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Vol. XXXVI, No. 12 VANCOUVER, B.C.

after more than a month of continuous negotiations with Forest
Industrial Relations, are well on their way to winning one of the best
contract packages ever obtained by the Union from the forest industry.
Committee — front row left: Weldon Jubenville, president, Local 1-80;
Syd Thompson, president, Local 1-217; Jack Moore, regional president and

THIRTY-SIX CENT WAGE OFFER BRINGS

THE ELEVEN MEMBERS of the IWA Coast Negotiating Committee who

2nd Issue
June, 1968

chairman of the Negotiating Committee; Rod Beaton, president, Local
1-288; Max Salter, president, Local 1-363; back row left: Wyman Trineer,
president, Local 1-357; Ernie Freer, president, Local 1-71; Cy Godfrey,
president, Local 1-367; Walter Allen, president, Local 1-85; Del Pratt, -

regional 2nd vice-president and secretary of the Negotiating Committee;
Murray Drew, president, Local 1-118.

COAST SETTLEMENT NEAR

EDITORIAL

TRIBUTE
FOR PATIENCE

with the coast industry contract talks
now in their most critical stage, tribute
must be paid to IWA members for their

patience and discipline in remaining on the
job over the past three weeks.

The additional time afforded the Union’s
Negotiating Committee has allowed it to
wrest further concessions from the em-

ployers and narrow the gap now blocking
peaceful settlement of the dispute.

The membership’s patience and disci-
pline has also demonstrated to the employ-
ers and public at large that the IWA is not an
irresponsible organization more than ready
to ‘hit the bricks’ at the least provocation.

However, the patience of even the most
tolerant of people can be exhausted. IWA
members cannot be faulted now for dis-
playing symptoms of anger and frustration

at what appears to be deliberate stalling
on the part of the employers.

Delay in settlement of the coast
forest industry contract dispute has
been blamed by the Union’s Negoti-
ating Committee on John Billings,
president of Forest Industrial Rela-
tions Ltd., for ignoring fringe items
that have not been finalized.

Regional president Jack Moore,
spokesman for the IWA Committee,
points out that the industry’s wage
offer of 36 cents over two years is
acceptable to the Committee and has
removed the main stumbling block
for an amicable settlement.

Moore stated, however, that any
terms of settlement must include the
fringe items still in contention para-
mount of which is the demand for
more liberal annual vacations.

He added that the Negotiating
Committee is optimistic that Billings
will reconsider his present position
and agree to the Union’s demands.

In view of this, the Committee has
appealed to the membership to report
for work as usual, and to remain at
work until otherwise instructed by the
Committee.

The points so far no longer in con-
tention include:

© A wage increase of 18 cents an
hour retroactive to June 15, 1968 and
a further 18 cents an hour effective
June 15, 1969.

e An increase from the present
$50.00 to $75.00 a week in the Health
and Welfare sickness Indemnity Plan.

© Improved fare allowance for
loggers.

e A forty hour work week with time
and a half for all hours worked on

Sundays for cook and bunkhouse
employees.

e A firefighting memorandum to be
written into the Coast Master Agree-
ment.

e Preferential hiring for employees
displaced by closures.

e A committee to be set up to de-
velop procedures under the existing
technological change clause.

e Revised Union check off forms.

e Female rates to be deleted from
plywood job evaluation.

© Seniority list to be provided
twice a year.

@ One man arbitrator for contract
interpretation.

e A job evaluation programme for
sawmills.

In addition, the employers have
agreed to drop their demand for a

$250,000 bond to deter wildcat
strikes.

They have proposed an alternative
suggestion but that along with the
Union’s demand for more liberal
annual vacations, standby time for
Shake Sawyers and Packers, and
guaranteed daily earnings for Shingle
Sawyers and Packers and another
Statutory Holiday still remain in dis-
pute. :

The industry claims that the con-
tract package (not including the
points still at issue) will add another
452 cents an hour to employer costs.

When a Memorandum of Agree-

ment is signed, a referendum ballot
of the membership will be conducted

as quickly as possible on the settle-
ment terms.

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