THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

The B.C.* Federation © of
Labour is receiving en-
thusiastic response from the
general public for its campaign
to make jobs the number one
political issue in the province
and in the country. .

The Federation has opened a
Citizens’ Lobby for Jobs office
and hotline in Vancouver, are
running ads on unemployment
in the papers, and have had
over three thousand question-
naires returned by the unem-
ployed expressing their
feelings. |

The questionnaires were dis-
tributed at a shopping mall in-
formation campaign in over
forty malls throughout B.C.
The returns have given the
Federation an insight to the

“SYD THOMPSON

problems faced by
thousand of jobless.

Working closely with the
Federation and the Canadian
Labour Congress in the cam-
paign are the seventeen B.C.
labour councils.

The mass demonstration
held on the grounds of the
Legislature in Victoria, March
30th, pointed up how successful
the Federation has been in
making the subject of unem-
ployment widely discussed in
B.C.

Few demonstrations have
been as successful in bringing
to the attention of the provinc-
ial government labour’s de-
mand that quick action is

needed now to get people back
to work.

LE

Federal Labour Minister
John Munro has released the
terms of reference that the
Commission of Inquiry on Re-
dundancies and Lay-Offs will
operate by.

Regional President Jack
Munro is a member of the
three-man commission. The
other two are Dr. A. W. R. Car-
rothers and Charles Perreault.

Following are the terms of
reference:

The Industrial Inquiry Com-
mission, to hold and cause an
inquiry to be made into:

(1) the redundancy and lay-off
procedures utilized by em-
ployers

(2) the — union/ management
relations in redundancy
and lay-off situations, their
mutual and respective
obligations to employees
and to the community at

large :
(3) the access to prior infor-

mation on redundancies
‘and lay-offs

(4) the effectiveness of federal
legislative, regulatory and

yrogram measures
to assist in re-
ney and lay-off

d
situations
the po

(5)

sin

of employers, unions and
government with a view to
avoiding lay-offs to the
extent possible and mini-
mizing their adverse ef-
fects when they do occur
the possibility of develop-
ing a code of good practice
with respect to redund-
ancies and lay-offs

any matters incidental or
relating to any of the fore-
going matters

and for these purposes to
consult with or procure infor-
mation from any organization,
individual or group of persons,
and to accept for consideration
any submissions or other rep-
resentations made by or on
behalf of interested persons or
organizations and to, on or
before the 28th day of Febru-
ary 1979, submit its conclusions
and recommendations to me,
as Minister of Labour, with
respect to the aforementioned
matters in the interest of miti-
gating the adverse effects of
redundancies and lay-offs

which may affect industrial
relations.

The Commission may
engage the services of such

(6)

(7)

technical or expert advisors,

clerks, reporters, and assist-
ants as it deems necessary or
isable to assist it.

SYD THOMPSON

“A BORN FIGHTER
AND A MAN IN A HURRY”

. Syd Thompson, President of
Local 1-217 IWA, Vancouver,
was re-elected by acclamation
March 11, to his eleventh term
as Local President.

Syd has the distinction of
holding the office of president
longer than any other local
president in Regional Council
No. 1. He was installed in office
January 11, 1959, after defeat-
ing the incumbent president
‘Lloyd Whalen, in a bitterly
fought election.

This will be his last term as
president. Under- the IWA
constitution persons holding
office must automatically re-
tire at age sixty-five.

During his years in office,
Syd has remained a highly con-
troversial figure. He is com-
pletely outspoken and express-
es his views in a powerful voice
which, regardless of the size of
the meeting room, seldom
needs the aid of a ‘‘mike’’.

A born fighter anda manina
hurry he became an im-
placable enemy of past
Regional Council administra-
tions, for what he regarded as
too timid an approach to taking
on the employers.

Many people in the IWA
today feel his long battles with

those administrations helped
immeasurably to build the or-
ganization.

Under his strong and capable

_ leadership Local 1-217 grew to

be for many years the largest
local union in the Inter-
national. Unfortunately, the
Local has decreased in size in
the last couple of years due to
the City of Vancouver’s de-
cision to allocate industrial
property to high-rise develop-
ment.

As Local President, Syd has
also played an active role in
the New Democratic Party, the
B.C. Federation of Labour, and
the Vancouver & District La-
bour Council, whose president
he has been for many years.

