Pulp mills YES—hospitals NO
stand of construction bosses

The callous attitude towards the public’s needs by the construction
bosses in the current lockout is illustrated by the above two photos. Top
photo shows the giant pulp mill in Kamloops which is under
construction and where the contractors have not enforced the lockout.
Below is the extended care unit of the Burnaby General Hospital which
is one of many such hospitals where the bosses are enforcing the
lockout. Photo shows carpenters at the hospital declaring their

readiness to finish the hospital.

—Carey Robson photos

IWA local says B.C. industry
has it good compared to U.S.

Local 1-80 IWA (Vancouver
Island) in its bulletin this month
publishes charts which are effec-
tual answers to F.I.R.’s recent
statement that IWA’s ‘‘ludi-
crous’” demands would put the
B.C.- industry at a great disad-
vantage in competition with the
U.S. Northwest woods industry.

The union bulletin states that
MacMillan-Bloedel, B.C. Forest
Products, Crown Zellerbach,
etc., have a variety of competi-
-tive advantages over their U.S.
Northwest counterparts. These
advantages have allowed B.C.
coast producers to wallop U.S.
Northwest competition in each
of the three major markets. The
bulletin table shows that coast
companies are commanding a
larger and larger share of the
export market, and doing so at
the expense of the major compe-
titor, the U.S. Northwest.

The three major markets are
the U.S. Atlantic Coast, the
United Kingdom and Japan. In
1971 B.C. industry held 80.6
percent of the U.S. Atlantic
Coast market; 95.6 percent of
the UK market, and 36.2 percent
of the Japanese market.

What about labor costs which
F.I.R. cries about? Here again
the B.C. barons have it over the
U.S. Northwest.

The IWA bulletin publishes
figures to show that the base
rate is only a small part of the
story. In the first place, only
about 5 percent of employees

are on the base rate. Second,
there are non-wage labor costs—
vacations, holidays, health and
welfare, etc. Using figures pub-
lished by the Western Wood
Products Association (U.S.) the
bulletin compares them with
similar figures for the B.C.
Coast industry and come up with
this statement:

“Instead of the .28 cent disad-
vantage F.I.R. claims, the B.C.
Coast industry has in direct
labor costs an advantage of .27.8
cents per man-hour.”’

There are two _ other
advantages which B.C. lumber
barons enjoy. One is freight
costs, the other stumpage costs
U.S. producers are compelled
by law to ship by rail or Ameri-
can ships. Canadian producers
can use the much cheaper for-
eign-registry vessels, yielding
an advantage of at least $13.50
per Mfbm.

Using 1970 figures (1971 and
1972 figures will be much
higher), this shipping advantage
means an annual saving to the
companies of about $12,500,000.

The stumpage story, of course,
is a familiar one to every citizen
of B.C. Had B.C. timber barons
had to pay U.S. stumpage rates
in 1970, their timber would have
cost them $21,000,000 more!

So much for the Bonner-Clyne
crap about I.W.A. demands
“pricing Canadian forest
products out of the market.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1972—PAGE 12

PROTEST 8% RATE BOOST

Car owners face |
insurance gouge

Car owners are going to be
gouged again.

In this province where
independent surveys have shown
that up to 70 percent of its
citizens want a government
insurance plan, the Social Credit
government has given carte
blanc to private insurance firms
to hike their rates.

British Columbians, who
already pay rates which are
amongst the highest in Canada,
could have an 8 percent increase
imposed on them July 1,
according to reports this week.
This unconscionable increase
has been allowed by the
government's Automobile
Insurance Board.

There was an increase last
year, a hefty one, as every car
owner knows. There has been an
increase in car insurance rates
every year in the past decade in
B.C. Because of the scandalous
profits last year the Board was
compelled-to order a reduction in
no-fault premiums of up to $7.
This latest boost in rates will
wipe that out and add much
more to rates paid by car
owners.

The latest permitted increase
adds insult to injury. Only last
December if was revealed that
car-owners — one million of
them — had been charged double
the ‘‘no-fault’’ insurance rates
they should have been.

As the Pacific Tribune stated
at the time, ‘‘A sum in excess of
$16 million has been picked from
car-owners pockets by a handful
of unscrupulous profiteers by
means of an estimated annual
$8.21 per car overcharge. It’s not
the Mafia, but _— extortion
nonetheless.”’

Even the private enterprise
Vancouver Province is moved by
the latest insurance rate outrage
to protest: “If the increases
allowed by the board do amount
to 8 percent, then they will
exceed by 1.5 percent the 6:5
allowable guidelines imposed by
the provincial government in
other areas — mostly public

‘service wages.”

