1st Issue , April, 1964 x 12 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER Interpretation Ruling © Gives Cleanup Men | : my Overtime Rates ! wt ee , The IWA Regional Officers have been upheld by Mr. Jus- ™ §©tice F. Craig Munroe in their interpretation of Article V, ' Section 1 (a) of the master agreement. The arbitrator has ruled that cleanup men are entitled to overtime rates for - Bes Davin, Warden. FROM POLICY COMMITTEE . eee ‘yy ® es ~- NEW OFFICERS of the Oliver Ladies’ Auxiliary of Local 1-423, IWA, who were installed by Local President William Schumaker at their supper meeting March 5, in the Reopel Hotel, Oliver, Group are, left, Helen Trang, Recording Secretary; Ella Stich, Ist Vice-President; Pauline Saprikin, Financial Secretary; Elsie Parker, President; Helen Bauder, Conductor; Message To Union Wives To the Wives of IWA Mem- bers: Because thousands of lum- ber workers’ wives have told us, we know that it is the fam- ilies who feel the pinch of low wages, job uncertainties and either full or part time unemployment. The Union is determined to remedy this Situation in our homes and expects your enthusiastic backing. Your support is im- portant. There is no good reason why a lumber worker’s fam- ily should not enjoy a better standard of living. He works for the largest and wealthiest industry in the province which is now demanding more from him in hard work, skills and health risks than most other industries. His in- creased output, together with that of his fellow-workers, is building huge profits for his employer. It is only proper that his family should gain a larger share of such profits made out of his labour. At this time, our income tax forms remind us that the annual take-home pay has not been enough for family needs. Only a wife and moth- er knows how difficult it has been to make the wage dollar stretch to pay the grocery bills, the milk bills, the cloth- ing bills, to outfit the kids for school and give them a chance for a better education, to finance normal recreation and at the same time to meet the usual a mort- e or rental payments. Many wives who would pre- fer to be full-time homemak- ers are forced to accept em- ployment because their homes need the extra dollars. There are always family emergen- cies to meet. least, an extra $3.20 a day, or an extra $16 a week, or an extra $822 a year. You will find a ready use for the ex- tra wage dollars and your family will benefit material- ly. You are bound to agree that these benefits are worth fighting for. Why should you listen to anyone who says that the Union is asking too much? The Union’s wage demand will hurt no one, least of all the employers. Their profits are so large that the proposed increase in their wage bill looks small in comparison. They will still have sufficient to build bigger and better plants. Their wives will still be able to buy extra Cadillacs, get weekly beauty treatments, hire maids to do their house- work and take frequent trips to Hawaii and the Bahamas. When you have this extra money to spend at the grocery store or in the department store for better clothing and shoes, you will be helping business in your community. You will help to keep the fac- tories humming to make work for those who are now unem- ployed. The total wage-spend- ing of lumber workers and their families in this province helps build prosperity for all the people. You are also concerned about your husband’s right to a steady job, with promotion. The employers have shown no concern about this what- ever, so they try to make one man do the work of two. As they rapidly automate their operations, men with families are being thrown on UIC ben- efits and then social assist- ance. The Union is concerned to protect your husband’s job as the employers are not. A large portion of the em- ployers’ extraordinary profits are made because they are now able to displace men with machines without accepting responsibility for their em- ployees’ future welfare. This has cut their payroll to the detriment of the economy. The Union’s demands for double overtime, longer vaca- tions and security in job rights are all made to enable work- ers to hold their jobs with promotion rights and make more jobs for those facing the danger of compulsory unem- ployment. Better wages, as well as the other proposed contract improvements will all work to make life easier and more secure for you and your family. These are all good reasons why you should back your husband’s Union during the present negotiations, You know that the members of the Union must take a firm and united stand for their rights and do whatever may be nec- essary to convince the em- ployers that you and your family have the right to better and more secure living. Back the Union! IWA Policy Committee. JACK POPOVICH, another old time member of Local 1-80, IWA, who was very ac- tive in the Union. Mr. Popo- vich is now enjoying his re- tirement at his home in Lady- smith, Saturday and Sunday. The Union’s case was ar- gued by Regional President Jack Moore before the arbi- _ trator, with D. A. S. Lanskail of Forest Industrial Relations Ltd. opposing. Mr. Justice Munroe said, in part: “I was informed by spokes- men for the parties that, in general, employees regularly employed as cleanup men commence -work one hour after the (remainder of) pro- duction shift, and quit work one hour later, and that their work entails the contempor- aneous sweeping and removal of chips, sawdust and other debris that accumulate at or near the machines during pro- duction. It is contended, on behalf of the employers, that while such employees do per- form duties which are ancil- lary to the production process, they are not engaged directly therein and cannot, therefore, be properly designated as “production employees.” It is said, too, that the work per- formed by cleanup men is in the nature of housekeeping duties, more closely identified with maintenance work than with production. After con- sideration, I have reached the conclusion that I must reject that submission. The cleanup men, I find, are a necessary and integral part of the act or process of producing. Without EDITORIAL STOP RUNAWAYS | their services, the smooth flow of production would cease. Their duties, as I understand them, do not involve the up- keep of buildings, equipment ~ or machines. Then, it is submitted that, * in the absence of unambigu- ous language in the Master -; Agreement stating that clean- up men may not be classified as maintenance employees, the employers have, by vir- tue of their management * rights as set out in Article II Section 1, the right to desig- ,: nate them as such. To put it another way, it is said that the onus is on the Union to * prove that, by-the terms of the Collective Agreement, the % employers relinquished their (alleged) common law right - to designate into which cate- gory the cleanup men should fall. I am of opinion that this submission is without merit. Neither at common law nor * under the said management clause is there support for the.. proposition that the employer may arbitrarily and unilater- erally designate the classifica- ? tion to which an employee be- longs. I hold that, upon a 5 proper interpretation of the Master Agreement, cleanup employees are “production? employees” within the mean- ing of that term as it appears ? in Article V Section 1. In the result the answer to question , number (1) is ‘yes’.” oe ee workers in British Columbia are interested in the Alberta strike situations for more than merely * sentimental reasons. All the signs point to the fact that the employers in both provinces are trying to create a haven for runaway low-wage offshoots of their operations in British Co- lumbia. Unless this trend is halted, it will not be many years till woodworkers in this province perform only the initial stages of processing timber, while skilled work in finish- ing is done at starvation wages in Alberta. It is most convenient for the employers to have low- ° wage operations just over the provincial bounda ry so they can claim that wage parity must be established at > the lowest possible level. It is also most convenient for them to be able to import low-wage unorganized labour from an adjoining province when trouble is brewing in British Columbia as they have done before. >» In all these respects sub-standard wages and condi- tions in Alberta are a constant threat to butter of woodworkers at the coast. the bread and ' > Crown Plant Shows Profit Polymer Corporation Limited, the crown-owned rubber ° firm whose plants now compete in various other countries to the despair of Canadian opponents of state-run enterprise, ~ . reports a net profit after taxes of $9,138,000 and record sales for 1963 of $97,460,000. | f