4 be B.C, LUMBER WORKER

Forging Ahead

STEPS taken to submit the recommendation of

the IWA District‘Policy Committee to a mem-
bership referendum for acceptance or rejection
of the proposed settlement, remoye any uncer-
tainty regarding the fact that the membership
will decide the issue.

_ Critics of IWA strategy should keep this sim-
ple fact in mind. A secret ballot cannot be man:
ipulated. If the members consider that a better
settlement can be obtained by other means, they
are entirely free to order the necessary action.

An affirmative vote will vindicate the view
held by the District Policy Committee, that they
had acted in accordance with the wishes of the
membership as formerly expressed.

Prestige Greater

The Union has emerged from a strenuous and
critical period of negotiations with an enhanced
prestige. Contract negotiations in an industry
which dominates the economy of the province in-
Volve grave responsibilities. The Union met those
responsibilities with credit, and without losing
ground for the workers. :

It stands to the credit of the Union that it
emerged from negotiations with a substantial
“package” of benefits. It may not be all that the
Union desired, but it closely approximates the
objectives in view at the Wages and Contract
Conference. Z

The “Hard Way”

It should be said that the Union’s negotiators
took the hard way to get this settlement, in order
that every card might be played in the interests
of the lumber workers.

Three months of almost constant conferences
in a strenuous verbal battle, backing up the argu-
ment with carefully assembled facts, is a tough
experience in any industry, and is especially tough
under the bargaining arrangements for the B.C.
lumber industry.

It would have been easy, altogether too easy,
at various stages to say, “let’s wrap it up, boys”,
and take the issues to a strike vote and risk the
consequences. By keeping this course in reserve,
as a final alternative, the strategy gave added
sipeniazee to the bargaining position held by the

It takes skill, patience, and endurance to battle
with the employers until a showdown can be
reached at the bargaining table. The alternative
course is at first the easier course, the one of least
resistance for the negotiators, but one which

_ transfers the burden and possible sacrifices to the
membership.

Progress Assured

Utilization of the bargaining and conciliation
procedures has brought the Union a substantial
“package” of contract benefits. It is now the per-
ogative of the members to decide whether they
desixe to take further action in the hope that the
value of the “package” may be increased.

Whatever may be the decision, the Union has
made greater progress this year than on any
former occasion. This may safely be claimed,
because in addition to benefits the value of which
can be estimated, thereare included in the settle-
ment new principles which may easily prove of
inestimable value to the lumber workers in the
future.

Some Political Riddles

By PEG STEWART

We owe congratulations to the Canadian Association of
Consumers this year. They seem to have succeeded ina
battle they’ve been fighting since about 1948—eight years
ago—the struggle to get red-striped cellophane off pack-

aged bacon.

You wouldn’t think it would
take so long, would you? You’d
think all the gals would need to
do would be to say, “Look here—
take a look at this bacon, The
wrapping makes it appear very
lean. It is very fat. The packers
should not be allowed to deliber-
ately deceive the public.” And

that should be it. Because it’s |¢

true, it’s logical, and, we discover
n@w, it’s simple.

Legislation There

Or maybe you didn’t notice a
little item in the papers when
the matter was brought up in the
House of Commons. The govern-
ment told E. D, Fulton, Kam-
loops, that it wasn’t worthwhile
for him to bring in a bill “because
the legislation was already there”
which makes those wrappers a
violation of the Food and Drugs
Act. How do you like that? CAC
hammering away all those years
just to get enforcement of a law
that already existed. They're pa-
tient people.

I think they’re going to have
to be patient awhile longer, too.
I see by the Financial Post that
“after a date to be set, the De-
partment will take action against
those selling bacon in Cellophane
wrappers with red stripes. To
determine that date, a check of
stocks of striped wrappers now
held by the trade is being made

. when designing new wrap-
pers the trade should keep in
mind the full meaning of the Act,
so that new packages are not de-
ceptive to the purchasers.”. Any-
body want to bet how long it’s
going to take to use up the stocks
of striped wrappers?

Wife Nattering

In a matter like bacon wrap-
pings, or vitaminized apple juice,
or high ovens on stoves, or stand-
ard sizes in children’s clothing,
you can eventually wear the gov-
ernment—or the manufacturers—
down, like a wife nattering till
she gets her own way. Because in
terms of policy, those things don’t
matter much,-and the resistance
weakens eventually, when public
opinion seems aroused.

But when it comes to some-
thing vital, something like deal-
ing with the unemployment situ-
ation, or housing, or health in-
surance, no amount of nattering
is going to do a bit of good. Be-
cause the only thing that matters
there is the pressure of votes.
And women generaly have not
got together and used their yot-

ing power, any more than the
women in CAC got together and
used political pressure in such
things as milk prices and rent
control.

‘They had to drop those projects
because. without political action,
they could get exactly nowhere,
And the government is very well
vare of the fact. They are re-
d to power, election after
election, smug and smiling, like
conjurors who have fooled the
public again—and got public ap-
plause for doing it.

Politics Bore Us

Some of us can’t be bothered
voting. Politics bore us, or make
us uneasy—maybe we wouldn’t
understand them if we tried, so
want to try. Some of us
ed about the way things
are going—and we make up our
minds to go out and express our-
selves with that little cross beside
a different name on the ballot this
time.

But then we hear our sitting
Member’s campaign speeches, and
he sounds so plausible. Or we see
the big billboards beside the high-
ways. Or we notice the huge ads
in the papers. Maybe things are
going to be different this time.
Or maybe we’ve been worrying
about nothing, and things are
just dandy as they are.

Public Affairs

We haven’t made the connec-
tion. We don’t see that sending
good old Joe Zilch back -to Par-
liament because he was so nice
that time Cousin Minnie’s boy got
in trouble, has anything to do
with our husband pacing the floor
when he reads about lay-offs,
We don’t see any connection
between our vote and Aunt Rose
not being able to have her opera-
tion because she can’t afford it,
We haven’t learned that we won't

get our kind of legislation till we
elect our kind of legislators.

When are we going to get the
striped paper wrapping off public
affairs?

PHONE
PROFITS
BOOSTED

TORONTO (CPA) — The
Bell Telephone Co. of Canada
has made an extra $227,000
profit on its operations in the
first quarter of 1955 as a result
of corporation tax concessions
given by Finance Minister Har-
ris in his first budget, company
figures indicate.

‘The company, according to pre-
liminary figures, made a profit
of $6,762,378 after taxes in the
first three months of this year,
Profit for the first quarter of
1954 was: $6,433,484,

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