To this one can only ask when
the provincial government has
ever imposed guidelines on
profits? And if insurance

Fallers charge press
distorted their stand

The Coast Fallers Caucus of
the IWA charged the daily press
Tuesday with distorting their
position at three IWA Local
meetings in Duncan, Courtenay
and Alberni on the question ‘of
the ‘‘Secret ballot’’. It is but
another case of deliberate
fabrication aimed at confusing
the public and splitting the
union.

“The fallers are in no way
opposed to secret ballot elections
as inferred in press stories’,
spokesmen for the causus stated.
“That’s a long established and
sound principle of our union.
What we’re opposed to is an
attempt to manipulate a ‘“‘back-
to-work’’ vote which some
officers want, and which we
have no intention of agreeing to
until the Nemetz award is
secured and all injunctions and
court charges are lifted.”’

‘‘We’re set up as a coastwise
caucus on a Regional level, with
an elected steering committee
representing every local. We’re
not going back to splitting our
ranks by local. We tried that for
two years and got nowhere with
our grievances. We’re asking the
Coast Negotiating Committee to
take action to resolve our
dispute, and we're quite
prepared to provide’ or
participate in a secret ballot
election of three, or six, or a
dozen advisors from our leading
fallers committee, but we're not
going to participate in meeting
with the half dozen or so who
have been scabbing on us while
we ve been in court, and we're
not backing one inch off our
position ‘Not another tree until
there’s a written settlement’.”’

Speaking to a meeting of some
150 fallers in the Fishermen's
hall on May 25, steering

committee member Jim Kretz
said ‘‘We’re fighting the forest
bosses, no one else. We are
members of the IWA, and we
have put the union in the best
position they have ever been in
during negotiations.”’

Chuck Evans, another
spokesman, stressed the fallers
had fought two months of the
strike that is inevitable unless
F.I.R. changes its stance. Evans
said log stocks were so low the
bosses were in the. most
vulnerable situation they had
ever been in. He said the rank
and file in plants and mills were
behind the fallers in their
struggle. ‘“‘They are the IWA’’,
he said.

That there is no weakening in
the ranks: was obvious in the
remarks from the floor. The
majority were from camps in
the Lower Mainland. Other
meetings were scheduled for
other areas on the Island and
upcoast within the week.

Mike Davis scorned the news
blackout in the daily press
regarding the fallers situation.
He said ‘‘only the Pacific
Tribune and the Grape have put
forward our story’. He said the
embattled fallers, although IWA
members, had to go to the
fishermen to get a hall for their
meetings, and although there
was a big strike fund, their
section of the union had not yet
been given any part of it to carry
on the struggle.

Fishermen’s union president
Homer Stevens told the meeting
to reach out to other workers in
all sections of industry for
support. “‘When other workers
understand the struggle you are
in, they'll give you backing,”’ he
said.

companies are not amongst i! ;
top profit-making institutions”
our time, why do they SP) |
millions opposing publiclt |
owned insurance plans? at
Supported by thousands of Oy
owners in this province
progressive organizations &
political parties in Bre
Columbia have urged succes?
provincial governments
institute a government insu! be |
plan. Today there is a Be ;
exception: Conservative i 4
Derril Warren said a Pe |
paper is being prepared by w
party in support of private # st
insurance to show that Yi é
cheaper than a bureaucral@ |
administered government P
gram. Fe
Besides revealing thal a
heart — and his party — belo
to free enterprise, Watle
remarks fly in the face ®
facts. Ra
A government non-profit a
would provide (1) rates
considerably because it
profit. (2) Elimination % |
companies with duplicr od
offices, staff, and high-salt)
executives, (3) eliminall sill
money wasted on advelihiy |.
and competition, a? sith
reduction in court cases 7 the
out of accidents, 4
Saskatchewan experienc

shown. —
WAGE FREEZE |

Cont'd from pg: !

said, once again the provi
government failed to live OF ig |
committment to keep PEO" sal
wages at the same level
paid by other governments: ay hs
result is that provincl4 elo |
scales dropped furthet ~~
federal and municipal rate” jy
Recent wildcat str! ver0s
government employees ve
the province show that 5°
groups are ready for a sho the
with the government 02 igh
wage and bargaining !
issue, Fryer said. ia :
The union secretary $4,410)
vote results will be forwal- jo
the Civil Service Commis)
with the request that wage qh
be reopened. At this stata 4
strike action will be san’ ith
by the union becavs ttl |
ratification vote wasn't 4713)
vote. He made it clea! “iid )
strike vote will be taken joe :
this year if the govermME iyi)
not respond to a reques.
second round of bargay initt |
wages and collective Daye,

rights for provincial em? ;

seam