THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

LOCAL 1-417

IWA

_ An Officers’ Recommenda-
tion calling for the continued
support of the political action
programmes of the B.C. Fed-
eration of Labour and the Ca-
nadian Labour Congress was
unanimously approved by the
delegates attending the 8th
Annual Delegated Confer-
ence of Local 1-417 IWA,
April 23-24, in Kamloops.
The 57 delegates, represent-
ing every Sub-Local in the
Local Union, also dealt with
31 resolutions, four other Of-
ficers’ Recommendations and
elected delegates to attend
the Kamloops and District
Labour Council, Regional
Delegated Conferences and
the B.C. Federation of La-
bour’s 1966 convention.

| CONF |

REGIONAL Secretary - Treasurer
Fred Fieber.

Among the resolutions ap-
proved were two requiring
By-law changes. The first fix-
ed the date of the Annual
Conference for April of each
year. The second increased
the Local’s initiation fee to

$20.

The Conference held in the.

Memorial Arena was also at-
tended by approximately 20
visitors from the Internation-
al, Regional Council, Local
Unions and other affiliated
groups. Guest speakers were
International President A. F.

ERENCE G

CONFERENCE

Hartung, Regional Secretary-
Treasurer Fred Fieber, Kam-
loops and District Labour
Council Secretary Mrs. C. E.
McInnes and Bill Hartley,
NDP-MLA for Yale.

The conference delegates
elected were Bob Ross, John
Kelly, Larry Jensen, Jack
Cameron, Francis Munro. Al-
ternates elected were Jack
Biccum, Ake Lestander and

Stan Cupello.

President Hartung in his
address stressed the need for
greater concentration in or-
ganizing. He pointed out that
the IWA had less than a third
of the woodworkers in Can-
ada and the U.S. organized
and this was the reason its

INTERNATIONAL President A.
F. Hartung.

wage rates were lagging be-
hind other industrial unions.

He stated the steelworkers,
who a few years’ ago were
among the lowest paid work-
ers were now one of the high-
est because they had gone out
and organized 95% of the
steel industry.

He suggested that it was
going to be necessary for the
IWA to follow the steelwork-

_ers’ example to protect its

present membership’s welfare.
The sub-standard wages paid
to unorganized woodworkers

UEST SPEAKERS

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OFFICERS OF LOCAL 1-417 left, Bob Ross, Financial Secretary; Bob Schlosser, Presi-
dent; John Kelly, 1st Vice-President; Dave Pease, 2nd Vice-President.

would ultimately - breakdown
the living standards of our

members if allowed to go un-
checked, he added.

Another important issue the
Union would have to face up

MRS. C. E. McINNES, Secretary
of the Kamloops and District La-
bour Council.

to before too long, Hartung
stated, was the problem of
automation. At the present
moment, the booming econ-
omy caused by the war in
Viet Nam, had prevented its
full effects being felt but this
would not last forever, he
said,

In the meantime, he went
on, the forest industry was
ignoring its responsibility and
intensifying the problem by
seeking out ways and means
to further reduce the work

force.

He cited as an example the
giant Weyerhauser corpora-
tion which has predicted that
in the next five years it will
be able to reduce its work
force by thirty percent and
still increase production.

Hartung concluded his ad-
dress by suggesting that the
only way to reverse this
trend was for the members to
take political action to elect a
government not answerable to
big business.

Regional Secretary - Treas-
urer Fieber made a brief re-
port on Coast negotiations in
which he stated that it was
the same old story of the em-
ployers crying the blues while
wallowing in their profits.

He also explained the var-
ious stages followed in the
negotiating procedure and
stressed the point that the
Union was compelled by law
to obey them.

He then went on to com-
pliment the Local on its
growth and sound financial
position. He stated that in the
early days he had spent nearly
a year organizing in Local
1-417 and was well aware
that administering and look-
ing after the problems in such

LADIES AUXILIARY members Doreen Hobbs, Rhea
Kerssens and Pep Kelly, spent most of their pb at

the Conference working in the kitch A
and sandwiches for the delegates. en, provi: ee

a large area was no small task
for the officers and they were
doing a fine job.
Included among the more
important resolutions approv-
ed were demands for:
© Wage parity with the Coast
in next year’s negotiations.
© Travel time for loggers and
an 8% hour day from mar-
shalling point to marshal-
ling point.

© Increased vacations,

e Provision for sick pay.

© Double time for overtime.

e Accrued sick leave.

Aware that a number of
Job Stewards and Committee
members had not received
proper Union training, the
delegates also approved a
resolution instructing the of-
ficers to institute an educa-
tional programme so that
these key members would be
fully familiar with all re-
quirements of their job, prior
to the 1967 negotiations.

The delegates also passed a
resolution which called on the
officers to encourage and pro-
mote more social events in
the Local Union. The resolu-
tion stated that such events

See “MEET” P, 7

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