V2

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

FEB.-MARCH, 1976

FROM PAGE ELEVEN

a

REGIONAL OFFICERS’ REPORT

Director of Organization, will
be making a comprehensive
report to this Convention and it
therefore will not be necessary
for the Officers’ Report to go
into detail in this regard.

Of great concern was the ne-
cessity to reduce the or-
ganizing staff in January of

1975 due to the depressed
lumber markets and layoffs in
the forest industry. However, if
we are to continue building and
expanding the membership of
this organization, we must find
ways and means to bring the
organizing staff to at least the
level previous to the layoffs.

POLITICAL EDUCATION

1975 has been for the most
part taken up with Industry ne-
gotiations in B.C. and indepen-
dent negotiations in the Prairie
provinces, While we came out
of negotiations in not a bad
shape, the welfare of the
workers in B.C. suffered a
serious setback by the defeat of
the NDP in the B.C. 1975 elec-
tion.

When the NDP was elected to
govern, the IWA did not expect
or ask for any special favours,
only a fair hearing and a fair
approach to labour’s problems.
We believe we got that type of
treatment.

We do not believe an election
should have been held in 1975.
However, hindsight is always
clearer than foresight and
when an election was an-
nounced, a meeting of the
Political Education Committee
was called and recommenda-
tions were adopted by the
Committee and communicated
to Local Union and Regional
Officers. The Regional Council
was to assist the NDP in the

election, maintain com-
munication and co-ordinate ef-
forts. We are satisfied the IWA
Local Unions’ performance
and the general performance
of the IWA in this election was
second to none. We continue to
be ata loss for an answer when
we ask ourselves how workers
can continue to elect represen-
tatives of the boss to public of-
fice and legislative positions,
and expect them to legislate
and govern in their favour.

The NDP’s three years in of-
fice should have been proof
positive that the NDP was
sympathetic to the cause of the
working people in this Pro-
vince and also eminently fair
with the business world and the
corporations.

We believe that during the
period that the NDP was the
Government of B.C. that some
labour spokesmen’s public
criticisms of the government
were untimely and in some in-
stances unwarranted and did
not help to maintain the NDP
Government in office.

NDP OPEN DOOR POLICY

We would be remiss if we did
not comment on what we
choose to call the open door
policy of the NDP Govern-
ment. Your Officers can do no-
thing but commend the Gov-
ernment (NDP) on this policy.
We were able to discuss at al-
most any time any problem
that arose with the appropriate
Minister, his Deputy, or even
the Premier if the occasion de-
manded. While there was not
always satisfaction or resolu-
tion, the communication and
co-operation extended was a
far cry from the previous ad-
ministration. We hope the
doors remain open with this
new administration.

Over the last year, we also
assisted in the Alberta and
Saskatchewan Provincial
Elections and the Winnipeg Bi-
Election. It was gratifying to
see the NDP re-elected in

Saskatchewan but we host the
Winnipeg Bi-Election, possibly
be default as in our opinion,
one third of our identified sup-
port failed to cast their ballots.

It cannot be emphasized too
strongly the necessity of
people, especially working
people, exercising their fran-
chise on election day and
electing candidates sym-
pathetic to their cause.

We are now experiencing the
effects of the election of a Gov-
ernment to Ottawa, a Govern-
ment that fought and won an
election on a campaign op-
posed to wage and price con-
trols. On October 14, 1975, the
Prime Minister announced
that wages and price controls
were to be the order of the day
and that legislation would be
introduced into the House and
when adopted, would be retro-
active to October 14, 1975.

BILL C-73

Bill C-73 has now been
adopted and the Federal Anti-
Inflation Board established.
The Bill is not fair; the Regula-
tions to control prices is not
clear; the machinery, if any, to
scrutinize profits is not clear.
The task of getting information
on profits and prices is horren-
dous and it is doubtful that pro-
fits and prices can be con-
trolled even under the best of
intentions. On the other hand,
labour’s wages and conditions

are negotiated in the full light

of public on and it takes no
_ expert to

"Grease is, or what the cost may

ind what a wage in- |

This legislation shackles
workers, creates chaos in col-
lective bargaining; in our
Opinion, will not effectively
control inflation; does not
strike an equal balance in con-
trol between wages and pro-
fits; and workers and their or-
ganizations will suffer. :

The CLC has opposed this
legislation from the beginning.
Your Officers support the posi-
tion of the Congress and we
urge the support of all Local
Unions for the CLC position.

We can only recommend that
Local Unions and the member-
ship become even more in-
volved at the local and consti-

tuency level. Constituency
meetings are important. Our
(IWA) participation is impor-
tant so that we may build a
party strong in numbers, in-
formed on the issues, always
ready to fight and win elec-
tions.

EDUCATION

The rather difficult set of ne-
gotiations that IWA Locals
were engaged in during 1975,
coupled with the large amounts
of layoffs in the Industry, had a
restraining effect on the
number of schools held during
the past year.

