IWA PARLEY OPENS SEPTEMBER 28

WOODWORKERS FACE NEW PROBLEM

‘Woodworkers need policies to protect them against speed-up,
mechanization, declining employment, and for shorter hours, better
wages and working conditions, ’ says this article which the Pacific
Tribune received from a Communist woodworker.

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‘BARKER’ EDITOR SAYS:
1WA must insist workers

have say in new problems
posed by mechanization

A special convention issue of “The Barker,” organ of Local
1-217 of the IWA, carries an article by editor Bob Clair which
declares that “the accent is on the’ elimination of manpower by
the use of mechanization and speed-up in the coast B.C, logging
industry,”

Clair says that “no quarrel can be found with the new logging
methods which reduce the efforts required by men, However, the
question must be asked: who receives the Savings in wages?”

Pointing out that new Serious problems demand attention,
Clair lists these as important problems that must be taken up:
“Retraining for men whose jobs have been eliminated, rates of
pay in line with responsibility for those remaining, work rules
requiring that the company keep a specified number of men to
do the work on the jobs that are left, and take away manage-
ment’s arbitrary right to decide the make up of work crews,

“These are only a few of the vital changes which must be
made if speed-up is to be combatted and mechanization instituted
correctly,

“The profit hungry forest industry operator must be made
to realize that the forests of British Columbia are not his alone
to do with as he pleases and the IWA must insist that wood-

workers who work in logging must be treated as men,” concludes
Clair, :

ox uy
BYEs BEER

TORONTO UNIONISTS BACK PRINTERS. More than 1,500 workers formed a mass
picketline at Toronto’s City Hall on Sept. 14 to support the printers locked in a
bitter contract dispute with union-busting publishers of the city’s three daily
newspapers. Fifteen pickets from Montreal joined the d trat A key issue
in the fight is over control of jobs resulting from introduction of automation by
the big newspapers.

The 27th annual convention of
Region No, 1 of the I.W.A. will
convene on Monday, Sept. 28, in
the Georgia Hotel, Vancouver.
The importance of this meeting
to the woodworkers, as well as
to the whole trade union move-
ment of B.C. could hardly be
overemphasized,

Last year’s regional conven-
tion revealed a deep and serious
rift between the regional leader-
ship and some of the largest
locals. The locals fought for a
more democratic form of repres-
entation and a more powerful
voice on the regional executive
board, the policy committee and
the negotiation committee to get
at the problems of the member-
ship.

These differences sawthe con-
vention almost evenly divided,
with the regional leadership win-
ning by a majority of only one
or two in a roll call vote on the
important issue of proportional
representation on the regional
executive board. It is expected
that this convention will see this
struggle renewed with increased
vigor because of the way nego-
tiations were carried on for this
year’s contract, and due to many
problems that have not been at-
tended to. ; E

Since the last convention the
union has been through contract
negotiations in all three areas
in B.C., covering the coast as
well as the southern interior,
Although government represen-
tative Fisher was forced by the
membership to come forth with
the 28 cent proposal over two
years in the coast agreement,
a large part of the membership
thought the settlement still was
most inadequate. The strong
*NO” vote on the Fisher pro-
posals, despite a barrage of re-
gional propaganda, attests to this,

Contracts won in other indust-
ries by other unions, coupled
with the record profits harvested
by forest operators, sustain the
correctness of those who voted
to reject the Fisher formula.

The regional leadership went
over the heads of the local exe-
cutives to sell the agreement to
the membership, with the locals
campaigning for rejection. Inone
instance, when one of the business
agents, Maurice Anderson, re-
fused to be a party to such
skullduggery and simply placed
the facts before the membership,
he was arbitrarily fired as a
result. |

Looking through the materials
from previous conventions one
can see a host of good resolu-
tionS which were adopted un-
animously but were never acted
upon, Resolutions on combina-
tion jobs, on sub-contractors and
others, illustrate that fact,

Widespread discussion is tak-
ing place in the industry about
the dead weight at the top that
is holding the union down. A
strong feeling exists fora change
in the leadership, but a changé
of leadership in itself is not

Photo shows leaflets being given out at gates of MacMillan-Powell Rivera eft
plant in Vancouver on negotiations earlier this year. Many wood wae rout
convinced that much more could have been won. Unity of woodworke'
fighting policies is the key to greater advances in the period ahead.

enough. Most important is the
kind of leadership required in
these challenging times. The
guide lines for the selection of
leadership should be correct pol-
icies and a sound record of
activities in the interest of the
membership,

It would be wrong for the
struggle in the union to degene-
rate into a fratricidal warfare
over who will be in office.

The left militant forces in the
union must see that the struggle
for policy is inseparable from
the struggle for positions of
leadership,

The I.W.A. faces many. prob-
lems which need attention, An
increase in the tempo of the
introduction of mechanization and
automation in the industry re-
quires plans to cope with the new
situation,

To do these things and a
others that will be request,
resolutions before the conven”
will require the extensiO?
democracy in the union, gre?"
co-ordination of activitiesS°" |
the creative energy of the ie :
bership can be used to the ful
extent. Extension of the™
to areas still unorganiZ ty. ;
likewise a pressing neces®! of

A good opportunity prevails
the left to develop polici€®
meet the needs of the meme
ship arising from the mono rv
control of the lumber. indust
an opportunity to mobilize e
membership to protect thé?
selves against speed-up;
chanization, declining em
ment; an opportunity to Cae
shorter hours, better wages #
working conditions; for the 1."
to regain the honorable posi#
of leadership that it once occUP? ‘
in the labor movement of ©
province,

ploy

—
AUTOMATION is HERE:

¢ «« WHAT ARE WE

DOING ABOUT IT ‘

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