DECEMBER 1976 — JANUARY 1977 C.O.L.A. NOTICE IWA members under the coast and Southern Interior master agreements will pick up an additional twelve cents per hour cost of living allowance as of January 1, 1977. This was part of the last agreement which guaranteed no less than this amount, irrespective of how much the cost of living increased. LOCAL 1-184 STRIKE GAINS NEW AGREEMENT IWA members of Local 1-184 IWA, employed at the Beaver Homes, Pre-planned Homes Division, Yorkton, Saskat- chewan, have negotiated anew agreement with the Company following two weeks of strike. The strike centered initially over a dispute in which thirty probationary employees were laid off without notice or pay in lieu of notice, last August 2nd. The remaining twenty workers on the shift walked off the job in protest. The Com- pany retaliated by suspending seven in this group charging them with being the instigators of the protest. The entire crew then voted to remain off the job until the sus- pensions were withdrawn. The crew was also protesting the Company’s procrastination in negotiating a new agreement. After two weeks of strike the Company capitulated and agreed to resume negotiations. A new agreement was reached and ratified by the crew Oc- tober 22. AND WE MUST KNOW IT METRIC — THE PERFECT WAY TO MEASURE Editor’s Note: A member of Local 1-118 IWA, Victoria, who wishes to remain anonymous, has very _ kindly consented to do a number of short articles ex- plaining how the Metric system works for the benefit of Lumber Worker readers, who may not be familiar with what the author describes as ‘‘the most perfect of all measuring systems.”’ The following is the first in the series and the others will be published in future editions. The Metric system is coming to Canada. So what else is new? Well, ewrtainly not the metric system. Detractors of this most perfect of all measuring systems seem to be labouring under several fantasized myths: That this system, offi- cially known as ‘‘System Inter- national’’, or ‘‘S.I. . for short, is completely new; that it will turn our cosy little world in- side-out; and that we don’t really need it at all. Actually, none of those fallicies could be farther from the truth, as we hope to show. To begin with; the metric system is almost two hundred years old, so it is tried and . It has also already inroads into our way of life, but because we grew up with those aspects of the already here, we take | for granted, without _ realizing that they are, in fact, part of this supposedly ‘new’ ne ¥ Macackay let’s explain a about ALL measuring They do not make for starters, really change in itself — only the NUMBERS that we will use to describe things with. For example: Your height will not change; only the figures that describe your height will be different. Similarly; despite the fact that ‘mileage’ and gasoline will be measured differently, it will still cost the same AMOUNT of money to buy the same AMOUNT of gas to drive the same DISTANCE, such as, to work, for example. But do we really NEED it? You bet we do! Ganadai is going through a time of economic unsettlement. A healthy in- crease in money brought into this country through increased foreign trade would be an excellent shot-in-the-arm for our Sagging economy. But how can we competitively trade with 95% of the rest of the world when that other 95% uses 8.1. exclusively? We can’t! And so it is necessary to get in step with the rest of the world in order to survive economic- ally as a nation. It will cost us an estimated 15 billion dollars to convert to metrics, as a nation: In the same length of time we will have lost out on an estimated 250 billion dollars we would have had if we had been “metric” during that same time, And much as, we’re sure, many of us would like to blame Ottawa for this ‘metric-mess’, as some people see it, the real fault lies, in truth, ‘with the governments of two and three generations ago, for not changing over then. But so much for the politics of the matter. What this article is really all about is to help oh ad S.1. to the general membership of the IWA in Western Gamack through this newspaper. In the next few articles we will ex- plore metrics: We will see just exactly how the system itself biter ‘ern a. “Tittle it ac- THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER TWO-DAY JOB STEWARD SCHOOL sponsored by Local 1-423 IWA, Senter 10-11, at the Capri Motor Inn, Kelowna. Photo by Brian Casement LOCAL 1-423 KELOWNA HOLDS SUCCESSFUL SEMINAR By BRIAN CASEMENT Local 1-423, IWA The Capri Motor Inn, at Kelowna, was the site of a most successful shop steward school, on September 10th and 