His determination to fight for
social justice stems from the
“dirty 30’s.”’ Like thousands of
other Canadians, Syd was
booted from pillar to post while
riding the freights looking for
work.

He was thrown into jail in
Lethbridge, Alberta, for six
months because he _par-
ticipated in an unemployed
march and has never. forgotten
his hatred at that time for the
system.

He joined the army when the

Second World War broke out
and served five years overseas
in the Canadian Engineers.

After the war, he went to
work in a sawmill plant in
Lumby, B.C., where he joined
the IWA. From there he moved
to the Coast and found work at
Weldwood Kent in Vancouver,
where he became active in the
union.

A strong family man, Syd is
a non-smoker and a moderate
drinker. His greatest pleasures
are fishing and duck hunting..

A bit of a health nut, he does
a lot of walking. His favourite
jaunt is around Stanley Park
where he can be seen most
week-ends when he is not
working.

A number of his critics claim
Syd has mellowed in the last
couple of years because he now
supports the Regional Council.
This is far from true. Syd has
always been his own man and
supports the . administration
now because it is doing the job
for the Union he wants done.

Perhaps Syd and his critics
have both mellowed but what .
ever the answer more and
more people are fondly calling
him the ‘‘elder statesman’’ of
the IWA.

wa Sea NL

e

Si.

NEMPLOY!

ae ta or A he tihe Soe

It must be some indication of
the depth of Liberal party con-
cern, about Canada’s
frightening unemployment
rate that it took them almost
two hours to find enough MP’s
to turn back an NDP motion to
adjourn the Commons Feb. 14,
after New Democrat House
leader Stanley Knowles
charged ‘‘the government has

no plan to deal with this
disaster.”

Knowles moved the surprise
motion after Statistics Canada
figures were released showing

unemployment had topped the
million mark for the first time

in Canadian history and the
Liberals refused to take action

on opposition demands to
create jobs. :

Outside the Commons,

Canadian Labour Congress
president Joe Morris repeated
his call for a new budget and
urged the government to pump
money into public sector job
creation. NDP leader Ed
Broadbent, recovering from an
operation, blasted the Trudeau
Liberals from his bed side for
playing politics instead of
dealing with unemployment.

Inside the House there was
an uproar, as the opposition
parties moved for an all-party
committee to study solutions to
the unemployment crisis. But
finance minister Jean Chretien
turned back the suggestion,
along with demands to bring in
a new budget, saying the
country was going through ‘‘a
time of economic adjustment.”

Unemployment Insurance Statistics
SSS ee ee rear

Benefits

Gross amount ($000)

Net amount (1) ($000)
Weeks of benefit (000)
Average weekly benefit ($)
Claims received (000)

Beneficiaries (000)

NDP finance critic Max
Saltsman blasted the govern-
ment for its refusal to act,
charging the government
would have ‘“‘no way of coping
with this problem for another
six or seven months’ if it did
not bring down an immediate
budget.

“This is not business as usual
any more,” Saltsman said.
“Once you reach a million un-
employed, you have a national
emergency.”

Morris repeated the CLC’s
proposals for tax cuts, in-
creases in the old age pension
and a housing construction
program to get the economy
moving again. He also called
on the federal government to
pressure the provinces to re-
duce sales taxes.

% Change From

Dec. Nov. Dec. Nov. Dec.

1977 1977 1976 1977 1976
a eee ee
319,439 316,721 272,186 1 17

317,734 314,249 270,848 1 17

3,018 3,063 2,787 =1 8

105.84 103.40 97.65 2 8

317 318 304 - 4

824p 689p 731 20 13

Benefits

Gross amount ($000)

Net amount (1) ($C20)
Weeks of benefit (000)
Average weekly benefit ($)
Claims received (000)

Beneficiaries(2) (000)

% Change From

To Date 12 Months
1977 1976 1977 1976
a ee
3,909,044 3,361,573 : 16
3,884,969 3,342,247 16
38,702 36,190 7
101.00 92.89 9)
2,806 2,678 _ Re
749p 701 7

(1) After cancellation of warrants and collection of overpayments.

(2) Monthly average
Pp Preliminary figures
— Amount too small to be expressed