vy thewester VANCOUVER, B.C. anmesiasesia lumber worker JANUARY, 1981 @ ERNST WORKERS | WALK OFF JOB IWA members of Local 1-424 employed at the Ernst Sawmill in Quesnel have returned to work following a bitter dispute that saw fifty-five members of the Blue Shift have their jobs terminated and the plant chair- man fired. The terminated employees walked off the job over a number of long-standing grievan- ces and the plant chairman Charlie Webster was fired for allegedly walking on restricted company property. The employees took the job action after the plant owner, John Ernst failed to honour his promise to pay wage increases developed through job evaluation and owing to the crew for more than a year. Other grievances listed included lack of proper safety guards on machinery; danger- ous conditions in the parking lot provided for the employees; arbitrarily changing pay days from Thursdays to Fridays; no job posting; unsanitary washrooms and refusal of management to recognize the seniority rights of the employees. < John Ernst, whose neolithic ideas are well SEE “LOCAL 1-424” PAGE THREE Wyman Trineer, Regional secretary- treasurer, in an address to the Annual Convention of the Truck Loggers January 15, in Vancouver, stated that the B.C. forest industry will have a banner year in 1981. He said that all predictions pointed to a boom in single dwelling houses in the U.S. (B.C.’s major lumber market) that should continue throughout the next ten years. Because IWA will commence negotia- tions with the employers in B.C. in the very near future, the Lumber Worker has pub- lished Trineer’s speech in its entirety to show members the reason for the Union’s optimism for gaining substantial wage increases and contract improvements in this year’s set of negotiations. The following is Trineer’s address: For those unfamiliar with the B.C. wood products industry the economic outlook must look somewhat uncertain. The United States, which consumes approximately 70% of our softwood lumber production, has seen housing starts drop from 2 million units in 1978 to a 1.3 million annual rate during the first 11 months of 1980. Production curtail- ment in many Canadian mills during the first half of 1980 caused approximately one-fifth of our Western Canadian member- ship to be on layoff. These market condi- tions reflect the cyclical nature of the U.S. housing industry. Our assessment of the market conditions for lumber exports from B.C. to the United States in the 1980’s is optimistic. Regional shortages of U.S. timber supplies as well as a strong underlying demand for new home OR B.C. FOREST INDUSTRY construction will provide B.C. exporters with an expanding market during the 1980’s. Although it will not be possible to eliminate the cyclical fluctuations in the USS. housing industry, the strong underly- ing demand for housing will help offset the severe downturns in the housing cycle that were experienced during 1974 and 1975. SEE “BANNER YEAR” PAGE SEVEN SGABS ASSAULT NABOB PICKETS Professional strikebreakers are riding roughshod over members of the Canadian Allied Manufacturers Retail and Wholesale Union who were locked out last September in a contract dispute with their employer Nabob Foods Limited. Both male and female pickets have been violently assaulted by the strikebreakers who have been seen to carry guns and leaded pipes. One woman had her arm broken in one picket line incident and the union’s president was badly beaten about the face in another scuffle. The plant, located at Lake City industrial park in Burnaby, is under the protection of SEE “STRIKEBREAKERS” PAGE THREE RETURN REQUESTED THE LUMBER WORKER PERMI vaNcouv 3 Sy eg a8 z gs geo 8a 3 ce €a o> ell These strikers and other members of the Canadian Allied, Manufacturers, Wholesale and Retail Union, are constantly faced i Sastre PRooucts gar HOT « nn RR with assault on the picket line by professional strikebreakers hired by Nabob Foods Ltd, in an attempt to destroy the Union. | | | | | | | | |