parte me q p secon THE WESTERN CANADIAN & ia tg Vol. XXX, No. 10 VANCOUVER, B.C. i held by the Local Union May 24-25, in Port Alberni. (tt ! Incorporating Fhe BG, Leenbermarker Official Publication of the Jaleraatlenal Woedtworkers of r¥meréea Regional Council No. 1 | ) 5c PER COPY \ 1st Issue June, 1963 <>* LOCAL 1-85, IWA MEMBERS who attended the highly successful Education Conference Advertisers Oust Berton The Pierre Berton page carried in Maclean’s maga- zine has been terminated through pressure brought to bear by advertisers and others objecting to Berton’s highly controversial articles. Maclean’s cited a recent article on youth and sex as a contributing factor in their decision to discontinue the series. (One of Berton’s ar- ticles “The big lie about med- ical insurance” is reprinted in this edition of the Lumber Worker). A United Church minister stated he was shocked by the whole thing. “To have Canada’s top jour- nalist censored by financial interests supported by a bunch of moral prudes with- out any regard to his out- standing contribution to the political, social and cultural life of Canada is terrible.” Norris Report Due SIU-CMU Lakes Seen Coming lo The long and violent strug- gle in the Great Lakes ship- ping industry seems to be coming to a head. With both the Canadian and United States governments trying to ensure freedom of navigation on the lakes, a new spotlight has ‘been focussed on the re- port of Mr. Justice T. G. Norris on his investigation of labor strife and shipping dis- ruptions on the lakes. The Norris report is expect- ed to be delivered to Liberal Labor Minister Allan Mac- Hachen early in June. It will be the central point around which efforts will be made by government and by organized labor to resolve the three-year struggle between the Canadian Labor Congress and its oné-time affiliate, the Seafarers’ International Union of Canada. ‘lake ports. RA © aS Dispute f a Fy Zs a a mé@ae The CLC is backing its affiliate, the Canadian Mari- time Union, in the lake juris- diction, while the AFL-CIO, through its maritime trades department, is supporting the SIU. The SIU, strengthened by its allies in the MTD, is try- ing to tie up ships manned by CMU crews in American MTD president Paul Hall, who also heads the SIU of North America, has promised to keep up the fight against the CMU. He accused the CLC ex- ecutive of “scabbing” against the SIU by backing the CMU. U.S. Labor Secretary Wil- lard Wirtz promply rapped Mr. Hall for his statements, saying the SIU leader did not realize the gravity of the lake situation. See “DISPUTE”—Page 3 MILITANT CREW ENDS DISCORD AT PASSMORE By JACK MUNRO Business Agent, Local 1-405, IWA The dispute between Local 1-405, IWA and the Passmore Lumber Company over the Company’s attempt to evade its responsibilities to its employees under the Union agreement has been settled through the fine display of solidarity by the crew. Cause of the trouble was the Company’s plan to sub- contract out the work of their woods division following the dismissal of the Union crew. The Company, long known for its anti-union attitude, has a Tree Farm License along with approximately 100 miles of timber resources in the Slocan Valley. The owner, Axel Erickson, is an Ameri- can who makes no attempt to hide his contempt for his Carpenters boycott IWA Firm A boycott against IWA produced cabinets imposed by the Carpenters Union in Cali- fornia, has forced IWA Inter- national President, A. F. Har- tung, to protest the Carpen- ters’ action to AFL-CIO Pres- ident George Meany. The cabinets made by members of IWA Local 3-14, Forest Grove, Oregon, under a Union contract, are claimed by the Carpenters to be made by non-union labour. In his letter to Meany, Har- tung stressed that the goods were made in a union shop. “The Carpenters’ action,” he stated, “is in direct violation of provisions in Article 21 of the AFL-CIO Constitution.” The boycott was called to the attention of the IWA by the owner of the cabinet firm who received a copy of a let- ter circulated by the Carpen- ters which stated that the cabinets were non-union and junk. Canadian employees or the Union agreement. \ Rea ¥ ie az Y a JACK MUNRO The Union has in the past ignored most of his outbursts believing time would mellow him. Unfortunately, this didn’t prove to be the case. See “PASSMORE” Page 2 SNL : Region 3 : On Strike Three thousand members of IWA Regional Council No. 3 struck the operations of the St. Regis Paper and U.S. Plywood Companies, at midnight June 4. The strike was called after the Union rejected the companies offer of 20 cents over a three-year per- iod. The Union had reduced its original demands of 40 cents an hour with a three- year contract, to 35 cents an hour over three years. LUQUE NUTT nl 2 UMN R i The Big Lie About Medical Insurance By PIERRE BERTON OW soon, | wonder, will the general public understand that it is being duped and deceived by the medical profession, the insur- ance companies and the politicians on the subject of health insurance? How soon will they cotton on to the Big Lie, told over and over again of Canadians are now adequately protected against sickness and accident by the existing private health plans? The statistic usually bandied about is 70 percent. That is the figure used by Robert Thompson, the Social Credit leader, in the last federal election and by Premier John Robarts in introducing a so-called “medi- care” bill in Ontario. The figure is false; and what is equally false is the assump- tion that all those who have such zov- erage have “reasonable medical insur- ance” — a nice, round, complacent, mis- leading phrase used recently by the Ontario Medical Association to dismiss two-thirds of the population. —that the vast majority The seful, since there is hase easily ticians of the federal Department of Health, show that 47.2 percent, not 70 percent, of the total population have some form of private health insurance. The figure for Ontario is 57.1 percent. And the number has started to decrease, suggesting that the saturation point has been reached as far as voluntary premium paying is concerned. The propaganda in favor of maintaining the status quo got a boost recently from the Province of Ontario. Its health minister, Dr. Matthew Dymond, quoting figures on private medical coverage, had this to say to the Royal Commission on Health Services: “Not only does the foregoing reflect the tremendous increase in the demand for voluntary health insurance — it might well be considered to indicate that people have confidence in private enterprise — in the existing insurance plans.” That's like saying that the gambler who patronizes a fixed wheel, because it’s the only game in town, has confidence in the casino. Dr. Dymond might consider that people are so hungrv for some kind of coverage that they’re snatching at anything. Again the Ottawa statistics show an unmistakable trend: the public is moving away from profit-making insurance-company plans toward the kind of plan that most resembles true Medicare: the comprehensive, non-profit, service plan which covers the patient for “in-hospital” treatment, surgery, home and office calls.