thewestern canadian lumber worker VANCOUVER, B.C. E>’ MARCH, 1975. IWA NEGOTIATORS for the Coast, Southern and Northern Interior, pose for their picture at the Union’s Wages & Contract Conference March 21-22-23, in Vancouver. Group front row, left, Stan Parker, Regional 2nd Vice-President; Bob Blanchard, Regional 3rd Vice- President ; Jack Munro, Regional President; Wyman Trineer, Regional 1st Vice-President; Fernie Viala, Local 1-80 President. Back row, left, Ron Grant, Local 1-288 Financial Secre- tary; Wayne Nowlin, Local 1-405 President; Earl Foxcroft, Local 1-85 President; Bill Schumaker, Local 1-423 President; Don Muirhead, Local 1-424 President; Lorne Scott, Local 1-363 President; Gerry Stoney, Local 1-357 President; Sonny Alexandre, Local 1-417 President; Ben Thompson, Local 1-71 President; Joe Fowler, Local 1-367 President; Roger Lewis, Local 1-118 President; Syd Thompson, Local 1-217 President. NEW AGREEMENT SIGNED BY LOCAL 1-324 MANITOBA Loeal 1-324 IWA, The Pas, has recently negotiated a new one-year agreement with the Manitoba Forestry Resources Ltd. Lumber Division and Woodlands Division. Highlights of both sets of negotiations are as follows: 1. One year agreement. 2. Revisions for all Wood- lands mobile operators of 36c per hour. 3. 12% with a minimum of 72c per hour across the board wage increase. This will bring the base rate in both operations to $5.10 per hour plus Cola with the reopener for wages at the end of July 1975. 4. Tradesmen rates revised to $7.50 per hour. 5. COLA clause to fall in line with present system in the Coast Master Agreement retroactive to commencement of payment same as the coast. : | | L | eee Pi ; Ui 5 8 a he ee - 7 nombre ! ' \ PERMIT No VANCOUVER pyc stannic ipgenmenctiaaiact | H | | , ae Voncouver, B.C. RETURN REQUESTED THE LUMBER WORKER 2859 Commercie! Or., 6. A reopener clause for wages on July 31, 1975. 7. Shift differentials to 18c per hour. 8. A Sawmill job evaluation programme effective Septem- ber 20, 1975. 9. Annual vacations at: after 1 year service 2 weeks at 442% of total earnings after 3 years service 3 weeks at 614% of total earnings * after 10 years service 4 weeks at 812% of total earnings 10. The cost of safety shoes at 50% of cost of one pair each year. 11. Improvements to Weekly Indemnity to 70% of normal weekly earnings for 52 weeks of disability and $250.00 per week for pieceworkers. 12, A 100% paid for Dental Plan on premiums. 13. Improvements to hot meals. 14. Double time on 7th work day. 15. Technological change im- provements. _ Piece work rates as follows: $10.86 per cord on 16 ft. wood. $8.46 per cord on tree length. Both fallers and. skidder operators will receive the top rate if the skidder operator has a powersaw. Pieceworkers on short wood will receive one free powersaw See “LOCAL 1-324” p. 2 - THIRTY-ONE DEMANDS: ONE DOLLAR — AN HOUR INCREASE SOUGHT BY B.C.-IWA A one dollar an hour increase in a one year agreement high- lighted the 31-point package hammered out by the approx- imately 180 delegates meeting in the Hotel Georgia, March 21- 22-23, in Vancouver. The delegates, representing all twelve IWA Local Unions in British Columbia, formulated the demands from the 721 reso- lutions submitted to the confer- ence from the Local Union wage meets. The demands will be submit- ted to the Coast forest industry around the second week in April. The Southern and Northern Interior Negotiating Committees will make their submissions later. The present Coast agree- ment expires June 15, the Southern Interior agreement June 30, and the Northern In- terior agreement August 31. At a press conference held March 2 in Woodworkers’ House, Regional. President Jack Munro stated that the Union had taken a responsible position in formulating the [oe j PPWC APPLICATION | _ DENIED BY LABOUR BOARD The B.C. Labour Board has denied the PPWC a vote at Cancel’s Pohle Lumber Divi- sion in Terrace. The Board said that the PPWC did not apply with a majority and no vote was allowed. The raid on the year old IWA certification came as a sur- prise to the local union in- volved (1-71) and when an in- vestigation was conducted it was found that the instigators of the raid were the remnants of the CLAC which had held certification up until last year. During the year that the IWA had certification, the wages and working conditions of the men in the mill changed dram- atically. Where they had no seniority or job posting en- forcement before, the IWA held the company to the letter of the agreement. The im- provement was fantastic and the majority of the crew ob- viously agreed because the PPWC could not sign the majority.. The workers have told the board, through their refusal to join the PPWC, that the IWA has been doing a good job for them and they want to continue under IWA certifica- tion. contract package and that the industry was well able finan- cially to.meet the demands. He said that all predictions pointed to an upswing in the economy which was bound to reflect in improved market conditions for the forest in- dustry. - Following are the demands: 1. DURATION OF AGREEMENT: Amend Article XXXII of the Coast and Southern Interior Master Agreements, and Article XXIX of Northern . Interior Agreements to provide for a one (1) year Agreement, effective from and after the current expiry date. 2. WAGES: Amend the appropriate Wage Articles in the Coast, Southern. Interior and Nor- thern Agreements to provide: (a) $1.00 per hour across the . board increase to all em- ployees covered by these Agreements on the -effective dates. (b) Employees who are paid on a piece-work basis shall receive the said increases as additions to existing . daily rates. Caer (c) The minimum rate for common labour shall be $6.10 per hour as of the effective dates, except. for those cate- gories listed in the Wage Sup- plements attached hereto. (d) In addition to the above, the current COLA payments to be folded in. 3. COLA: The Cost of Living Allowance Article be amended to provide the following improvements: 1) To provide adjustment calculation based on 1c for each 0.25 points change in the CPI. 2) That Section 6 provisions be expanded to cover See “DEMANDS” p.8 IWA WINS LIBEL CASE AGAINST OBERLE M.P. The IWA has won its libel suit against Conservative M.P. Frank Oberle for his deroga- tory statements made about the Union in September, 1973, in Prince George. In an Out of Court settle- ment, Oberle agreed to pay the Union $2,500 special damages and have published a complete retraction of his remarks in the Prince George The Citizen newspaper as follows: “Frank Oberle, Conserva- tive MP for Prince George- Peace River, hereby retracts and apologizes for statements published in The Citizen on September 17, 1973, which were critical of the International Woodworkers of America (IWA.). “He unreservedly withdraws the statements which were unfounded and inaccurate and apologizes for any incon- venience or harm which may have been caused the IWA by such statements.” The two newspapers that published the statements. — The Citizen and The Province — also printed full retractions with apologies and paid dam- ages of $2,500 each to the Union. Oberle made his libellous charges at the time the IWA was attempting to sign a collective agreement at a saw- mill in Chetwynd which the Union had been granted cer- tification for and which Oberle had a third interest in. He was highly critical of the Union check-off provisions of the agreement and _ stated, “That his Company will stand on principle and refuse to sign -an agreement as long as the IWA insists on compulsory check-off for all employees.”’ Oberle’s feelings were so strong on the issue that he introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons (Bill C-104) which sought to prevent unions from collecting dues from employees opposed to labour organizations. In his speech on the Bill in the House of Commons he See “LIBEL” p. 10