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PRESIDENT BILL WILSON

VIEWPOINT

The following article by President Bill Wilsow of Local
1-71, IWA, is the second in a series to be submitted for publica-
tion by IWA Local Union Presidents. The articie is printed as
submitted and no restrictions were made as to content. Articles
by the other Local Presidents expressing their views will be
published in succeeding issues of the Lumber Worker.

By W. H. WILSON
President, Local 1-71

We are reluctant to comply with the request of the
Regional President to give the viewpoint of The Loggers’
Local, when we are asked to follow the views expressed by
Brother Syd Thompson, President of Local 1-217.

We would gladly carry out
this task if we could point
out the problems of the Log-
gers — acquaint the entire
membership with their needs
and solicit their support to
bring about a solution to their
problems.

We believe that our Lumber
Worker should confine itself
to expressing the news and
views of the [WA members in
a united manner in line with
policies established by the
membership. In this way, this
paper will continue to be an
effective medium of providing

information to the member-
ship.

Brother Thompson chose to
play politics to the hilt in his
article. He chose to point out

that he had restored democ-
racy for the Loggers.

The issue really was not
one of restoring democracy,
but rather, destroying it to
provide a hope for him and
his associates to gobble up this

Local Union and others in his
bid for power.

See “FEDERATION” — Page 6

IWA Documentary — Part 5

IWA DEFEATED CARPENTERS IN LIFE STRUGGLE

Uo

Incorporating he @.G. Cumbermoréer Official Publication of the Tatesuatte

wal Woodworkers of Abmertea Regional Council No. 1

Vol. XXX, No. 22

VANCOUVER, B.C. ~

5¢ PER COPY

2nd Issue
November, 1963

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FEDERATION DELEGATES

A resolution calling for greater unity in the Canadian
Jabour movement adopted by the delegates attending the
B.C. Federation of Labour Convention November 12-16, in
Vancouver, could spell the end to present union raiding.

The resolution submitted
by the Resolutions Committee
proposed setting up a com-

ENA

B.C. Federation, :
N.D.P. Elections

B.C. Federation of Labour
Officers and Executive Coun-
cil elected at the 8th Annual

Convention November 16,
are as follows:
J. R. St. Eloi,
President.

J. Moore, IWA, ist Vice
President.

H. Haynes, RWDSU, 2nd
Vice-President.

L. Wisheart, Firefighters,
3rd Vice-President.

E. T. Staley, Carpenters,
4th Vice-President.

E. P. O’Neal, Secretary-
treasurer.

COUNCIL MEMBERS

P. Baskin, U.S.W.A.; C.
Crombie, Newspaper Guild;
Rhoda Erickson, CBRT; J.
Galloway, Beverage Dispen-
sers; J. Holst, WA; G. John-
ston, Meat Cutters; E. Mead-
ows, Merchant Service
Guild; W. Symington,
U.P.W.A.; W. Trineer, IWA;
Fred Wood, Pulp Sulphite.

Itt

Plumbers,

New Democratic Party
Provincial officers elected
at the Party’s recent Con-
vention are as follows: Pres-
ident, Jack MacKenzie, IWA
Regional Ist Vice-President;
1st Vice-President, Alex
Macdonald; 2nd Vice-Presi-
dent, Walter Young; 3rd
Vice-President, Grant Mac-
Neil, IWA Regional Director
of Public Relations; Secre-

CU

tary-Treasurer, Fred Vul-
= liamy. =
0000000

mittee to bring outside un-
ions into the Canadian La-

bour Congress and “promote
a maximum degree of unity
within the labour movement.”

The issue was heatedly de-
bated for 2% hours on the
Convention floor before it
was finally passed by a large
majority of the three hun-
dred and eighty delegates.

Difficult times ahead for
the labour movement was
predicted by the first of the
Convention speakers, Dr. Tait
Montague, Director of Indus-
trial Relations at UBC, be-
cause of the slowing down of
the economy’s growth and
technological change.

He scored labour for its
negative and defensive ap-
proach and urged it to ac-
centuate the positive because

it has many virtues to offer.
Bill Dodge, CLC Executive

OVE TO CURB RAIDING

Vice-President also addressed
the Convention and gave a
hard-hitting speech in which
he made no effort to hide his
utter contempt for the heads
of the SIU. .-

He classed them as the
prototypes of the ugliest of

‘ ugly Americans and stated,

“We shall never capitulate to
gangster-type trade union-
ism.”

