_ MARCH, 1974

Alex Archibald °

Earl Patterson

UNION MOURNS DEATHS
OF ARCHIBALD, PATTERSON

Alex Archibald, highly
popular and long-time member
of Local 1-357 IWA, New
Westminster, passed away

February 19, after a lengthy.

illness.

Alex was born in Scotland
and moved to Canada in 1929
where he worked in the lumber
industry for a short period.

He subsequently worked as a
longshoreman on the New
Westminster waterfront, until
the 1935 strike during which he
was one of the many strikers
arrested for picket line ac-
tivities.

Following the strike he went
to work at the Fraser Mills
Division of Crown Zellerbach
in New Westminster where he
joined the IWA in 1942 when
certification was won by the
Union.

Upon his return from .the
European war-scene, Alex:
became active in Local 1-357
and served on the Fraser Mills’
Shop Committee in various
capacities. He held the position
of Warden, 1st Vice-President,
3rd Vice-President in Local 1-
357 and represented the Local
at Regional and International
Conventions from 1949 to 1971.

He was also Local 1-357’s
Regional Executive Board
Member for a number of
years. In 1967, Alex was
appointed to the office of Inter-
national Trustee and was re-
elected to that post in subse-
quent elections.

He was also a _ Business’

Agent of Local 1-357 from 1965
until his death.
Alex is survived by his wife

Alvie, a son Robert, and a-

daughter Cheryl.

The officers and staff of the.

Regional Council extend their
deepest sympathy to them in
their loss.

-Earl R. Patterson, a foun-
ding member of the Inter-
national Woodworkers- of
America in Eastern Canada,
passed away on February 17th
following a heart attack. He
was in his 61st year.

Bro. Patterson was heading
negotiations at the mediation
state in an attempt to end the
four-week strike of 400 IWA
members employed at Sault
Ste. Marie when he was

stricken. ;
After three weeks in hospital

at Sault Ste. Marie, he showed
favourable signs of recovery.
However, he suffered a relapse
and following transfer to
Toronto, all efforts to put him
on the road to recovery failed.

Bro. Patterson’s activity in

-

the labour movement goes
back many years when at an
early age he began to organize
furniture workers in the
Hanover-Owen Sound-Meaford
area. This he did on a volun-
tary basis without recom-
pense, except the knowledge
that he was doing what he

.knew was best for his fellow

workers. During that time he
was a member of the National
Union of Furniture and Air-
craft workers.

It was during the 1947 strike
of Knechtel Furniture em-
ployees that they realized a
better future could be expected
from membership in an Inter-
national Union. Consequently,
Bro. Patterson was a leader of
the movement which .was
climaxed by the International
Woodworkers of America

issuing its first Local Union’

Charter in Eastern Canada on
March 1, 1947 at Hanover,
Ontario.

He was elected Secretary of
that Local Union, an office he
held until he was elected
Secretary-Treasurer of the
Eastern Canadian Region of
the I.W.A. which included. the
area from the Ontario-
Manitoba border east to, and
including, Newfoundland.

Bro. Patterson served in that
capacity continuously until
December, 1969, when he
became President of the
Regional Council.

He was a member of the
International Executive Board
of the I.W.A. for almost twenty
years.

His interest in politics as a
weapon in labour’s arsenal was
demonstrated in his participa-
tion as a C.C.F. candidate for
the Durham.

A one-month extension on
current hunting and angling
licences has been announced
by Recreation and Con-

servation Minister Jack
Radford, in order to implement
a new licencing system.

All hunting and angling
licences due to expire March
31, 1974, will now be valid until
April 30, 1974. The new licences
should be available in April.

The new licence system calls
for substantial increases in
non-resident hunting and
fishing fees.

Highlights of the Wage &
Contract Conference of Local
1-424 IWA, Prince George, are
demands for a one dollar an
hour across the board wage
increase, plus a cost-of-living
escalator clause.

The Northern members are
also demanding a nine and.one
half month agreement so as to
have their contract expire at
the same time as the Coast
Master Agreement.

