Ed Linder, a familiar face
around Local 1-80, has held an
elected office longer than any
other IWA officer in North
America. For the past 28
years, he has been that Local

Union’s Financial Secretary.

He was elected in 1948 and
since that time has served the

membership under six Local.

Union Presidents.

Linder has seen his Local
grow from almost nothing
during the turmoil of the 1948
split to become the strong and
progressive Local it is today.

Ed Linder left his home in
Alberta in 1934 at the age of 23
years. He gathered up all his
belongings, which amounted to
about $35, and headed for

Courtenay, intending to stay a
few days with some friends,
but having spent all his money
on the journey from Alberta,
Ed needed a job. The woods
were then on strike, so the
matter of getting a job had to

~ wait until the strike was over. .

Ed does not remember
exactly how the strike started.
A well established woodwork-
ing Union as we now know it,
did not exist. It was not hard to
visualize why the woodworkers
struck. The wages were un-
believably low, and such things
as job security, seniority,
grievance committees, paid
holidays, vacations with pay,
and other things taken for
granted today, just did not
exist.

GREAT DEPRESSION

The great depression was
then lifting only very slightly,
and unemployment was rife.
After the strike ended, his first
job was on a railway section
gang, for the Comox Logging
and Railway Company, at
Camp No. 3, north of Cour-
tenay. Ed worked for the
princely sum of $3.00 per day.
It was the custom at that time
that if a man on the regular
choking gang did not report for
work for some reason, that the
company would reach out into
the section gang and replace
that man for the day. When this
happened, his wages ascended
to $3.50 per day. He said, “‘I
was quite happy when I got put
on steady on the chokers.”’
Later, he was promoted to
Second Hooker. This involved a
very modest raise in wages,
from $3.50 to $4.00 per day, but
the increase in the work load

was far from modest. “‘I never
worked so hard in my life
before or after. as on that job,”
Linder said.

Ed said, ‘‘Sure, in those 1934
days we heard about Unions. It
was ‘not considered a safe
topic though, to discuss when
Company personnel were
around.

“Having come from a farm,
I must admit that I was
abyssmally ignorant of Unions,
and my knowledge about them
did not go much beyond what I
heard in conversations.”

About 1937-38 he got a job as
second hooktender at Thomp-
son and Clarke, near Bowser.
At this time, he began to see
much more clearly what
conditions can develop into
when there is not the
restraining influence of a

. Union.

NO UNION CONTRACT

There was no union and thus
no seniority rights, guarded by
a Union contract. This left a
clear field for the superintend-
ent or foreman to show favour-
itisms. If he had a close friend
he wanted to find a job for, it
was a simple matter to find
something wrong with one of
the crew, to open a job for his
favorite. This is what hap-
pened to Ed. The boss ap-
parently had a friend who had
done his type of work before
somewhere else, so when he
reported back after the Christ-
mas shutdown, Ed was
replaced by a ‘“‘friend’”’. So he
was out of a job — very simple.
The Company did not have to

_meet a grievance committee.

Ed worked in a mine at
Britannia Beach, also worked
as a Rigging slinger, when the
present site of Northwest Bay

was starting up, and finally

hired out as a_ skidder
Hooktender for Bloedel Stuart
and Welch, then operating at
Port Alberni, at Great Central

While working at Great

Central Lake, the Second

World War had started, the

loggers began to hear of Union
organizing becoming more

ome Hjalmar Bergren

inte camp one evening,
called a meting of the
tS Seinen

Woodworkers of America.
Hjalmar was the first man to
approach Ed to join the IWA.
“T signed up and so did the
others in the meeting, and I
have been an IWA member
ever since,”’ Linder said.

It wasn’t hard to sell Ed on
the Union. He had had many
years of experience working in
unorganized camps, and knew
only too well, the injustices,
that prevailed without a Union,
the poor wages, the lack of
safety.

After working for a number
of years in Great Central Lake,
Ed went to work for Comox
Logging and Railway Com-
pany again, but at this time, at
Ladysmith and Nanimo Lakes.

Before leaving Alberta, Ed
had learned shorthand and
typing and because of these
skills, he accepted the position
as Treasurer of the Ladysmith
& District Credit Union. That
credit union was then just
beginning, and he volunteered
to assist in getting it ‘‘on the
way”. This was a factor in
changing the course of Ed’s
future. ‘‘We used the IWA
office in Ladysmith at that
time, as the office for the
Credit Union, and at this time
IWA members paid cash mem-
bership
tunity to hear IWA affairs
discussed every week, as the

iaet Soaliig, be saeay 0 per

dues. I had an oppor- ©

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

their dues were my fellow IWA
Members of the Ladysmith
area. I attended the IWA Sub
Local meetings in Ladysmith
regularly,” Ed said.

It was not hard to detect at
that time, that an internal
struggle was shaping up, in the
IWA. When IWA matters were
talked about out in the woods,

not only was Ed very appre- ©

hensive about the political
orientation of the leaders at
that time, both in Local
Unions, and Regional, but this
apprehension was voiced: by
fellow Union members he
talked to about the situation.

