“IWA’ STRIKE VOTE OVERWHELMING

- Woodworkers demands are just

By MAURICE RUSH

The kings of the forest in B.C.
are crying a river. They claim’
they can’t afford to meet the pay
demands of woodworkers this
year.

“Markets are bad, profits are
down, you'll price yourself out of
a job,”’ they said in an expensive
full page ad in both Vancouver
dailies last week.

They come up with these
crocodile tears every time wood-
workers ask for a wage increase.
It’s nothing new.

But this time they are trying to
pull the wool over the public’s
eyes on a scale never attempted
before. Facts are that since the
last. IWA contract was signed,
profits in the industry have
never been so high, as the box at
the right shows.

Nor is the market picture as
black.as they make it. Even now
the market for pulp and news-
print is exceeding all bounds. A
story in the Province last week
reports that ‘“‘the pulp market is
strong,’ and that companies
‘ean sell almost all they can
turn out.”

The demand for pulp is so
great that the giant forest com-
panies have increased the price
from $5 to $10 a ton effective
July 1 on top of the higher prices

paid in other countries as a
result of the floating Canadian
dollar.

One company, Columbia
Cellulose, added an $8 per ton sur-

charge on top of the price
increase. The Province reported
that the new price will add about
$50 million more revenue to the
industry.

Now it is reported that similar
rate boosts are being considered
for newsprint, which will net the
big companies many more
millions.

CRY WOLF

The cry that there is no market
in sight for our lumber should
also be taken with a grain of salt.
The clipping reproduced below
from the Vancouver Sun,
indicates that large markets are
expected in the U.S. According
to the story the U.S. is aiming for
three million more housing units
‘a year by 1974, which will
require imports of 11 billion
board feet of lumber by 1974.

On top of the huge profits
made by the companies during

_the life of the last contract, Cana-

dian forest companies invested
$271.4 million for expansion or
new mill construction in 1968
and another $353.2 million in

The VANCOUVER SUN: Sat.,

1969: Does that show they didn’t
expect a considerable expansion
of production?

If the prospect for the coming
year is as grim as the forest
companies claim, why are they

so anxious to impose a seven-day- -

a-week work schedule, and why
are they so insistent on over-
time work? That does not jibe
with their claims that the
industry faces hard times.

Woodworkers’ demands for
$1.00 an hour on the base rate of
$3.12 is needed by woodworkers
and their families to make ends
meet. Since the last contract was
signed, rising prices, interest
rates, and rents have seriously
undermined living standards,
and purchasing power of
workers in B.C.’s _ largest
industry.

The facts reveal what the
bosses are up to with their cries
of gloom: They want to impose a
cheap settlement on wood-
workers before the new round of
expansion and stepped-up
production gets underway to
meet expanding market de
mands.

The game they are playing is -

called ‘‘super-profits.”’
Woodworkers will not be

fooled by the bosses tactics. The

overwhelming strike vote of

June 20, 1970 IAKKDO)

Nixon hints at need
for wood from B.C.

By DAVE ABLETT
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON —_A repor
rele idav Dy PLE

ased Nere

TE DOlts TOL ds delal-f

W OOC =
mobia to the United State

SS TAT. e

0
‘increage is in store for the

tion expecting increased
momentum in the housing
market lumber prices will be
critical.

larger net imports will Dé.
Sane eu growing
“a : z

In the Washington area, for yim)

example, the median price of
a home has gone from $21,000
$27,000 in the last four
years. :
The report singles out Bri-
tish Columbia specifically in
-its recommendations.
In addition to other action,
the report s. “Substanti

‘Bc. “forest industry is not

detailed.

r
ia
por

But for the indus
which complained bitter ha
“ata weatd Hit lamb

Tepo

special task ‘force set up to
look into. the rapid rise in
plywood and lumber prices in

the United States.

“It shows that even with
increased production from
both public and private US.
lands, plus increased imports,
the supply of lumber and ply-
wood for the U.S. housing
market . will’ still fall nearly
three billion board feet short

of demand by 1974.

British Columbia has the
capacity. to export
lumber to the U.S. to mee
President Nixon’s call fo
increased softwood in th

~ : : a large
gap between the statement of
a need and steps taken to fill
it, according to Gordon Drae-
seke, president of the Council
of Forest Industries of B.C.

President Nixon Friday
urged: increased harvesting of
softwood in the U.S. after a

1S:
3

por

While the report looks for a
growth in lumber and plywood
imports, it also warns against
letting such shipments get out
of hand.

