EDITORIAL

New “Raid”

HE statement attributed to a spokesman for Mac-
Millan, Bloedel and Powell River Ltd. to the effect
that the new Harmac sawmill “is not IWA territory”

clearly indicates that Company’s intention to dictate its
choice of union certification for workers in this “run-
away industry.”

Evidently, the corporation considers that it has the
right to extend the existing certification of the Pulp,
Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers’ Union in the pulp mill
to include a large and standard sawmill operation. This
ignores the fact that the majority of the employees must
be recruited from IWA ranks.

This is not a raid by another union. It is large-scale
raid on the IWA by the largest employer in the forest
products industry. The Harmac situation opens a raid
on the IWA which could easily wreck this Union, if the
Harmac plan is accepted as a precedent.

The company’s program of integration has already
closed down IWA-certified operations. If the company
continues to integrate pulp and sawmill operations under
a rival certification, thousands of IWA members will,
willy-nilly, find themselves separated from the IWA.
Their negotiations will be dominated by considerations
relating to pulp and paper production.

If MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell River Ltd., acting
in concert with other companies, accomplish integration
on the basis proposed, many IWA workers will sacri-
fice seniority rights gained after long service with the
company. Not all of them can be assured of continued
employment with the company.

The company is probably delighted because of the
seniority problems created by any large-scale transfer
of workers from one plant to another. This presented
an almost insoluble problem, when plans were dis-
cussed for absorption of the 360 workers affected by
the closure of B.C. Manufacturing in New Westminster.
As the Harmac sawmill is a new plant, IWA seniority
with the company should be preserved and could be
maintained under an IWA certification.

This large employer would also be delighted if it
is able to incite conflict between the two largest unions
in the forest products industry. This makes it important
that the trade unions concerned should quickly reach an
agreement under the wing of the Canadian Labour
. Congress. The all-important consideration in any such
decision is the welfare of the workers affected ensuring
the greatest good to the greatest number.

The two Unions which deal with the same employers
have worked in closer cooperation in recent years he-
‘cause of their obviously common interests.

This cooperation is imperative during periods of
negotiation. It is all the more imperative if either union
becomes engaged in strike action. The IWA has kept
its agreement to refuse possible pulp miil certifications.

Imagine the situation if these two are certified in
both pulp mills and sawmills. Suppose the IWA goes
on strike, and the Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers’
Union gains a settlement. The employers would attempt
to maintain lumber production on a scale that could
smash any IWA strike. If their respective positions were
reversed, the pulp and sulphite workers would suffer an
equal disadvantage.

The precedent which MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell
River Ltd. now intends to establish at Harmac is a
severe test of the trade union solidarity in British Co-
lumbia upon which the interests of the B.C. Federation
of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress in this

province depend.

Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN
LUMBER WORKER is February 7. Deadline for ad copy is
January 24, and for news copy January 31.

Published Twice Monthly on the First and Third Thursdays by
INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA
(AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1

Editor . . . Grant MacNeil

REGIONAL OFFICERS:
Jack Moore

Jack MacKenzie
_.. Jack Holst
_..... Bob Ross

President
Ist Vice-President .—
2nd Vice-President ..

3rd Vice-President -. i
Secretary-Treasurer ae Fred Fieber
International Board Members ......... Joe Madden, Walter F. Allen

Address all communications to;
FRED FIEBER, Secretary-Treasurer
2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C.

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Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa,
and for Payment of Postage in Cash,

27,500 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUE

THE LATE HUGH GAITSKELL M.P., when he addressed the found-
ing convention of the New Democratic Party in Ottawa.

The untimely death of Hugh
Gaitskell M.P., leader of the Brit-
ish Labour Party, was a distinct
shock, not only to the Party, but
to the British public. It occurred,
unfortunately, at a time when the
Labour Party was conceded the
best chance of forming the next
British Government.

Within the Labour Party, he
had succeeded in unifying the
Party’s political strength, after a
long period of dissension on such
issues as nuclear arms for Bri-
tain and entry into the European
Common Market. The Party stood
united for an electoral test under
his leadership.

The names most frequently pro-
posed for the vacant leadership
post are those of Deputy Leader
George Brown, and Harold Wil-
son, a former member of the
Atlee Cabinet.

The deceased is best remem-
bered in Canada for his stirring
speech before the founding con-
vention of the New Democratic

Party in Ottawa.

BOOK REVIEW

"Who Owns Canada?”

“Who Owns Canada?” This title of a booklet issued some
years ago attracted considerable attention. The authors of a
271-page paperback, “Anatomy of Canadian Business” have
now brought us up to date on the question. Carefully docu-
mented facts leave the reader with the uncomfortable con-
clusion that our tycoons have placed Canada in hock to the
United States. As control of Canadian industry passes out
of the hands of the Canadian people, the prospect looms that
Canadian workers will become little more than “hewers of

wood and drawers of water.”

