DECEMBER, 1977 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER IN MEMORIAM D.G. GUNVALDSON IWA Regional Council No. 3 President Delbert C. ‘‘Gundy”’ Gunvaldson passed away November 8th at the age of 55, after suffering a massive heart attack. A highly popular union mem- ber and officer his sudden death shocked his many friends and associates. He was a guest speaker at the last Regional Convention held in Vancouver and his ad- dress was well received by the delegates. Funeral services were held November 1ith in Canby, Oregon, and the majority of Region No. 1’s officers were in attendance. p ee ~~ ERNEST SMITH Ernest Smith, long-time member of the Pacific Lumber Inspectors Bureau and IWA, passed away October 20th at the age of 60, after a lengthy illness. Ernest went to work in the industry at the Canadian White Pine in 1939. In 1948 he joined the PLIB and became an IWA member in 1961 when the In- spectors voted to join the IWA as Local 1-288. He was Recording Secretary of the Local for twenty years and highly regarded by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife Irene. FROM L.L.O. U.S. PULLOUT WILL HURT Joe Morris, president of the Canadian Labour Congress and chairman of the governing body of the International Labour Organization, says the decision by the U.S. to pull out of the world body ‘“‘has come as a very great disappointment to the CLC.” Morris said ‘‘our task of using the ILO to advance the interests of workers will be made more difficult without the contribution of the United States. The task of our enemies will be made that much easier.” The CLC president said the only people who would welcome the U.S. pullout would be employers and ‘tyrannical governments.” “Tn our long association with the ILO, Canadian workers have always been aware of its imperfections, but we have always understood that its existence and success was fundamental to the well-being of workers everywhere, many of whom are engaged in a struggle not only with their employers but with tyrannical governments,” Morris said. “The CLC will not shirk its responsibilities to the interna- tional trade union community, and we hope within a short period of time that the U.S. will _ reassess its position and return to the one agency in the inter- national system in which workers have a voice,” he said. — MORRIS The American pullout became official when U.S. Pre- sident Carter let stand the re- quired two-year notice of ter- mination served by the Ford administration in 1975. The de- cision was strongly backed by the AFL-CIO and the US. Chamber of Commerce, repre- senting labour and employer groups. At that time, the Americans charged the ILO had become politicized, applied a double standard on violations of human rights, disregarded due process and permitted the erosion of the tripartite principles under which the ILO was created by the League of Nations after World War I. “The U.S. remains ready to return when the ILO is again true to its proper principles and procedures,” Carter said. AFL-CIO president George Meany endorsed Carter’s action, charging the reforms which would have kept the U.S. in the ILO ‘‘were spurned and repudiated” by last June’s ILO conference in Geneva. United Auto Workers presi- dent Douglas Fraser, at the White House when the move was announced to see Carter on energy matters, told re- porters “I think the withdrawl is a mistake.”’ Fraser said he agreed with criticisms of the ILO but favoured a one year extension of the notice to with- draw. BILL 92 PASSED BY SOCREDS By DON SWAILES VICTORIA (CPA) — British Columbia’s Socred govern- ment has passed the contro- versial Essential Services Act, which gives the government greater control over strikes and lockouts in the public sector. Bill 92 was introduced Oct. 19 by Labour minister Allan Wil- liams after the legislature was recalled on less than two days’ notice by B.C. Premier Bill Bennett. The new law expands the definition of ‘‘essential ser- vices’’ to include most govern- ment employees, as well as those working for Crown cor- porations. Williams said the new legis- lation is designed to prevent strikes and lockouts in areas not covered under the essential services section of the B.C. Labour Code. It expands the government’s right to end strikes in areas where life, health or safety are allegedly threatened, and gives the gov- ernment power to end strikes which it thinks pose an im- mediate and substantial threat to the province’s economy. In the event of a public sector strike, the new legislation em- powers the government to tell the B.C. Labour Relations Board which services must be kept in