Vol. XLVI No. 5

VANCOUVER, B.C.

MEMBERS OF IWA Local 5- 443, Bactiuts, Mississippi, Bobby
Read (left) and Roosevelt Jones (right) are shownin front of Local
1-85's headquarters in Port Alberni, with Regional 3rd Vice-
President Ernie Clarke following the meeting in which they
informed 1-85 members of their long-drawn out fight to get a first
agreement with their employer whose parent company is the
Canadian owned Husky Oil Company of Calgary.

IWA SEEKING
HUSKY OIL BOYCOTT

The bitter strike by 100
members of IWA Local 5-443 in
Pachuta, Mississippi, to win a
first agreement from their
employer Husky Inudstries,
whose parent company is the
Canadian owned Husky Oil
Company of Calgary, Alberta,
is now in its 10th month with no
end in sight.

The plant, which manu-
facturers charcoal briquettes,
was formerly owned by the
Masonite Corporation and the
employees enjoyed a_ union
eontract which contained most
of the provisions and rates
characteristic of similar plants
in the U.S.

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THE LUMGER WORKER
2659 Commercial Or

The new employer bluntly
refused to negotiate an agree-
ment or recognize the IWA as
the bargaining authority for
the employees. All the IWA
members were fired and the
plant is presently being
scabbed by former junior em-
ployees, who were not union
members, and by additional
scabs hired by the company.

The new terms of employ-
ment offered by Husky re-
duced statutory holidays from
nine to five a year. The aver-
age wage paid is $3.10 per hour
and the Pe rate is $5.20 an
hour.

Regional Conan No. 1, has
been waging an all out cam-
paign to help the strikers.
Regional 8rd _ Vice-President
Ernie Clarke has been spear-
heading the campaign to raise
money for the strikers and
have the Company’s products
boycotted in Canada and the
US,

Two of the strikers, Bob
Read and Roosevelt Jones who
have worked a number of
years in the plant, were
brought up to British Columbia
and Alberta by the Regional
Council to visit a number of
Local Unions and Labour
Councils to tell the story of the
strike.

Their visit was highly suc-
cessful and the Local Unions
voted to aid the strikers
through handsome financial
donations and getting their
members to boy Lif all Husky
Oil products.

See ‘““HUSKY”’ — page 2

>’

ISSN 0049-7371

BOTH COAST AND INTERIOR

CONTRACT APPROVED
BY LARGE MAJORITY

The thirty thousand IWA
members on the B.C. coast
have voted by a margin of two
to one to accept the proposed
terms of the Memorandum of
Agreement. The results were
tabulated and announced July
25th.

The five thousand IWA
members in the Southern In-
terior — whose contract ex-
pired June 30th — also voted by
a strong margin for ac-
ceptance. Results of the vote
were announced August. 9th.

Following tabulation of the
coast vote Regional President
Jack Munro stated that the

‘BROADBENT
BEST
| CAMPAIGNER

Ed Beedhant. New Demo-
cratic Party leader was the
voters’ favorite campaigner
even though the NDP came
third in the federal election.

Gallup recently reported
that when voters were asked
which party leader ran the best
campaign, 35 per cent named
Broadbent.

Liberal Pierre Trudeau was
chosen by 28 per cent while
Tory Joe Clark was a poor
third at 17 per cent.

But by contrast the Tories
won 35.6 per cent of the popular
vote on May 22; the Liberals
received 39.8 per cent while the
NDP got 17.8 per cent. The
Tories won the most seats in
the House of Commons.

Even among those who voted
Tory, Clark trailed Broadbent
as a campaigner by 34 per cent
to 38 per cent. As well 11 per
cent of Tory voters named
Trudeau.

Among NDP voters 65 per
cent named Broadbent as the
best campaigner, 17 per cent
Trudeau and 9 per cent for
Clark.

Trudeau’s score among
Liberal voters was the best of
any leader with 51 per cent
Naming him as best cam-
paigner, Twenty-five per cent
of Liberals thought Broadbent
ran the best campaign and only
8 per cent picked Clark.

