‘F

_ The following letter re-
_ ceived by Bill Schumaker,
| President of Local 1-423 IWA,
from one of his members em-
S ployed at the Western Pines
Sawmill, Princeton, tells the
sad story of what happened to
this member when he placed
more faith in his friendship
with management than in bis
Union.

“Dear Mr. Schumaker:

“T would like to inform you
about the perfect railroading
job that occurred to me here

y in Princeton on August 5,
and would like to see some-

_ thing published in the wood-

worker’s paper about the im-

portance of having a Job Ste-

ward accompany a worker

_ when he speaks to the man-
agement.

' FREE TO SPEAK

“Tn past talks to the Mana-
ger I felt free to speak as I
» pleased and was welcomed to
_ speak to him at any time
* about matters. Also our fore-
~ man, Vic Negrin, whom I felt

. was a close friend. We fished
and hunted together, also
| when he built his house I
\* helped him as a friend does.
| But on August 5 I was in-
/ formed by the foreman that
| I was cut down to 15 minutes
, on the gang-saw to change
» saws, which I was getting
half an hour for the last
‘seven years. Usually what I
do at lunch time and after
work is have a smoker for
maybe ten minutes and it
, usually took me 20 minutes to
change saws and if something
else needed done I helped the
millwright do it.

HANEY

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

B oBJECT LESSON

“But before the shift start-
ed I always spent eight to ten
minutes tightening saws and
when I blew the whistle the
gang was running and also at
smoke time I blew the
whistle and was always the
first one in the mill, and I
never asked for overtime for
this as I figured the time I
spent for a smoke made up
for this, and also after a man
spends seven years on the
same job you get to change
saws pretty fast which I al-
ways did when I had to do
so while the mill was run-
ning.

“Anyway, getting back to
why I was called into the
manager’s office on that fatal
Thursday was I spent 15
minutes changing saws be-
cause of extra work and I
never finished changing them
before it was time to start up
the plant, The foreman told
me to go see the manager
which I so foolishly did with-
out a Job Steward. When I
got to the office the foreman
was right there too.

SLOWING DOWN

“The first thing that was
said was that 15 minutes was
the only amount of overtime
that was going to be given
and that was that. Then the
foreman went on to say that
I was purposely slowing down
the gang for the past week
(now three or four months
before this he told me to slow
down, as long as the head-
rig and the Scragg mill were
running and IJ was keeping up
to the cants and when there
were more cants I was to

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speed up accordingly, which
I did).

“In fact he always wanted
me to do this but when he
told me to speed up last week
I did just that and I told the
manager that; then he went
to say that on night shift
when I change saws, I spent
20 minutes to half an hour
smoking, which I did, but
when I was in the smoke
shack.

ONCE ENOUGH

“He, the foreman, insisted
that I stay and keep him com-
pany on several occasions,
and all he had to say to me
at any time was that I was
to have a 10 minute smoke
and that would have been
that. As long as I worked
there once was enough to be
told. While this was going
on the manager was harping
about the over-rate I was get-
ting, how the millwrights
were complaining about how
rough I was on machinery
and also the men were com-
plaining about me. (You can
inquire about this and see
how untrue this is.)

“Then the foreman went
on to say that on night shift
when I was finished changing
in 10 minutes I went home
and he figured I should be
back in half an hour and
never did (now when night
shift started I was told that
half an hour was allowed to
change saws and half an hour
for lunch which I always

did).

CHICKEN THINGS

“There were other chicken
things said in there by the
foreman that are just too
small to mention but were
made big issues of, then I
went back to work. But I
was so mad I just could not

work so I told the foreman
and I left.

“Something like this is a
terrible thing to happen not
to me but mostly my family
as I was well settled here in
Princeton. I know I made a
mistake by walking off but I
think you will understand
and try not to see it happen
again and this can only be
done by having a strong
union in such a place as West-
ern Pine.

“Hoping you understand
this writing. ~
“Charles Martin.
“P.S.: I would have been
there nine years on the 15th
of October.”

BIG SHOT

The human cannonball was
fed up and told the circus
owner he was through with
the job.

“You just can’t leave me,”
wailed the big top impres-
sario. “Where else can I find
a man of your calibre?”

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STANS

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