In So. Interior Operations IWA Pickets Close Key Mills And Camps ee is Lieclgat Watduesdins of flere Deri Coen a2, Vol. XXV, No. 22 *" And ISSUE, NOV. 1958 - VANCOUVER, B.C. 5c PER COPY S Morris Named ILO Delegate District President Joe Morris will be one of two trade tinion representatives on the six-man Dominion Government delegation to attend the ILO tripartite meeting of the In- dustrial Committee on problems of the world timber indus- {ry in Geneva, December 8th. At the request of the Canadian Government, labour and manage- ment each nominated two repre- sentatives, who with two civil servants will speak for Canada on this ocasion, The second labour representative nominated by the Congress was F, X. Le Gare of the CCCL Woodworkers Union. Tribute Paid IWA When the Canadian Labour Congress first proposed the selec- tion of District President Morris for this meeting, the matter was referred to the District Executive Board. There was unanimous agreement on the Board that President Morris should accept the nomination, Nomination of the IWA Dis- trict President was regarded as recognition of the outstanding record established by the Union in the field of accident prevention and related problems to be dealt with at Geneva. It is the first time the IWA has been singled out for this honour, ‘The ILO Industrial Committee will deal with three major sub- jects; accident prevention, labour- management relations, and log- JOE MORRIS gers’ living conditions in the timber industry. Eighty countries will be represented. For purposes of this discussion, See “MORRIS” Page 3 District Meet February 9-14 Call has been issued by the IWA District Officers to the Twenty-Second Annual Convention of District Council No. 1, to be held in the Georgia Hotel, Vancouver, Monday, February 9th and continuing through Saturday, February 14th, 1959. The convention call states in part: “The last two (2) days of the Convention, February 13th and 14th, 1959, shall be set aside for the Wages and Contracts Confer- ence. All Resolutions dealing with wages and contracts should be WHAT'S INSIDE sent in at the same time as Con- vention Resolutions. Representation Your representation shall be based on Sections 3 and 4 of Article VII which reads as fol- lows: Section 3: “The delegates to the District Convention shall be elected by and from Local Unions with the exception that all District Officers and District Executive Board Members shall be duly aceredited delegates to the Convention. The basis of voting of District Officers and District Executive Board Mem- See “DISTRICT” Page 3 LISTEN TO Charges Proven False Charge made of illegality in the Southern Interior strike has been repudiated by IWA officials, as not substantiated by the evidence. The re- quired notice of strike action was given in each instance, it is stated. Conclusive proof is found, claim, in the notices posted by employers prior to the strike deadline in which the employers announced a shut-down of their operations because of the Union’s strike notification mailed the previous week. Copies of such notices are now in the hands of the Union, they President's Statement In reference to the employers’ acusations, IWA District Presi- dent Joe Morris stated, “I have received full reports on this mat- ter, which give satisfactory proof that there has been no violation of the Labour Relations Act by the Local Unions involved in the strike. It is now apparent, that the accusation made by some of the employers’ representatives was merely an abortive attempt to distort minor technical considera- tion in order to obscure the real issues. “The real issue, which the em- ployers are unwilling to face, is that they failed to give any con- sideration to the Union’s offer of settlement during last week's dis- cussions. In order to expedite mediation of the dispute then under consideration, and in order to avoid open conflict, the Union offered to reduce its original wage demand. Sub-Standard Rates “This would have increased wage rates in the Southern Interior by substantially the same amount of the increase recently granted lum- ber workers in the bordering Am- erican States, which constitute the Southern Interior's main competi- tive area, Wage rates in the “In- and Empire” of East Washing- ton, Montana and Oregon now average 39 cents an hour above the Interior base rate of $1.53 an hour. “Tn these circumstances, I main- tain that the Union’s proposals were reasonable, and paved the way to a mutually acceptable settlement, if the employers had dealt with the proposed compro- mise in a conciliatory manner. The arbitrary rejection of the See “CHARGES” Page 3 Strike action was initiated November 25th against seven mills and a number of logging camps in the Southern In- terior by IWA Local Unions 1-423 and 1-405 under author- ity of the District Policy Committee when last-minute peace talks failed to move the employers’ representatives from their insistence upon the terms recommended in the major- ity