The question put to the 2,095
people survey was: ‘Apart
from the way you voted which
federal leader do you yourself
think personally conducted the
best political campaign prior
to the May election?”

Gallup canes accuracy
within three percentage points,
Twenty per cent of those sur-
veyed couldn’t say who ran the
best campaign.

vote could only be regarded as
an endorsation of the Provin-
cial Negotiating Committee’s
view that it was a fine settle-
ment.

The package is the richest
settlement ever negotiated in
the IWA. Both the coast and
Southern Interior members
will receive ninety cents an
hour increase in the first year
and a further ninety cents an
hour or nine and one half per
cent, which ever is the greater,
in the second year of the agree-
ment.

Also negotiated were a
number of wage revisions; a
large increase in the Union’s
Pension Plan; increased vaca-
tions and vacation pay; in-
creases in the shift differen-
tial; higher health & welfare
benefits; travel time for log-
gers; fare allowance; a forest
fire fighting clause; a troubled
employee’s programme; plus
a number of other benefits.

The settlement represents a
total package of more than

JUNE-JULY, 1979

$3.00 an hour increase over the
life of the Agreement.

For the benefit of the mem-
bers the Lumber Worker has
published on pages 6-7 the
complete Memorandum of
Agreement for the coast.
Published as well are certain
sections of the Southern In-
terior Memorandum of Agree-
ment which differ from the
coast and are of major im-
portance to the Interior mem-
bers.

The Union is presently nego-
tiating a new agreement for
the five thousand IWA mem-
bers in the Northern Interior
whose contract expires Sep-
tember Ist.

High on the Union’s list of
priorities are demands that the
expiration date of the agree-
ment be moved forward; that
the sawmill evaluation pro-
gramme be updated in line
with the Southern Interior
evaluation programme; and
that a number of burning Local
issues be resolved.

a ~ —

IN FALL

| SEI eee at

| CONGRESS TO HOLD
| MEDICARE CONFERENCE

|
|

The Canadian Labour Con-
gress announced plans for a
national conference of groups
and organizations concerned
about the continued erosion of
medicare in Canada, ina June
28 statement following the
meeting of the CLC Executive
Council, at Mont Ste. Marie,

Que.

CLC President Dennis
McDermott said the aim of the
conference, to be held in the
fall, would be to form an on-
going coalition of the ‘users of
the health system — to develop
and articulate consumers’
interests, and to be recognized
and consulted as such by
medical associations and
governments.”

He said the conference would
be open to “‘all Canadians who
support and value medicare
and who want to join with the
trade union movement in
promoting a program designed
to save our health care system
before it’s completely des-
troyed.”’

Some 30 groups and organiz-
ations have already been ap-
proached, McDermott said,
and initial response is “‘very
encouraging”. The groups con-
tacted up to now include far-
mers, church organizations,

ethnic groups, co-ops and con- ~

sumer groups, education,
environment, health organiza-

tions, native people, pen-
sioners, women’s groups and
social organizations.

In addition, the CLC is also in
close contact with its provin-
cial federations of labour
since, as McDermott pointed
out, while medicare will al-
ways have to rely on federal
financial support and direc-
tion, ‘‘the real battle can only
be won on the provincial field.

The CLC has also requested
a meeting with federal Health
Minister David Crombie at the
earliest possible opportunity to
discuss the problem and urge
immediate steps to resolve it,
McDermott said.

“In spite of its shortcomings,
Canada’s medicare system
used to be one of the best in the
world,’’ McDermott said.
“But, in the past year, as the
result of a change in financing
by the now-defunct Liberal
government in Ottawa, the
reactionary attitude of the
medical associations and the
irresponsible policies of the
majority of provincial govern-
ments which divert. the funds
earmarked for health care to
other purposes, medicare as
we knew it is on the point of
disappearing.

“Unless we act fast, it will
disappear altogether and
Canadians will only .have
themselves to blame.”

Canadian Labour