2nd Issue April, 1964 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “Members Wives’ kets booming, it is reasonable to assume that the em- ployers will try to avoid a work stoppage to ensure con- tinuing profits. Only when they are convinced that they must reckon with a united working force, determined to get a satisfactory wage adjustment, will they engage in genuine bargaining. The Union’slong experience with the operators compels the conclusion that they will give nothing byt what they are forced to give. WIVES WOULD COMPLAIN Wives, who must exercise the utmost ingenuity to make the wage dollar balance family needs, would be the first to complain if the Union exhibited a spineless attitude toward obvious family requirements in facing tough-minded employers. The negotiating period pro- vides the time of reckoning for family needs versus cor- poration profits. The spirit shown by IWA wives in . building their ‘homes is not such as to yield readily to the downward pressure on their standards exercised by the employers. k Even some risks are better than abject submission to the needless lack of the good things of life. The history of working people has shown that, occasionally at least, they must use their collective strength in protest against injustice. Otherwise, the workers would have been held in the chains of want and degradation. Our employers have never been distinguished for benevolence. The threat of a strike is many times quite as import- ant as an actual strike. Trade unions cannot afford to surrender the strike weapon, otherwise they would be coerced into acceptance of whatever terms the employ- ers chose to impose. The right to strike, under given conditions, is written into the laws regulating collective bargaining throughout the Western world. Legislative bodies have admitted that it is a necessary equalizer when the organized workers face the employers who can use the economic power obtained from their control of employment opportunities through ownership of the tools of production. Nowadays, when unions are. com- pelled to utilize this weapon of last resort, it indicates a breakdown in the collective bargaining machinery, usually due to unwarranted government interference or official ineptitude. NO APOLOGY FOR PAST These views, held by the IWA, are not an apology for strike action of the past. IWA members have shown remarkable restraint under the arrogance of employers who invariably have opposed every suggested contract improvement. These employers have held the view that their employees should be content with the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. The owners have attempted to dictate that whatever trickles down from their accumulation of wealth must satisfy the needs of those whose labour really produces that wealth. Nevertheless, they have learned from past strikes to admit the indispensability of labour and to respect the fighting spirit of the lumber workers. IWA wives are asked to endure an insufferable con- descension on the part of well-to-women who voice their views on the radio “open lines.” They are asked to be- lieve that strikes are a crime against society and that trade unionists are the victims of some evil plot. STRIKES WON BIG GAINS The truth of the matter is that strikes in the past have been made necessary by stubborn and greedy employers. Had strike action never been taken in the lumber industry, the largest single group of industrial workers in the province would still be subject to intol- erably low wages and bad working conditions. Never- theless, the IWA wives can say, with emphasis, that more disputes have been settled over the bargaining table than on the picket line. The increased income, so. gained, has added to the general prosperity. If women must worry, while men must work, the most important point to worry about just now is that their husbands will show the proper degree of unity determination to bring better living and security ~ THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER UP - UP - and - UP British Columbia Coast Lumber Fie 5998 Orders on Hand (Million Board Feet) 297.5 ~ Source: DBS 1961 The above graph in its original form was carried in the March 1964-issue of. this paper. At that time it was reported that the orders on hand were at an all time high. The latest announcement from the Domin- ion Bureau of Statistics reports a new all 1962 711.5 642.5 1963 1964 time high. The lumber orders on hand for B.C. Coast sawmills on the first of February were 711.5 million board feet. Never has the order file been this large. Despite the high © rate of production and shipments in the past healthy. months, the order file keeps: strong and Companies Lower Prices Commissary Article Pays Otf For Loggers Sought. An article printed in the Western Canadian Lumber Worker last October charg- ing that Local 1-71 loggers were being victimized by Coast camp commissaries has resulted in two companies lowering their prices on caulk boots. The companies, Cattermole- Trethewey Contractors Lim- ited and Canadian Forest Products (Englewood Divi- sion), were two of the worst offenders in this commissary price gouging practice. Their mark-up on logging boots ranged from a low of 16% to a high of 67%. Cattermole-Tretheway has also announced its intention to standardize commissary prices in its three operations. This move will be welcomed by the employees who have bitterly resented paying ex- horbitant prices in one of the Company’s commissaries, when they know prices in the others are much lower. This same variation in prices is causing resentment at the moment in the Engle- wood Division of Canadian Forest Products. In the Divi- sion are a number of “tuck shops” run by private con- cerns. Canadian Forest Products handles the purchasing for these shops for a small per- centage. At Camp -Woss, be- cause the commissary does not stock cigarettes, the log- gers are charged 40 cents per package in the “tuck shops”. At Camp “A” and Camp Verf- non in the same Division, the loggers pay only 38 cents in the shops because -the com- missaries also carry them. When Canadian Forest Pro- ducts announced it was re- ducing the price of caulk boots, it hinted a similar re- duction was being considered for safety-toe caulk boots. The employees at Camp Woss sug- gest the Company should at the same time follow the Cat- termole - Trethewey example and standardize commissaries’ prices throughout its opera- tions. CLL LLL eddddssiiidddddbis Code Urged MONTREAL—The United Steelworkers of America has urged the federal? gov- ernment to institute a. na-: tional labor code on mfni- mum wages, hours of work, paid vacations and other working conditions. Le N < Le ULM dee aa, WLLL ddddddididedsdddadddidiaa CLL LLL LLL YZ Automation Probe _ Final act of the fifth Cana- dian Labour Congress conven- tion was to demand a govern- ment subsidy of five million dollars for a national probe into the effects of automation on job opportunities and pro- duction methods. : This decision followed an extensive report by the Exec- utive Council which warned trade unionists with regard to the alarming displacement of workers in all industries. Lack of information and the planless introduction of new automatic machinery was held responsible for a large share of the existing unem- ployment. T. C. Douglas, M.P., Leader of the New Democratic Party in the House of Commons, was accorded an ovation when he analyzed the problem and stated that 4,000 jobs were being lost weekly across Can- ada. ; It was proposed that the study should be made by the newly - formed Economic Council of Canada, on which six trade union members are seated. . January traffic accidents took 250 Canadian lives — 29 more than a year ago.