THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER AUTHORIZED AS SECOND CLASS MAIL, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OTTAWA, AND FOR PAYMENT OF POSTAGE IN CASH. WORKER Vol. XXXVI, No. 2 VANCOUVER, B.C. 5c PER COPY 2nd Issue January, 1968 APPROXIMATELY 40 I.W.A. picketers, employed by Pacific Logging Company Ltd., prevented the Company’s contractors from restarting logging operations on January 8. Pictured above are R.C.M.P. officers requesting the IWA to clear Highway No. 6. See Page 3. LOCAL 1-423 STRIKERS Bein: on ahs ereket uit at Pen- _ ticton Sawmills Ltd., prior to company obtaining injunction limiting the number of pickets. The company sought the injunction after strikers stopped gypo contractors from hauling logs into mill. THE END OF A STRIKE. Pictured above are Jack Munro, Ist Vice-President and Business Agent of Local 1-405, and some of the key people involved in the running of the IWA’s strike against Celgar Ltd. (Castlegar), just seconds prior to the lifting of the picket line in a blinding snow- storm on January 9. Smiling faces reflect the member- ships’ satisfaction with the terms of settlement, “parity with coastal woodworkers by September 1, 1969.” INTERNATIONAL DONATES $10,000 TO STRIKE FUND a Eatsionational ex- ecutive board has donated Regional Council The Region is also request- ing financial help from the B.C. Federation of Labour and other Canadian labour organizations. Purpose of the appeal is to ensure that there will be an adequate strike fund if coastal woodworkers are forced to strike this sum- LATEST STRIKEBREAKING ATTEMPT EMPLOYERS DISCONTINUE PAYMENTS ON STRIKERS’ M.S.A., LIFE PREMIUMS The militancy of the IWA Interior strikers has now forced the employers to sink to new lows in their desper- ate efforts to break the spirit of the Union. Notice has now been served on the Union by the employ- ers that they will no longer pay the employees’ medical and group life insurance pre- miums. The Union had work- ed out an agreement with the companies that for the dura- tion of the strike, the pre- miums. would be deducted from the holiday pay owed to employees. To save face for breaking the agreement, the companies used the weak-kneed excuse that the strike had forced them to lay-off the office staff who did this work. The move, however, will not affect the strikers’ cover- age. Arrangements have been made by the Union for the carrier insurance companies to look after the premiums until such time as the strike is settled. Regional president Jack Moore stated that this latest pressure move showed the employers were getting pan- UNION BLASTS F.I.R. ON RATE REVISION STALL The IWA Coast Negotiating ‘Committee has accused Forest Industrial Relations head John Billings with deliber- ately blocking job rate revi- sions for thirteen categories in the sawmill and logging sections of the industry. The Committee, fed up with the seven-month runaround given the Union by Billings, has warned that if the prob- lem is not resolved soon it will be thrown into coming con- tract negotiations. The Committee has also is- sued leaflets calling on the entire IWA Coast member- ship to protest FIR’s refusal to negotiate rate revisions as provided for in the Coast Master Agreement. The Master Agreement pro- vides for an annual rate revi- sion, by mutual consent, to correct inequities in category rates. The Committee charges that Billings is blatantly ignor- ing the rate revision clause in the hope of settling the rates through a job evaluation plan. The Committee points out that delegates to the last Re- gional Convention rejected a proposal to extend job evalu- ation to the sawmill section of the industry. This prohibits the Committee from commit- ting the Union to any job evaluation formula. The Committee, headed by acting chairman Regional 2nd vice-president Del Pratt and acting secretary Regional sec- retary-treasurer Fred Fieber, and comprised of all Coast Lo- cal Union presidents, is still meeting with Billings, but little hope is held out that the problem will be resolved. Meanwhile, workers in the thirteen categories affected have been unjustly prevented from receiving the proper rates due to them. Categories up for revision include: car- rier driver, fork lift driver, log gang sawyer, cant gang sawyer, resawyer, bull saw operator, crane operator, crane chaser, sawmill truck driver, steel spar hooktender, rigging slinger, chokerman, bulldozer operator (grade). icky. “The length of the strike, the high lumber prices and even higher morale of the strikers, were having their effect on the operators,” he said. He also pointed out that the companies’ previous pressure move in obtaining injunctions at a number of operations had little effect in breaking the spirit of the strikers. This high morale of the members was well in evidence during the series of mass meetings held in Merritt, Kamloops, Kelowna, and Sal- mon Arm, January 19-20-21, where full up-to-date reports were given on the strike by president Moore, Local 1-417 president Bob Schlosser and Local 1-423 president Bill Schumaker. » The large turnout of mem- bers at these meetings made it clear that they were not prepared to return to work for anything less. than the Cel- gar terms of settlement and showed their approval of the Union’s conduct of the strike by voicing full confidence in their negotiating committee. They also approved a reso- lution which called for the Union to by-pass the employ- ers’ association negotiators and deal directly with the in- dividual companies. This proposal was made after it was explained that only one member of the four employers’ negotiators had any direct interest or stake in the outcome of the strike. At the Kelowna meeting, which was also the Local’s general membership meeting, a motion was passed to set up a committee empowered to discipline any member violat- ing the Union’s constitution. The action was taken to avoid any future repetition of the back-to-work movement like the one instituted by an IWA member at the Riverside Forest Products plant in Lum- by, early in January. THEY WILL SEE THE EMPLOYERS IN HELL before accepting anything less than the Celgar settlement. Part of the militant crowd that attended the general meeting of Local 1-423 IWA January 20, in Kelowna, where Regional President Jack Moore gave his re port on the Interior strike. The huge gathering made it obvious that it was completely behind the Southern Interior Negotiating Committee and more than pre- pared to stay out on strike until the Union demands were met. See Pages 6-7.