THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER : 3 IN ALL SECTIONS : | Lumber Industry oY iq ga At Highest Peak CHECK LI Ss T Sea Research Director Joe Miyazawa presented the recent BAG IWA Wages and Contract Conference with an impressive array of statistics which disclosed unprecedented prosperity enjoyed by the operators in the coast lumber industry. Questions sub- Fa Lumber Production 2). 2 ee y Kaas ie : y mitted to the Research Director on the highlights of his report Waterborne Shipments pa - = obtained the following answers. ey, ' _ Plywood Production... 4 ° desi wy) Wa ae Question... Logs Scaled a WHAT IS THE GENERAL STATE OF THE FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY? west yee-------------- Answer... “B.C.’s lumber industry experienced its highest peak of activity in 1963, and all indications certainly point to 1964 as being another big year. This year, for a change, all sections of the industry, that is lumber, plywood, shingle and logging, / Housing: U.S. Arg # ee y Y a. 'S oe ‘ are all in full swing. / f ae “Last year in British Columbia in the Coast area we /Canada — ~ produced more lumber by 714%, and our lumber shipments / / x TS ea g > oe have been very high. One of the most significant points is »..Economic Prospectsso@. \ Se Ly y >” -See~ that waterborne shipments from the B.C. Coast area were / mag Nad : ‘ - ee 16% higher than in 1962, despite the record shipments to the United States of just under one billion board feet. “aa Ss : Sp a We also increased our shipments to our traditional United a a RE Sg Kingdom market by some 10%. Another interesting fact Peer rank emerging out of last year, is that Japan imported 278.1 million board feet from us when only three years ago their total im- ports were just over 14% million board feet.” Question... WHAT IS THE PRICE SITUATION THIS YEAR? Answer... “Briefly stated, the price for all products is higher this year. Lumber, for example, is running $4 to $7 per thousand higher than when we last negotiated our agreement. Red Cedar shingles today are the highest in the past five-year THE MOST EXCITING THINGS | period, and Plywood prices are 12% to 15% higher than two HAPPEN TO PEOPLE WHO TRAVEL Question... IF WAGES ARE INCREASED IN THE AMOUNT REQUESTED BY THE UNION, WON’T THIS AFFECT OUR ABILITY TO SELL BY RAISING THE PRICE? Answer... Why not to you? “One main point which must always be remembered is that The whole world is on the move, while the hourly wages may increase the proper criteria is the cost of wages for each unit of production, and the only going places, seeing, touching, proper way to do this is to take a five-year span and examine tasting, reaching out for new thrills, what has happened. For example, in B.C. Coast sawmills, r ; 2 between the years 1957 and 1961 there was a decrease of meeting interesting new faces and some 12% in the total number of wage earners, whereas in the same period of time the total volume of production increased by 25.6%. In other words, each individual employee in 1961 com- making new friends. THE DOOR TO THE WORLD pared to 1957 produced 43% more lumber. We contend that it OF ADVENTURE OPENS is this type of productivity increase which makes it possible for our people to receive higher wages. The trend is that WIDEST FOR THE MAN wage costs per unit of production have been decreasing steadily WHO TRAVELS over the years.” . and when you do, GIRARDI Question See fe eat IT’S ALL VERY WELL TO TALK ABOUT WHAT HAS waaiook Se ENERNTBING ==. % TRANSPIRED IN 1963 AND THE YEARS PREVIOUS. passport, visas — the works. The WHAT ARE THE FORECASTS FOR 1964? first step is to fill in the coupon below. Do it now. Answer... “Briefly stated, the economic prospects for both Canada and the United States for the year 1964 are excellent. There is nothing but glowing optimism from all areas as to the L economic growth both in Canada and the United States. Gl RARD } % TRAVEL BU REA Insofar as our industry is Selena a pe Pome United 199 , . re x States will in all probability hit the peak in 1964, Already the 123 East Hastings Street Vancouver 4, B.C. MU. 2-2838 first month in 1964 shows an increase of 26% over the year earlier figure. Coupled to this, the income tax reduction bill which will become effective very soon cannot do anything else NAMB nee but give more impetus to the total U.S. economy. ETS SS ee i ee ee ea The high farm cash income on the prairies through tre- mendous wheat sales in the past year has done much to bolster 1 the economy in this part of the country. A good indicator of what the future forecasts of this industry are, lies in the unfilled orders which at the present time are running about ten weeks of production for the Coast area compared to about a month’s production over the past few years under review.” .