RETIRES AFTER 15 YEARS IN TOP POST IWA Retirement address of Presi- dent A. F, Hartung to the Twenty - fifth Constitutional Convention of the IWA Sep- tember 11 in Portland. “I welcome you to this Twenty-fifth Convention. Fif- teen years ago in the City of Portland at the Masonic Tem- ple, I chaired my first Inter- national Convention as Presi- dent of this great Union. Many problems have been dealt with. Constitutional changes have been made in the structure of this Union by shifting certain authority and responsibility to the Regional Councils. During these fifteen years I have been President there were many strikes. One of the big ones was in 1952. In my address to the Convention in 1952 I made the following statement: “I take great pride in reporting to you that your Union is in good condition, despite the fact that over 75,- 000 members were forced in 1952 to strike to enforce set- tlements favorable to the membership. NO DOUBT “There is no doubt in my mind that there was a pat- tern established by the Na- ‘tional Association of Manu- facturers early in 1952 for the employers to follow. That pat- tern was to force labor ‘to struggle fer every gain made. Labor met the challenge and demonstrated a readiness to fight for those gains, which were felt to be rightfully earned. “The struggle that labor makes is many times miscon- strued by reactionary radio commentators and the press, endeavoring to create the im- pression that they speak for a majority of the people. La- bor is the largest single unit within the general public, and the gains made by labor bene- fit every citizen of our re- spective countries, as well as the people of the world. “However, the propaganda put out by the enemies of labor does have some effect, especially upon some of the younger members of our Un- ion. It is, therefore, important that we intensify our educa- tional efforts, bringing home . to our members the history of the struggle that has been made by the I.W. of A. and other Unions to raise the liv- ing standards to where they are today. We must never re- lax our efforts to continue our fight to raise our econo- mie standards still higher.” Action on my recommend- ation to the delegates at that time for an intensified edu- cational program has been limited because of the lack of finances. What I said about the National Manufacturers Association having a pattern established for the employers to follow has been intensified. The reactionaries of business are spending millions of dol- lars to educate their person- RETIREMENT ADDRESS THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER RETIRING IWA INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT A. F. Hartung makes his farewell address to the 25th Constitu- tional Convention. President Hartung was one of the founding members of the I!WA and has been its president for the past 15 years. nel on how to fight unions. Their attorneys have studied every trick in the book as to how to fight the union in their organizational efforts — as well as at the bargaining table. The drive by employers has many “management’s rights” clauses written into contracts and is becoming one of the major employer de- mands. Labor attorneys ad- vise us if the unions agree to such clauses they will destroy most of the Union’s contract provisions. Many of our unions have compulsory arbitration claus- es. Employers — especially while the Local Union is new or weak — violate the con- tracts as they please because they know the Union is not financially able to take the violations to arbitration be- cause of the lack of finances, or because of the lack of ex- perienced union leaders with- in the union. Arbitration clauses, if entered into by the union, should be used and en- forced, otherwise the union would be better off without them. At least if the boss gets too tough they can use their economic strength. IN RUT Labor is in a “rut,” nothing new to strengthen labor’s power has been recommended to the membershiv by the leaders of the AFL-CIO or the CLC since they merged. Top leaders of the AFL-CIO are so’ far removed from the rank and file workers’ prob- lems that they know nothing about their needs. They are more at home with the “strip- ed-pants diplomats” and “high society” than they are with the workers. Some of the leaders have spent more time supporting the CIA than they have on the workers’ prob- lems. TOP BRASS The “Canadian Top Brass” has interpreted the CLC Con- stitution to protect their jobs, even though some of them belong to unions that have been suspended by the B.C. Federation of Labour. The unbelievable part of Secre- tary - Treasurer MacDonald’s interpretation of the CLC Constitution (while he is tak- ing the place of President Jo- Logger’s Days are Lucky Days — when the & heat hits hard, and Lucky goes down cold = “st and quenching. Lucky cuts through thirst like a chain saw; delivers big beer flavour glass after glass, great beer quality case after case. So beat the heat with a B.C. beer that’s brewed slow and easy, Western- style: Lucky Lager - for men who know a good beer when they taste it. Give Yourself a LUCKY BREAK doin who is ill) is that even though the four IWA Locals that are suspended will not be able to have delegates or voice and vote, in any body chartered by the Canadian Labour Congress, they must pay their per capita tax. In other words—“taxation with- out representation.” The IWA was formed be- cause the Carpenters and Joiners started out to take over the lumber workers on much the same basis; how- ever, they did allow lumber workers unions to seat their representatives at their con- vention as visitors. TOP LABOUR So while the top labor movement is fiddling along, trying to protect their jobs and power, the industry — including lumber — is merg- ing into bigger and bigger corporations, buying up any plant or plants they find mak- ing a profit. So if the workers strike a plant producing lum- ber, they have plenty of other types of industry to keep roll- ing in the profits. It is re- ported about 200 companies own or control fifty-one per- cent of all business in the United States and at the rate these companies are merging it won’t be long before they own all business that is mak- ing a profit. We need dynamic leaders on the top to merge all unions into a fighting force, so strong - and dedicated that if a union has to strike an employer, no union member will buy or use these commodities until the workers are back on the job. We need a real strike fund set up by the AFL-CIO and in Canada by the Canadian Labour Congress. OF PRESIDENT HARTUNG It was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal that there were twenty-four mil- lion man-days lost in a year through strikes. If each work- er received $10.00 per day while on strike it would come to $240 million. If the AF CIO — with fourteen million members — had $18.00 per member a year going into a strike fund it would raise $252 million to pay the work- ers while on strike. The workers pay $200 to $300 per year to insure their cars which probably cost them around $3,000. Many more dollars are spent to in- sure their lives and property, yet when it comes to insur- ing the pay cheque they de- pend upon to pay this insur- ance and living costs they spend very little. Certain in- dustries — it is reported — share their profits with com- panies in the same kind of business when they are struck by a group of workers. For years I have preached “build your Union strong.” I have had people tell me “why don’t you give up?” They are not interested. That I will never do. I am con- vinced the younger members can be educated to see that they need a strong union and adequate finances. I think what has been wrong in the past is that we have spent all our time talking to them instead of talking with them about the problems, and get- ting from them their ideas how to build a strong union. HOUSING NEEDS The reports coming from some members of Congress See HARTUNG — Page 9 This advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Control! Board or by the Government of British Columbia. ae tes