thewestern canadian lumber worker 34,000 copies. Printed in this issue Published once monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA. Western Canadian Regional Council No. 4 Affiliated with AFL-CI0-CLC Sth Floor, 1285 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. VGE 4B2 Phone 683-1117 Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Western Canada in accordance with convention decisions. Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year. PRESIDENT’S CORNER We are bargaining for anew contract this year in what is surely the toughest set of circumstances since the dirty thirties. The U.S. threat to impose tariffs on Canadian lumber is, though not over, very much diminished. But the hangover from that threat, coupled with the poor lumber market that has prevailed over the past couple of years, will give the industry all the excuse it needs to be miserable. Then there is the political situation. Bennett campaigns against the IWA in Revelstoke because he has to compete with Pat McGeer and Socred candidate Cliff Michael in sheer, vindictive, anti-unionism. He talks about instant de-certification votes as a means of “worker democracy.” Why not a law forcing joint stock companies to hold a government supervised vote of all its shareholders to authorize any lockout? Why nota law providing that if forty percent of shareholders call for new company officers, a secret ballot vote has to be taken? Because the point is to disrupt unions, not companies. The point is to keep working people as divided as possible, constantly at each other’s throats, so that they will have little energy left for negotiating. Bennett doesn’t realize, though I’m sure he’s been told, that such laws produce not a passive workforce, but sheer, enduring, industrial chaos. Well, our membership has to rise above all this. We have to ensure that Bennett does not get another term to wreak the havoc that he plans. Then we have to gather together as never before, and in a quiet, determined way, show the B.C. forest industry that we mean business. PAT KERR RETIRES Pat Kerr, Editor of the Lumberworker for 34 years, retired this March. Pat joined IWA staff in 1949, working with Grant McNeil. He served with the Canadian Army’s “Black Watch” Regiment during the Second World War, and was seriously wounded in February, 1945. Pat will be greatly missed by IWA members throughout the region, all of whom wish him and Gloria a long and happy retirement. EDITORIAL It would be difficult to think of a reason to vote against a party that does not apply in spades to the Socreds. First to come to mind is the avalanche of sleeze. Grace McCarthy’s finger. Broadway shows at taxpayers’ expense for McClel- land, now Minister of Labour. Expensive French wine for the Minister of Consumer Affairs. Silly, breast-beating TV ads, again at public expense. All of this is so paltry, so two-bit, so squalid, so SOCRED, that we are tempted to holler “for God’s sake, get somebody to steal a million or two, rob a bank, sell a bridge... anything for a respite from this appalling, sodden, petty corruption.” Then the astonishing incompetence. Would you have your tonsils removed by a man who would appoint Jim Nielsen, Minis- ter of Health? Bob McClelland as Minister of Labour? Vander Zalm, whose every breath repudiates education, as Minister of Education? What about a cabinet that creates an eighty million dollar Reforesta- tion Fund in 1980, then wipes it out in 1982? A Premier who says that in eliminating |. IN MEMORIAM BILL HAYES Bill commenced working for B.C. Forest Products in Hammond in 1946. While he was with BCFP his concern for his fellow workers led him to become active in the IWA. He served as a negotiator, a business agent and was a delegate to numerous [WA conventions. He also served as President of Local 1-367 from 1955 to 1964. During this time Bill also coached Little League base- ball in Hammond. After leaving office he returned to BCFP Hammond, working in the powerhouse as a steamfitter. Following surgery in February, 1980, Bill suffered a disabling stroke. He was retired from BCFP in December, 1980. Predeceased by his wife Lois in November, 1980, he is survived by his daughters Maureen, Heather, Florence, Margaret, Susan and Deborah and his son Michael. thousands of jobs he is creating employ- ment? But these in the end are lesser reasons. More important is the sheer vindictiveness with which they employ public power to punish those who oppose them politically. McGeer has a bill drafted that would deny the right to organize to employees of “high- tech” firms. (Who is next? Good question.) Vander Zalm clumsily contrives to wipe out the process by which teachers have their salaries arbitrated, then Bennett waxes indignant when, backs against the wall, the teachers campaign for Labour Code rights. But the most compelling reason for [WA members to oust this mob is that they share with all parties of the right a deeper, more malignant corruption. Each of these parties build and defend with one hand a system that consigns the great majority to employee status, to the need of unions; and with the other hand does everything to prevent those people from developing the unions they so desperately need. The corporations that these reactionary politicians feed and defend are gigantic and growing ever more powerful. Forty-seven of the world’s largest 100 economies are not those of countries, but of multi-national corporations. In Canada (1971), of the 231,536 corpora- tions filing tax returns, 291, or one-eighth of one percent of them, controlled 58% of the assets and 40% of the profits. That awesome concentration, which ex-Liberal Finance Minister Eric Kierans says shows Canada to be “the example par excellence of corpo- rate concentration and oligopoly domi- nance of price and output decisions,” has grown steadily since that time. Because of the weakness of labour in North America, U.S. and Canadian wages have fallen steadily behind those of Western. Europe. We are more likely to be unem- ployed, and more likely to be unemployed without UIC benefits, than Western Euro- peans. We get fewer holidays, shorter vaca- tions, and much less protection against job loss from tech change or plant closures. That is the context in which the Socreds seek a mandate to make B.C. labour ever weaker. @ WALK FOR PEACE Dear Sisters and Brothers: The End the Arms Race Committee has initiated a Walk for Peace — Sat., April 23, 1983. Leaving Kitsilano Park, Cornwall and Yew, at 12 noon to Sunset Park. Last year over 40,000 people participated in a similar walk. During the last year involvement has increased to include 115 organizations in the planning of this event. All over the world the peace movement has grown. In Canada we find ourselves in the midst of a broad and growing peace movement as never before. In B.C. over 40 municipalities held referendums on disar- mament in 1982. Vancouver's referendum produced an 80% vote in favour of disarma- ment. This momentum should not stop. On behalf of the officers of the B.C. Federation of Labour I urge all affiliates to publicize this event among their membership. Bring” your banners and good walking shoes. 4/Lumber Worker/April, 1983