LABOR

Port Alberni IWA activist and
faller John Isaac submitted the
following originally as a letter to
the editor. Because of its timeli-
ness, however, we print it here as
an article.

The economic crisis is having
severe repercussions for lumber-
workers. High interest rates have
all but dried up the housing mar-
ket. Layoffs are mounting, both
in this country and the U.S.,
where 49,000 IWA members are
off the job. And in British Co-
lumbia Region 1 of the TWA,
9,000 members have been laid
off.

Port Alberni is hard hit. About
600 workers are laid off in Mac-
Millan Bloedel operations, with
most of the layoffs in the convert-
ing plants.

At Somass sawmill about 335
workers are on layoff, some of
them with seniority of up to seven
years. At Alberni Pacific sawmill
around 110 are on layoff. At the
pulp and paper mill another 80

laid off.

plywood mill, which will be shut
down one week in four, placing
80 workers on indefinite layoff.
And for those still working
there is the constant threat by the
company of more layoffs to come
if production isn’t maintained at
what it considers suitable levels.
These layoffs present a new sit-
uation for the IWA, one which

workers producing linerboard are
Production is curtailed at the

demands sound policy, good
leadership and an involved mem-
bership.

As the largest industrial union

in the province, the IWA should
be providing good leadership,
both by its own efforts and
through the B.C. Federation ‘of
Labor, for a shorter work week,
public low cost housing, and re-
duced interest rates.
_ Progressive IWA members
have long called for a serious bar-
gaining effort to achieve a six-
hour day or a four-day week, with
no reduction in pay. This long
overdue demand has been stone-
walled at every set of wage and
contract conferences. Mounting
layoffs, however, show the im-
portance of winning the demand
for a shorter work week.

It’s a glaring contradiction that
while there is a crying need for
housing, lumberworkers walk the
streets unemployed.

The economy certainly isn’t
meeting people’s needs. That’s
why the IWA, membership and
leadership, needs to join with
other labor and civic organiza-
tions, with tenants’ groups, to
build political pressure for an
adequate low cost housing pro-
gram. The same political pressure
is needed to cut mortgage rates.

This would stimulate the hous-
ing market, one of the corner-
stones of the economy. Housing
doesn’t only provide jobs for con-
struction and woodworkers — it

Jobs, housing, peace tied
to forest crisis solution

gives employment to workers in
furniture, carpet and appliance
manufacturing. In short, housing
affects a large part of the
economy.

B.C. lumber sales — and the
jobs of B.C. woodworkers — are
closely linked to the U.S. housing
market. And U.S. president Rea-
gan’s domestic and foreign poli-
cies are having a disastrous effect
on B.C. lumberworkers. The ex-

ing U.S. arms budget ($180
billion was added last week) is
fueling inflation and consuming
the money cut from social ser-
vices.

Money spent on arms might

just as well be thrown away be-

cause people get no benefit from
it — no hospitals, no schools, no
houses. It’s as though 20 percent
of the lumber manufactured were
burned up, and if that were done,
obviously the price would rise.

This is what arms spending
does to the economy. Money
“burned up’’ on arms causes all
prices to rise. Since interest rates
stay above the rate of inflation,
the huge arms budget is one of the
reasons for high mortgage rates
with all the consequences to the
housing industry.

The struggle to halt production
of the neutron bomb and to curb
arms spending takes on a double
meaning for B.C. lumberwork-
ers. Reversing the arms race is vi-
tal to a peaceful future and, in a

PHOTO—ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES

JOHN ISAAC.

very real way, it is inseparable
from the fight for jobs.

The shorter work week, the po-
litical fight for public low cost
housing, for lower interest rates,
for peace, are all components of -
the IWA’s fight for jobs. Mem-
bership and leadership must mo-
bilize around a program to press
these demands.

The problem of jobs, however,
won’t be solved fully until
people’s needs are put ahead of
the drive for private profit.

. at IWA meeting earlier this year, issuing ‘esti {
opposing contract offer.

The forest multinationals seem |
unwilling to live up to their Tree |
Farm Licence obligations to pro} |
vide full employment in exchange |
for management rights in what | p

are public forest lands.
That being a demonstrable
fact, they should be nationalized

and placed under public owner- |
ship and democratic control. On |
a broad scale, this will resolve the |
problem of unemployment for |
woodworkers and provide the}

housing so desperately needed.

r

Hotel slate
wins upset

Arrival of four top interna-
tional officials in Vancouver
ollowing hard on the upset vic-
tory scored by a reform slate in
Local 40, Hotel, Restaurant,

linary and Bartenders elec-
ions aroused membership fears
is week that an attempt might
be made to place the local under
trusteeship.

