LWA. Archives Continued from previous page outfit on the coast.” And top organizers Ted Gunerad and “Jack Taylor” (actually Muni Er- lich, a Communist Party leader) worked the Vancouver Island camps to prepare for the oc- casion. The Lumberworker of December 16th, 1933, describes the extent a part of the skir- mishing: after being ejected from Bloedel’s Camp #4, organizers Gunerad and Ronnie Mc- Donald were told by police that they would be arrested for trespassing the next time. They returmmed anyway, and were told by the crew that, following their last visit “..the super, Mr. Daly accompanied by Mr. Dawson of the Provincial Police and the bull bucker had made a thorough manhunt for us, going through all the bunkhouses. They also made a close search underneath the bunkhouses and next day when the boys returned from work, they found that all their working class literature had been confiscated...” The loggers were receptive to this “agita- tion” because, although production and prices were up considerably over 1932 levels, wages continued to decline. So thirty-three delegates met in Vancouver on Christmas Eve, and adopted a tough program; wage increases of up to 50%, recognition of camp committees, no Sunday work, time an a half for overtime, and commissary prices to be reduced to cost. Leaflets appeared as if by magic in camps around the Coast, so when the Directors of the B.C. Loggers’ Association met on January 23rd, union activity was their chief concern. The conclusion was: “...it was the unanimous opinion that the present is not an opportune time to change existing wage schedules and that the best policy Is to await develop- ments.” evelopments did not keep the Direc- tors waiting long. On January 26th, forty fallers were fired, evidently for agitating for the union. Ted Gunerad “happened to be in camp.” “...A meeting was called to present the demands. The wage scale was presented to the superintendent, the strike vote was taken, and it was in favour, then the crew proceeded to the camp four miles below, camp three, ...and got them cout in the middle of the night to take a strike vote.... That was in favour, also...and the boom ‘camp came out too, altogether, about 500 .” Johnson was “at my post in a phone (the union had no phone) at | a.m. n Ted reported that both camps were out ‘the strikers were going to Campbellton to ° In the winter of 1934 striking loggers set up a picket camp near Campbell River, after fallers in one camp were fired for union activity. set up a picket camp.” There the loggers re- mained for the remainder of the strike."” (See photo above) Early the next morning, the union issued leaflets announcing the strike and calling for a supporting rally the next day, January 27th. Lamb’s Camp at Menzies Bay was next, then Elk River Timber at Quinsam, then Merrill Ring at Squamish, and so on. At its peak, the strike involved about 2,500 men in twenty camps. It accounted for more than half of B.C.’s strike days in 1934. When Bloedel’s tried to open their Great Central Lake camp near Alberni, the union countered with a march across the Island by several hundred striking loggers, led by the in- defatigable Ted Gunerad, to attempt to get the scabs out. (See photo below). The marchers were in the end foiled by Provincial Police with machine guns.“ The union published at least one hundred bulletins, and sponsored CJOR radio talks by a Bloedel striker named Sid Skinner. “Skinner and his goddam radio talks!” a Bloedel supervisor complained. The strike reached its peak about the end of March. B.C.’s Deputy Minister of Labour Adam Bell intervened. He recommended a new wage scale with substantial increases for the better-paid categories, much smaller in- creases for the lower rates. Camp commit- tees, with no mention of the union, were to be established. An informal agreement on Sun- day work, bolstered by Bell’s undertaking to supervise the legal restrictions more closely, was added. But the proposed settlement (March 9th) was turned down by the union, after a vote, because the lower rates were too low. The strike continued. The employers took a second look. If the union was influential enough to get the log- gers to reject that proposal, would they not be able to control the camp committees? Make life unbearable for management? Also, how determined were the loggers generally to con- tinue striking only for the benefit of the low- est paid, especially since the “Bell Scale” of- fered more to some categories than the union had demanded? Bell recommended, and the operators accepted, $4.50 per day for scalers, where the union had demanded only $4.00. But for the unskilled, it was a different story. The union wanted $2.00 per day as the mini- ue, where Bell recommended as low as 1.35. The union did demand that the higher rates be built into the agreement, but it was a gutsy move on their part to continue. The operators Continued on page fourteen IWA Archives * In 1934 hundreds of loggers, shown here near Port Alberni, marched across Vancouver Island to protest Bloedel’s attempt to run their Great Central Lake camp with scabs. 1996/9 LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1.