FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1972 VOL. 33, No. 27 ee PI at ery eae PE “Ant ™atio 00 members of the Nal Woodworkers of n the coast are voting ®ek on terms of a settle- ‘the 1yereed Tuesday between ttee Negotiation Com- anq faded by Jack Moore long. rest Industrial Rela- = 2a § I et’ PT went to press .the TMs 0 Agre f the Memorandum ahd be; €ment signed Tuesday Twa tng recommended by the Were, “80tiating Committee Not available. is ‘OM nnderstood that the forest Uther €s refused to grant any Wage increase than pre- SF = Woodworkers vote on offer viously announced, but that some concessions were made on fringe benefits. These are said to include a proposal that forest companies will pay 80 percent of health and welfare benefits this year (instead of 1973 as early pro- posed), and 90 percent in 1973 and 100 percent in 1974. FIR also agreed to make a change in night shift differ- entials to become effective from last June 15 instead of next June 15 which was the original FIR proposal. The 28,000 woodworkers have been on strike since June 22, but TABOR FEDERATION WARNS: "FUTURE OF UNIONS AT STAKE IN ANTI-COMPULSION FIGHT most of them, about 14,000, walked out after the contract expired on June 15, Biggest disappointment the PT has been able to find among woodworkers is that the wage offer in a two year contract is not enough and that the industry could afforded to pay more. There is also deep dissatis- faction with the proposal cover- ing fallers. The PT learned at press time that the Negotiating Committee was split on recommending acceptance and that top officers of 4 locals have recommended _ rejection, . The future of the trade unions of this province is at stake in the crucial fight being waged by construction unions against compulsion said the 150,000-member B.C. Federation in a statement last week. “We are in a critical struggle,”’ says the statement. ‘‘The outcome is crucial to the future of the six unions directly in- volved, to building trades unions in general and to the B.C. trade union movement as a whole.”’ The statement adds: “The Social Credit govern- ment, which had previously backed away from a total confrontation with the labor movement since passing Bill 33, now appears committed to waging all-out war on the trade union movement. “They must not succeed. Sub- mitting to compulsion means much more than unsatisfactory contracts for the unions directly involved. It means that Bill 33 has finally been successfully imposed on the labor move- ment. It means that next time no contract conditions will be safe from attack by the CLRA and other employers. “It means further govern- ment attacks on trade union rights. Already Labor Minister Chabot has stated that he will bring in Bill 88 to take away union hiring rights and remove union security provisions from collective agreements. “If the government succeeds in forcing the six unions to submit, we can be sure that they will ge further with. legislation designed to weaken unions and push down wage levels and work- ing conditions. The result will be the loss of much that trade unionists have fought for for many years. We cannot allow free collective bargaining to be destroyed.” The statement says that the CLRA is relying on repressive government actions (such as the unprecedented RCMP raids) to force the six unions without contracts to capitulate and accept CLRA terms, and that once they learn these methods do not work, they will return to real negotiations. s The Federation statements says that every appropriate measure will be used to assist the six unions in defence of free collective bargaining, and that the trade union movement is not going to allow any drastic action to be taken against trade union- _ists, carrying out. Federation. . policy without taking strong action in their defence. Meanwhile, the Socred gov- ernment’s drive against the unions received a setback last week when a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of the plumbers unions that search war- rants used by RCMP to raid the union be quashed and docu- ments returned. Attorney General Leslie Pet- erson immediately launched an appeal against the ruling and applied to the courts that docu- ments be sealed and left in the custody of the court. Mr. Justice Seaton of the B.C. Supreme Court has ordered the docu- ments held by the court pending the Crown appeal against the decision quashing the search warrants. The construction unions who have not yet signed contracts with CLRA last week took steps to consolidate their ranks by entering into a unity pact. The six unions are the Boiler- makers, Carpenters, Cement Masons, Electricians, Insu- lators and Plumbers. The unity pact provides that all six unions will take part only in joint negotiations which will block the attempt of CLRA to pick them off one at a time. See LABOR FED, pg. 8 RAY HAYNES, B.C. Federation of labor secretary-treasurer, last week addressed a number of building trades union rallies across the province in support of the six construction unions fight- ing compulsion under Bill 33.