4 B.C. LUMBER WORKER EDITORIAL And Now... ISCUSSIONS between the IWA and the coast lumber operators, with the assistance of the Department of Labour, are now under way. The purpose in view is the exploration of all avenues by which an amicable settlement may be reached. Participation in these discussions by the Union’s negotiators is in accordance with the instructions of the District Policy Commit- tee. In the barrage of editorial advice received from all sides from commentators, who either have an axe to grind, or who would maliciously embarrass the IWA, certain facts should be kept clearly in view. The Union has been negotiating for one mas- ter agreement, which covers the majority of the operations in the coastal area. All Local Unions concerned have chosen to delegate their bargain- ing rights to the District Policy Committee. This practice has been found advantageous to both employers and employees in past years. This accounts for the policy consistently fol- lowed by the IWA of determining decisions re- garding the master agreement on a District basis. Invariably, the majority opinion, as declared by District vote must govern the Union’s over-all negotiating strategy. The authorization of strike action given in the Union’s vote, and later in the supervised vote does not necessarily mean immediate action to halt production in the lumber industry. The IWA has always stated that the strike weapon is a weapon of last resort. It has always been the policy of the Union to exhaust all available opportunities to reach a satisfactory settlement. The Union has once more held its strike man- date in reserve in order to explore possibilities of amicable settlement. There is still time for such consideration. On the other hand, it should be clearly understood that indefinite delay will not be tolerated. Another fact demanding consideration at this time is that the terms of the majority report of the Conciliation Board, if implemented, will virtually destroy important contract provisions, negotiated.in past years and beneficial to the workers. No twisting of words can make these contract changes appear to be minor in extent. If ad- mitted into this year’s settlement they will weak- en the contract. Some groups of workers will suffer impaired working conditions. Others will find their earnings substantially reduced. Another distortion of the facts given general circulation is in the report regarding the actions of the Pacific Northwest Negotiating Commit- tee. It was made to appear that the IWA Local Unions, stateside, had waived all consideration of a wage increase this year. The contrary is true. They set aside other contract considera- tions that wages and wages alone might be under negotiation next September. This procedure is possible under the Ameri- can labour law. It is not permissible in B.C. On September 16th, the negotiations commence in Portland. If no settlement is reachd, the Local Unions may legally elect to take strike action. The moral is that workers should get their facts from their own Union. The facts as pur- veyed by employing interests are usually slanted to influence workers against their own interests. The Union maintains channels of information,. which enable the workers to think and act on their own behalf. - The Profit Guard 1958 Last week members of the United Automobile Workers (U.A.W.- and other unions de- scended on Ottawa as a group of marching unemployed, except this time they came in a motor caval- cade. Same Demands But, their demands were the same, They were unemployed and wanted work, not words from the Government. About 200 of these Brothers came from all across Ontario to argue their case before the Cabinet. There were Auto Workers, Textile Workers, Min- ers, Electrical Workers, and Farm Machinery Workers. Except they weren’t Workers any longer, they were out of work. Stories were told by the delega- tion of men who had been out of work in the Windsor area for two years. Tales of honest, sincere, hard working people going to jail because they had to steal food for their families. Incidents of over 150 men lining up 12 hours before a certain unemployment agency opened, all 150 looking for 16 jobs that had been advertised. Jobs that we used to get school kids to do—delivering advertising. Brief Presented This “march of the unemploy- ed” presented a brief to the Cab- inet (of the 23 Cabinet Ministers, 6 ‘were present). . Some M.P.’s attended the hear- ings, too. Only 27 M.P.’s had the courtesy and interest enough to attend. Twenty-seven out of 265. Of this 27, there were seven CCF- ers out of a possible eight. After the Cabinet left all of the CCF members stayed behind, and the 8th was at another meeting, to talk with the delegation and to listen more attentively than we had been able to do during the formal meetings. The group did not want relief, they wanted jobs — work ! ! In fact their brief stated “Unem- ployment . . . cries out for settle- ment. Its cure is jobs.” Proyoking Statements There are other interesting and thought provoking statements in the brief, some of which are: | REPORT AN By PRANK HOWARD, M.P. Trek Many people will remember the unemployed trek to Regina and to Ottawa during the ’30’s. We here in Ottawa just witnessed a more successful trek, for this time it was completed and wasn’t stopped at Regina by machine guns. “A quick example of what Can- ada can do is: move its wheat sur- plus.” “. . , 1955 and 1956, corpora~ tion profits, setting new records in both years, rose twice as fast as wages and salaries .. .” “In Windsor . . . there are 14,- 000 unemployed, between 5,000 and 6,000 of whom have exhaust- ed even their extended unemploy- ment insurance benefits.” For the sake of the thousands of unemployed across the country, we can only pray that the Diefen- baker Government has more sense and compassion than did the Ben- nett Government of the 1930's, Starr Says Bargaining Protected GENEVA (CPA) — Cana- dian Labor minister Michael Starr told the International Labor Conference of the I.L.O. here that Canada’s most impor- tant labor legislation is that “which encourages and estab- lishes ground rules for collect- ive bargaining. “With this sort of approach to labor problems the role of government in Jabor- management relations in Cana- da, though important, is second- ary,” he said. “The government is prepared to enforce and protect the workers’ right of organization where neces- sary, although any positive action in this respect is seldom called for. It is also ready to protect each party against unfair practices by the other,” Mr. Starr continued. The L.L.O., he said, can do use- ful work in its industrial relations program by providing exchanges of information concerning meth- ods adopted in various countries. Jobs For All, Says Knowles CALGARY (CPA) — Heavy unemployment simply must be eliminated,” Canadian Labor Congress executive vice-presi- dent Stanley H. Knowles told a special meeting of the Calgary Labor Council here. “Actually there should be no unemployment at all with the needs we have in Canada, to- gether with our enormous re- sources and the readiness of our people to work to meet these needs,” he added, CLC Plans The CLC plan for fighting un- employment should be adopted now, he said. The plan calls for tax cuts, along with wage and social security increases, to help restore purchasing power. Latest figures for prairie job- lessness show that 30,000 more persons were out of work on April 30 this year than in 1957, Mr. Knowles noted. This represented a 58 per cent increase, “Our unions are seeking wage increases from industries that can afford to pay them,” the labor leader said. “This should not cause any serious inflationary ef- fect “so long as employers do not use this as an excuse to impose unreasonable price increases,” he added. M ‘Gavin's good bread made by UNION Bakers sold by UNION Salesmen Drivers asked for by UNION Customers a