FROM PAGE ONE

“CONVENTION”

turn-around soon, many thousands more
will face the same dismal prospect. Those
lucky enough to continue working face
immence increases in mortgage and rental
costs.”

While interest rates, the housing shortage
and unemployment were given a good deal
of attention by the delegates, other subjects
of concern were also discussed at length.
Included among these was the urgent need
for Canada to implement an effective forest
management programme.

President Munro in his presidential
address warned the convention that unless
action was taken soon to look after our
forests properly, one hundred thousand jobs
would be lost over the next twenty years.

Les Reed, the federal deputy minister of
forestry and the country’s top authority on
the subject, told the delegates that the forest
industry is the most important economic
sector in Canada. It directly or indirectly
accounts for one job in ten and in 1980 the
estimated tax and timbers sale revenue
exceeded three billion dollars.

He warned that this will not last if we
continue to mine our forests instead of
harvesting them. He stated that in the
1970’s the crisis talk was all about oil; in the
1980’s and 1990’s the talk will be about
timber. If remedial action is not taken soon,
we will see thousands of jobs lost, critical
water shortages on the Prairies, and a
horrendous loss of wildlife and recreational
facilities.

Another subject that received wide debate
was the Union’s Strike Fund. The delegates
expressed their concern at how quickly the
Fund had been depleted during the recent
strike and suggested that the Strike assess-
ment should be increased.

A motion was finally passed to increase
the assessment from two dollars per
member per month to five dollars per
member per month. This is subject to appro-
val of the membership in a referendum
ballot. Due to the economic conditions in the
forest industry the Regional Executive

Board was given authorization by the
Convention to conduct the referendum
when the economy picked up.

The B.C. Workers’ Compensation Board
was roundly scored for its treatment of
claimant files. An emergency resolution
was unanimously approved to have the
Regional Council initiate legal action on
behalf of any [WA member whose privacy is
inteferred with by the Board.

CAIGN

Why's everyone complaining about inflation .. .
we're keeping up to it.

Other resolutions called for discussions
with other forest unions to form one union in
wood; complete support for the New Demo-
cratic Party; the IWA to provide organiza-
tional and financial support to the Cana-
dian Farmworkers’ Union; and for the IWA
to voice its support to the AFL-CIO in the
United States in its opposition to the policy
of the Reagan administration.

Delegates also approved an Executive
Board proposal to give the Regional Council
Per Capita increase payments in the month
of September. In the past the Region had to
wait to January of the following year for the
increase even though the Local Unions
received theirs in September.

Other guest speakers at the Conventin
included IWA International president Keith
Johnson; first vice-president Fernie Viala;
Shirley Carr, CLC executive vice-president
and Dave Barrett, provincial NDP Leader.

WOODSMEN'S
MEDALLION

Saint Gummarus was a courtier in the
Court of Pepin in France during the early
700’s, A.D. He was married to Lady Guini-
maria, who was of an extravagant,
unreasonable and aggressive nature, and
his many attempts to rescue his marriage
elevated him to heroic sanctity. After many
unsuccessful years, his troublesome wife
became too much for him and he gave up his
efforts to achieve matrimonial peace. He
became a recluse roaming the forests of
France living a spartan existence. His only
contact with the outside world was with the
woodsmen of France, whom he assisted on
many occasions; thus his appointment as
the Patron Saint of Woodsmen. He died a
solitary in the year 774 A.D.

October 11th is denoted as Saint Gumma-
rus Day. Bearers of his medallion are
alleged to be protected against hernias and
bad wives.

The photograph above is the Saint Gum-
marus medallion. It depicts a richly dressed
pilgrim carrying a staff in his right hand
and a glove in his left. There is an axe in the
tree in the background.

The Saint Gummarus medallions are
available at a cost of $35.00 for sterling
silver and $125.00 for 10K gold. If you would
like more information about ordering a
medallion please contact:

Kim Wong

#1 - 2601 Lonsdale Avenue
North Vancouver, B.C.
V7N 3H7

(604) 986-2168

Each medallion is numbered in accor-
dance with the order of purchase, commenc-
ing with #108.

BARRETT
SLAMS
GOVERNMENT

By DAVE BARRETT
Leader of the Opposition

British Columbians are being driven into
the arms of the moneylenders because of
staggering tax and debt load increases
imposed by the Socred government.

Next month, for instance, while all of us
are still reeling from the frightening impact
of the Alberta-Ottawa oil price deal, the
Socred government will add the first-ever
automatic increase on our gasoline and fuel
taxes. And it will go up automatically every
three months after that, hitting all car
owners, industries and businesses and all
consumers who will see extra increases on
prices as a result.

That’s the Bennett budget response to
fighting the fires of inflation — pour gaso-
line taxes on it. This government wants
more money from the citizens no matter how
badly it burns the economy.

Existing provincial taxes were increased
by more than one billion dollars this year,
the highest one-year jump by a country mile
and no less than four times the increases
added in the notorious 1976 budget.

The province’s guaranteed debt was
raised 77% by this Socred governmentin the
past five years to a total of $7.8 billion at the
end of 1980. The interest alone on that debt
load cost $209.62 for every single man,
woman and child in the province last year.

And this year’s budget authorized the
cabinet to put us $8.4 billion further into
debt by the end of 1982. At that rate, just the
interest payments will cost almost $1-a-day
for every British Columbian. A family of
four will be carrying an average of $1,500
annually just for the interest on the debt
guarantees of this government.

And the big bills for northeast coal export
subsidies, the professional sports stadium
and other Socred monuments, are still to be
added.

We all know the Socred budget policies are
shifting taxes onto people and their homes
while reducing public revenues from re-
sources. Even government backbenchers
admit it. Sales and other provincial taxes
have soared, the provincial share extracted
from personal income taxes collected by
Ottawa has been boosted from 31.5%in 1975
to 44% today.

Our citizens are being put into permanent
hock to the moneylenders by these incredi-
bly blundering policies of squeezing the
people with taxes while selling out resources
and committing generations of British
Columbians to enormous debt loads.

KINNAIRD
REINSTATED

Jim Kinnaird has been reinstated as
president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.
He stepped down as president after his
union, the IBEW, had been suspended by
the Canadian Labour Congress.

Kinnaird has since joined the Association
of Commercial and Technical Employees
and is thus eligible to hold the presidency of
the Federation.

Regional president Jack Munro who had
been appointed interim president of the
Fed., has now returned to his former posi-
tion of 1st vice-president.

{

2/Lumber Worker/December, 1981