11th for members of Local 1- 423. The two-day school saw many new faces, as well as old, eager to acquire new knowledge and information. Co-ordinating the classes was Frank Wall, Regional Director of Education. The morning of the first day saw a vigorous discussion and unanimous support for the October 14, day of protest against wage controls. The school then got down to the business of providing new and would-be shop stewards with the basis needed to deal with problems which arise in the various operations and updating veteran shop stewards. Local president and veteran negotiator Bill Schumaker addressed the class from time to time providing invaluable interpretation to various clauses in the contract. tually will change things in Canada afterwards. Because this is intended only as an introduction, rather than as a full-fledged education, the articles will be short = and they will be kept as simple as possible. We’ll also make relatively few references to our old-fashioned English system, for the simple reason that metrics is its own system. And ANYTHING, when com- pared to our existing system, would naturally appear to be just as complicated as our present system. There is one thing that will undoubtedly help most of you: If you under- stand our monetary system of dollars and cents, then you will understand metrics, because Our money is metric. Believe it, it is! We think, and hope, that you’ll find the articles interest- ing, and that metrics is, sur- prisingly, far simpler than you may have imagined it would be. Before we can understand the metric system — or SI. (System International) as it is officially known — we must learn the few terms and units which represent the things we measure with in the system. This is actually quite easy because, while there are well more than 30 different units or names used in the old English system, all of them different from almost all of the others, there are barely a dozen such units used in the metric system, and they ALL relate to each other. And, as we shall see, most of us will find that we actually know many of them already. First, let’s get the units of measurement, and their abre- viations, down where we can see them: m — metre g — gram t — ton 1 — litre ce — cubic centimetre And now, the prefixes which, sometimes, go in front of these units: M — Mega — 1,000,000 k — kilo — 1,000 h — hecto — 100 D — Deca — 10 d — deci — .1 (1/10) c — centi — .01 (1/100) m — milli — .001 (1/1000) And that’s all there is to that. That’s right! That’s the metric system, right there! Not so big or scary looking after all, is it? Don’t forget to save this. It is the key to the metric system, and will make the next articles easily understood. In those articles, we will take each of the three main kinds of measurement — length, or dimension; volume, or capacity; and weight, or mass — and discuss each of them individually. As we mentioned it will help greatly if you can think in terms of money, inasmuch as our system of dollars and cents is metric. Tobe continued. a LOCAL 1-424 GAINS _TWO CERTIFICATIONS “The Prince George Local Union: 1-424 IWA, has recently received certification for two new operations: Helco Forest Products Ltd. at Prince George, B.C. with 102 em- ployees and Plateau Mills Ltd. located on highway 16 several miles west of Vanderhoof, B.C. and employing approximately 250 workers. While attempts to organize these plants in the past had never materialized, it was only Premier Ed Schreyer has announced the soni ent of Ruth Krindle, 33, a crown attorney in the Department of the Attorney-General, as head of the Manitoba Labour Board, succeeding Murdoch MacKay. Krindle, who joined the department in August, 1971, was the first woman to be appointed a crown attorney in Manitoba, and will be the first woman in Canada to head a labour board. the constant conceal with eg supporters by Regional om ganizers that the break finally came and organization cam- paigns got under way. Involved in these campaigns were two Regional Organizers who were assisted by Local Union staff at varous times, and playing a major role in the sign-up campaign was the em- ployees ‘‘in-plant’’ committee who deserve a special mention in their tireless efforts to make these campaigns a success. Her appointment We ar effective October 1. The Labour Board admin- — sters part of the Labour Relations Act, acts as adjudi- cator on applications of unions for certifications and revoca- tions, and complaints of unfair practices. It alsorules on com- plaints regarding violations of the Vacations With Pay Act, the Employment Standards __ Act and the Payment of Wages ~ Act. tag aie