6 WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER 2nd Issue August, 1961 From Page 1 “LABOUR DAY -1961" skills are demanded. The whole structure of industrial life is undergoing fundamental changes. Too many workers are being irresponsibly discarded. These changes have caused a decline in the number of “blue collar” workers, and an increase in the number of “white collar” workers. Unless prompt action is taken we are threatened with an increase in the number of the unorganized. N Canada, we are confronted with grave maladjustments within the economy. Our productive capacity far exceeds consumer demand. Monetary and fiscal policies have not been integrated to ensure high employment and output levels. Unplanned private and public investment has brought recur- ring recessions succeeded with periods of only partial recov- ery. Canada lags behind Western European countries in pro- vision for the greater mobility of labour, better workers’ education, and direct measures to stimulate full employment. Rising prices depress real wages. Depressed areas are becom- ing common. The fluctuations of seasonal employment deprive many workers of Satisfactory annual incomes. : Continuing mass unemployment, now rising in an alarming degree, and showing chronic features is the gravest threat to the workers’ interests. Unemployment in its present form threatens the job security of every worker now employed. Temporary. revivals of business activity have not eleminated the alarming condition that, on an average, seven per cent of the working force is idle. Even in last mid-summer, 40,000 workers in British Columbia remained unemployed. There are therefore good grounds for the fear that next winter will witness unemployment of catastrophic proportions. (yee labour is keenly aware of the distress and hardships experienced in the homes of the unemployed. Unemployment insurance and social assistance have done little more than keep body and soul together. The frustra- tions and despair because of lost opportunities for young and old alike present a human tragedy of monumental proportions. is Organized labour cannot tolerate continuing unemploy- ment. The situation calls for vigorous and organized action, with full rank-and-file participation, to eradicate the root causes of this needless lack of work. There is ample work waiting fo be done. Unemployment is man-made, and can be wiped out-by man. We have it on the authority of the Special Committee of the Senate on Manpower and Employment, that far-reach- ing remedial measures are immediately possible and prac- ticable. We now have official vindication in this report of labour’s postion in this matter. We are on sound fighting ground as we proceed to attack the issue. It is the solemn responsibility of organized labour to arouse public aware- ness to this menacing problem, “the most pressing problem before the Canadian people,” and to enlist public support for measures that will ‘make compulsory idleness a thing of the past. \e this province we have suffered unfair and restrictive labour legislation. Every worker should know that the threat to trade union collective bargaining is a threat to his or her individual living standards. It has been stated by government spokesmen that further restrictions are contem- plated. This situation results from the political pressures exercised by the employers to defeat any progress at the bar- gaining table. We are warned by the situation prevailing in eighteen American States where “right-to-work” laws have been in- troduced. In all these States, the per capita income of the workers is depressed dangerously below the national average income. Organized labour in British Columbia has launched a cam- paign for the repeal of Bills 43 and 42. In the fight for repeal we will find the best defence against further infringements upon our established rights. This campaign to be successful, must have the enthusiastic support of every Local Union and every alert trade union member. Trade unionism has been a bulwark of democracy, and the suppression of democratic «freedoms for the organized workers undermines our national democracy. hee realization that trade unions cannot adequately serve the interests of the workers, except in a stable and ex- panding economy, has caused labour to make an historic turn. Our only means of influencing a changed direction in provincial and national economic purposés is through politi- cal action. In co-operation with the CCF we have created the oppor- tunity for labour to establish governments that will give allegiance to the common good, rather than to privileged interests. We call on all workers to rally to the active support . of the New Democratic Party, and help to make it an effec- tive instrument for the realization of their hopes for social * security. Trade union members may now mobilize around issues such as medical care, housing, unemployment, educa- tion, and sound economic planning in the public interest. We have claimed the right to share in making the New Democratic Party an effective instrument for the attainment of our legis- lative aims. NTI-LABOUR propaganda persists. Mis-statements of +X labour’s objectives conceal the fact that labour is not the culprit but actually the victim of the lack of balance between wages, prices and profits. If management spent less time abusing labour, and more time in a genuine effort to promote sensible collective bargaining, industrial relations in this province would assume a greater degree of stability. Despite conflicting interests, there can be a more peaceful co-existence, providing management displays a greater responsibility for the welfare of employees. Overhanging all our lives is the terrible threat of total destruction through nuclear warfare. There is more than a modicum of truth in the statement that we are being brain- washed with the false idea that greater preparations for war, constitute the sole deterrent to war. Within our own country, and through the medium of the ICFTU we must continue to press for sane negotiations to ease international tensions, placing greater reliance on the United Nations. s we plan to meet the challenge of tomorrow we must take into account the fact that workers everywhere react to the pressures of their environment. This is not to their discredit, but is rather the natural outcome of changing cir- cumstances, The worker who is fearful of being replaced by an unemployed worker cannot be expected to act with his usual militancy, unless he reaches the point of desperation. HERE has been a further dehumanization of the work pro- cess and the worker himself, with a marked change in the personal goals of the individual trade union member. The mood so engendered carries over into his union. Since the job demands are more exacting and since he feels remote from the means of controlling his environment, he seeks relaxation in his leisure time. He may fully recognize the value of his union, but may not feel impelled