operation. The LRB must then designate which aspects of the services are es- sential and order unions and employers to maintain them. As well, the cabinet can order the LRB to file a ‘‘cease and desist’? order with the Supreme Court. Critics have said the legisla- tion erodes the independence of the BCLRB. Other highlights of the legis- latin include: e Cabinet power to impose a 90-day cooling-off period, which can be extended for an additional 14 days; © Provision to appoint a special mediator in disputes; e The establishment of an Essential Services Advisory Agency of a strike and on pro- cedures it feels necessary to: conclude a collective agree- ment; e Provisions for penalties where ‘“‘back to work’’ and other orders are defied. It is estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 goivernment employees are covered under the legislation. Included are workers in the B.C. Buildings Corporation, B.C. Ferry Cor- poration, B.C. Hydro, the B.C. Railway, the new B.C. Systems Corporation, Emergency Health Services, the provincial government, the Insurance Corporation of B.C. and the Workers’ Compensation Board. THREE STUDENTS awarded Local 1-367 Scholarships are left, Cliff Pettis, whose father is employed by Rivtow Straits; Ichiro Shinkoda, whose father is employed at the Allison Pass Lumber Company; and Lynette Dalstrom, whose father is employed by Cattermole Timber. The labour movement. can make a major contribution to the problem of world-wide un- employment by going after a four-day, 32-hour work week and making it a priority, ac- cording to Dennis McDermott, Canadian director of the United Auto Workers. McDermott told the 310 graduates of a Canadian UAW leadership institute that what is needed is a decision to make the four-day week a priority and to to try to attain it by a co- ordinated effort. McDermott said the four-day week would create many new jobs if there was co-ordinated, universal control of overtime. The purpose of the four-day week must be to create new jobs for those who are unem- ployed, not more overtime, the UAW leader said. McDermott questioned the idea of free trade and sug- gested it’s ‘“‘a product of the multinations to serve their own interests, because tariffs interfere with their global operations.’’ He said if Canada had entered the Auto Pact as a free trade arrangement, the Canadian auto industry and thousands of jobs could have been wiped out. He criticized the government for its failure to deal with the real underlying causes of Canada’s economic ills and un- employment. He said the gov- ernment. should quit chasing scapegoats, quit accusing labour of being the villain, quit making such an issue out of the democratic election of the Parti Quebecois and end its use of statistics comparing Canadian and U.S. workers, because the statistics are not based on the same formula and tend to distort the picture. If the government really wants to improve things, McDermott said, it can begin by ensuring that workers are treated like human beings in the workplace. Getting rid of time clocks would be a beginning, he said. Allowing labour relations boards to grant union certification with- out the usual interference from batteries of lawyers would also help, he said. The Canadian UAWU director called on the govern- ment to ensure that Canadian workers are provided with the same technology as workers in Japan, Germany and the U.S. That, he said, would result in higher productivity. If government would do this, he said, labour might be willing to sit down and discuss co-determination. CUPE CONVENTION REJECTS TRIPARTISM Canada’s largest union, the 231,000-member Canadian Union of Public Employees, has rejected tripartism and adopted a call to organize the unorganized and unite the trade union movement. Delegates to CUPE’s national convention adopted a policy paper called ‘‘Agenda for Action,’’ which rejects the three-way consultation bet- ween business, labour and gov- ernment proposed in the Canadian Labour Congress’ Manifesto for Labour. “A tripartite arrangement could only work to the detri- ment of working people,” the policy statement says. “We would become accomplices to programs which strengthen corporate interests at our ex- pense.” CORRECTION In the October-November issue of the Lumber Worker, the article on the Revelstoke New Home Improvement Centre left the erroneous impression that there is only one building supply store in Kelowna certified to the IWA. This is not the case. Local 1-423 IWA also holds certification for the OK Buildall in Kelowna. This store is also in the position to supply all the building needs of IWA mem- bers.