are also voting
members of Histadrut.

Grave national problems which
Histadrut intimately shares in-
clude the absorption of many
hundreds of thousands of immi-

-| grants from all over the world.

Added to this is the urgent need
| to balance the new nation’s eco-
| nomy, which means an expansion
| of output and greater produc-
| tivity.

The working men and women
| of Israel have evolved a radically
| different kind of trade union fed-
| eration, a federation’ which em-
ploys 20,000 workers and is
vigorously engaged in opening up
new industry, a federation de-
| dicated to the advancement of
the whole nation in whose daily
life it plays so large a part.

On Golf

TORONTO (CPA) —A week
ago James Marshall, a colored
shop steward working at the
Avro plant, went to play a
practise round of golf at the
Lakeview Club in company with
two fellow-workers. His white
companions were allowed to
play. Marshall was barred.
They all left the course.

Today the Avro Recreation
Committee of Local 717, Inter-
natiénal Association of Machin-
ists (AFL-TLC) voted against
holding the tournament at the
Lakeview course. The union
wrote the golf management that
its members would not hold a
match at any course which prac-
tised racial discrimination.

James Marshall, 25 years of
age, was born and brought up in
Toronto. He said that the union’s

Race Ban Fought

Course

action reflected the feelings of
the members entered in the tour-
nament. They all planned to
withdraw if the golf club didn’t
change its attitude. The cancella-
tion made it unnecessary for them
to take individual action.

Labor Wins

COMMUNISTS
DEFEATED

VIENNA (CPA)—In recent
elections for staff representa-
tives among the municipal
workers of Vienna, a sweeping
victory has been won by the
Socialists, who gained 704 seats
out of a total of 815. The Com-
munists, who put forward can-
didates under cover of a ‘unity’
list, won only 49 seats. The
poll was extremely heavy; over
50,000 voted out of 51,800 en-
titled to do so.

St. Paul City ————

5
ST. PAUL (CPA) — Joseph |p? 2 SSEae

Dillon, a 33-year-old “political

unknown” backed by labor and
by the Farmer-Labor-Democra-
tic Party this week defeated
incumbent John Daubney, a
Republican, in the race for
mayor of St. Paul. The labor-
backed majority on the city
council was also increased from
4-3 to 5-2.

GB

RYE
Sic prod
<> —
SANDWICH
WHITE BREAD

BALANCED

~=& WHITE BREAD

{Ae an ald to better nutrition all G.B. White Bread

RATION now made with Vitamin Envi White
izc Peer The white flour content of suc! Balanced
oan on een, Ryo and Special Meal is also En-

“Listen to G.B., CKWX — 5:30 p,

Monday thru Friday”

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Printers of
The B.C.
LUMBER WORKER

AMUN lL

H

LIMITED a
PRINTERS AND |
LITHOGRAPHERS -)

An Employee Owned Co.

944 RICHARDS STREET
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