THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

THE WESTERN CANADIAN

LUMBER

WORKER

38,000 copies
printed in this issue.

Published twice monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA

Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1

Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC

2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C, Phone 874-5261

Editor — Pat Kerr

Business Manager — Fred Fieber

Advertising Representative — G. A. Spencer

Forwarded to every member of the IWA in Western Canada in accordance with convention decisions.
Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year.

Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, and for payment of postage in cash. >?

ONE UNION AUTHORITY NEEDED

HE IWA’s decision to throw its full

resources behind Local 1-85’s appli-
cation to represent all workers of the
Tahsis Company employed in the Tahsis-
Gold River area, is a move by the Union
_to prevent further chaos developing in
the forest industry.

The IWA, deeply concerned over the
conflict raging between the two pulp
unions, applied to vary its Tahsis certifica-
tion in order to protect the interests of its
800 members there.

The IWA holds the view that one
democratic organization should represent
all workers in the forest industry. To
achieve this it proposes that the two pulp
unions and the IWA form a coalition to
stabilize and strengthen the position of
their respective unions at the bargaining
table.

The IWA points out that five employer
associations, representing the greatest
part of British Columbia’s billion-dollar
forest industry, fo protect their. interests,
have linked together in a single organi-
zation.

The IWA suggests that the time is now
ripe for one union authority to bargain
for every worker engaged in harvesting
and processing wood from the stump to
the finished product.

The IWA is not interested in raiding
or taking over the jurisdiction of either of

the pulp unions. Its only desire is to see
that all woodworkers are represented by
a democratic organization capable of
wresting from the employers, the proper
wages and conditions they are entitled
fo.

The IWA knows through experience
that one organization can successfully
bargain at the same time for workers
in different occupations. Other large
unions have also proved this in their ne-
gotiations.

The IWA stresses, however, that any
coalition entered into by it must be com-
pletely democratic from the top down,
with the members making all major
policy decisions and having the right to
elect their representatives and officers.

The IWA also stresses that there
should be no attempt to isolate such a
coalition through nationalism. It points
out that the autonomy of Canadian
workers is well protected in a truly demo-
cratic international union and it would
be folly to propose a coalition along na-
tionalistic lines.

The IWA recognizes the difficulty of
effecting such a coalition under the terms
prescribed but realizes that any other
approach would only perpetuate the
present fragmentation in the pulp unions
and do untold harm to the cause of
unionism in British Columbia.

ONTARIO STUDENTS TAUGHT
HOW TO FIGHT LABOUR UNIONS

High school students in
Peterborough, Ontario, are
being taught how to fight la-
bour unions in school, appar-
ently with the blessing of the
provincial department of edu-
eation, which recently ap-
proved the use in school of a
textbook which describes the
best ways to combat unionism
in industry.

The Peterborough labour
council is seeking to have the
textbook banned. At the
moment it is being used to
teach Grade 11 business and
commerce students.

A comprehensive book, it
deals with many facets of
business, two or three chap-
ters are on labor union-man-
agement relations, and other
personnel matters.

It describes action a plant
manager can take to head off
or disarm unionization of his
plant. This is what sparked
the labor council’s protest.

Labor council president,
| William Mulders, noted that
apparently as a last resort, the
book advises the adoption of a

hands off policy and eventu-
ally, dealing with the union.

How much co-operation
could labor expect from man-
agement in working with la-
bor for better relations if such
proposals were being made in
me schools, Mr. Mulders ask-
ed,

The book suggests “extreme
measures” could be imple-
mented in the form of threats
or direction to:

e Shut down the plant; or,
move the operation to a differ-
ent geographic area; or tem-
porarily or permanently re-
duce operations and lay off
employees who you believe

are actively encouraging ef- —

forts to form the union.

If the extreme measures
aren’t deemed necessary or
are not palatable to the em-
ployer, the book has some
other suggestions on how to
get rid of the union “threat.”

e A paper battle could be
waged against the union, by
distributing leaflets to the
employees suggesting that
they are better off without the
union.

© Urge the employees to
form an independent employ-
ees association (company
union).

e Urge employees to re-
solve their work problems in-
dividually with management
rather than on a group basis
through a union.

MINIMUM
WAGE SCALE
GOING UP

The minimum rate of $1 an
hour for office workers in
British Columbia will be
raised to $1.10 on May 1 and
to $1.25 on Nov. 1. The new
rate will apply to such work-
ers as accountants, office at-
tendants, cashiers, clerks,
draftsmen, switchboard oper-
ators and typists. A total of
150,000 office workers will be
covered by the new minimum
wage scale.

SS
—

C2 ——

OH YEAH .. . AN’ SORT OUT ANY WITH A ‘P’ ON
TH’ BUTT . . . THEM’S FER POLIN’!

HARDING SCORES SOCREDS
FOR NEGLECTING FORESTS

Ran Harding, NDP-MLA
for Heveistoke-Slocan, de-
manded a Koyal Commission
during the last session of the
Legisiature, to investigate the
negiect of the province’s for-
ests.

During his address he pro-
duced tacts and figures to
prove the government was not
adequately protecting these
vast public resources. He
stated:

“We take out 200 million
dollars from our forests and
only put back $23 million, and
we are just not keeping pace
in this industry. his budget
of 23 million dollars for our
Forest Services is too small, it
should be tripled.

“We need more access roads
all over the province to .en-
able us to provide an efficient
fire fighting service. In 1965,

307,132 acres were burned
and the 10-year average
shows that no less than 479,-
525 acres per year were de-
stroyed by fire.

“On Reforestation we are
falling behind every year. To
catch up we would have to re-
plant 50,000 acres per year on
the Coast plus a much larger
volume in the Interior. This
demands action.”

Winding up his speech, Mr,
Harding called for a Royal
Commission to be set up and
he quoted from a speech of
the Deputy Minister of For-
ests to back his contention
that the government’s policies
were ineffective.

In a recent speech the
Deputy Minister said: “The
costs of this foolish policy
show up in costly fires, insect
infestation and poor adminis-
tration.”

LOCAL 1-424 President Ross Inglis with members from the
Northern Studs Mill who attended the Contract Analysis
Class sponsored by the Local Union at Lac La Hache.

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