aa - THE WESTERN CANADIAN

LUMBER WORKER |

AUTHORIZED AS SECOND CLASS MAIL, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OTTAWA, AND FOR PAYMENT OF POSTAGE IN CASH.

1st Issue

VANCOUVER, B.C. April, 1967

5c PER COPY SS

STAVE LAKE CREW
WALKS OFF JOB
TO PROTEST CONDITIONS

EMPLOYEES of Canadian Forest Products’ Stave Lake Cedar operation, who walked off
the job April 17 in protest over the inhuman working conditions, are shown at the mass
meeting in Mission held to discuss the situation with Local and Regional officers.

OFFICERS of Local 1-367 and the Regional Council are photographed with the Stave
Lake Cedar committee following the walk out of the operations 100-man crew April 17.
Officers seated left, are, Fred Fieber, Regional secretary-treasurer; Del Pratt, Regional
2nd vice president; Morris Nordblad, Local financial secretary; Cy Godfrey, Local

president.

IN MEMORIAM

Local 1-85 IWA _ reports
with regret the death of two
members killed in separate
logging accidents in the Local
Union cating the past month,

ging moved. This caused one
of the logs to roll killing Edel-
holm before he could get in
the clear.

Brother K. Saito, age 30,
employed as a hooktender at
the Fleetwood Logging Com-
pany, was killed instantly
April 14, when struck by a
yarded log. Brother Saito was
a member of both the shop
and safety committees and

highly i ateuins in the opera-

the landing was lying close to
the tail block and was jammed
in between two stumps. The
log was fifty-seven feet in
length and in order to clear it
from the stumps a choker was
set twenty feet back. The
order was then given to skin
the rigging back as close as

eagibie to ie tail block.

an was hoped that by doing
this the turn anon clear the
stumps when it went ahead.
Unfortunately, the log went
back into its original position
between the stumps where it
up ended and Sia Saito be-
fore he could escape.

One hundred shingle work-
ers employed at the Canadian
Forest Products’ Stave Lake
Cedar operation in Dewdney,
walked off the job April 17 in
protest over the inhuman
working conditions forced on
them by the plant manager.

The employees, members of
Local 1-367 IWA Haney,
charge that the manager’s
attitude “is forty years be-
hind the times and he treats
them like animals.”

The day shift workers took
the job action at noon and
their walk out was solidly
supported by the night shift.

At an emergency meeting
held in Mission following the
walk out, attended by Re-

gional officers Fred Fieber, °

secretary-treasurer and Del
Pratt, 2nd vice-president, as
well as Local officers Cy God-
frey, president and Morris
Nordblad, financial secretary,
the crew unanimously ap-
proved a motion, “Not to go
back to work under the man-
ager’s present attitude.”

The men in justifying the
walk-out, claimed that the at-
mosphere in the plant had be-
come so bad that many of
them were forced to take
tranquilizing pills to cope with
the job.

They stated that trouble
had been brewing at the plant
for a long time and placed the
majority of the blame on the
atrocious safety conditions in
the operation which they
claimed were caused by the
manager’s callous indifference
for the welfare of his employ-
ees,

They said that three em-
ployees had already been ser-
iously injured this year
through working under these
adverse conditions.

The relations with the man-
ager, they added, had deter-
iorated to the point where
the Union members withdrew
from the accident prevention
committee because all its safe-
ty recommendations were
ignored and the committee
was denied the right to sit in
on accident investigations.

They cited an _ instance
where one of the safety com-
mittee members kicked a hole
in a plank on a cat-walk -to
show its unsafe condition. In-
stead of being commended for
this action he was severely
censored by the manager for
destroying company property.

The crew listed a number
of other damning complaints

See “WALK-OUT”—Page 2

IWA LOCAL UNIONS
SUPPORT IBEW STRIKERS

Officers of Local 1-405 in
Nelson and Local 1-423 in
Kelowna have announced that
their members will honour
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers’ picket
lines if the union pickets IWA

‘operations in its strike against

West Kootenay Power and
Light Company.

The IBEW struck the pow-
er company April 11 following
the company’s refusal to give
the members parity with the
B.C. Hydro workers.

IWA plants in Nelson and
Kelowna are serviced by
power produced by the West
Kootenay company. The
IBEW claims the power is
“hot” because company su-
pervisors are operating the
power stations.

Approximately 1,500 IWA
workers would be affected if
the IBEW were to picket op-
erations in the two Local Un-
ions.

The IWA is keeping a close
eye on the situation and Jack
Munro, the 1st vice-president
of Local 1-405 IWA, and presi-
dent of the Nelson, Trail and
District Labour Council, re-
cently wired Labour Minister
Peterson requesting his de-
partment mediate the strike.
The following is a copy of the
telegram:

“Due to the large number
of IWA members who will be
affected by a strike situation,

between IBEW Local 999 and
West Kootenay Power and

JACK MUNRO
. backs IBEW strikers

Light Company Limited, I
sincerely urge your depart-

ment to appoint a mediator
for this dispute.

“As strike notice has been
served, I feel this is of the ut-
most importance.”