B.C. LUMBER WORKER

A FAILURE

(Ove outstanding reason for the failure of
conciliation is the tendency of inexperienced
chairmen and board members to adjudicate a dis-
pute rather than to make the effort to develop
an area of agreement.

The members of a Conciliation Board are not
elevated to the Bench. The nature of a Board’s
composition indicates that they are expected to
resolve as far as possible the conflicting points of
view held by the disputing parties.

The usual terms of reference are that they
shall attempt to establish an agreement between
the disputants.

This is not done when they adopt an aloof,
but not an objective attitude, and pass judgment
on the position held by one party or another.

Anyone who traces the record of conciliation
boards in this province will soon realize that the
chairmen appointed by the Labour Department
are either not men of the required calibre, or are
not trained for the job.

It is a sad reflection on the purposes of the
Labour Relations Act, in respect of conciliation,
that all these factors were present in some degree
in the Board which failed to settle the dispute
in the coast lumber industry recently.

The majority report only reflected the opin-
ions held by the Chairman and the employers’
member, as they may have been influenced by
their environment and associations.

It certainly did not represent the slightest
effort to accomplish some meeting of minds. It
took for granted the belief that workers are al-
ways wrong and that employers are always right.

It did not take into consideration, the histori-
cal fact that never have the workers obtained
justice until they collectively took steps to make
demands and to exert some degree of pressure
on their employers.

The men who appeared before the Board on
behalf of the Union are known to be reasonable
men, and loyal to the interests they represent.
It is true that their economic interests conflict
with those of the employers. None the less, every
man before that Board realized that some day
a settlement would be inevitable, and that it
would be less costly for all concerned to settle

early rather than late.

Experienced chairmen all realize that the em-
ployers talk and act tough about concessions,
because they own and control the production
machinery. They always hope that employees

" will be intimidated into submitting to their will.

The Union’s officials are always under pres-
sure from their members ‘who are seeking relief
from oppressive conditions.

The purpose of conciliation as seen by the
well-trained and high calibre conciliators, found
elsewhere on this continent, is to surmount these
hurdles and more quickly penetrate these hazards
to reach the ultimate solution.

These reasons account for the miserable fail-
ure of the Conciliation Board which heard this
year’s dispute in the coast lumber industry.

The failure of this Conciliation Board makes
it essential that IWA members should reject its
majority report with a decisive vote in the mem-
bership referendum.

The failure of this Conciliation Board makes
it essential that [WA members should reject its
majority report with a decisive vote in the mem-
bership referendum.

The failure of the Board also compels the
Union to seek other avenues to reach a satisfac-
tory settlement. This makes it imperative that
authorization should be granted for strike action
to be utilized, as circumstances warrant, by the

District Policy Committee.

FREE SPEECH ©
IW. A members should note well the cir-

cumstances which took the Union’s
Green Gold radio program off the air on the

Sa :

Same Work, Different

19th of June, Radio Station CJOR.

The Union’s spokesman in the dispute before
the Conciliation Board was asked to delete from
his script a number of factual references to opin-
ions expressed by the majority of the Board to-
gether with his views on reasons given for the
recommendations made in the report.

It was an occasion, when it became the duty
of the District President to state frankly the
reasoning of the Union’s District Committee in
recommending the rejection of the report. When
deprived of this opportunity without the right
of appeal, he had no alternative but to register
his protest on behalf of the Union and refuse to
speak under such a grossly unfair censorship.

The ruling of the station’s solicitor in this
instance was a negation of the rights of free
speech as understood when a public issue is being
debated.

The reason given by the solicitor was that
certain remarks of the President imputed mo-
tives. An examination of deletions does not sus-
tain this opinion. Some of the deletions ordered
betray an anti-labour bias, or the unique theory
that a Conciliation Board stands in relation to
such discussions as does a court of law, protected
against statements regarded as sub judice.

The incident points up the necessity of steps
on the part of organized labour to gain control
of their own channels to convey information to
a scattered membership.

Sooner or later, organized labour in this
province will unite to use the funds they already
possess to establish a labour press, with a labour

-radio station. x

Portable
Pensions
Launched

KITCHENER (CPA) — The
Amalgamated Clothing Workers
of America and three shirt com-
panies here have signed a port
able pensions arrangement cov-
ering over 1,00 employees. The
plan is believed to be a “first”
in the’ shirt industry.

Companies involved are John

Forsythe Limited, Cluett Peabody

Limited and Weigands ited.

A joint company-union dinner
saw the presentation of first pen-
sion cheques of $40 monthly to
seven employees.

The new plan, (benefits are
retroactive to May 1) works like
this: at age 65, pensions are pay-

able to employees who have 10 _

years’ union membership and 20
years in the clothing industry.
Benefits are also payable (at 65)
to employees who retired within
the past five years because of dis-
ability.

The pension plan is open to
any other Kingston district shirt
companies wishing to participate
in the scheme under union agree-
ment.

The fund is administered jointly
by a board of trustees, composed
of two management and two union
representatives.

The pension plan is part of an
employer-financed social security
scheme including sicknes, accident
and surgical benefits, and life in-
surance and ‘hospital care for
unionists and their families,

Educational

Conferences
Scheduled

A series of week-end Educa-
tional Conferences under the di-
rection of Joe Miyazawa, Asso-
ciate Director of Research and
Education, are underway: for
IWA Interior members.

The Conferences are sponsored
by the International Education
Department and District Council
No, 1, and have been designed to
acquaint the membership with
methods for more effective bar-
gaining in 1958.

The cities and dates where the
Conferences were scheduled are as
follows: Prince George, May 24-
25; Nelson, June 7-8; Kelowna, *

June 14-15; Kamloops, June 21-22.
oe In All Your

Expenditures, It’s
Your BEST BUY!

*

Less Than

= Aree 28
pn UNION MEETIN'
Wa REGULARLY /

cents a day, delivered . .

8° a DAY...

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