report of the Conciliation Board. The following mills and camps are now strikebound: S. M. Simpson Co. Ltd. and S. & K. Plywood Division, in Kelowna; Boundary Saw mills Ltd., at Mid- way; Grand Forks Sawmills Ltd., at Grand Forks; the Nakusp and Castlegar operations of Celgar Ltd., and the Kootenay Forest Products Mill and logging camps in the Nelson area. Reports received from that area indicate that production in these operations is at a standstill. Neces- sary picket lines have been estab- lished, and are firmly held. Other Unions are respecting the IWA strike picket warnings. The morale of the strikers is excellent, and reveals a determination to continue the struggle until a fair and reasonable contract settlement is won, Mediation Failed The strike action became inev- itable when a series of last-min- ute discussions between the Un- ion’s Negotiating Committee and the Employers’ representatives deadlocked. Earlier, the employ- ees in the larger operations of the area had voted in favour of strike action in. government. supervised balloting. The Union participated with good faith in peace talks ar- ranged under the auspices of the Department of Labour. IWA negotiators offered to agree to a settlement with a sub- stantial reduction of the original wage demand. This proposed compromise was arbitrarily reject- ed by the employers’ bargaining representatives. The employers had agreed to accept the recom- mendation of the Conciliation Board, which had been rejected by vote of the IWA members concerned. They would not alter their attitude toward the matters in dispute, so consequently the Union's District Policy Committee authorized the issuance of strike notices. Negotiating Since June The Interior Wage and Con- tract Conference held in May had demanded a wage increase of fifteen per cent. The delegates representing the Interior Local Unions then sought to eliminate the unfair wage differential upon which the employers have always insisted. The base rate in the In- terior is $1.53 an hour as compared to the coast base rate of $1.72 an hour, Other contract changes to gain necessary improvements in working conditions were also pro- posed. Negotiations commenced in June dealing with a contract which terminated on August 31st. Fin- ally the dispute was referred to a Conciliation Board. As an out- come of conciliation proceedings, during which the Union presented extensive evidence in support of the contract demands, agreement was reached by direct negotiation on all but three of the points in dispute. These remaining items were wages, union security, and board and lodging rates. Majority Report The Chairman of the Board, Mr. Phillip Fleming of Victoria, and the employers’ nominee, signed a majority report, with the Union’s nominee, George Home, Secretary of the B.C, Federation of Labour, dissenting in a minor- ity report. Although neither of the par- ties had proposed a two year contract, the majority of the Board advocated a wage in- crease of three per cent, each year for two years, No change in union security was recom- mended as well as a ten cent a day increase in board and lodg- ing rates. When the majority report was submitted to the membership it was decisively rejected in a mem- bership referendum vote. The proposed wage increase was regarded as being quite in- adequate on several grounds, It would not enable the workers to overtake and keep abreast of ris- ing living costs. Because the rise in living costs had wiped out the wage increases previously negoti- ated, at the end of the two year period they would suffer a further reduction in the value of the wage dollar equivalent to a wage cut. Also, the maintenance of sub- standard wages, substantially lower than paid by producers in any of the competing areas, would force them.to subsidize increased profits for the employers out of their lowered standards of living. As predicted by the Union dur~ ing negotiations, the market for Interior lumber commenced to boom, mainly because of the ex= panded housing programs in Can- ada and the United States: Only a very small volume of Interior lumber reaches overseas export markets. Although Interior pro- duction is now 47% of the total production in the province, prac- tically all of it is marketed in the United States and eastern Cana- dian provinces. The expanded market demand has been responsible for a marked increase in Interior production and sales, The Interior operators are selling a larger volume of Jum- ber at higher prices in the United States. If they continue to pay sub- standard wages, they will maintain a decided and quite unfair adyan- tage over all their competitors, at the expense of their employees. These facts made it clear, said the Union, that the workers’ wage demand was not rejected because of financial inability to pay in in- crease, but rather because the em- ployers are determined to protect an improving profit position. CKPG-Ist & 3rd Thurs., 6:00 p.m. CKEK-Thars., 8:15- — ‘pa s