THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER AUTHORIZED AS SECOND CLASS MAIL, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OTTAWA, AND FOR PAYMENT OF POSTAGE IN CASH. WORKER Vol. XXXVI, No. 11 ; VANCOUVER, B.C. 5c PER COPY S>”* 1st Issue June, 1967 B.C.-NDP LEADER Robert Strachan calls for Party unity following his smashing victory over challenger Tom Berger shown standing behind Strachan with Norman Levi, NDP provincial president. NDP MEMBERS PLEDGE STRACHAN FULL SUPPORT Fears that the leadership fight would engulf the NDP in a bitter split proved groundless following Robert Strachan’s decisive victory over challenger Tom Berger at the party’s 6th Annual Convention June 2-4, in Van- couver, This was indicated when the 460 delegates in attend- ance closed ranks and pledged full support to their leader. The vote was 278 for Strach- an and 177 for Berger. In elections held for other offices provincial president Norman Levi and Ist vice- president Dave _ Stupich, MLA, were elected by accla- mation. Second vice-president Grant MacNeil lost out to Mrs. Hobbs and 3rd_ vice- president Frank Calder MLA, was defeated by Mrs. Del Carrall. B.C. Federation secretary Ray Haynes, the incumbent 4th vice-president, had a nar- row win over Labour Council secretary Paddy Neale. Mark Rose took over as treasurer from incumbent Joe Corsbie who declined to run. Executive members elected were Regional Ist vice-presi- dent Jack MacKenzie, Local 1-85 recording secretary John Squire, Local 1-217 recording secretary George Kowbel, J. Corsbie, A. Koehli, E. Dailly MLA, H. Dent, A. Faulds, B. Hagell, L. O’Neill. Mrs. Dorothy Steeves and Paddy Neale were elected the two federal council members. While the leadership con- test dominated the attention of the delegates for the first two days, they were still able to complete the business of the convention. Speeches were kept to a minimum and the only guest speaker was federal leader T. C. “Tommy” Douglas. After stating that he would welcome a challenge to his leadership at the national convention in July, Douglas went on to urge the dele- gates to prepare for a federal election which he believed would take place in June or October of 1968. See “STRACHAN”—Page 6 MSA POLICY CHANGES By BEN THOMPSON ist Vice-President, Local 1-71 A joint announcement by MSA and MSI was recently publicized in all the B.C. daily newspapers. In the best interests of its members, the people enrolled in MSI are being transferred to MSA. Two important changes will be effective July Ist, 1967 to MSA policy and should be noted by all IWA members. 1. Group medical coverage (where a member is working for an employer) will be pro- MSA regardless of of the 2. A Conversion Plan will be made available by MSA to those members who lose their group coverage during temporary unemployment or until they rejoin a group (Formerly MSI provided this individual coverage while be- tween jobs and group cover- age). This change is one more step in the sincere effort be- ing made to keep down the cost of prepaid medical care. With 686,000 members in British Columbia MSA mem- bers now enjoy low overhead costs. The change is also im- portant because of the Ex- tended Health Benefit pack- _ age which MSA has to offer to all existing group plans. 170 COURTENAY LOGGERS END WEEK-LONG WALKOUT Week-long work stoppage by members of Local 1-363 employed at Crown Zeller-. bach’s Courtenay Logging Di- vision has ended. The crew walked off the job June 5 in protest at the suspension of truck driver Ken Bader. While Bader is still under suspension, it is understood that his case will be quickly processed under the grievance procedure and that the Com- pany will drop its request to the Labour Relations Board for an order directing the log- gers to cease interfering with production. Local 1-363 president Max Salter blamed the dispute on the ‘hard nosed’ attitude of Crown Zellerbach officials. He pointed out that the Company has been plagued with labour disputes in the last six months because of its new industrial relations policy. He added that the morale in the Courtenay operation had never been worse and stated that the Company’s “dogmatic attitude and strong anti-union policy” were responsible. (Seventy members of Local 1-217 employed at the Com- pany’s Beaty Laminated plant in Vancouver, are still off the job following the suspension of 16 crew members May 25. IWA officials are also blaming the Company’s atrocious man- agement-labour relations for this dispute.) Ken Bader, who is also a shop steward, was suspended KEN BADER . suspended for one week. June 1 for a week for what the Company called “miscon- duct,” in attempting to exer- cise management’s preroga- tive by warning the scaling supervisor not to work alone on the booms. Salter stated the charge was nonsense and all Bader had done -was to suggest to the supervisor while talking on other matters, that working alone on the booms was an unsafe act. He added that everybody in the operation — including Company officials — knew the supervisor was violating a safety rule and yet no mana- gerial action was taken t stop him. ; Salter charged that the Company has had it in for Bader ever since it lost an arbitration case concerning his seniority. He explained that last year the Comvany had ordered a number of new “pup” trailer units for the operation. The drivers were -to be given the units in order of seniority. The plan was carried out for the first six senior men, however, Bader who was seventh on the list was completely by - passed. The Local Union took the case to arbitration and won an easy victory over the Com- pany which it still obviously resents. Salter then went on to de- scribe the conversation which took place between Bader and the Comnvpany’s divisional manager Mike Poje. See “LOGGERS”—Page 2 MONOCREST, CRESTWOOD DISPUTES: IWA POSITION EXPLAINED By SYD THOMPSON President, Local 1-217 IWA These two companies that have recently been in the news are the largest manu- facturers of kitchen cabinets in the Lower Mainland. The manufacture of kitchen cabinets in an assembly line process is a fairly recent de- velopment brought to its pres- ent stage in the last 15 to 20 years. Prior to that, many of the cabinets installed in homes and apartments were made and installed by car- penters right at the construc- tion site. Now this work is all done in factories with no tradesmen employed other than for installation purposes. Local 1-217 IWA obtained certification from the Labour Relations Board for both of these operations after first having conducted an organiz- ational campaign winning ma- jority support of the em- ployees. Local 1928 of the Carpen- ters and Joiners had obtained certification in both of these operations a number of years ago but in typical craft union fashion had done absolutely nothing in behalf of the em- ployees. At Monocrest the Carpen- ters obtained certification seven years ago and negoti- ated a one-year agreement which was never renewed. At that time when the IWA ap- plied for certification, men and women were working for as little as $1.50 per hour with nx SSE fen & 26s RS no medical or health and wel- fare coverage. Nobody among the entire workforce, to the best of our knowledge, was a member of the Carpenters’ Union. At Crestwood, the largest cabinet manufacturer in British Columbia, we found See “POSITION”—Page 4 as ee ee NE 5 CE MONOCREST EMPLOYEES focked out by the Company . are shown parading in front of the Labour Temple in Vancouver, ;