2nd Issue January, 1969 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER 38,000 copies printed in this issue. Published twice monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA Western Canadian Regional Council No. 1 Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. Phorie 874-5261 Editor — Pat Kerr Business Manager — Fred Fieber Advertising Representatives — Elizabeth Spencer Associates Ferwarded to every member of the IWA in Westérn Canada in accordan i i isi < ce with Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year. is geet Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post. Office Department, and for payment of postage in cash >? i aa EDITORIAL AN UNJUST INCREASE ON April ist, over five thousand labour, church, co-operative and business publications across Canada face the bleak prospect of paying a Staggering 400 to 500 percent in- crease in postal rates or go out of business. This will resust from the new Postal Act regulations which exclude non- profit publications from obtaining second-class mailing privileges un- less they meet certain requirements. These requirements are worded so ambiguously that even the post office officials in Vancouver have been forced to write Ottawa for clarifica- tion. A B.C. printing house representa- tive after perusing the regulations stated that it would take a Phila-. delphia lawyer to understand them and was informed by a customer that his head office was in Philadelphia and their lawyers were just as much in the dark. Informed sources suggest that very few of these publications will meet the post office requirements. Those failing to do so will have their postal rates skyrocket from the present one cent per copy to four or five cents per copy depending on circulation. The punitive postal increases will also create unemployment by forcing some publications out of business and others to publish in the United States to gain preferred mailing privi- leges. Printing companies and paper firms will suffer financial loss which CLC TO CONTINUE FIGHT FOR UNDERPAID WORKERS is bound to have an adverse effect on the country’s economy. Added to this is the great danger that if many of these non-profit pub- lications cease to exist in Canada, democracy as we know it will cease too. These publications are the only effective means organizations have of communicating with their mem- bers. No other media has or can serve the purpose as well. To deny them this by exorbitantly raising mail- ing costs is to deny them their demo- cratic right of free expression. If the government is so anxious to bring in more revenue for the postal department, it could well start by removing the favoured postal rates given to Time magazine and Readers’ Digest. It could also give the depart- ment the $800,000 yearly subsidy it now pays these magazines. How in heaven’s name the govern- ment can justify subsidizing Ameri- can magazines at the expense of Canadian publications is beyond comprehension. The O’Leary Royal Commission set up to study publications in Canada pointed up the need for more Cana- dian publications. lt bitterly attacked the payment of subsidies to Time and Readers’ Digest and suggested that if there were subsidies to be given, Canadian publications should get them which would help us retain our national identity. WHEN IT COMES TO KEEPIN’ A MILL ON A PAYIN’ BASIS DURIN’ A SHUT DOWN JOE’S WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOLD! FEWER STRIKES IN 1968 Public opinion to the con- trary, it is unlikely that 1968 will prove to have been a re- cord strike year in terms of man-days lost as a percentage of time worked. The official figures are not yet available for the full 12 month period. But based on figures for the first 11 months of the year, and estimating that December will be an av-! erage year for time lost, CPA is predicting that time lost in 1968 will be the same or just a little below time lost in 1966. In 1966, 34 man-days of work were lost for every 10,000 days worked, or 0.34 percent. There is evidence of a widening gap between the “have” and the “have not” people of Canada, President Donald MacDonald of the Ca- nadian Labor Congress told a meeting in Toronto. He was addressing a dinner meeting of the annual meet- ing of the Religion - Labor Council of Canada, following an all-day seminar study of poverty. “All our social legislation and what we like to call our welfare state has done little more than mitigate the effects of poverty,” he said. “Other- wise it has continued un- touched.” Mr. MacDonald vowed that organized labor would con- tinue to “rock the boat” until it got more money for hun- dreds of thousands of under- paid workers. “We have a responsibility to provide trade union organ- ization for the less fortunate and to help them use their unions to gain better wages and working conditions and so lift themselves from the poverty level,” he said. “This means, in blunt terms, going after more dol- lars and cents for the hun- dreds of thousands of under- paid workers in this country.” He rejected the false im- pression that “most Canadian workers are living in the lap of luxury.” Conceding that unions must do more to help organ- ize the less fortunate portion of the population, he said union rates have tended to spread to non - organized groups and unions spend an increasing amount of effort working for better social leg- islation for everyone. ..give yourself LUCKY break. BIG THIRST ? © GiveYo | naalf'e WWekY BREAK In 1968, the figure will like- ly be 33 or 34 days lost for every 10,000 days worked — or 0.33 or 0.34 per cent. The record year since World War II was 1946 when 54 man-days were lost for every 10,000 days worked or 0.54 percent. It is possible, however, that more strikes were called in 1968 than. in an previous year. But they were either smaller strikes or of shorter duration than in 1966, say. In addition the working force in- creased in size. Therefore time lost as a total of time worked will prove to be lower. COMING DOWN WITH A This advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Control Board or by the Government of British Columbia, aS * * < y