It all came to a head in the
autumn of 1948. Ed was in Van-
couver one evening that fall,
and was told that a disaffilia-
tion meeting had just been
held, which proposed to break
with the International -Wood-
workers of America, and to
form the Woodworkers Indus-
trial Union of Canada. The

latter organization was
promptly dubbed the
“‘Wooeys’’, and was known as

such everywhere during the
stormy days that followed. Ed
said, ‘‘A surge of loyalty for the
IWA soon became evident, cul-
minating in the largest
meeting that I had ever seen at
that time.’ A meeting set ata
smaller hall in Duncan was not
even capable of holding. the
people that arrived, and the
huge crowd of members moved

‘to the old Armories hall in

Duncan. Ed added,‘“‘It was the
tensest and stormiest meeting
Ihave ever attended in my life.
I considered it so tense that it
was potentially explosive. It
seemed at first that it would be

impossible to restore any kind.

of order. But finally a chair-
man was chosen who seemed
generally acceptable to both
parties for that particular
evening, and so some type of
order was maintained.

“On October of 1948, a well
advertised meeting was held,
to elect pro tem officers for
Local 1-80 to replace those who
had gone over to the WIUC. It
was at this meeting I was
elected Financial Secretary of
the IWA Local 1-80, and I have
held this office ever since. I
should add that this meeting
held on October 7, 1948, was
also very well attended.”

Ed remembers those early
days when there was only a
rented office. He remembers
entering the office from which

all the office furniture and -

equipment had been removed,
taking along his own old L.C.
Smith typewriter, and setting
it on a table, the only thing left
to set it on. Ed said, “I
remember going to the bank, to
check how much money was
left in the IWA Local 1-80 ac-
eount, and finding that only
about fifty dollars was there.
So we hired a girl for the office
and set about reorganizing the
Local Union.”

Their first problem was

dealing with the breakaway .

Union the WIUC. They were
then attempting everywhere to
woo the IWA members to their
breakway Union, and to take
over their certifications.

ED LINDER

Gradually the IWA signed up
those who had gone over, and
the WIUC was completely
defeated, and went into
oblivion. Ed told us, ‘‘It ap-
pears that prior to October 1948
when the former District of-
ficers were in charge, an
auditing service was used that
‘‘audited’’ many if not all of the
Local Union’s books as well as
the District financial records.
One of the first decisions in
Local ~1-80 following this
breakaway attempt was that
we engage regular chartered
accountants to go over the
books. This has been done ever
since. We engaged the firm of
chartered accountants. The

books are examined four times
a year. In addition our Local
Union By-Laws provide for
regular auditing by our elected
trustees, who check every
voucher, and every expendi-
ture, to see that it is properly.
authorized. The International
Woodworkers of America is
justly proud of the fact that a ©
strict adherence to proper ~
financial procedures has given
us a reputation for ethical
financial practices that is
never questioned anywhere.
We have had great days in
the past, but I feel confident
that the best days of the Inter-
national Woodworkers _ of
America are still ahead of us. .

FROM PAGE FOURTEEN

OFFICERS’ REPORT

GENERAL FUND

Revenue into the General
Fund for the year ending June
30, 1975 was up by $3,115 while
expenditures for the same
period were up by $30,678, as
compared to the previous year.

The excess of expenditures
over revenue for the year was
$27,563 more than the previous
year for a total of $49,009.

Operating expenses were
down by $8,530 for the year;
however, administrative ex-
pense rose by $39,208 over the
previous year despite a reduc-
tion of four (4) full time Or-
ganizers in January 1975. The
main reasons for the increase
in administrative expense
were:

(a) Increased Audit and
Legal expense.

(b) Retroactive and _ in-
creased premiums for Group
Insurance and new premiums
for dental coverage.

(c) Increased salaries and -
statutory expenses, and
(d) Additional costs
stationery and supplies.

The bank balance in -the
General Fund at the end of
June 1975 was $20,705.

STRIKE TRUST FUND

The Strike Trust Fund had
an excess of revenue over ex-
penditures for the year ending
June 30, 1975 of $397,621,

for

bringing the year-end total to

$3,075,924.

AUXILIARY
The ladies’ Auxiliaries from
Locals 1-80, 1-217, 1-357, 1-405.
and 1-417 will meet on January
28 and 29, 1976 and will make a
report to this Convention on
Thursday afternoon.

Local 1-417 is the Auxiliary
Host this year, and we feel that
they have outlined an_ in-
teresting and entertaining
agenda for the Auxiliary
Meeting.

We wish the Ladies well in
their deliberations and we look
forward to their report to the
Convention.

CONCLUSION

The Report of the Officers
this year is a lengthy report as
we have attempted to touch on
the highlights of our activities
during the past 16 months. The
Officers would like to remind
all delegates that on accepting
nomination to come to this
Convention your responsibility
does not end when the Conven-
tion is concluded, it continues,
and the only way we will even-
tually have one union in wood
is for everyone in the IWA to be
informed of the policies and
programs of the IWA.

In closing, we would like to
extend to the membership of
all Locals, our sincere appre-
ciation for the co-operation,
understanding and patience
that has been given to the Re-
gional Staff and Officers
during a most difficult year.

All of which is Respectfully
Submitted by the Regional Of-
ficer's,

J.J. Munro, President
T. W. Trineer, ist Vice

President
S. Parker, 2nd Vice President

R. Blanchard, 3rd Vice

President
R. Schlosser, Secretary-

Treasurer