to become an active participant in the process of directing union policy. In recent years, also, we have witnessed the initiation of many union members who have not had the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the historical struggles and activities of the unions which surround them with many bene- fits, that otherwise would be absent. We must frankly admit that this attitude is frequently re- flected in attendance at Local Union meetings, unless the issues have immediate and important significance. AS all costs we must seek to recapture the rank-and-file ° idealism which characterized the early days of trade unionism. We can do so if we meet conditions as they exist, rather than as we hope them to be. Efficient “business” unionism is not enough. More vigorous techniques must im- plant in the minds of all our fellow-workers, the great vision of trade unionism. If pressures exerted on their lives dis- courage attendance at Local Union meetings, then we must take the message of trade unionism to them on the job loca- tion. We deny the charge that the average trade unionist is only interested in making as much money as possible to take care of “number one’, a credo that is common in the business world around him. As events have shown our people respond more readily than any other section of society to appeals to their sense of brotherhood because of their sense of depen- dancy on each other on the job. pees surface apathy will be dissipated as we raise our sights, and place as much emphasis on fundamental social issues as we now do on bread and butter issues. As one labour writer has stated:—“Whatever the specific tactics and the final dimensions of labour’s goal, one thing is certain, The only means by which labour can make a new step forward is through new crusades that infuse new idealism, more idealism, and still more idealism. And incidentally, this applies to society at large”. We will keep faith with the founders of our movement —those who inaugurated Labour Day—if we continue to build a “grass-roots” trade union democracy based on the prin- ciples of brotherhood and with living and meaningful partici- pation by all the workers. Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is September 7th. Deadline for ad copy is August 30th, ba Ws ays THE bee a ceed and for news copy August 31st. BLM HER PUBLISHED TWICE MONTHLY ON THE FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAYS BY ao Ni ca I of America (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 REGIONAL OFFICERS: President Joe Morris st Vice-President cng Jack Moore 2nd Vice-President ............ Bo rd Vice-President Jack MacKenzie Secretary-Treasurer Fred International Board Members 2. ccccecocc cones cconneieeenmnnewmmnne Joe Madden Jack Holst Address all communications to FRED FIEBER, Secretary-Treasurer 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. : TR 4-5261 -2 : Subscription Rates $2.00 per annum Advertising Representative.................G. Spencer Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa 27.500 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUE FLY B.C. AIR LINES . . THE LARGEST AIRLINE OPERATING ENTIRELY IN B.C. It’s no accident that B.C. Air Lines enjoys the lowest possible air line _ insurance rate. Operating with unionized crews, B.C.A. flies over 50,000 revenue flights annually. Be sure of safety, service and satis- faction . . . next time fly B.C. Air Lines. MALLARDS ° NORSEMAN °¢ BEAVERS ° CESSNAS CHARTER FLIGHT OR SCHEDULED SERVICE BL AIR LINES... HEAD OFFICE: VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ° CR 8-8466 iE eT VVVV VV VV VI VV V TV Looking t Backward These items were gleaned from the files of the B.C. Lumber Worker’s August 2nd issue, 1951. IWA Coast lumber workers automatically gained an eleven cent an hour wage increase by reason of the cost-of-living bonus clause negotiated by the Union early in the year. * * * A report of felling a giant Douglas fir in Washington’s Olympic peninsula 12 feet at the butt, has brought B.C. loggers up with records of a monster fir dropped in 1895 in the Seymour Valley near Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver by George Carey. The felled fir was 471 feet high and 25 feet wide at the butt. From the butt 200 feet up it still measured nine feet through with bark 16 inches thick. The outside diameter was 19 feet with a net diameter of 17 feet, 6 inches at forty feet. From the butt to the 320 foot mark there was 181,640 board feet of lumber and an overall 200,000 board feet lumber value. It would have built twenty houses of mod- ern design. * * * Income derived by the B.C. Provincial Government from the forests of the province during the fiscal year, 1949-50 totalled $8,777,129.77.. The principal sources of revenue were from timber-sale stumpage and tim- ber royalties. * * In Paris they tell about Malen- kov reporting to Premier Stalin that it had just been verified that Adam and Eve were Russians. “What if the Voice of America calls this merely propaganda when we announce it?” Stalin demanded. “What definite proof have we?” “The best in the world,” Malenkov replied. “Adam and Eve had no clothes. They had no dwelling. All they had to eat was apples — and they believed they were in Paradise. They must have been Russians.” “Smoke - Jumpers’ Suggested By Writer This is to comment upon your ex- cellent editorial “Fight fires before they start,” in the Saturday Prov- ince, I believe that you have — almost — the right answer to B.C.’s prob- lem, also that the complete answer has been found already in the states -of Washington, Idaho and Montana (maybe more of them, but these three are all with which I am at all familiar). It is significant that the states mentioned are very similar to B.C. in every way, as regards the problems facing the Forest Service. The one basic difference has to do with the administration of the, Forest Serv- ice, which in the United States is under federal rather than state con- trol. A second basic “difference” lies in the methods of fire suppression employed, which, in these states at least are, I believe responsible for a vast saving in costs — and of valuable timber. What I refer to is the very suc- cessful use of “smoke-jumpers” as the advance guard in fire-suppression. These men are trained to a_ high peak of efficiency and, working with the several fire-spotting agencies, are able to “get on to” a fire, usually before it is of any size at all. After all, it is the first hour or so after the fire breaks out,, which really matters. WALTER E, GILBERT. Vancouver. (Reproduced from the Vancouver Province) “IT COSTS NO MORE TO FLY THE BEST” Del Welder Hospitalized We are sorry to report that Del Welder, office manager in th IWA Interior Regional Office in Kelowna, has been hospitalized with a serious eye infection. Del who was a former Busi well known in the Interior Unions and his many friends will wish him a speedy recovery. Agent of Local 1-423, IWA., is Local |