CSE ES cians ee ee 12 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER % An immediate and urgent need for the workers in B.C. is a coordinated Jabour-management program of manpower adjustment to technological changes in indus- ary 21st. try, Rae Eddie, M.L.A. (NDP-New Westminster) warned the Social Credit government in the legislature Febru- His clear-cut exposure of the failures of the B.C. gov- ernment to participate in the National Manpower Develop- ment Program was evidently made with attention to the problems before the IWA Wages and Contract Confer- ence, to which he had been named as a delegate. The New Westminster MLA . attacked the Labour Minis- ter’s delaying tactics. He pointed out that the Labour- Management Committee pro- mised early in 1965 had only recently been announced. The Committee was not given clear-cut terms of reference, and lacked powers to deal with specific problems, he said. This he described as a subterfuge to evade criticism in the legislature. B.C. LAGS The government had not participated as required in the “manpower programs of the federal government now in effect. As a result, B.C. now - lags far behind the other in- dustrial provinces. Ontario was actively promoting a Fed- eral - Provincial Manpower _ Development Program with excellent results, he said. In B.C. the Department of La- bour had remained aloof from cost - sharing programs now projected solely in the prov- ince by the federal govern- ment’s Ministry of Manpower. yp NS i EN 5 ee. tea There had been some reluc- tant B.C. participation in the federal Capital Assistance Program to the benefit of con- tractors, but total neglect of e Programs 3 and 4 in which the trade unions are mainly interested. He pointed out that the federal government will share 75% of the costs for promotion of on-the-job training. Collective bargaining by the unions in this situation is a - constructive remedial force, he said, but has decided limit- ations. Bargaining applies only to negotiable issues, he pointed out. He deplored the fact that management is resisting at- tempted adjustment to auto- mation at the bargaining table. Contract amendments in g any cost are invari- oppo Any proposed ngement of management’s gatives in directing the O n Rae Eddie urged the B.C. Labour Department to aid and amplify the present efforts of the federal Labour Depart- ment to devise techniques which could separate the necessary process of continu- ous adjustment to changing production methods from “crisis” bargaining. “CRASH PROGRAM” The government could not escape its responsibility, he said, with regard to necessary steps to deal with the short- run effects of rapidly chang- ing production methods. A crash program, he suggested, would not detract from the measures required to accom- plish full social adjustment to automation: in the long run. It is necessary, he claimed, to alleviate distress now caus- ed by the downgrading of workers and needless loss of satisfactory job opportunity. Unless greater attention is given to immediate problems, the future will present still more distressing dislocations for the labour force, he stated. SECURITY ENDANGERED He accused representatives of both government and man- agement of glossing over the fact that technological change in B.C. industry is now dis- placing labour. Additionally, he said, it is reducing the de- mand that labour go where the work force is growing. “The installation of ma- chinery and equipment to perform functions hitherto performed by labour and the introduction of new products is affecting the labour force in five distinct ways: —Industry is enabled to pro- duce a given quantity of goods with fewer workers. —Industry is enabled to in- crease its output without employing additional work- ers. —Industry is eliminating functions in existing pro- duction processes. —Industry is introducing new products involving new processes and new skills, —Improved transportation for raw material and output is causing industry to relocate obsolete plants rather than _modernize them, and thus break community ties with resulting distress to the workers involved. “This province lacks accur- EDDIE CHARGES MANPOWER NEGLECT | RAE EDDIE survey by an impartial au- thority is urgently required. An industry-by-industry sur- vey is necessary because the impact of technology varies widely from industry to in- dustry. : “There is a vast difference between the effect on aggre- gate employment and _ the effect of technological change on employment in an _ indi- vidual firm.” Rae Eddie, who is himself a veteran official of the IWA, drew on the forest products industry for illustrations. He drew attention to the sharp drop in employment levels in two typical operations as in- dicated below: B.C. OPERATIONS Logging Employment Englewood Division 1955 1965 June Ss 2 912 400 Sawmills Employment Fraser Mills 1955 1965 Onie 2s _ 1489 926 He also referred to the fol- lowing statistics derived from a survey made in the lumber industry in Oregon, conduct- ed by the U.S. Bureau of La- bour and the Oregon Em- ployment Service. Except for the capital expansion in B.C., the conditions are comparable, he said. OREGON SURVEY Logging Percent 1950 1963 Change Employment 27,400 15,200 — 44.5 Productivity rate 155.4 3152 +1028 Sawmills Percent 1950 1963 Change Employment 42,500 26,200 —38.1 Productivity © rate 104.2 155.9 + 49.6 Plywood Percent 1950 1963 Change Employment 7,200 24,200 +236.1 Productivity rate 69.5 139.6 +100.9 Rae Eddie continued, “I ask the legislature to note the de- cline in employment levels in the logging and sawmill sec- tions, and the expansion of plywood production. Also note the remarkable increase in labour productivity which has substantially lowered the la- bour costs per unit of pro- duction. These same develop- ments are found in British Columbia.” “The shifting emphasis in production has placed many workers at a disadvantage in B.C. as in Oregon. The prob- lem is to help them bridge the gap between their present situation and new locations for expanding sections of the industry, or to acquire the new skills demanded.” “Industrialists have been inclined to employ younger workers in preference to those displaced from the industry. Trade unions have demon- strated that the workers who are already experienced in processing the product, can better assume the operation of new machines and maintain quality of production.” “Sweden has exploded the myth,” he declared, “that age Gr. ile 2nd Issue ~* Feb., 1966 wy = * , seriously impairs the ability to learn. In Sweden observa- + tions made by world-renown- ., ed educationists now prove that adults of all ages (up to sixty) can be trained in new *: skills.” e In summary, he emphasized the importance of: —the provision of training for known job opportunities ~° both for new entrants to ~. the labour market and those 2. now employed in a fashion that matches skills with the available jobs; —steps to gear all vocational ~- training to an accurate and ~*. advance appraisal ‘of pro- x duction changes pending in industry. —the broadening of the scope of the province’s educa- tional program to include «' the needs of working adults _ as well as graduate stu- dents with provision for *. better and more adequate , vocational guidance. 1-417 * Certification ~ Local 1-417 IWA, has re- _. ceived certification to bargain on behalf of 37 employees at < Canyon Creek Sawmills Ltd. ~ in Valemount, B.C. € Valemount is 200 miles x north of Kamloops on High- * way No. 5. x Bob Schlosser, President of . Local 1-417 reports that the Local Union has requested a meeting with the Company to commence negotiations for a collective agreement. Local 1-417 has two other ~ applications for certification « pending for Hedberg Veneer _ Limited and Bell Pole Co. , Ltd., both in the Valemount “™ area. S&S Schlosser said that this major breakthrough in the ° northern part of Local 1-417 ~. was brought about through *. the combined efforts of Jim +> Rouw, Regional Organizer .”, for the Union and Ed Tim- math, a longtime member of ~~ the Local. “TRYING TO SNEAK ou EARLY AGAIN, WILKUP "7