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

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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.

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