The delegates meeting
March 16-17, in Prince George,
approved sixty other demands
to be included in the contract
package for presentation to the
employers.

During the two-day session
the delegates heard economic
reports from Roy Ockert, IWA

Columbia
Railway will implement a
tourist excursion train from
North Vancouver to Squamish
in mid-June, the President of
the B.C. Rail, Premier Barrett,
has announced.

The British

Barrett said the special
feature of the excursion will be
the train’s engine, a fully-
restored Royal Hudson steam
engine. The Government

acquired the engine for $25,000°

when the City of Vancouver
and the Canadian Pacific
Railway failed to complete an
agreement.

The engine, No. 2860, was
built 30 years ago for $200,000.
It is a near-replica of the Royal
Hudson Engine No. 2850 which
pulled the Royal Train across
Canada in 1939. -

The engine has been restored
to the standards of the
Canadian Railway Com-
mission, so it can run on any
track in North America.

Barrett said the excursion
train will pull about 10 or 12
day antics which have been
aptained from across Canada.
The trip to Squamish will take
about one and one-half hours,
with a similar return time.

Research and Education Co-
ordinator and Doug Smyth,
the Research and Education
Associate assigned to Canada.

Tony Vanderheide, one of the
Regional evaluators, also
reported on plywood and
sawmill evaluation.

Visitors attending the
meeting included the Regional
Executive Board Members and
Regional officers.

The following are some of the
other major demands which
call for:

® A fifty cent an hour rate
revision for Tradesmen,
Engineers and Tugboat crews.

@ A fifty cent an hour shift
differential.

@ A Sawmill Evaluation
Program similar to the one
existing at Celgar.

REGIONAL COUNCIL DEMANDS —

‘by IWA members on the Coast

® A reduction in the eight-
hour day and the forty-hour
week, with no reduction —
take-home pay. :

@ A Northern Allowance
compensate the workers for
the higher costs in the Interior.

The other demands are
milar to the demands raised

suf in the Southern Interior.

One special demand, which
the delegates stated was non
negotiable, stipulated that the

injunction orcas in effect in —
the Northwood Mills must be

dropped and the charges
against the Local Union and
individuals would have to be
withdrawn before and new
agreement is signed with the
Company.

GOVERNMENT TAKE OVER CPR

The IWA has demanded that
the federal government take
over the CPR. Regional
President Jack Munro in a
telegram to Prime Minister
Trudeau, Transport Minister
Marchand .and Premier
Barrett, has called for the
resignation of Marchand if he
cannot solve the boxcar
‘shortage in the B.C. Interior.

Condemning the government
for its apparent inaction on the
rail car shortage, Munro stated
in the telegram:

“Tt seems to us that the
federal government and Mr.
Marchand are more interested
in wheat. than they are in
lumber. With the shortening of
the work week the IWA
members in the B.C. Interior
will be forced to take a 20 per
cent cut in wages and we fail to
see why this should happen
when they have no control over
the situation.’

Munro also accused the
railways _of gross
mismanagement.

“The CPR,” he stated, ‘‘has
been trying to get out of a
commitment it made to the
federal government years ago
and it is deliberately causing
havoc to justify renegotiating
freight rates with the govern-
ment.

“Tt is also beyond our
comprehension how the
government could allow the
management of a_publicly-
owned company to deteriorate
to the point where if is
threatening the economy of the
country. I would suggest that
your government take more
strict control of the CNR.”

He concluded by saying, ““To
make my point perfectly clear,
I again assure you that the
50,000 members of the IWA will
not sit idle and watch our
members in the Interior lose
wages because of this ar-
tificially produced boxcar
‘shortage. I suggest your
government find an immediate
solution to its problem before
the IWA is forced to make its
point in a more demonstrative
manner.”

MACHINE
CORRECTION

It has been drawn to our
attention that the tree cutting
machine shown on the Safety
Page of the last issue of the
Lumber Worker is a Koehring-
Watrous, not a Drott Buncher
as stated.

——

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