as

10

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

LACK OF INTEREST IN UNION

IWA

The past year has been one
of the busiest in history for
IWA Local 1-367 Haney, as
evidenced by the officers’ re-
port at the annual meeting.

The officers complained of a
lack of interest in union af-
fairs by a lot of the member-
ship. Several meetings were
held in the Hope area this
year in the hope of getting the
membership there more inter-
ested in their Local union and
to keep them better informed
on the activities of the Local.
But attendance at meetings
has been very poor.

The report goes on:

ORGANIZATION

The business agents have
spent as much time as pos-
sible on organization and
have used Mike Sekora, re-
gional organizer, whenever he
has been available, which has

~ only been three or four days

a month, due to organizing in

‘other coast locals. The follow-

ing operations have been or-
ganized this summer and cer-
tifications granted: ~
Pretty’s Maple Bay opera-
tion on Harrison Lake em-
ploying approximately 20.
The Coast Master Agreement
and Industry Wage Scale to
apply on a one year contract
expiring on June 14, 1968.
Veddar Log & Shake at
Sardis, employing approxi-
mately 25. Negotiations were
carried out and a_ verbal
agreement reached on a con-
tract and wage scale in the
presence of a conciliation of-
ficer. The employees were
given a vote on acceptance of

‘the contract terms and voted

in favour of accepting the
agreement. The contracts
were presented to the operat-
or for signatures, but the op-
eration burned down before
the contracts were signed and
now the operator refuses to
sign them. The Local has ap-
plied to the chairman of the
Labour Relations Board for
permission to prosecute for
violation of the Labour Re-
lations Act, but at the time
of writing permission has not

yet been granted.

NO CONTRACTS

West Coast Hardwoods at
Aldergrove and Ruskin. Cer-
tification has been granted
but no contract has been ne-
gotiated yet. This employer
only has four employees -who
work for two or three days a
week in one operation and
then move across the river to
the other operation for the
balance of the week. Two of
the employees who were sign-
ed up at the time of organiz-
ing have quit and we have no
bargaining strength in the op-
eration and the employer is

well aware of this situation.

Watkins Logging at Sardis
has been organized and at
time of writing we are wait-
ing for the Labour Relations
Board to rule on certification.
There are about 14 employ-

ees.
Associated Cedar — When

the present officers took over
the administration of the Lo-
cal, the employees of Assoc-
iated Cedar Products at Al-
bion were on a legal strike
as a new agreement had not
been reached with the em-
ployer on the termination of
the old contract on June 14,
1966. We immediately set up
meetings with the employer
and an agreement was signed
on December 23, 1966, with
the mill going back into pro-
duction in the first week of

the new year.
Canfor Limited, Stave Lake

CY GODFREY
President, Local 1-367

Cedar — The employees of
Stave Lake Cedar (Canfor)
engaged in a work stoppage
in April to improve working
conditions and public rela-
tions within their operation.
To go into detail as to all the
things that created this situa-
tion would require several
pages so we'll say that the
employees had tried to solve
their problems through the
proper channels and received
no co-operation from manage-
ment. They quit work as a
last resort and we are happy
‘to report that the attitude of
management has changed and
working conditions have cer-
tainly improved. The with-
drawal of services lasted ap-
proximately four weeks. The
dispute was resolved by set-
ting up a labour management
committee composed of three
people from management and
four union representatives.

AN

SCORED BY HANEY OFFICERS

This committee deals strick-
ly with employee-employer
relations and does not in any
way interfere with the work
of the plant or safety commit-
tees.