It will be surprising if this
book gains wide circulation.
It may suffer the fate of “The
History oi Canadian Wealth”
which was banned during
World War I, and disappeared
from our library shelves. Rev-
elations about the manner in
which large Canadian fort-
unes were made before and
after Confederation were not
then considered to be healthy
for the “common herd.”

This later book will soon
be under attack if widely
read. C. and F. W. Park are
research workers who, with
independent means, were able
to finance its publication. The
better known publishing
houses evidently considered
it to be “too hot” for the
usual promotion. The authors
are now reported to be living
in Mexico. Many long-con-
cealed facts about the opera-
tion of monopoly enterprise
in Canada and their domina-
tion by U.S. monopolies are
brought to light with most
convincing evidence.

U.S. CONTROL

The picture drawn dis-
closes that “The Canadian
tycoons closely identify them-
selves with U.S. capital; ex-
ercise great economic and po-
litical power for their own
profit.”

“That is bad enough, but
apparently Canadians use
their investments to integrate
the economy of Canada with
that of the United States so
as to give U.S. investors di-
rection over the Canadian
economy.”

BASIS OF CONTROL

“A U.S. investment of $12.6
billion is the basis of that
control.”

“The most important factor
in the extension of the influ-

CLARKE’S
FRESHER... LOVELIER

3496 Cambie Street,
Vancouver 9, B.C.

ence of U.S. financial groups
in Canada is the role played

by the substantial number of
Canadian tycoons who act as
directors of U.S.-controlled
corporations, who accept to
one degree or another the
need to integrate the two
economies, who subordinate
the capital generated in Can-
ada to the control of USS.
capital.”

An interesting chapter in the
book is one which traces the
financial manipulations which
made Argus Corporation Ltd.
a giant holding company in
Canada elevating Senator
Wallace McCutcheon to his
present post where he master-
minds the Diefenbaker eco-
nomic policy.

B.C. FOREST PRODUCTS

The story of Argus touches
on British Columbia.

“In the case of B.C. Forest
Products Ltd. there is an ex-
ample of the close connec-
tions between the Taylor in-
terests and the U:S. financial
groups as well as of the pro-
cess by which U.S. groups
are penetrating the forest in-
dustry of British Columbia.

“B.C. Forest Products Ltd.
applied for and was granted
a large forest management lic-
ence in British Columbia in
1955. After getting the li-
cence, B.C. Forest. Products
made an agreement with
Scott Paper (Morgan influ-
ence) by which Scott Paper
agreed to buy one million
shares. in B.C. Forest Pro-
ducts at $15 a share, with the
right to buy the whole pro-
duction of the B.C. Forest
Paes Crofton mill until
977.

“As a result the Taylor-
Argus holdings in B.C. Forest
Products (400,00 shares) have

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been dwarfed by the 1,000,000
shares held by Scott Paper.
The fourteen-man board of
B.C. Forest Products reflects
an alliance between Scott
Paper and Argus; it contains
five U.S. directors, five Argus
representatives, and four di-
rectors representing other
B.C. interests. Of the seven-
man executive three are from
Argus, three from Scott
Paper, and the seventh is
Senator S. S. McKeen, Van-

couver.

The authors contend that
a substantial part of the
military spending imposed on
Canada by U.S. policy *goes
directly to benefit Canadian
representatives of U.S. mon-
opolies.

The question left in the
readers’ minds is “What steps
will be necessary now to en-
able Canadians to shape their
own economic destiny?”

The Worst
Employer

The Editor:

Many of your members are
aware that B.C. Government em-
ployees do not have bargaining
rights or contract negotiations as

enjoyed by the trade union move-
ment.

We have, instead, a “Board of
Reference”. This Board met last
summer and agreed unanimously
that government employees’
wages should be comparable with
rates paid by public employers,
They also recommended that
raises granted should be retro-
active to last April. So far, no

action has been taken on these
recommendations.

While the Premier has pro-
mised raises this year, govern-
ment employees are apprehensive

lest they are inadequate and not
retroactive.

This year, we need from 10% to
24%. An automotive mechanic
employed by private industry
earns $47 more than the govern-

ment employed mechanic, a
seamstress earns $56 more, a

truck driver $40 more. This is ar-

rived at by comparisons which
place a dollar value on such

“fringe” benefits as contin

uity of
service. Needless to say Ps
pensions, sick leave and vacations
are similarly taken into account.

Sincerely,
Nancy Person,

Secretary,
(Woodlands Branch)