Even though times were
very difficult with periods of
uncertainty and financial re-
Straints, quite a number of
schools were held since last

“March. IWA schools have been

conducted in Haney, Prince
George, Tahsis, Terrace, Nel-
son, Saskatoon, Hudson Bay,
Prince Albert, Meadow Lake,

Fort Nelson, Hinton, and
Smith.
Our members to some

varying degrees have partici-
pated in the weekend Labour
Council Schools. This is an
area that could be utilized
more fully as it provides an ex-
cellent opportunity for our
members to mingle and con-
verse with other unionists and
thereby broaden their know-
ledge and possibly lead them to
perhaps appreciate their own
organization a little more.
Labour Council Schools parti-
cipated in by the Regional
Education Departent have
been held in Prince George,
Nelson, Penticton, Calgary and
Prince Rupert. The Interna-
tional Education Department
was actively engaged in the
conducting of classes in the
Region. With the co-operation
of the Regional department, a
number of schools were held in
Saskatchewan during the year.
At the present time, there is
every indication that 1976 will
prove to be a busy year with
respect to meeting the educa-
tional requests and needs of
our Locals. With this in mind,
and in co-operation with the
CLC and B.C. Federation of
Labour, your Annual Winter
School will contain one week
set aside for our own particular
educational requirements.
There will be an IWA Leader-
ship School held in Harrison
Hot Springs, B.C. the week of
March 14-19, 1976 inclusive.
In order to come up with a
comprehensive program for

» this school, there has been a lot

of co-operation from Regional
and International staff.

Arrangements are also being
made and under way to put on
a week long annual school to
take care of the needs of the
Prairie Locals, hopefully to be
held in Saskatchewan during
1976.

With the recent changes that
have taken place on the
political scene in British
Columbia, it is increasingly
important that our members
attend the educational pro-
grams of their Local Labour
Councils and actively partici-
pate in their own local educa-
tional programs:

The pendulum of change in
the field of labour relations
seems to indicate that there
are going to be very difficult

times ahead for the union
movement.

It is very important that our
members take every oppor-

tunity to prepare themselves
through these schools for the
many struggles that lie ahead
for the trade union movement.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Since the last Regional Con-
vention, the Public Relations
Department. has been kept
busy with first, six months of
negotiations, and second, the
provincial election. In addi-
tion, attempts have been made
to maintain the programs that
were started the year before as
“on-going programs.’’ These
programs included speaking in
Lower Mainland schools on
trade unionism generally and
the IWA specifically.

With the increased public
interest in the IWA during ne-
gotiations, it seems that almost
every university professor and
every high school teacher in
the Lower Mainland whose
course structure even remote-
ly included labour relations as-
signed a project about the IWA
to their students. These stu-
dents came through the Re-
gional Office in a _ stready
stream during and immediate-
ly after negotiations. The
Public Relations Department
did everything it could to help
these students get the informa-
tion they required.

During the election cam-
paign the Public Relations De-
partment dedicated its ener-
gies solely to the re-election of
the NDP government. Any
constituency that asked for as-
sistance in their advertising
campaign was laid out by the
IWA PR Department. In
others, our activity was con-
fined to advice and consulta-
tion with the local people on
their campaigns and how they
could be improved.

The PR Department con-
tinued its policy of supporting
and offering assistance to
smaller Unions with public re- »
lations problems they en-
countered during disputes. We
also continued our support of
the United Farm workers
Union in their struggle through
publicizing the boycott effort.
Direct assistance to the UFW
was less than in the previous
year simply because of the
heavy load encountered with
our own negotiations and the
election.

2LeEVERDE
SEVE!

ma te LL.

AYOFFS

Unfortunately, with the
severe layoff and resulting re-
duction in funds, we were un-
able to carry out as agressive a
public relations campaign as
we did the year before. There
was no large scale provincial
advertising campaign for B.C.
negotiations, nor did we have
the funds to become involved in
the Pacific National Exhibi-
tion. Local Unions that had
taken part in community fairs
the year -before were also
caught short of money and had
to curtail similar activities.

The Courtenay Local, with
the help of the Regional PR
Department, erected an excel-
lent display at a Wildlife and
Sportsmans Show. The display
urged hunters to exercise cau-
tion in the woods and
graphically displayed ex-
amples of vandalism in areas
where forest companies were
working. The Kamloops Local
did a similar display at the

B.C. Wildlife Federation Con-
vention in Kamloops.

Hopefully when the financial
picture improves, the Public
Relations Department will
again be able to get.involved
with aggressive campaigns
that will show the public the
true picture of our organization
and the trade union movement
in general.

Certainly our most success-
ful advertising campaign was
at Barrhead, Alberta at the
beginning of January. --Im-
perial Lumber had closed
down their mill for five months
in an attempt to bust the IWA
out of their mill. In consulta-
tion with the Local Union and
the Plant Committee, the PR
Department was able to mount
an advertising campaign that
had the mill operating two
days after it went on the air.
The campaign had been
scheduled to run for two weeks
with radio and newspaper
commercials.

NEWS COVERAGE

' Generally speaking, the
public image of the IWA im-
proved immensely during the
past year and news coverage
for the most part was very
favourable when considered
with the kind of coverage other
labour organizations were re-
ceiving. Unfortunately time
does not permit us to go into
detail of all the things that the
PR Department accomplished
or played a role in over the last
year, but this brief report
should give some indication of
the work we accomplished in a
very hectic year.

SAFETY
While some activities were
reduced to fit the circum-

stances of negotiations during ©
the year, it was still rewarding
in regard to furthering many of ~

the Safety projects in the
planned program.

Much emphasis was
developed toward amen-

dments to the WCB Regula-
tions on Accident Prevention
and Industrial Hygiene, and
Public Hearings are slated to
conclude this work later this
spring.

While the studies on effects
of cedar dust were entering the
final phases, the expanded ap-
pearance of several new indus-
trial chemicals signalled the

See “OFFICERS” p. 13