Election results, still not of-
icially announced at Tribune
press time, showed that Joyce

harlton, New Westminster

estaurant worker, had defeated

4] Morgan in the first contested
election for the president’s post
held for some 30 years. His bro-
, Glen Morgan, also lost his

*s post to Viola

VICI VBieitia

Fears of international inter-
ention were heightened by a
dispute over admissibility of
150 late mailed ballots.

headquarters in Cincinnati,
O, maintained they had

to. Vancouver only to
ed in the new local officers, it

DUDLHC!I

ship demands for a full account-
ing of Al Morgan’s handling of

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 9, 1981—Page 12

Patterson to speak as ATU raided

Local members of the Amalga-
mated Transit Union will be among
the first Vancouver unionists to
meet with Dave Patterson, the new
rank-and-file director of District 6
of the Steelworkers Union whose
election in June spurred the cam-
paign for Canadian autonomy
within international unions.

Significantly, Patterson’s ap-
pearance here will be at a special
meeting called by the ATU to
mobilize the union against a raid
mounted by the Independent Ca-
nadian Transit Union (ICTU) on
the ATU members who work for
the Metro Transit Operating Com-
pany in Vancouver and Victoria.

Patterson will be speaking at a
meeting billed, ‘‘Building a strong
union — how other Canadian un-
ionists are doing it,’ scheduled for
Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. in the John Oliver
auditorium.

Speaking with him will be Lorne
Robson, secretary of the B.C. Pro-
vincial Council of Carpenters, and
Bill Clark, president of the Tele-
communications Workers Union.

ICTU, which launched an earlier
unsuccessful raid on the ATU here
last year, applied to the Labor Re-
lations Board Monday for certifi-
cation, claiming it had signed up a
majority of the 2,700 members of
the union working in Vancouver
and Victoria. ICTU has no other

The independent Canadian un-
drivers and maintenance workers,
arguing that the ATU’s bureau-
cratic structure could not be re-
formed and pointing to the lack of
any constitutional provisions to
allow for recall of leaders. :
The local leadership of the ATU

is a sore point with the ATU mem-

will decide Canadian bylaws. The

bers whether or not they support Canadian section of the union will

the raid.

also have a separate section in the

Although it was not in material constitution.

distributed to workers, the last

The chairman of the Canadian

wage contract has been an issue in conference will be the Canadian
the raiding drive. There was wide- vice-president. However, the local
spread dissatisfaction over the members were unsuccessful in hav-

agreement with only 51.8 percent
of the membership approving it.

But many ATU members were
angry with the stand taken by IC-
TU supporters during the ratifica-
tion meetings.

They declined to campaign
against the contract, knowing that
membership dissatisfaction with

the pact would later fueltheraiding -

drive.

Colin Kelly, the newly-elected _

president of ICTU, has also dis-
missed as ‘‘cosmetic fodder’’ the
reforms which were won by Cana-
dian delegates to the ATU inter-
national convention, held in Miami
Sept. 28-Oct. 2.

But local executive board mem-

nitely laid the foundation for a fur- :

ther campaign for Canadian au-
tonomy.”’

Hillman is also a member of the™
MacInnis caucus, a rank-and-file
caucus within the ATU which has
campaigned for greater democracy

_ within the union. The caucus initi-

ated the motions calling for greater
Canadian representation which ul-
timately went to the convention
floor, although with some amend-
ments. ~

She said that the Canadian
membership of the ATU will now
have an annual Canadian confer-
ence, with elected delegates, which

se shcasasiechaccieass

ing that position elected by the Ca-
nadian members only.
“Tt’s not everything we had

dispensable.

At today’s soaring prices $12 is still a bargain — espe
cially when it gets you a year of perceptive news and al- §
alysis of the labor movement, a unique perspective 0? i

national and international events and news from the
socialist world. If you’re an activist, the Tribune is i-

hoped for, but it’s a start,”’
man said, adding that the Ca
dian delegates ‘‘really organi
and mobilized behind t
motions.”

She said that the Canadian com 4

ference would provide a basis fora

further campaign. ‘‘There sea o

be a definite mood among thé

membership for Canadian @ .

tonomy.”’

Take out a sub today. It will stil only cost you $12 ae d |
and you help us in our circulation drive target of a
new readers by Dec. 15. We’re counting on you.

RIBUNE

City or town
Postal Code

" Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, B.C. VSL 3X9. Phone 251-1186

Read the paper that fights for labor —

.
wee
Pee a oe Pode OR ae hs nes iid
of oS
&. 0.0 /exp-9 ete bela 0 8 ¥wie pho wie 6 ete, 4 6 60 0.5 0 888 Se HOS s
ee ee ee ee

! am enclosing:
1 year $12. 2 years $221) 6 months $7 (

OldQO New( Foreign 1 year $15 0
Bill me later 0 Donation$..........

EERE EE RR NEES