a - ‘ = STERN & ‘i “= e ,. a - a5 ‘ CANADIAN i WORKER AUTHORIZED AS SECOND CLASS MAIL, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OTTAWA, AND FOR PAYMENT OF POSTAGE IN CASH. Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 VANCOUVER, B.C. 5c PER COPY <>? 1st Issue February, 1967 IWA LOCAL UNION staff members with CLC instructors at the recent Staff Seminar sponsored by the CLC at Parksville, Vancouver Island. Group left, front row, Eugene Ollenberger, business agent, Local 1-71; S. A. “Bill” Muir, financial secretary, Local 1-423; Art Kelly, financial secretary, Local 1-417; Bill Schumaker, president, Local 1-423. Back row, left, George Home, CLC political education director; Alex Archibald, 3rd vice-president, Local 1-357; Dan Radford, CLC education director for B.C.; Cy Godfrey, president, Local 1-367; Ev. Flannery, 2nd vice-president, Local 1-357. REUTHER TO HEAD TEAMSTERS? Top labour leaders are pre- dicting that Walter Reuther, president of the powerful United Auto Workers Union, will soon head up a new or- ganization comprised of Auto Workers and the equally powerful Teamsters Union. Such an alliance is bound to create a major upheaval in the house of labour and the speculation is that the other industrial unions will gravi- tate to the new organization. Rumors have persisted for months that once Teamster president James Hoffa — now NDP FINANCIAL DRIVE New Democratic Party sec- retary Clive Lytle reports that the NDP’s executive has launched a drive to place the Party on a sound financial basis. New financial controls have been introduced to in- sure that its provincial office operates without continual deficits. At the same time a cam- paign to eliminate the $30,000 debt which plagues the Party in B.C. is well underway. This campaign is based on obtain- ing 100 pledges of $100 per year for three years. To date 50% of the total pledges re- quired have been received. Staff Organizer Michael Lewis has taken charge of a membership drive. Most lower mainland constitu- encies are already underway on the drive and it appears certain that within the next two or three months, the B.C. NDP membership will reach a new high. The Democrat, monthly publication of the NDP has been re-vamped and is now produced in a modern maga- zine-size format. Response to the change has been almost unanimously favourable, Fur- ther improvements are plan- ned, along with a major effort to expand the circulation and advertising revenues of The Democrat. The Party is also working very closely with the B.C. Federation of Labour on a new plan to increase union affiliations to the NDP. Local Party officers have expressed confidence in the program now underway to overhaul and improve all as- pects of the NDP’s operations. out on bail for jury tampering — goes to jail, the way will be clear for the two unions to merge. Reuther’s recent resigna- tion from all but one of his posts in the AFL-CIO lends support to these rumors. His retention of the post of presi- dent of the IUD -is- inter- preted by observers to mean that he intends setting up a new industrial organization to counter the weak leadership now evidenced in the AFL- CIO. Reuther, who was Ist vice- president of the AFL-CIO, has been strongly critical of the organization’s policies and of its president George Meany. In announcing his resigna- tion, Reuther accused Meany of violating AFL-CIO consti- tutional and convention man- dates which failed to please See “REUTHER”—Page 3 ANNUAL BRIEF PRESENTED The B.C. Federation of Labour in its annual brief to the provincial cabinet has re- quested the government to eliminate the conciliation board system and the govern- ment supervised strike vote. The submission presented by Federation officers in Vic- toria February 8, also pressed for the outlawing of all in- junctions in labour disputes. The brief, in seeking the abolition of the conciliation board system stated, “We are convinced that conciliation boards have played no major role in the settling of disputes in the province. Indeed, at times, they have proved a de- terrent to meaningful negotia- tions. The preliminary indi- cations of a study we are presently carrying out on the process of negotiations ap- pears to confirm the marginal Se “ANNUAL”—Page 2 ~market IWA regional president Jack Moore, speaking to sev- enty members of the Cana- dian Merchant Service Guild in Vancouver, February 7, confidently predicted a brighter B.C. lumber market in the second half of 1967. He told the Guild members that an analysis of the pres- ent downturn in the lumber indicated that it would be of brief duration and the pent-up demand for B.C. forest products justified this optimism. To back up this statement he pointed out that there was no market turndown in view for two-thirds of the total B.C. lumber production which goes to industrial building and. industrial pack- aging. He went on to say: “Any summary of present economic trends in the lum- ber industry as a basis for a 1967 forecast, must take into account a sagging in market conditions which became ap- parent in August 1966. This was mainly due to tight money policies and a conse- quent decline in’ housing » MOORE PREDICTS | ‘INDUSTRY PICKUP starts in Canada and the United States. We cannot ac- cept this as catastrophic for the lumber industry. Toward the end of the year, market conditions indicated marked improvement. “An important fact to. note is that the net value of pro- duction steadily rose to above the one billion dollar mark for the first time in the his- tory of the B.C. lumber in- dustry. This increase for the year was 5% over the 1965 figure of $985 million. This followed a similar increase each year since 1961.” The regional president gave considerable attention in his address to the housing prob- lem in Canada. He said, “An insistent de- mand for new housing has been created. by increased im- migration, the drift from country to town, and the com- ing of age of wartime babies leading to an increase in family formations. “The pinch of the housing shortage is so great that the Federal government is pump- ing another $800 million into a crash program to remedy the situation and build at least another 20,000 homes in 1967. The provinces are com- .~mencing to act in co-opera- tion to develop low-rental housing projects.” He also pointed out that housing starts in the U.S. had ‘jumped in December for the second straight month to an adjusted annual rate of 1.1 million, up 9.4 per cent from November 1966. He concluded by stating that these factors plus indi- cations of easier credit in Canada and the U.S. substan- tiated the Union’s optimism that the B.C. lumber market would return to normal with- in a few months. eee oooS60V_0_.>> > oqw®$$ ALL POSITIONS CONTESTED IN LOCAL 1-357 ELECTIONS All executive positions are being contested in the elec- tion for officers now under- way in Local 1-357 IWA New Westminster. President of the 6000-mem- ber local, Wyman Trineer, who is also one of the two re- gional council international board members, is opposed by Peter Rebeyka, the local’s former financial secretary. Running for ist vice-presi- dent is incumbent John Hachey and Frank Simpson. For 2nd vice-president in- cumbent Evert Flannery and Percy Hammerstrom. For 3rd vice-president incumbent Alex Archibald and John Parker. For financial - secre- tary incumbent Norman Kelly and Cecil Ward. For recording secretary incum- bent John Chandler and Mar- jorie Storm. For Conductor incumbent Jim McLauchlan and Cecil Holmes. For ward- en John McMichael and Donald Olund. For trustee in- cumbent Ted Day and Maurice Palmer, i known some time in the early part of March.