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2rd Issue
September, 1967

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

FROM PAGE 8

WA

for the housing needs are so
great it staggers the imagin-
ation. Senator Ribicoff of
Massachusetts stated we
should immediately start
spending fifty billion dollars
on housing and a slum clear-
ance program. He further
stated it would take one tril-
lion three hundred billion
dollars to do the job right. So
the need for housing points to
a bright future for the lum-
bering industry.

HUGE PROFITS

The lumbering industry is
reaping huge profits. It is true
some of the more inefficient

mills are having a harder time’

making it go. It is not caused
by labor. Automation has
eliminated many jobs so that

- labor is not costing more per

unit, unless in the plants that
have not modernized. Those
plants that still have burners
and have made no effort to
modernize cannot expect la-
bor to subsidize their out-
moded operations.

One black spot for the or-
ganized workers is the many
unorganized workers in the
lumbering industry. If organ-
ized labor is thirty-five per-
cent organized in the lumber-
ing industry, I think that
would be stretching the num-
ber. To do this job of organ-
izing the unorganized will be
a subject for this convention
to deal with. It is your re-
sponsibility.

GO FROM HERE

In order for us to know
where we are and how much
progress has been made we
must know from where we
started many years ago.
Through a little research we

can easily find out how far we-

have come. But where do we
go from here — and it is not
so easy to predict — or how
are we going to get there and
who is going to lead us there?
We are a democratic Union
so We must get our members
interested in their Union.
This can only be done by a
more intensified educational
program. I believe we have
the best, but the job is too
big for a one-man educational
staff. What you do to expand
the educational program is

also in your hands. These are
serious problems. There will
be no time for bickering. The
members in the plants are
watching us for results.

Since the last Convention
there has been a lot of nego-
tiations for new contracts.
Region 1 negotiated a two-
year contract for the B.C.
Coast and are now in nego-
tiations for a contract for the
Interior Locals. They are
seeking parity with Coast
wages and working condi-
tions. The workers voted al-
most unanimously to author-
ize their committee to call a
strike, should it be needed.

Region III negotiated a
three-year agreement. Some
of the employers refused to
go along with the pattern.
The workers struck the plants
and are still out. Region III
has fortified its strength by a
strike fund of $1.50 per mem-
ber per month. They did this
after all efforts pointed to-
ward failure of getting an In-
ternational Strike Fund. Such
a fund is still needed.

WAGE GAINS

Regions II and IV had suc-
cessful negotiations. Region
IV had strikes in all of its
major plants. They won all of
these strikes with substantial
wage gains.

The South has been the
rough spot to get real mone-
tary gains. The Laurel Local
negotiated and signed a good
agreement but are now out
on the bricks. There are other
strikes in Region V.

Many of these big comnan-
ies from Canada and the West
Coast of the U.S.A. are mov-
ing into the South, buying
huge tracts of timber and
building modern mills. The
states they are moving into
are mostly right - to - work
states. In order to bring
wages, hours and working
conditions of these large cor-
porations uv to the standards
on the Coast there has to be
worked out a strong coordin-
ated collective bargaining
procedure between the Re-
gional Councils that have con-
tracts with the same compan-
ies. It was recently reported
there were 35 plywood plants
down in the Pacific North-
west, still some of these same
companies are building more
plants in the South. This is a
serious problem. While the
Convention may not be in a

position to set a policy for

Local Unions and Regional
Councils under the present
wording in the Constitution,
it is a problem and somebody
must take the lead to correct
these huge differentials in
wages and working condi-
tions.

RESEARCH

The International Union,
through its Research Depart-
ment, in our opinion, is doing
a tremendous job of prepar-
ing material for negotiations
and valuable material for the
Regional Councils and Local
Unions. Here again, we are
demanding from one man and
two office girls work to sup-
ply information to Regions
and Local Unions with a de-
partment that is understaffed.
We hired a college student
to do some special research
work during the summer
months but he will be leaving
soon. Always we come back
to the same need — money.

The domestic problems are
getting more and more com-
plex. This year we have seen
the cost of living rising at an
alarming increase — four-
tenths of one percent in the
month of July. Since the last
wage negotiations the cost of
living has risen close to four
percent. That means 12 cents
per hour cut for a worker
getting $3.00 per hour. Be-
sides, there have been tax in-
creases in many states which
are not included in the cost
of living increases as publish-

ed by the Department of La-
bor.

BEING HURT

People on pensions are real-
ly being hurt. Many of them
going hungry in a land that
can vote seventy billion dol-
lars to keep the armed forces,
but vote a meager twelve and
one-half percent increase for
Social Security which is still
in the Senate of the United
States and has not been acted
upon. The President is asking
Congress for a tax increase
and no doubt will get it —
which will take another bite
out of the wage earner’s pay
cheque.

1967 has seen some of the
worst riots in our time. We

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address ourselves to crises as
if we confront a timeless sit-
uation. The sub-culture be-
neath our white - structured
society makes itself visible in
the ominous riots which shake
our great cities. The bill for
racial discrimination and hu-
miliation has come due. There
is tragedy in the racism which
penetrates deeply into our so-
ciety. A maze of traditional
generalizations ensnares us
and create the image of a
world strangely unreal. We
perpetuate injustice and in-
dignation; the breeding
ground for violence. We do
not remove the cause. We
hire more policemen, buy
heavier billy-clubs, pass anti-
riot legislation, clamor for
law and order while justice
is neglected and ignored.

RAT-CONTROL

Two thousand children
were bitten by rats in New
York City in 1966, and an
irresponsible Congress _hilar-
iously rejected a rat-control
measure; with little compas-
sion and less understanding.
Here we can see the extent
of human misery caused by
men who cannot see through
the dark curtains of their
fixed ideas.

I quote from the Library
of Congress — Page 562 —
“The dimension of poverty in
America staggers the imag-
ination. To unemployment,
add low wages, miserable
housing, inadequate educa-
tion, and vicious and perva-
sive forms of racial discrim-
ination; fuse this sub-cultural
syndrome into a destructive
welfare system; inadequate,
indifferent and bankrupt.
Only then may we begin to
understand the agony and
violence erupting on the

"PRESIDENT HARTUNG'S RETIREMENT ADDRESS"

streets of our greatest cities.
We have armed soldiers and
tanks on our streets — we
have helicopters in our skies.

“For the negro youth liv-
ing in our slums and ghettos
the depression of the 30’s has
never ended. Twenty-five per-
cent of all negro youth are
unemployed.

“If no one else, surely the
labor movement must be
startled and moved by these
appalling statistics.”

MY EQUALS

While violence will not
solve these problems they do
bring them sharply to our
attention.

I have never tried to deal
with the members of our Un-
ion on the basis of whether
they are white, red, yellow
or black. I have dealt with
them as my equals and we
should all recognize ourselves
as human beings, and not on
the basis of color. Americans
should adopt the provision
contained in the IWA Consti-
tution — and I quote Article
I, Section 6 “C”:

“To encourage all workers
without regard to race, creed,
national origin or ancestry to

share equally in the full bene-
fits of union organization.”

The members of our Union
— to the best of my knowl-
edge — are not involved in’
any of the so-called riots. I
believe that speaks well for
our International Union be-
cause we deal with our mem-
bers as people. There is an
old “toast” which states: “As
good as you are and as bad
as I am — I am as good as
you as bad as I am.”

There are many other prob-
lems that we must make our

See HARTUNG — Page 10

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