~ | AT GUNPOINT In the current negotiations, the employers have in- - vented their own definition of the word security. Contract security, as re-stated by them, can be in- terpreted to mean in effect: All workers must meekly submit to rules and _ work loads imposed by the employers without protest. Violations of this order will be severely penalized, notwithstanding any employer violations of the con- tract. The above is the sum and substance of the proposals now insisted upon in the employers’ releases. By any modern concept of industrial relations, it stands out as a flagrant revival of an outmoded economic dictatorship. Complete and abject obedience to the edicts of an em- ployer’s private government is to be enforced at the point of a gun. A clue to their intentions is found in the incidents during the past year that vexed them and are now cited by them. No allowance has been made for the provocation offered by arrogant company officials during these epi- sodes. Nothing is said about the fact that after protests, settlements were made that could have been easily made beforehand through the grievance procedure. Harmonious day to day job relations require two- way co-operation. Workers are, after all, human be- ings who have the right to be treated as such and not merely as cogs in a machine. Threats to enforce compliance with unjust conditions of employment will do nothing but feed a smoldering resentment which is bound to erupt. It is obvious that the employers’ professional nego- tiators are far removed from the job atmosphere. They are apparently unaware of the deep-seated unrest pro- voked by front office tyranny to accomplish the speedup and the double-up. We wonder if the employers’ top echelon thinks that the industry and the workers are so different that methods employed by enlightened industrialists else- where to build employee morale must be discarded in B.C. But for the IWA, the employers would turn back the clock 50 years. ; CANADIAN SNOBBERY is not in my neighbourhood “Tt has taken fifty years to get adequate public housing legislation in Canada and in Ontario. Now that the legis- lation is there, action on the legislation should be demand- ed and encouraged. “Unfortunately the public attitude seems to be, ‘Public housing for low income families and for senior citi- zens is good .. . as long as it » 9 “Most of the reasons amount to snobbery, and this type of snobbery in Canada is worse than almost anywhere else in the world. Why? Be- cause we have too much pub- lic housing? No! Really be- cause we have too little, and people fear what they know little about.” —Editorial in OFL Labor Review, September 1965 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER (ea WORKER Published twice monthly as the official publication of the >? INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA, Western Canadian Regionat Council No. 1. Affiliated with AFL-C1O-CLC 2a59 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Business Manager _ - Advertising Representative Forwarded to ever eeorcance with convention ies $2.00 per year. : spoeletecel as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage in eash, Phone 874-5261 be eas: mt: Ore icc eee Sieber. ...—. G. A, Spencer member. of the IWA in Western Canada in decisions. Subscription rate for non-members 27,500 copies printed in this issue. THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER THIS WILL GIVE US CONTRACT SECURITY NDP ELECTS HAYNES Well-known trade unionist, Ray Haynes, was elected Pro- vincial President of the New Democratic Party of B.C. at its annual convention, New Westminster, April 15-16-17. The newly elected top officer of the Party is Second Vice President of the B.C. Federa- tion of Labour, and interna- tional representative of the Retail, Wholesale and Depart- ment Store Union. He suc- ceeds Frank Snowsell, teach- er, who declined the nomina- tion. Four other trade unionists were elected to the Provincial executive. They were: IWA Regional Ist Vice President Jack MacKenzie, National Council member; George Kowbel, IWA Local 1-217; Alma Faulds, Fruit & Vege- table Workers’; and Grant MacNeil, IWA. R. M. Strachan, MLA, was re-elected Provincial Parlia- mentary Leader by acclama- tion. . In attendance at the con- vention were 275 delegates from across the province, in- cluding a large quota of dele- gates from affiliated trade un- ions. EARLY ELECTION SEEN The probability of an early provincial general election led the delegates to place the provincial NDP on a cam- paign footing. The report of the Provincial Campaign Committee indicated that substantial progress had been made in the realignment of constituency organizations to conform with the new bound- aries fixed by redistribution. Nominating conventions now planned offer the pros- pect of a larger number of trade union candidates. In an outline of the cam- paign platform presented by Opposition Leader Bob Stra- chan, labour’s legislative de- mands were featured. LIGHTER SIDE Mother: What did your father say when he fell off the ladder? Daughter: Shall I Jeave out the naughty words? Mother: Of course, dear. . Daughter: Nothing! lodged a strong complaint 1st Issue April, 1966 FROM PAGE 1 | “HIGHER WAGES" Workers are being lured by bonuses and special fringe benefits, including generous transportation expenses. The present demand is mainly for competent trades- men. Wages now paid in the United States have been sub- stantially boosted by recent wage settlements and “bracket revisions’. U.S. WAGES HIGHER An IWA electrician in Van- couver is paid $3.22 an hour (plus an additional 21c if cer- tificated); an electrician in Seattle is. presently paid $4.894% an hour, in Portland $4.90 an hour, and in Oakland, California, the rate is $5.48 an hour. = Average construction wages U.S. unemployment hes gone down sharply im the last year Seasonally adjusted rates | March 1965 é . Total i ‘ Nonwhite White —_¢; Civilian | in the United States are — workers) | carpenters, $4.58 an hour; plumbers, $4.95 an hour; la- bourers, $3.45 an hour; and an average in all trades of $4.45 an hour. At present, it is reported, production is maintained by the use of expensive alternatives such as overtime work and production incentives. All large employers are worried about the long term manpower outlook. One company, Allis-Chalmers, got particularly good results from an ad mentioning “a private golf course exclusively for A-C employees”. PROTEST LODGED The Port Alberni and Dis- trict Labour Council has with the B.C, Government over the logging methods em- ployed by the MacMillan, Bloedel & Powell River Com- pany at its Sproat Lake op- eration. The Council, in a letter to the Hon. K. Kiernan, Minis- ter of Recreation & Conserva- tion, expressed the fear that the Company’s cat logging in the area would strip the lake- shore of all its standing timber. The Council also expressed the fear that unless Govern- ment action was taken to en- sure the Company cleaned up its logging debris, the lake’s beauty would be ruined for years to come. x MAURICE CORBEIL - Council Secretary In closing, the Council] sug- gested to Kiernan, that the hundreds of miles of lake- shore property controlled by the large companies should be returned to the Crown upon completion of their log- ging so that they could be either turned into public parks or divided into lots and be put up for sale.