It notes that authority to
contain such import growth is
available and it suggested
various” U.S. departments
monitor both exports and
imports and be ready to take,
appropriate action. ;

Canadian officials here are

achie bi :
wil] consume an addi}

Billion boare eet of jumber D

Two billion of this can come

‘NO MARKET’ CRY A FARCE

A full page advertisement in both Vancouver dailies by the forest companies in which they try to justify
their ‘‘no-wage-increase-in ‘70’ plan, makes the point the industry cannot afford higher wages because of
the poor demand for wood products in the U.S. The above story from Washington, D.C. gives the lie to their
argument. The forest kings are trying to impose a low wage settlement on woodworkers before large scale
demands for lumber and pulp bring a new surge of profits to the forest monopolies.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1970—Page 8

1968
Noranda (Northwood Mills) $38,955,000
Crown Zellerbach (Canada) 12,776,000
‘MacMillan Bloedel 38.800,000
B.C. Forest Products 8.313,000
U.S. Plywood 54,678,000
Evans Product 11,791,000
Weyerhaeuser (Kamloops Pulp) 105,022,000
Domtar 10,834,000

8-Company Total

. .. Profits prove it

1969
39,072,000
13,782,000
42,551,000

9,366,000
64,437,000
14,713,000

131,400,000
17,809,000

$281,169,000 $333,131,000
(Net Profits after taxes)

% Increase

nearly 97 percent expected to be _ the bosses tactics, and are dete”
mined to stand united for SU™
stantial contract gains in 1970.

announced momentarily, proves
that IWA members see through

ao hor attacked —

under Bill 33

Cont'd from pg. 1

A 60-day ‘‘truce’’ period was
rejected last week by the
unions, most of whom have
been locked out for three
months, because it was seen asa
move by the contractors to
complete a number of key
projects on which they are
under pressure rather than
bargain to reach a settlement.

Fact that the order has
employer support was indi-
cated by the announcement of
CLRA president C. J.
Connaghan, immediately follow-

start work again Monday
although it would take some
time to get into full swing
again.”

B.C. Federation of Labor
policy and that of the unions
involved, on the anti-labor Act

shutdown. At Cominco opel
tions, a strike vote will
completed this week. i

In a statement widely © ae
lated this week the Communit —
Party in B.C. condemne
government’s action ©
appealed to all British Colut
bians, and the labor move
throughout Canada, to expr
the most effective way
full support to the emb
unions in the current ©
struggle.

“We on our part,’ En
statement declared, ‘‘pleds@ |
step up the campaign to

ing a subsequent meeting with © : back th
the construction contractors SUPPort to beat i-socred
representatives that ‘‘the Employer's Coun win
industry will be prepared to Government attack, an” ind

the urgently needed wage
contract demands. A uf
fully coordinated and
ganized campaign iS “an
needed to break through nd
defeat this attack on labor a
its living standards.”

passed a year and a half ago is
well known. A big question in
labor circles last night was
“where is the NDP? How come
no statement from the Leader
of the Opposition or any NDP
MLAs?”

In a surprise move in the’
lumber industry, where a 97%
strike vote was reported last
weekend, following a break-
down in mediation efforts

between the 35,000 member IWA
and Forest Industrial Rela-
tions, the government named
an industrial disputes enquiry
commissioner under pro-
visions of the Mediation Act —

after months of evasion and
haggling.

Justice Nemetz — to try and eUREU- ryt)
effect a settlement. Lumber i w Wie
operators have refused any asi ie Oe me! siti !
increase or contract changes A bere Meee

Clean out your ears, SUT

irc
d the 4
and
s in
ossible
Fattled
rucial
the

ally |
ae

ited: ;
well ot ;
what § a

A

oe

Gin

Statements by the Minister of
Labor indicate the government
is looking for a formula in
lumber, which could provide a
cheap pattern for settlement of
the deadlocked pulp industry
negotiations ~ and United
Steelworkers Kitimat aluminum
and Cominco smelting and ~
mining operations at Trail,
Kimberley and Riondel.

Kitimat workers have already
voted overwhelmingly for
strike and the mediators term of
office is running out, with
preparations underway for a

COMMISSION
Cont'd from pg- 1

-ations on the right to strik
picket, and removal of U
legal entities which can
in courts, along with the
of injunctions in labor pots
is needed to restore 1am
rights in B.C.
These rights shoul
into a new Charter of
Rights to replace the b
labor legislation P vert
through by the Socred 8°”
ment and big business.

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