Long-time staffer
Moe Walls retires

e was one of the I.W.A.’s
longest serving staff mem-
bers anywhere. After forty
years as a union member,
the much respected Maurice (Moe)
Walls has retired — or, should we say,
has begun to take it a little easier.

Although he “officially” retired on
March 1 of this year, Brother Walls
still makes his services available to
the national office, on occasion, to
assist his Beecement, Brother John
Mountain, the new Technical Advisor
of the Evaluation Department.

Moe ran the Evaluation Depart-
ment following the retirement of long-
time friend and colleague Ev Flan-
nery in 1992. i

Over the years, no national staffer
has put driven more highway miles
than Moe Walls. He has driven hun-

dreds of thousands of miles and has
visited countless union operations on
the B.C. Coast, southern Interior and
Northern Interior. He has also done
evaluation in Alberta, Manitoba and
Saskatchewan,

At an reception held for Moe and his
wife Sherry on March 8 of this year,
national union president Dave Hag-
gard said there isn’t one person in
B.C. that works in a sawmill or a ply-
wood plant that wouldn’t thank Moe
for his contributions to the I.W.A. and
it’s membership.

“Moe I wis:

you a great retire-

>

;
iz

that I remember Moe coming up with
innovative arguments that helped us
win the day,” said Routley.

Others including National First
Vice President Neil Menard, Local 1-
85 President Larry Rewakowsky,
Local 1-405 President Bob Matters,
thanked Moe for the job he did.

Born in Creston, B.C. in 1938, Moe
moved with his family to Trail in 1940
where he went to school from grades

-one to six.

Then it was on to the Coast and to
Port Alberni where his father, Clay-
ton Walls, got a job at MacMillan
Bloedel’s Alberni plywood mill from
1950-53.

In 1953 his father was sent by the
union to Cranbrook as an organizer
for the I.W.A. The union was reconsol-
idating the membership it lost during
the “red block” and “white block” split
of 1948,

Moe remembers joining his dad for
a three week period in 1954, and
trekking into logging camps for orga-
nizing meetings. He was only 16.

“I has a real education on what
unionization and organizing was
about,” he remembers. “We went to
logging camps that were 40-50 miles
into the bush from paved roads.”

Clayton Walls become the Director
of the Interior Regional Office of the
union in 1954 and was stationed in
Kelowna. The IRO was responsible for

e Joining Moe to cut his retirement cake was Sherry, his wife of 40 years.

ment,” said Haggard. “Congratula-
tions and I think you have done a hel-
tavagiob for our union.”

Bill Routley, president of Duncan
Local 1-80 called Moe “a class act” and
“unsung hero” that was always able to
get better job rates.

“J can’t think of the number of times

administering the southern Interior
local region as it was not yet self suffi-
cient.

Following the international conven-
tion of 1961 in Miami, Florida, when a
decision was made to split the Inter-
national Woodworkers of America
into five regions, Clayton became

e Moe accepted gift of a golf club presented by National Secretary-Trea-
surer Terry Smith on behalf of the national union’s officers and staff.

Director of Organizing of Western
Canada Region 1 and worked out of
Kelowna until he passed away in
1969.

After finishing high school, Moe
moved from Kelowna to New West-
minster and got a part time job at
Scott Paper. In August of 1957 he
hired at the Canadian Collieries ply-
wood plant in New Westminster,
which would later become Weldwood.
He got married in May of 1959 and
about 6 weeks later the I.W.A. went
on strike.

A year later at age 22 Moe became a
job steward on a six member commit-
tee in the plant which had between
350-400 workers. He was voted in as

plant chairman in 1962.
In 1963 the union sent him to

~ southern Alberta with regional staffer

Bob Schlosser to organize in then
what was known as Local 1-206. He
spent from April 1 to the end of the
year organizing in that province.

After returning to the plywood
plant in 1964, he joined then plant
chair Ev Flannery and became a com-
mittee member and executive board
member of Local 1-357. He then did a
6 week stint in the local to spill off
business agent and recording secre-
tary Ray Eddy, who sat as a member
of the legislative assembly in Victoria.

In 1965 Moe successfully applied
for a business agent’s job at the local
level and, among his various duties,
serviced many of the smaller certifica-
tions. He stayed on at the local level
and went on leave to participate in
research for the Joint Review -
Wilkinson Report that was released in
1971. That report made major
changes to the plywood evaluated jobs
in Western Canada.

He replaced staff member Al Bush a
year later. In 1973, between contracts,
there were major changes in the ply-
wood and sawmill rate determination
programs in the Interior and many
gains were made. Red-circled jobs

¢ Still helping out on occasion, Moe is seen with his replacement John Mountain, to his left. Here they meet with
the IFLRA’s Greg Wishart and Riverside Forest Products Gordon Wolfe during a plywood job evaluation session.

were reduced and advances were
made, especially for entry level group
rates.

Soon after, Moe says about 75% of
the membership on the Coast wanted
wage increases. The industry agreed
to an evaluation process and Forest
Industrial Relations agreed to a
process in the plywood industry.

Also in 1973 Moe took on the ply-
wood sector and southern Interior
sawmill evaluation while then depart-
ment director Tony Vanderheide
moved to rate determination in
coastal sawmills.

A year later Ev Flannery came on
board to work in the northern Inte-
rior.

Moe says that larger scale tech

change started to take place in

sawmills in 1964-65. In the mid-60’s
Northwood’s then Okanagan Falls
sawmill (now owned by Weyer-
haeuser) put in the first J-bar type
sorter system. In the plywood indus-
try four man lathe crews were cut in
half.

“Slowly every job started to
change,” says Moe. “There is hardly a
job, especially in sawmills that hasn’t
changed over the years.”

He says the Interior became more
modern because it mass-produced
dimension two inch and one inch lum-
ber. In the late 1970’s computerized
edgers, automatic trimmers and
mechanized log decks appeared.

The recession of the 1980’s resulted
in large scale change in the Interior
and Coast.

Moe also witnessed the downfall
and virtual elimination of the plywood
industry on the Coast. In 1971 there
were 15 such mills on the Coast.
Today the I.W.A. represents workers
at only one veneer plant.

He says the industry didn’t retool
for changing log profiles and products.

“The plywood industry on the Coast
peered to be destined to be elimi-
nated by choice by not making the
necessary changes,” says Moe.

In the future Moe predicts that
there will be more combination jobs in
mills and that the employers will try
to eliminate grading jobs with tech
change.

‘Tm sure they will make the mills
even smaller and more sophisticated,”
he comments. “What I see is that wy
will combine more jobs together wii
a guy sitting at a booth controlling 3
or 4 work stations. Every job the
Cea can eliminate saves them
$50-60,000 dollars a year including
benefits.”

He predicts (ae jobs will be
around for some time yet as they have
not been able to separate species, as
each species may have separate grad-

inj ies.

oe is thankful for his years of ser-
vice to the I.W.A. “The I.W.A. was my
life and I tried to do the job to the best
of my abilities to get the most for our

members,” he says.
Moe did the ao and he did it well.

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1999/13