38,000 copies
printed in this issue

w thewester

lumber worker

Published once monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA

Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1

Affiliated with AFL-Clo-cLic

2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 874-5261

r—PatKerr Business Manager—Fred Fieber

Advertising Representatives—Elizabeth Spencer Associates

Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Western Canada inaccordance with convention decisions.

é

DITORIAL

PWC officers appear to be mounting

the forest industry. The basis for these
tacks is their inability to organize new
embers. They find it easier to attempt
destroy established unions than face
e roughter job of organizing the
lorganized.

They also prefer these tactics
cause they have neither respect nor
yalty for the rest of the labour
ovement. ;

These officers could learn a lesson on
le meaning of unionism from IWA
lembers at Castlegar and Nakusp. With
‘fothing to gain, nearly 300 IWA mem-
_Ders in these Interior towns honoured
picket lines thrown up by the PPWC at
@anCel operations last summer by
maining off the job for over ten weeks.

The fact that the PPWC was attacking
WA operations in other parts of the
Hexince didn't deter them from sup-
' g PPWC members in need of

ssistance. ;

This required courage not only
Because the strike was the second such
PWC strike they had supported in
‘three years but also like the first one
_ appeared impossible to win because of

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Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year.

_ anew campaign against other unions’

GADADWAY PAINTERS LTD.

“LESSON IN UNIONISM”

ill-defined issues and lack of leadership.

Notwithstanding this these IWA
members willingly faced being fired and
financial hardship to defend the sanctity
of the PPWC’s picket lines.

Fortunately, the IWA Regional Strike
Fund alleviated to a degree, the loss of
pay cheques. Thanks also to the
generosity of other IWA Local Unions it
was possible to waive the usual two-
week waiting period and pay strike relief
from the first day.

PPWC strikers on the other hand
were forced to wait four full weeks
before receiving strike relief.

And fears that the strike could not be
won proved justified. After walking
picket lines for over two and one half
months the strike collapsed because of
poor leadership and PPWC members
were forced back to work without a
signed agreement.

PPWC officers have a sorry history of
calling their members out on useless
strikes. The IWA members at Castlegar
and Nakusp are well aware of this and
deserve the strongest praise for putting
their trade union principles first to
support a fight they believed was lost
from the start.

you must scale
Uspallata Pass
to oust the usurpers :
serving an alien flag.
Be assured
that we are with you.”

_ Griffin combines this social
understanding with delicate
imagery to create poems that
are powerful, pleasing, and
above all, deeply moving.

In “Legacy”? he cries out
against foreign control of our
country’s resources

“Now is the time of reckon-
ing come,

the time
to ask who sold your bir-
thright ;

into foreign hands,

who put this mortgage on

By SUE RADOSEVIC
ter the success of his first
ction, Confederation and
* Poems, some of which
hee appeared in Russian,
lan and Armenian trans-
‘new book by Harold
, editor of The Fisher-
da UFAWU delegate to
ver and District Labor
is of interest to trade
3 generally.
W book, Now and Not
lected Poems, pub-
e Commonwealth
month, draws the
S title poem from

But the ‘“‘and Not Now” is a
declaration of faith in a future

“when labor

joined to peaceful labor

illumines domes of garden
cities

in diadems of light

that fear no darkening

within

and know not threat
without.”
Throughout his work,

iffin’s faith in working
Bee, his understanding of

“Again

2, %ara >

1K9 ;

your legacy,
its terms
your future servitude.”

And his poem, ‘‘Native
Fisherman’’ is at once a plea
for the Native Indians and a
reminder of the unity between
man and nature.

“Poised above the cataract

he stands,

once with the rock,

the wind,

the spray.”

An unusual contribution to
the literature of the labor
movement, Now and Not Now
is priced at $2.50 paperback
and $4.95 hard cover. It is
available at the offices of The
Fisherman, 138 East Cordova
Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6A

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THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER :

ameslatsie(sla

15

a Mollie Hogan? ... Is that a nickname for a woman

truck driver?

UIC DEDUCTIONS _
TO RISE IN JANUARY

1

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i

Unemployment insurance
deductions from workers’ pay
cheques will increase by 40 per
cent to a maximum of $2.38 a
week effective January 1, 1974.
Employers’ contributions will
rise to a maximum of $3.33 a
week.

Deductions are made only on
the first $170 of an individual’s
weekly earnings.

Manpower Minister Robert
Andras made the announce-
ment in the House of Commons
after saying that the govern-
ment expects a deficit ‘of $335
million this year in the em-
ployer-employee account.

Mr. Andras disclosed that
the cumulative deficit in the
fund is now $509.6 million,

which includes a deficit carry-
over from last year of $174.5
million. The new rates are .
expected to balance contri-
butions with payouts in 1974
and to wipe out the whole defi-
cit by 1979.

To tighten up administration
of the program, there will be a
stepped-up information ser-
vice, more officers to do inter-
viewing and closer co-opera-
tion between the Unemploy-
ment Insurance Commission
and Canada Manpower cen-
tres.

$2,050 million is the estimate
for payouts this year, up $170
million from last year. The
maximum benefit in 1974 will
be $113 a week, up from the
present $107.

CO-OP HOUSING
INCREASING IN B.C.

According to Mrs. S. Schmid,
executive director of the Uni-
ted Housing Foundation, a
thousand new homes a year
will be added to British Colum-
bia’s housing stock through
resident-owned co-operatives
by the end of this decade.

The purpose of the non-profit
Foundation is to provide co-ops
with expertise in financing,
organization, accounting, and
relations with government
agencies and management.

The first group to use the
services of the Foundation was
the co-operative that built the
110-unit Armor-de-Cosmos
Village in North Vancouver.
Now completed, this project is
considered to be a model for
successful housing co-opera-
tives.

Among current projects of
the United Housing Foundation
is the Victoria West project of
the Pioneer Co-operative
Housing Association. Another

pe ee ee UE Cy ee ge ere he aa poaky ou

development in Champlain
Heights in’ Vancouver, where a
group of people have formed
their own co-operative and are
building on land leased from
the City of Vnancouver. B.C.
Central Credit Union has
recently formed a housing and
building department, which
assists in financing co-op pro-
jects as well as housing pro-
jects developed by credit
unions.

Mrs. Schmid says that the
success of recent co-operative
housing projects in B.C. is due
largely. to the local initiative
that has gone into them. Co-
operatives work because they
are Self-screening. ‘‘When you
join a co-op you must accept
the principle that you wil]
never individually own your
own home, and when you ac-
cept that, you enter into the
unique situation of real demo-
cracy, where decisions are
made by the majority of mem-
bers. I’m amazed myself to see

how well it works.’’

2 LESS Ge ey a4