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2nd Issue, September

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

Impressions of

The Loggers’ Local

BY THE IWA ROVING REPORTER

Some day a talented writer will put down on paper the
dramatic story of the building of trade union organization
by loggers for loggers in British Columbia: When this suc-
cess story is written, the part played by Local 1-71, IWA,
will be one of the more dramatic features.

While on the trail of the story,
triggered off by the report that
the Local Union had passed the
5000-membership mark, I was re-
minded about many of the un-
usual circumstances which have
surrounded the building of the
coast Loggers’ Local.

Most loggers remember the
stormy days of October, 1948, and
what those events did to Local
1-71. When the Union started to
right the upset caused by the
abortive secessionist effort of the
LPP-communists, it was found
that the Loggers’ Local had taken
some staggering body blows.

A Fresh Start Was Made

IWA officials spent many weary
and expensive days in the Van-
couver Court House, in the legal
struggle to recover the Union’s
assets. Some funds, the boat and
a portion of the office equipment
were finally returned under the
compulsion of law enforcement
officers. But a once-strong Local
Union had to start all over again
without records, without adequate
funds, and without the organiza-
tion structure previously built on
the traditional trade union loyalty
of the loggers.

The resulting confusion was
more destructive than elsewhere,

because of the natural handicaps
already existing.
The Special Handicaps

It has required more than the
ordinary organizational ability to
build a trade union with a mem-
bership scattered in more than
100 camps, over 583 miles of
coastline, reaching from Point
Atkinson off Vancouver Harbor
to Stewart bordering on the Alas-
kan boundary.

At some logging centres, more
than 1000 loggers are assembled
in neighboring operations, Else-
where, small camps, probably on
an island or at the tip of a far-
reaching inlet, may employ on an
average of 30 men.

To reach all these camps, the
Local Union’s organizers are com-
pelled to use almost every known
form of modern transportation.
Train travel is necessary from
Squamish inland, steamships car-
ry them to Powell River, and
points north and south, planes
must be used frequently to reach
faraway and remote points serv-
ed by infrequent sailing schedules,
and motor-cars traverse such
areas as the Sechelt Peninsula
and the Terrace District. All
these various transportation
means are supplemented by the

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Local Union’s own cruiser, the
Loggers’ Navy.
A New Cruiser

It is the difficult and peculiar
nature of travel to and from the
Local Union’s certified camps
that caused the purchase of a new
eruiser, soon to be placed into
service, based on Jervis Inlet.

The need for such craft as the
Loggers’ Navy and the yet-to-be
named auxiliary cruiser is seen
when one studies the map and
realizes that an inlet such as
Jervis Inlet extends maybe sixty
miles inland, and has 18 camps
dotted here and there on its
slopes

One thing must be said about
the work of this Local Union’s
organizers: they use all the mod-
ern methods of communication.
The plane and the radio-telephone
keeps all their activities closély
tied in with the nerve centre in
Fred Fieber’s office overlooking
the loggers’ haunts in Vancouver.

Incidentally, the new cruiser
will finally be named by the mem-
bership, when all ideas have been
canvassed nad submitted to the
membership convention next De-
cember.

“Perpetual Motion”
Organizing

Another unusual difficulty, not
encountered by organizers in
other fields of trade union effort,
is the turnover in camp popula-
tion. Camps shut down for snow
in the winter, for fire in the sum-
mer, and for the whims of man-
agement at any old time. A shut-
down frequently means a sweep-
ing change in camp personnel,
afterward, and consequently the
necessity of organizing new camp
committees, recruited from en-
tirely different crews.

These facts do not make news
for loggers, but they point to a
determined loyalty to trade union
principles, not always found
among workers who have had a
softer time in building their
unions. This ebb and flow of
workers to and from the camps
has placed an extra burden on the
Vancouver office in the matter of
processing grievances. Faithful
attention to such matters, how-
ever, has worked a vast improve-
ment in camp conditions.

Here Is the Payoff

The most interesting and excit-
ing part of this success story is
found in the results obtained by
the uphill work of building a
Local Union, in the face of ruth-
less employer opposition.

The union was founded in 1937.
The average logger in that per-
iod was lucky to get $40.00 a
month over his board. A more
definite comparison may be made
between the wages paid in 1945,
and those paid under the 1955-56
contract.

In 1945, a chokerman received
$6.60 a day, now he is paid an
average $14.36 a day. In 1945 a
rigger’s take was only $10.52 a
day, now he gets $19.80 a day.
A logging truck driver’s pay for
the same period has been raised
from $8.84 a day to $16.86 a day
or better. The same story, or a
much better one, may be told for
all classifications.

Take the master agreement of
1945 and the one now in force for
ment, a. logger will find many
1955-56. In the present agree-
provisioins that are of vital im-
portance to him, and that are not

Alex B. Macdona

Barrister & Solicitor
Notary Public

751 Granville Street
VANCOUVER, B.C.

Telephone TAtlow 6641

SOLICITOR TO THE 1. W.

even mentioned in the 1945 agree-
ment.

Spectacular Improvements

Apart from wage increases, I
could mention such important
matters as union security, better
classification of category rates,
seniority provisions, vacations
with pay, the forty-hour work
week, paid statutory holidays,
control of board rates, fare al-
lowance, and travel time.

