ssieneeienietene eatin ereadnaaaeibean aon * +" : British Columbia’s organized woodworkers have anything to say about it, a group of big lumber operators who figure to use their amended Bill 39 as a booby trap for labor have an unpleasant surprise awaiting them in the next few weeks. For a decisive struggle is shaping up in the camps and mills this year. Contending forces are the B.C. District Council of the Interna- tional Woodworkers of America, most powerful union in Western Canada, and the Western Lum- ber Manufacturers’ Association, ‘most influential employer group. The opening moves have al- ready been played. - Negotiations for the 1948-49 in- dustry-wide contracts, covering the Coast, Northern Interior and Southern Interior forest districts, began just over a month ago. The IWA has laid on the table its main demands for a 35-cent hourly wage increase, the union shop and union welfare plan. The operators have eountered with a wage of- fer of eight percent or 10 cents an hour for the Coast, five anda half cents for the Northern In- terior. - Now the action is moving from the bargaining table back into the camps and mills. Within the next 20 days rank and file IWA members will be asked to accept or reject the employers’ wage of- fer. There is every indication the verdict will be an almost unani- mous “No.” S ‘THAT the members are prepar- ing for whatever action may be nuocessary is evident to even the most superficial observer. Membership of the B.C. District Council, with its 14 local unions situated in every key lumbering area, is on the incrcase. This is due to:an aggressive organizing campaign at the job level aimed at instituting union shop condi- tions even without benefit of for- mal contract. Response to the union’s cam- paign for a $200,000 strike fund is even greater than in 1946, the year of the big strike. Some camps and mills realized their quota of day’s pay donations with- in 24 hours of the appeal being made. Action committees, an IWA term for strike committees. are already established in all lo- cal unions and major operations. Everywhere the evidence points to a rising militancy; an increas- ing readiness to move for a show- down should that become neces- sary. Such tough talking and tough acting by the IWA is by no means out of place in the present situ- ation. Proof of this is seen in the na- ture of the counter proposals re- cently put forward by the employ- ers as a “condition” for settle- ment of the dispute. Among other things, they insist the IWA agree to: A return to the 44 hour week and even a 48 hour week “when necessary.” By AL PARKIN ‘ Surrender of the union demand for the union shop and welfare fund. Posting of an IWA bond of $1,- 350,000 to “guarantee fulfillment of contract,” Emaseulation, of the seniority clause and agreement on some 105 employer amendments to the existing contract which would open the door to mass discrimin- ation and revival of the hated blacklist, . effectively against unionism in the nineteen- thirties. used so They add to all this an arro- gant ultimatum that the union must accept these conditions on or before June 20—the date when the existing contract expires—or have the wage offer withdrawn. Erni2 Dalskog, the IWA district president, was right when he termed these conditions “a gun held at our heads.” But such tough talk, in the case of the employers, doesn’t PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 11, 19/8—-PAGE # indicate an ability to act tough: There is more than a suspicion here of an attempt to run a bluff. True, they’re counting heavily upon their‘ ace in the hole—the ICA “Slave” Act—to do the job they’vé been unable to do the past five years by frontal attack on the woodworkers. Undoubtedly the B.C. version of the Taft-Hartley Act puts new dangers before the TWA. But so did Bill 39 last year and the un-— ion calmly side-stepped that ob- stacle and defied it. The flumber bosses are also counting heavily upon the increas- ing trends toward reaction on a national scale. and the accom- panying red-baiting offensive, to create the conditions for the un-- ion’s defeat. e ACTUALLY, though, the oper-. ators are vulnerable at @ number of points. is every evidence they would not welcome a general shutdown of the industry since the lumber market is still holding There firm. But they are especially vulner- able before the public on the issue of wages versus profits. It is most notable they they have studiously avoided any claim of inability to pay. And well they might. Companiés like H. R. MacMillan Export and Canadian Western Lumber (Fra- ser Mills) showed profit increases ranging from 208 percent to 350 — percent in 1947 over 1946. Every MacMillan employee earned @ gross profit for the company of $3,113 over and above his yearly wage. The explanation for such fat- tastic earnings is seen in the sim-_ ple fact that the MacMillan com> pany could boost its profits by 612 percent over 1939, while raising wages only 72.9 percent in the same period! Even the Bloedel, Stewart and Welch outfit, one of the “Big Six’ among the lumber monopolies and the most rabidly anti-unio?, has not dared to attempt a justi- fication of such profit taking. e N this situation, the IWA ca? do nothing else but stand pat on its original demands. knows Every woodworkers ex- something about the profits tracted from the sweat of body. What’s left of his paych® tells its own story of risitl prices. He knows that the union’ demand for a 35-cent hourly wa8° boost is now literally a questio® of enough food on the table, the right kind of clothing and shel ter for his wife and kids. He is equally determined to imP union shop conditions on the job and maintain the 40-hour weeks the* latter one of his ynion® greatest achievements. One threat to the realizing of that program is the. possible of of the ICA Act: as amended year by Bill 87. But that cou only become an effective wear of the bosses provided one ranks were divided. Yet the a7 in B.C. has recently emersee from one of the most intensi red-baiting attacks in the nisto’ of Canadian labor with its ran t united in support of the pre’ ir progressive leadership and the program. There are dangers, yes; but ee fighting organization of workers has faced and won out. There is © son to believe they will be and overcome in 1948.