WE EXTEND TO OUR MEMBERSHIP. . . __—- BEST WISHES FOR ‘A SAFE AND PROSPEROUS 1969 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER AUTHORIZED AS SECOND CLASS MAIL, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OTTAWA, AND FOR PAYMENT OF POSTAGE IN CASH. Vol. XXXVI, No. 24 VANCOUVER, B.C. 5c PER COPY BROADWAY ci&=5Dp PRINTERS LTD. WORKER 2nd Issue December, 1968 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Tt year 1968 was significant for woodworkers in western Canada. On the British Columbia coast an Agreement was negotiated without strike action becoming necessary. It assures us of two years of industrial peace, and Wages and working conditions second to none in our industry in the world. The tremendous struggle of the Interior woodworker to eliminate wage discrimination in the province resulted in sub- stantial gains and laid the groundwork for eventual achieve- ment of complete parity across the western most province. The strikes and struggles at Hinton, Alberta, and Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, catapulated the prairie woodworker into living standards never before achieved in the prairie region. All the gains made by our Union have been as a result of a system of free collective bargaining, the only system of set- ting wages and working conditions which allows the rank-and- file member to participate in setting his living standards. This participation takes the-form of having the legal right to strike in the event that wages and conditions satisfactory to the aver- age worker are not forthcoming. Notwithstanding the inconvenience of a few strikes over the course of the year, this free collective bargaining system has allowed the worker to attain the highest living standards that working people have ever had in the history of man. The greatest challenge for members of the IWA in 1969 will be the struggle against the provincial government in their effort to take away the rights of workers to participate in setting their own wages and deny them the right to strike if they are unsatisfied with proposed changes to their wages and conditions. This denial of the workers’ right to strike is contained in Bill 33 ocean tie British Columbia; and 1969 will see concerted effort on the part of all trade unions to defeat the intent of this legislation and to retain free collective bargain- ing as part of our industrial structure. If we are successful in doing that we can be assured that our living and working con- : i > aD aaa neaacma e fail then wages and conditions will be arbitrarily set ree- “ose peromten by a notoriously anti-labour on FORT MACLEOD, ALBERTA CRESTBROOK FOREST COMPANY LOCKS OUT 100 EMPLOYEES Lock-out notice was served on about 190 employees of Crestbrook. Forest Industries (Fort Plywood Division) on Friday, December 13th. The employees, members of Local 1-206 of the IWA, work at the company’s plywood operation in Fort Macleod, Aiberta. The lock-out, which took effect Dec. 17th, is the latest company move in prolonged negotiations over a contract that expired on August Ist, 1968. The company had earlier rejected both the union de- . mands and the majority award of an Alberta Conciliation Board. TOM SPRLAK Tom Sprlak, Financial Sec- retary of Local 1-2u6, said, “It’s quite a Christmas pres- ent—just what we’ve learned to expect from Crestbrook. “Locking out 10U employ- ees, and thereby closing the town’s most important indus- try, illustrates better than anything could the company’s attitude to their employees and to the community. “We’ve always been willing ~ to resume taiks, and we still are, but if Crestbrook thinks we'll be stampeded by this act into an inferior settlement, they’vé made a tragic mis- take.” NEW LABOUR-MANAGEMENT PLAN IN WOODS TASK FORCE REPORT The Woods task force on labor - management relations, supposed to divulge its con- tents to parliament early in January, sprung a leak in the Ontario press and started speculation whether or not what was leaked will still be a good sample of the final contents. Mike Kapral, labor reporter for the Toronto Daily Star, wrote a story which tee Wednesday, December 4th, stating that 20 union and man- agement people had received advance copies of a summar- ized draft of the Woods report for their criticism. SIGNIFICANT POINT The significant point the Star reporter made about the Woods report-to-come was that it would very likely cut the ground — “differ radi- from the Rand re- tions which has roused the ire of the labor movement no end. Next day, veteran Globe and Mail labor reporter Wilf List, an inveterate scoop-er, released the contents of the Woods task force report which, he said, was “in the final stages of completion.” The task force, he says, “has recommended the creation of an independent commission to designate services or indus- See “WOODS”—Page 2 ny LYTLE NEW EDITOR OF LABOUR STATESMAN Clive Lytle, former New Democratic Party Provincial Secretary, has been appointed Director of Public Boats and Editor of The Labour Statesman for the B.C. Feder- ation of Labour. Lytle, 31, a graduate of UBC, was the eel egiresses