B.€

LUMBER WORKER

Entitlement

Established

NY impartial observer attending the hear-
ings of the Conciliation Board now dealing
with the IWA dispute with employers in

the B.C. coastal region would be compelled to
agree that.the Union’s case was skillfully and
intelligently presented. We ask those critics of
the Union who are so prone to describe its offi-
cials as irresponsible to make a careful examin-
ation of the Union’s brief:

Each demand was carefully supported by
facts and rational argument. The negotiators
were fully prepared to submit their case to exam-
ination. It would be impossible to dispute the
fact that they were motivated solely by the desire
to serve their fellow members. They spoke with
the conviction of men who believe that to better
the circumstances of the lumber workers will
help to lift the province out of its present busi-
ness doldrums.

Let it be said to all public-spirited citizens,
that if conciliation procedures fail to work in this
instance, it is because the employers have closed
their minds to everything that might improve
contract conditions. Their one impelling motive,
as was readily seen, is to protect their profits.

Should conciliation fail an intensified strug-
gle will centre around the advisability of a wage

increase. This obviously is now the major bone
of contention.

‘When the wage pattern of the province was
examined, it became apparent that denial of a
wage increase to lumber workers would consti-
tute a grave injustice. Why should the group of
workers producing the bulk of the wealth in the
province accept wage rates that are rapidly be-
coming sub-standard?

Official reports of. cost of living statistics in-
dicate that prices which enter into the upkeep of
a home have risen with accelerating speed since
the last wage settlement and are still rising. It
would require a wage increase of at least 5 per
cent to keep lumber workers abreast of this de-
velopment and enable them to maintain the liv-

ing standards which they have established for
their homes.

Productivity has continued to increase, as
was pointed out to the Board. Not all the profit-
able advantages of this expanded productive
capacity should accrue to the owners. Much of
this increased productivity stems from the in-
creased skills of the workers. If increased pro-
ductivity is not taken into consideration, as in-
dustry moves into the age of automation, a de-
pressed purchasing power will destroy the mar-
kets which would otherwise absorb the increased

_ output. After all, the one practical reason for
operating the productive machine, is to supply
goods and services for use.

Many of those same corporations which have
opposed a wage increase for lumber workers will
be paying a base rate of $1.90 to pulp and sul-

_phite workers by midsummer. For this incon-
sistency, no reasonable defence can be made.

Wage settlements negotiated across the prov-
ince this year make it impossible to ignore the
largest group of workers in the major basic in-
dustry. 4

These wage increases now being paid range
from 10 to 24 cents an hour. Would anyone dare
claim that the work performed in the lumber in-
dustry requires less skill, or stamina?

The Union effectually dealt with the impres-
sion, which the employers sought to establish,
that all trends in the industry are now function-
ing in reverse. : :

Waterborne shipments to the United King-
dom have increased. Also waterborne shipments

Standing Together

to the Atlantic seaboard show the impressive
increase of 184.2 per cent, all of which is aided
by a drop in ocean freight rates.

One source of new orders, now made certain
by both Canadian and American governments is
the financial pump-priming for the housing pro-
grams in both countries.

Even the prejudiced observer must agree that
the IWA case has great merit. He must also
agree that only by increased wages in the lumber
industry can all the families in the province
benefit equitably under the Federal Govern-
ment’s program to stimulate business.

There can be no true stimulus to business,
until the wage and salary earners are better
able to go to the retail stores and pay for those
goods and services we are now able to produce.
It is well to remember that the lumber workers
in this province in the aggregate, do the bulk of
the kind of spending that greases the wheels of
B.C. industry.

Owners Take
Biggest Hike

“Oshaworker”, UAW
pi-monthly, Oshawa)

(From
Loeal 2:

While General Motors man-

the Senate Judiciary Committee’s
anti- Monopoly sub - committee

agement finds profit sharing
wrong for its workers, it is in
no way averse to sharing the
take at the higher levels.

Under a complex “bonus”
plan, GM, executives have
shared as much as $95 million in
a single year in addition to regu-
lar salaries. Now the “bonus”
plan is being further modified to
give management additional “in-
centives”.

Company Plan

The new plan is very complex,
involving a “contingent credit”
in GM stock and an alternate
stock option which can be exer-
cised at retirement. The objective
of the involved plan is to permit
GM executives to take a hand-
some profit on stock they never
bought when they retire and then
to avoid regular income taxes by
paying on stock profits at much
lower gain rates.

In 1956, Harlowe Curtice, GM
president, received stock bonuses
of $69,737 and cash bonuses of
$425,236 in addition to salary.
DuPont President C. H. Greene-
walt received a total of $510,000
in stock and cash bonuses under
a management plan of that com-
pany. DuPont also has amended
its plan to make it easier to beat
taxes, stock market fluctuations
and inflation.

Another Development

In another development, GM
President Harlowe Curtice told

that his company would never
consider ability to pay a basis
for negotiations. Curtice said
that the cost of living escalators
and the productivity improve-
ment factor now in GM contracts
are a “practical” method of set-
ting wages. GM, it may be re-
called was not enthusiastic about
this method only a few years

NEGRO HEADS
C. S. UNION

OTTAWA (CPA) — The
first president of the new 27,-

sociation of Canada is a Cana-
dian-born Negro, J. Calbert
Best.

Son of a Nova Scotia coal min-
er, Mr. Best, only 31 years of age,
was a Labor Department expert
in collective bargaining who
started in that department in 1949,

A four-day convention merged
the 14,000-member Civil Service
Association of Ottawa with the
12,000-member Amalgamated Ci
il Servants of Canada, “Thi
one of the greatest things that
ever happened to government em-
ployees,” exclaimed _ president-
elect Best, whose salary was set
at $10,000 a year,

Administrative Officer

Mr. Best attended King’s Col-
lege at Dalhousie University in
the Maritimes, receiving a B.A.
degree and a diploma in journal-
ism in 1948, Next year he took
his M.A. in political science, then
took a job as administrative offi-
cer with the Department of Labor,

He worked for two years with
the Labor Gazette, then moved
into the Industrial Relations
branch. He was assistant to the
chief of the di n, before leay-
ing to take on his new post.

The Civil Service still has two
other organizations representing:
its members, the 80,000-member
Civil Service Federation of Can-
ad and the 4,000-member Profes-

ago.

sional Institute of Canada.

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