Another stirring address
was made by Mrs. Tarea Pitt-
man, West Coast Regional
Secretary of the National
Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People.

Speaking on civil rights in
the U.S. she stated the fight
against racism there is a ques-
tion of do-or-die for western
civilization. The black na-
tions are watching the negro
fight and whom they support
in the cold war may depend
on how the negroes make out
in the USS.

“The bottom of thousands
of lakes and rivers in the

See “VIEWPOINT” — Page 2

STRIKERS GIVEN NOTICE
TO RETURN TO WORK

IWA members striking the planer operations of the North
Canadian Forest Industries Limited, Grande Prairie, Alberta,
have been notified by letter from the Company that the plant
will resume normal operations and they are to return to work.

The strikers have ignored
the invitation to return and
are expecting a further letter
informing them that they are
dismissed.

At the moment the planer
mill is operating one shift
with the aid of scabs but pro-
duction is almost negligible.
The Company recently had
four carloads of lumber —
which represented one week’s -

production — moved out of
the Plant under police pro-
tection. The Company’s nor-
mal production is five carloads

a day.
The railroad members who

moved the lumber are sym-
pathetic to the IWA cause
but their employer, the

See “STRIKERS” — Page 3

“The sweetest little fight you’ve ever seen” was threatened by
President “Big Bill” Hutcheson of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners when western woodworkers dissolved their American
Federation of Labor affiliations to form a new CIO international union.
He kept his word. The attack on the newly-formed IWA, ordered by
Hutcheson, sparked the bitterest jurisdictional battle known in western
jabor history.

The fight was forced upon the IWA before the ink was dry on
its CIO certificate of affiliation. Its survival was at stake. The powerful
and well-entrenched Carpenters, supported’ by AFL affiliates, were

bent upon the complete extermination of any rival union in the

woodworking industry. IWA woodworkers, who rallied manfully to
the defense of their legal rights, soon found that no holds were
parred in the knockdown-and-dragout struggle that resulted. AFL
— and CIO unions fought each other with

mass picketing and counter-picketing,
boycotts and counter-boycotts and with
legal argument before the National La-
bor Relations Board and the courts.
Bloody clashes around the plants and on
the rivers sent more than a thousand
men fo hospital as imported goon squads
roved through lumbering centers to in-
timidate IWA members.

The story is told here without intent
to re-kindle an ancient feud. Subsequent
developments toned down the fierce an-
tagonisms of the period. It must be

ee ip nO however, that, in an import-
hee iniand , the conflict shaped the course

cae Ra Nee.

WHAT‘S
INSIDE

Turns - - 2-3-6

of unionization in the lumber industry. The division which then arose
still exists at many points. As it occurred during a critical phase of
the struggle with wage-cutting employers, ground was lost that had
to be regained later by the IWA. The immediate consequences were
tragic in terms of trade union progress but the eventual outcome was
a triumph for trade union democracy as upheld by the IWA.

Background for the struggle was the nation-wide controversy
over the refusal of the AFL to organize workers into industrial unions.
The unions which formed the Committee for Industrial Organization
were expelled from the Federation in 1937 and formed the Congress
of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The pressing need for unionization
of the mass production industries had long been apparent. Encouraged
by New Deal legislation, the workers in these industries organized
themselves in the only way that made sense where segregation into
crafts was impossible. Their local unions included everyone who
worked in their operations whether they were mechanics or mainten-
ance men, production workers or painters, skilled or unskilled.

The attempt by the big international unions to divide federally-
chartered locals into crafts was quickly seen as causing weakness
and confusion in bargaining. An industrial union torn into craft pieces
meant disorganization, not organization — no union at all where one
had already existed. On this issue the ranks of labor in the United

’ States and Canada split into two camps, each warring upon the other.

Thousands of woodworkers had flocked to 130 federal unions
chartered directly by the AFL prior to 1935. Little was done by the
AFL to assist this spontaneous organization or to improve the lot of
the half-starved sawmill workers and loggers. In 1935, Hutchese
demanded and secured jurisdiction over the workers nm