AT PACIFIC PRESS. The dispute remained deadlocked this week as
Pacific Press adopted a beligerent attitude, demanding that its 1,100
employees agree to give up four months of retroactive pay to enable
Pacific Press to recover the losses it claims it suffered. American
Newspaper Guild International president Charles Perlik said after talks
in Victoria that Pacific Press plans to bill the unions for $1.5 million.
Meanwhile, workers picket the Pacific Press.

Only forest bosses
gain from divisions

LUMBER COMMITTEE,
Communist Party

Employer circles have been a
buzz this week with stories and
rumours of the “big break’’
that’s said to be taking shape
withint the IWA — the leading
and largest block among 125,000
B.C. workers entering nego-
tiations this spring.

Jubilation is running high as
stories come in of a major split-
away at the big MacMillan-
Bloedel mill at Chemainus,
where nearly half the crew have
reportedly been signed up by the
Canadian Pulp Workers Union.

It’s reported that 300 of the 700
IWA members at Chemainus
have been signed over, and Stan
Shewaga of the Harmac Pulp
Workers Local has declared
their organization’s ‘‘interest’’
in the development.

Under the B.C. _ labor

LABOR SCENE:

Tugboat crews find award
proposals unacceptable

The Conciliation Board award
between members of the B.C.
Towboat Owners’ Association
and the Canadian Merchant
Service Guild (CMSG) would un-
doubtedly fare very badly if and
when it were submitted to a
referendum vote of CMSG
membership, that is, unless
extensive improvements are
added before then.

Printed materials issued by
CMSG members point up the
incorrect conclusions featured
by the Vancouver Express in its
February 28 edition; vis, ‘that
neither the executive board nor
the ‘negotiating committee was
even close to being unanimous”
on the CMSG negotiating com-
mittee’s recommendation to
vote against the award. On that
score these committees were
represented to be very
unanimous. This was again con-
firmed at this week’s session of
the Vancouver and District
Labor Council by CMSG
delegates.

In a two-page summary of un-

acceptable recommendations on
mattersof vital concern to CMSG
members, some which were not

dealt with at all by the Con-.

ciliation Board, some 23-points
are listed. A lengthy detailed
summary on the CMSG brief
presented to the Board in 1969,
many of these vital matters are
further elaborated on, prefaced
by a warning that; ;
“We would caution the Board
that neither the negotiating com-
mitee nor the Towboat officers
will accept any watered-down
half measures which will not
protect the welfare, safety, and
economic rights provided by this
negotiated agreement. We will
simply look upon any attempt to
do so as an attempt to accom-
modate the Towboat Owners,
and will ultimately lead to
failure and a shutdown of an
industry upon which, the towboat

owners state in their brief, —

depends the economic prosperity
of the West Coast. This: is the
responsibility you have, gentle-
men.”’ From the award it is
patently clear these gentlemen
didn’t take their responsibility
seriously. :

CMSG and ___ Seafarers’
delegates reported at this week’s
VLC session, that Labor
Minister Mackassey had
requested that the Conciliation
award be held back from a
membership referendum for a
time until something could be
done. Doubtless .the Minister
knew the award would go down
to defeat, so instead proposed a

resumption of Board sittings to -

review its watered down award.
The CMSG delegate, comment-
ing on IWA president J.A. Moore
as Guild representative on the
Conciliation Board, pointed out
that ‘“‘Jack had done the best he

could,”’ but obviously from the:

unanimous Conciliation Board
award, it wasn’t good enough in
the ‘deplorable’ (Mackasey’s
words) B.C. Towboat industry.
Delegates from the Towboat
industry reiterated again the
medieval working conditions,
cramped crew quarters, lack of
health and hygiene facilities,
long and uncertain hours of
work, sub-standard wages, etc.,
and especially the high incidence
of men drowned over a 10-year
period because of under-
manning and lack of safety pre-
cautions on many B.C. towboats.
On all such vital matters the
Conciliation Board award fell far
short of what is required to bring
this industry up to modern

standards of work and safety -

standards. And when a big
towboat owner, early in the nego-
tiations says, ‘‘to hell with the
Canada Shipping Act,’’ what he
actually means is ‘‘to hell with
abe wage, working and safety
demand of the towboat crews.”’
Some 1,500 towboat crewmen,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 6, 1970—Page 12

licensed and unlicensed
personnel, are involved in this
dispute, which could, if
necessary to win a decent wage
and working contract, tieup the
B.C. economy tight.

4X

A notice of motion was also
tabled until next VLC meeting
providing for a $500 donation to
the locked-out pressmen’s
unions at Pacific Press Ltd.

Meantime talks between the
Pacific Press Ltd. and its 1,100
employees in four unions,
including the Newspaper Guild,
have broken down, and the
general estimate around union
circles is that the unions serving
the Sun and Province face a long
fight.

The International union offi-
cials now in Vancouver seeking
to effect a settlement (and all
from South of the Border), are
now pessimistic about an early
or easy settlement with the hard-
nosed monopolists of the Pacific
Press.

BACK 5-YR PLAN

A letter from Vancouver Mayor
Tom Campbell urging support for
the 5-Year Plan was read and
approved by this week’s session
of the Vancouver and District
Labor Council ( VLC).