It would be interesting to meet
a logger, who might possibly
believe that all these benefits, in-
cluding the wage increases, were
planned for him by benevolent
employers, who sat up nights
scheming to help the poor down-
trodden loggers. Those who know
and understand the facts of life
know right well that every single
benefit was nailed down only
after a hard and long-drawn-out
struggle with stubborn operators,
who had their eyes fixed on ever
higher profit.

This Loggers’ Local has what
may be properly called an Honor
Roll. It displays most prominent-
ly the names of the members of
the camp committees and sub-
locals, and adds the names of
faithful full-time staff members.

I cannot list all the names here.
I know that the members of the
Sub-locals would want me to
mention the two very charming
and capable young ladies who
give them cheerful and loyal co-
operation in the Local Union of-
fice, Wes King and Dorothy
Otani.

The men with logging experi-
ence, as well as organizing ability
who are most insistent that the
IWA flag be kept flying in every
camp are Bob Ross, who travels
with Skipper HarveyHeard on the
Loggers’ Navy; Jimmy Ray, who
watches over Englewood Camp
and way points; Bill Wilson,
mostly to be found toiling up
Jervis Inlet; and Frank Howard,
the President, who spreads him-
self over the Queen Charlotte Is-
lands, and the districts adjacent
to Terrace and Kitimat.

The story of Local 1-71 is a
good story, and one which earns
congratulations for its members
as well as a place in labor’s Hall
of Fame.

RULING
OPPOSED

Payments made to laid-off
workers under supplemental
unemployment benefit plans are
benefits rather than wages and
should not affect a worker’s
claim for unemployment insur-

| ance, the Canadian Labor Con-

gress said recently.

The labor organization took
this position in a brief submitted
to the Unemployment Insurance
Commission which is considering
the status of such plans. The
right of a worker to collect un-
employment insurance benefits is
affected by his earnings during
the period of lay-off.

The CLC compared benefits
paid from such plans with those
received from sickness or acci-
dent insurance plans and said
they should not be regarded as
a remuneration. The CLC pointed
out that the Unemployment In-
surance Commission does not con-
sider benefits under sickness and
accident insurance plans as earn-

ings.
Taxed Twice

“To treat a contribution to a
supplemental unemployment
benefit plan as remuneration for
purposes of the Unemployment
Insurance Act would be to treat
such contribution differently from
others made to group insurance
schemes by employers on behalf
of employees,” the CLC main-
tained.

“This is in itself anomalous, It
would have the further effect of
taxing the employee twice on a
single inéidence of participation:
once under the Unemployment
Insurance -Act for the purposes
of contributions and a_ second
time under the Income Tax Act
when he becomes the recipient of
a benefit under the plan. This is
clearly not the intent of Parlia-
ment.”

The. pooling of premiums to
cover a common risk was the
principle of both guaranteed an-
nual wage and supplemental
benefit plans and group health
schemes. On this basis they
should be treated in the same

manner,

HMCS Port de Quebec, fitted
with a mobile X-ray unit, will
visit 23 ports between Oct. 2 and
Oct. 30 with specialists in TB
aboard from the B.C, health de-
partment’s division of tubercul-
osis control.

Ship Stops

Places they will visit are: Bam-
field, Sarita River, Ucluelet, To-
fino, Huston River, Muchalot,
Gold River, Tahsis, Esperanza,
Zeballos, Chamiss Bay, Quatsino,
Port Alice, Holberg, Mahatta
Camp, Jeune- Landing, Winter
Harbor, Port Hardy, Port Me-
Neil, Beaver Cove, Englewood
and Nimkish Lake.

It is the second chest X-ray
survey in which the navy has co-
operated with the Division of TB
control and the B.C. Tuberculosis
Society to provide free chest X-
rays to some of the isolated
camps on the West Coast of the
Island.

Annual Surveys

The surveys are undertaken an-
nually to find undetected cases of
'TB because the disease is infecti-
ous and can spread to others. TB
Society officials stress that X-
rays are one of the surest safe-
guards against the disease as
they help catch it in its earliest

stage when it is most easily cured

Navy Aids
T.B. Clinics :

The Canadian Navy and the B.C. Tuberculosis Society
will team up in October to provide free chest X-rays as a
safeguard against tuberculosis for loggers and lumber
workers on Vancouver Island.

and also minimize the danger of
infection. o

Dr. Richard Flannagan and Dr.
George Wakefield, consultants
with the division of TB control,
will be on the cruise to check X-
ray films as they are taken.

MacMillan & Bloedel, Tahsis
Co., Alaska Pine and Canadian
Forest Products are co-operating
with the division and the TB So-
ciety to make the survey a suc-

cess.
100% Turnout

It is hoped there will be a 100
percent turn-out at the camps to
take advantage of the free X~
rays,

Robert Hunter and Doug Kit-
son of the TB Society’s X-ray
survey organizing department
are helping to arrange details of
the cruise.

The Society helps organize
chest X-ray surveys as part of
its year-round program of pre-
vention against TB which, offici-
als say, is B.C’s No. 1 public
health problem.

They said that 587 new cases
were discovered in B. C. last year
and that health department offi-
cials estimate it costs B.C. citi-
zens an average of $15,000 to

treat and rehabilitate each case,