NEGOTIATIONS

When the present officers
took office in November, 1966,
there was no signed contract
with North West Forest Pro-
ducts, Mission City. We were
successful in negotiating the
coast master agreement and a
wage scale giving all employ-
ees 40 cents an hour over two
years plus upward revisions
on several of the categories in
the mill. We carried out ne-
gotiations with Whonnock
Shake & Shingle Limited on
a new contract which chang-
ed the expiry date from Sep-
tember ist, to June 14th, in
order to bring the expiry date
in line with the other opera-
tions in our Local. The com-
pany put up a long bitter
fight on this issue and shut
their shingle and shake op-
eration down for two months
in the hope of starving the
employees into submission on
their request to have the con-
tract date changed. The mem-
bership was very militant and
it was only after the company
had received 48-hour strike
notice, that it finally con-
ceded.

We attempted to negotiate
a new contract at Border
Lumber, Ruskin, where there
has been no contract since
1963. The manager of the
plant was not prepared to ne-
gotiate and the employees in
this operation seem to be pre-
pared to take anything the
management will give them
but aren’t interested enough
to fight for anything better
than what they have now,
which include sub-standard
wages and no grievance pro-
cedure.

PARTICIPATION

Membership participation
in the local is not all that it
could be or all we would de-
Sire it to be, although we have
many active members who
put a lot of time into union
work at their own expense.

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Plant committees in logging

“operations are still a prob-

lem to maintain as loggers are
moving from camp to camp.

Two annual meetings were
held this year at Whonnock
Lumber Company Ltd. for
the purpose of electing a new
plant committee and safety
committee, but no one would
accept nomination. We recog-
nize the fact that the com-
pany is violating the contract
and pushing some of their
employees around in an un-
just manner, and our hands
are tied as far as processing
grievances are concerned, as
long as the members refuse
to serve on a plant committee.
It is almost impossible to help
people who won’t help them-
selves.

It is regrettable that union
members have to literally be

walked on before they will

M. NORBLAD
Financial Secretary

Local 1-367

stand together and fight for
their rights as laid down in
the coast master agreement.
In unity there is strength and
sub-standard working condi-
tions and denial of employ-
ees rights do not have to exist
as our brothers at Stave Lake
Cedar have proven. ~

RATE REVISION

We have been successful in
establishing approximately 30
rate revisions in the past year
—some new and some long
outstanding.

Rate revision is a very
touchy problem and one
sometimes wonders if it does
more harm than good. But we
are all aware of the many in-
adequate rates within our in-
dustry, so we shall continue
to fight to have rates estab-
lished in line with job cate-
gories and work performed.

Grievances continue to
come in to the office in a

never-e:

ement’s flagrant disre-

manag
‘gard for the coast master

agreement. This is very time
consuming but is a very 1™m-

portant part of the protection
of the rights of our members.

WCB AND UIC

WCB claims still remain the
hardest to establish for in-
jured workmen. We have
handled approximately 12
claims in the past year with
fair success, losing only three
and including some which we
are still fighting. The fact that
any workman is denied com-
pensation when injured on
the job is a disgrace to the
WCB and the policies of the
provincial government. We
would urge all injured work-
men to be very careful in fill-
ing out compensation forms
and, if help is needed, ask
their union.

Unemployment insurance
claims in winter months cause
considerable problems to
some members due mainly to
lack of understanding on how
to fill out a claim form. Here
again we say come to the un-
ion for help. Through misun-
derstanding, a member can
and will be denied his right
to benefits. Such an incident
took place in one of our op-
erations last winter. One of
our members was denied
benefits merely because he
did not fully understand the
questions asked on the claim
form. After all appeals had
been turned down by the
UIC, an appeal was lodged
with the umpires in Ottawa.
After eight months of battling
through the mails the um-
pires recognized the union’s
point and decided in favour
of the workman. His claim
will now be allowed, so we
urge you to consult your un-
ion, if you have any doubts,
in order ‘not to deny your-
selves rightful benefits when
unemployed.

(Editor’s note: At press
time the Local announced
that Plant and Safety Com-
mittees have now been elect-
ed at the “Whonock Lumber”
operation. The next regular
meeting of the Local will be
held on Saturday, November
25, 1967 and Regional staff
representative will be invited
to discuss job evaluation).

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