Similarly, a leaflet issued by
Local 1004, Canadian Union of
Public Employees (CUPE)
outlining the Plan, and con-
taining the opinion of Alderman
Harry Rankin, was distributed to
the VLC delegate body.

Following a brief discussion on
the merits of the 5-Year Plan,
which will go before the rate-
payers for approval or otherwise
on March 11, the VLC voiced it’s
endorsation of the Plan and
urged upon all affiliate unions to
take similar action.

regulations, since the IWA’s two-
year contract expires-June 15th,
application for certification
can be made April 15th. If one
more than 50 percent of the
members sign application cards
of the raiding union, certi-
fication can be granted.

Unsuccessful raids are known
to have been made in recent
months on other operations
within the Island IWA Local’s
jurisdiction. And it is also
reported that more than a
hundred IWA members - have
been signed by Canadian Pulp
Workers at the big Youbou mill
of B.C. Forest Products.

Greater. concern is_ being
expressed in trade union circles
about divisions appearing among
workers within the IWA, and in
the wood and pulp industry, than
over Billings’ arrogant walkout
on negotiations. Instead of unity
within the organization, and
within the industry between
lumber ‘and pulp, there is
growing division and_ juris-
dictional wrangling.

Neglected’ grievances of
fallers, maintenance men and
others; dissolution of sub-locals
in some areas, and the lack of
representative, functioning job
stewards to enforce union condi-
tions and process grievances
are being used to justify
establishment of separate craft
groupings.

UNITY VITAL

Clearly what is needed is not
more divisions, but unity, co-
ordination and solidarity within
the unions themselves, between
pulp and wood, and involving the
entire labor and progressive
movement to beat back the
employers’ offensive and win
labor’s needs. Fighting among
ourselves won’t win concessions
from the boss.

The new Employer’s Council
of B.C. is counting heavily on its
“divide and conquer strategy”’ to
resist determined and justified
economic demands’ which

_ workers are pressing to catch up

with sharp boosts in living costs,
taxes, rents. interest rates and
corporate profits.

In a contest in which unity and
rank and file determination can
decisively influence the out-
come, divisions and signs of

cannibalism within the trade .

union movement itself, are
welcome and encouraging signs
to the boss.

Still another development that
cannot but contribute at this
time to encourage a_ hard,
arrogant line by the employers
in negotiations is the news of
establishment of separate craft
groupings for fallers.

Possibilities of undermining
and deflecting IWA demands by
clawing the bargaining agency
apart are considered high by
employers who are organized
and united to put the working
people through the wringer in the
current round of negotiations.

Interest and speculation is
running high on the meaning of a
letter addressed to the Minister
of Finance, Ottawa by the secre-
tary of the Coast Fallers Society,
with its predictions of an open
break.

The letter is said to declare:

“Within the labor unions t0
which we must belong we are
outcasts. The average workman
is no longer interested in output.
The results of this occu;ational
group (Fallers) acceding t0

current ‘union’ demands to-work ~

for an ‘hourly rate’ and reduce
our output would be a financial

blow of some consequence to the -

Coast Woods Industry.”

The letter is also reported t0
flatly declare, ‘‘Although we are
classified as ‘labor’ our interests
are not reflected by any current
‘union’ or organization other
than the Coast Fallers Society.”

This much-heralded declara-
tion, taken with the establish
ment of a registered society,
with monthly dues, publication
of a constitution and organ
zational structure is being eyed
as the first major craft chism 12
the IWA’s industrial structure.
Noted also has been an appeal
from the Coast Fallers Society,
to maintenance men to follow
suit.

Meanwhile, the arrogance °
B.C. lumber tycoons and the new
Employer’s Council, of which
they are a part through FIR
(Forest Industrial Relations).
appeared early when nego
tiations got underway last week
for a new contract for coast
loggers, mill and__ shingle
workers. :

Appearing at the bargaining
table with IWA negotiators
were consultants from the B.C:
Federation of Labor and the
International Brotherhood o
Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill
Workers. Disregarding the
rights of the union to decide wh?
they wish to represent al
advise them in contract neg?
tiations, and because of the
policy of the Federation of
Labor to overcome ‘‘divide-and-

conquer’ tactics, the bosseS

have used so successfully in the
past by co-ordinating majo
contract talks this year, Joh?
Billings of FIR walked out.

-IWA negotiators, afte?
denouncing the employers
attempt to dictate to the union
and stating ‘‘they have never col”
sidered telling the industry what
consultants they — shoul
employ,’’ indicated  thel!
intention of insisting on thei
right to arrange for whatevet
consultants and assistance they
believe they required.

IWA demands include:— A#
per hour across-the-board
increase (present base rate
being $3.12); health and welfare
improvements with 4?
employer-paid, union-adminls:
tered plan; increased vacations
(3 weeks after 1 years service,
after 4 years, and 5 weeks aftef
10 years); hours of wor
changes; provisions that woul

bring sub-contractors and ownel” -

operators under terms of ¢
union agreement; plus a number
of demands to meet special beelS
of tradesmen, fallers 4?
buckers, plywood and_ shingle
workers, and the dropping of is
legal actions arising out
injunctions against unions by
FIR companies. ;

All in all an ambitious
program — and one wi
obviously can only be won by a
vigorous, united and determi”
membership.

aa