THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER IWA The eighty-one delegates to the 17th Annual Delegated Meeting of Local 1-71 IWA, May 20, gave the officers a strong vote of confidence by re-electing them by acclama- tion to a new two-year term. The meeting held in Van- couver also returned the Lo- cal’s six area board members without opposition. Officers re-elected were: president Ernie Freer; Ist vice-president, Ben Thomp- son; 2nd vice-president, Wal- ter Kozij; 3rd vice-president, Bob Pickering; secretary- the present per diem allow- ance paid officers.and mem- bers away from home on of- ficial business of the Local, from $6.00 to $8.00 a day and increases the hotel allowance from $7.00 to $8.00 per day. Regional president Jack Moore, the first of the four guest speakers scored both the employers and the Labour Relations Board when he re- ported on the Gold River dis- pute. He suggested that Local 1-85’s joint application with the International Pulp and Paper Workers Union for TOP OFFICERS of the Local received a resounding vote of confidence from the delegates who returned them by acclamation to a further two-year term of office. They are, left, secretary-treasurer Bill Wilson, president Ernie Freer, 3rd vice-president Bob Pickering, 2nd vice-president Walter Kozij, treasurer, Bill Wilson; con- ductor, Gordon Davis; Ward- en, Jimmy Ray; trustee, Dan Otto. Area board members re- elected were: E. Ollenberger, W. Penner, F. Millar, J. In- gram, G. Phillips, R. Jowsey. The delegates during the one-day session dealt with over eighty resolutions, one By-law change, one executive board recommendation, elec- ted besides officers and board members, delegates to the Re- gional and International con- ventions, and heard from four guest speakers. The executive board re- commendation approved by the meeting gave the officers authority to increase the amount of money being de- posited into the Local’s Re- placement and Strike Assist- ance Fund from $500 per month to $1,000 per month. The By-law change also ap- proved by the delegates raises Ist vice-president Ben Thompson. certification of the Tahsis em- ployees was defeated because the Labour Board bowed to pressure from the employers. He then went on to‘discuss the delegated conference pro- cedure followed by Local 1-71 and other Local Unions in Regional Council No. 1, whose widely scattered mem- berships prevented them from holding monthly meetings. He stated that in his opinion delegated meetings were com- pletely democratic and the stand taken by Region 1 in the 1963 International Con- cention was at last being vindicated. He informed the delegates there was a move now on in the International to hold simi- lar conferences and to rein- stitute the roll call vote. Tom Barnett, NDP-MP for the riding of Comox-Alberni held out the promise to the meeting that income tax de- ductions sought by the log- gers in respect to board, fare costs, work clothing and tools, might be possible if. the Carter Report on taxation is implemented. Barnett, who has spent years in the House pressing for reductions in taxation for the loggers stated that the Carter Report recommended the following when consider- ing the deduction of expenses by employees: “All of the ex- penses incurred in the ex- pectation of generating net gains, other than personal liv- ing expenses, should be al- lowed as deductions from all actual gross gains.” “What this means in plain English,” he said, “is that the Report is calling for the al- lowance .of deductions for the cost of tools and special cloth- ing needed by workers to earn their livelihood.” He added the Report has also proposed revolutionary changes in the Canadian sys- tem; changes which would completely alter the present structure of taxation and make the system far less diffi- cult on wage and salary earn- ers and rougher for the high income persons. International 2nd vice- president Ron Roley in- formed the meeting that a proposal would be submitted to this year’s International Convention calling for a 25 cent per capita increase to the International. He stated that the increase was desperately needed to organize the unor- ganized workers in the South- ern States and other de- pressed areas. He predicted a bleak future for B.C. wood- workers if they failed to heed the danger of having so many thousands of unorganized people working in the indus- try for starvation wages. He suggested that by ap- proving the per capita in- crease, the members would not only help raise the unor- ganized workers’ standard of living but at the same time would help protect their own. Regional secretary-treas- urer Fred Fieber, who was for many years one of the top officers of the Local Un- ion and who is still a mem- ber, made a short address in which he stated that he was proud of the Local and its record. He was one of the first nominated during the elections held at the meeting for International Convention ED. GILL, one of the three Local trustees, delivers the Trustees’ Report to the Conference. The Report com- mended the officers and staff for the manner in which the Local’s business and finances were handled. delegates and was among-the fourteen elected to attend. Other International Con- vention delegates elected were: B. Wilson, J. Ingram, H. Holdt, F. Millar, G. Phil- lips, G. Davis, R. Jowsey, B. Thompson, E. Freer, E. Gill, E. Ollenberger, R. Pickering, W. Penner. Regional Convention dele- gates elected were: G. Stiles, F. Millar, B. Wilson, G. Davis, E. Ollenberger, G. Phillips, R. Jowsey, E. Gill, W. McCon- nell, R. Pickering, W. Penner, W. Kozij, B. Thompson, D. Otto. Again, as in previous years, the loggers gave high priority to resolutions demanding re- . moval of income tax paid by them for travel fares, board, protective clothing, work clothing and tools. Seventeen of the resolutions submitted to the meeting dealt with this subject alone. Another contentious issue, which also drew a number of resolutions, concerned the problems of fallers and buck- ers. The resolutions commit- tee submitted a substitute resolution which, after a good deal of debate, gained ap- proval by the delegates. It called for the Local to make every effort to assist the fall- ers with their problems on a camp by camp basis. It also called for the special mone- ‘tary demands of the fallers be referred to the Local ex- ecutive board ‘with instruc- tions to study the whole ques- tion of fallers’ contract rates, possibility of a day rate, etc., »and make a report on the subject to the Local’s next Wages and Contract Confer- ence. Other resolutions approved by the delegates called for: e The elimination of com- bination jobs. e Green men to be properly trained. © The Local Union to press the WCB to provide more complete and less confusing information in its letters to claimants. © An end to the practice of allowing men to work alone around moving machinery. A number of the resolu- tions submitted indicated the loggers’ keen interest in form- ing one union in wood. They suggested that this objective should be promoted by every legislative means and a reso- lution to this effect should be submitted to the next Re- gional Convention or to any delegated conference dealing with the subject called prior to the Co:uvention. Frank Howard, the NDP- MP for the riding of Skeena and past president of Local 1-71, received a hearty vote of confidence from the dele- gates when they approved a resolution calling for the members to give him a larger mandate in the next Federal election. The comprehensive and well documented Officers’ Re- port showed that the Local’s affairs were being soundly administered. The trustees’ Report complimented the of- ficers on their handling of the Local’s finances. Dealing with administra- tion problems, the Officers Report stated in part: See “LOCAL 1-71” Page 5