OCTOBER, 1972 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER FROM PAC : oe a Eee AL CONVENTION” es by approving a resolution instructing the Regional of- ficers to appoint a five-man committee to study the feasi- bility of holding one Wage & Contract Conference and to submit their recommendations to the Regional Executive Board prior to the Regional Convention. The Convention also recom- mended that the Regional Negotiating Committee in- vestigate the possibility of negotiating a clause into the new pension plan which would give the individual member the option to make additional personal contributions to build up his benefits for retirement. Another issue which provoked a bitter debate was 1973" the emergency resolution sub- mitted by Local 1-217 Van- couver, calling for the shingle workers on strike at Red Band Shingle and Huntting-Merritt, to be given special Strike . Relief dispensation. Supporters of the resolution argued that these members warranted more money than the amount provided by the rules of the Strike Fund be- cause of the length of time they had been off the job. While the whole Convention was in complete agreement that the strikers needed help, the advisability of upping the Strike Relief to aid them was questioned by a number of delegates on purely constitu- tional grounds. They expressed the fear that the present uniform payment for strike relief would disap- pear and suggested that a more democratic policy to follow would be to seek a t special assessment from the membership. The majority of the Con- vention felt, however, that regardless of the validity of this argument, the shingle workers needed immediate financial help and the quickest way to do this was by support- ing the resolution. No other issues provoked hostility and the delegates were able to accomplish all the business of the Convention prior to adjournment. CLAY TAKES NEW POST Popular Clay Perry, the Regional Council’s Director of Research and Education for the past five years, has re- signed from the Union to take up the post of executive assist- ant to the Minister of Health, Dennis Cocke. His many friends wish Clay every success in his new job. WORKS PROGRAM A $12 million provincial em- ployment program — PEP ’73 to create job opportunities and alleviate unemployment throughout Manitoba in the winter months has been an- nounced by Premier Ed Sch- reyer. The expanded program will repeat, refine and extend the most successful components of last year’s $9.6 million PEP program and will allow.for the addition of two new sections. Components of this year’s program will be the following: @ Hospital maintenance and capital projects, $2 mil- lion. ®@ School projects, $1.3 mil- lion. @ Local organization pro- grams, $1 million. @ Municipal works projects, $2.2 million. @ Co-operative development program, $500,000. @ Farm employment pro- gram, $1 million. ® Pensioners’ housing pro- gram, $4 million. STRIKE WINS CONTRACT FOR LOCAL 1-417 MEMBERS A three hour strike by the ninety-man crew at the Canyon Creek Sawmills Ltd., in Valemount, was successful in winning a new contract covered by all the terms of the Southern Inter- ior Master Agreement. The crew, members of Local 1-417 IWA Kamloops, were previously covered by the terms of the Northern Agreement which expired August 30, 1972. The strike resulted from the Company’s refusal to sign a Southern Interior Agreement. After numer- ous meetings, the Union conducted a strike ballot and was successful in get- ting 100% backing from the crew. With this mandate, the Union Negotiators headed by Local President Sonny Alexandre and assisted by Local ist Vice-President Bill Hobbs and Plant Chair- man Morris Turmel, again met with the Company. This meeting also proved ' fruitless forcing the Union to set a strike deadline of 2 p.m. September 15. Three hours after the crew walked off the job the Company capitulated and signed the new contract. PRETTY WINNERS of Local 1-367 IWA‘s Local Union Scholarships are Miss Ardis Mattson (left) who won the $200 Academic award and Miss Judy Tomlinson who won the $200 Vocational award. Miss Mattson’s father, Bill Mattson is a long-time active Union member employed as a steel spar engineer at the Canfor, Harrison Mills Division. Miss Tom- linson’s guardian is George Kirsch, employed at the B.C. Forest Products Hammond Sawmill. DISORGANIZED LABOR A schoolteacher was giving her class of seven-year- olds a natural history lesson. ‘‘Worker ants,”” she told them, “can drag pieces of wood 50 times their own weight. What do you conclude from that?” One boy had his answer ready: ‘’They haven‘t gota union.” — “Peterborough” in Daily Telegraph, London B.C. FEDERATION REPORT Now that the excitement has subsided over the dramatic provincial elec- tion results, trade unionists can feel that they played a real part in the ouster of the Social Credit government. The increase in political ef- forts on the part of most unions was tremendous. Financial contributions far exceeded those in any pre- vious election campaign. Equally important was the support given in a variety of other ways. One of the high- lights was the election issue of ‘‘The Tradesman’’, pub- lished by the B.C. & Yukon Building Trades Council. This excellent issue, along with similar efforts by other trade union papers helped to mobilize our members politically. In addition to assisting the NDP, the Federation added its own public re- lations campaign attacking Social Credit anti-labour legislation. Many favour- able comments on our newspaper and radio ad program have been receiv- ed from various sources, both within and outside the labour movement. One myth destroyed on August 30th was the com- mon one that. trade union- ists, particularly full-time trade unionists, were a poli- tical drawback and couldn’t get elected. Colin Gabel- mann and Phyllis Young of the Federation staff, along with CLC representative Jack Radford were all giant killers in particularly tough ridings. Many other suc- cessful candidates are, or have been, active trade unionists. Two cautionary notes are in order. The new provin- cial government has a host of problem areas and won’t be able to work miracles overnight. Even more im- portant is the fact that our severe economic problems are basically affected at the federal level. As long as playboy Pierre is in full control, we can expect con- tinued high unemployment, tons of goodies for corpora- tions at the expense of wage and salary earners and complete ignoring of B.C.’s problems. The Federation suggests that more New Democrats are needed in Ottawa and urges local unions and individual trade unionists to work and don- ate to make sure Pierre’s power is checked. Life goes on as far as in- dustrial problems are con- cerned, election or not. IWA Local 1-217 is stillin a tough fight with two shingle divi- sions of the forest giants. The Federation has given financial support and will continue to help in every way possible. The fight is for hourly rather than piece rates and a shorter work day. Everyone familiar with shingle mills will ap- preciate the necessity of a shorter day. One of the greatest enemies of B.C. workers to- day, the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) is at it again. This company union has been in- vited into Max’s Donuts by the employer to forestall or- ganizing efforts by the Ba- kery Workers Union. The Federation, Vancouver La- bour Council and the Ba- kery Workers will fight their certification applica- tion. Clearly this phony ex- cuse for a union must be ex- posed and put out of busin- ess in British Columbia. With the second Women’s Rights conference complet- ed, the Federation is now preparing for the annual convention opening Novem- ber 6th in the Bayshore Inn. It is to be hoped that some of the time we have been forced to devote to fighting anti-labour legislation in past years can be spent on solving some of our other problems in the year ahead. The convention will, as usual, set the course for our next year’s activities. N.D.P. CONVENTION The 12th Annual Convention of the New Democratic Party will be heid in the Bayshore Inn, November 25-26, in Vancouver, starting at 10 a.m,_ Registration commences November 24, between 5. and 7 p.m. Sie 8 he mee ‘ afte eek: Bs oh NT ets FZ