- NOVEMBER, 1971

ZEBALLOS CAMP CONDITIONS

SCORED BY LYNN LARSON —

The following two articles
were submitted by Local 1-85
Second Vice-President Lynn
Larson and Sam Rogers,
Secretary of the Zeballos IWA
Sub-Local, and deal with the
atrocious conditions at the
Tahsis Company’s Zeballos
logging camp.

°

If you have never worked in
Zeballos the following facts
will astound you.

If you have worked there I
bet you have no intention of
going back.

Zeballos logging is situated
at the head end of Zeballos
Inlet, has a crew compliment
of approximately 120 men, and
is owned by Tahsis Company
Limited.

Zeballos campis also a black
eye for Tahsis Company
Limited.

The situation in camp is so
bad that as one company of-
ficial said, ‘‘there is no way I

would live under those con-
ditions.”

The writer of this article
heartily agrees with him. The
roofs all leak, some right in the
middle of beds. The floors are
all rotted out so when you walk
down the hall you get a real
spring in your step. The toilets
are usually out of order and
when they ,are working the
water supp ply to the whole
bunkhouse system fails.

The furnace appears to have
a hole in the pot and when it is
blowing hot air into the rooms
the hot air is accompanied by
soot which although may not
seem very healthy, at least
gives a nice shade of grey to
any and all that are blessed
with the right to live there. The
sewer system is plugged from
one end to the other so every
time you answer nature’s call
you can see the tide come up
under your bunkhouse.

The boys in camp have a

great deal of recreational
activity provided to them
consisting of one pool table —
at least this used to be the case.
The boys made'a grave
mistake, the pool table was
jammed into the lunchmaking
room and when the crew said
they were a little cramped for
space when making lunches,
the Company threw out all
their recreational activity,
namely the pool table.

This article may sound as
though the writer has been
grossly misinformed, but I go
in there to service our mem-
bers in that camp and I know
what the conditions are. The
Local Union has requested
through Victoria that a Health
Inspector be sent immediately
into Zeballos to straighten out
the problems and this has been
agreed to.

Lynn Larson
2nd Vice-President
I.W.A. Local 1-85

— AND BY SAM ROGERS
SUB-LOCAL SECRETARY

The thing that sparked the

wild cat strike in Zeballos was
the water being off in the
bunkhouses on the morning of
October 22. This was merely a
symptom of the disease and the
last straw. that broke the
loggers’ backs. The committee
took up the problems with
Tahsis Company management
and outlined the utterly
inexcusable situation of which
management was fully aware
and promised to rectify.

To hear an explanation of the
situation one would expect it to
be the maritimes in the 30’s,
but it isn’t. This is Zeballos in
the 70’s, this is British
Columbia, this is an organized
area — IWA Local 1-85 has a
certification and contract,
Tahsis Company has a forest
management license under
whose terms they have
promised the government that
working conditions will be
equal to standards of the in-
dustry.

Time and space will not
permit a complete report but
this is what was observed by
this writer in the kitchen area
on October 22. In the bakery
area of the kitchen the roof
leaked — it was raining. Strips
of plastic were nailed to the
ceiling, channeling the water
to a window. The water didn’t
quite make it to the window so
was channeled back again to a
garbage can—the garbage can
was full. This plastic suspend-
ed canal enveloped the neon
light fixture, a very original
effect. There were also two
buckets suspended from the
ceiling and five additional ones
sitting around on the floor
catching the drips. Sheets of
eardboard had been laid
around the floor to form walk-
ways. Part of the counter
space and one side of the ovens
were out of bounds to the baker
as he didn’t want to get wet —
he quit the following day.

was, in the main
kitchen, a light bulb full of
! Also, the floors were

There was a complaint about -

too little counter space in the
lunch room. The roof leaked
there too in two places. One hot
water tap in the dishwasher’s
sinks was not working and he
had to fill one sink by means of
a rubber hose without proper
fittings, creating the danger of
being scalded.

The management was first
made aware of this situation
four months ago and has been
reminded of it three times
since, once by the local union
vice president — still it exists.

The rest of the bunkhouse is
in a similar condition. Heating
system, plumbing and sewer
system, wiring system, roofs
and foundations — the whole
structure is falling apart. -This
bunkhouse complex was only
intended to last three years in
1958, but Zeballos Iron Mines
Sold it to Tahsis Company
whose directors feel it is good
enough for the loggers. We are
dumb enough not to know any
better. One person claims to
have lived in these same
bunkhouses in Kitimat in 1952
and that they were moved here
after that to be used by the
miners before being discarded.

As this is written the
provincial board of health is
being contacted with the idea
of pulling an inspection and
forcing the company to clean
up the bunkhouses. Maybe
when they see the overflowing
sewage in two separate places
between the bunkhouses and
the soot and smoke belching
forth in the rooms from the
faulty heating system they will
get some results.

For results is what we want.
Excuses we've had too many
already. We had excuses and
promises extending back eight
years. Promises from different
camp managers, from per-
sonnel men from Vancouver,
and from company directors.
Promises made to bull cooks,
choker men, job stewards and
committee men, and to lo-
eal union vice-presidents.

Promises of new trailer units
in March, but which March
was not mentioned and that
was two Marches ago.
Promises of new, brand new
bunkhouses at Zeballos.
Promises of new renovated
ones with electric heat, yet!
But the results are not to be
seen, in fact, the ac-
commodations are worse than
they’ve ever been. It is so bad,
in fact, that one personnel man
admitted to the committee that
he wouldn’t stay there under
those conditions.

On the fourth of August of

this year our sub-local
chairman suggested _ to
management that they

shouldn’t expect people to stay
in those bunkhouses another
winter. Management readily
admitted that these buildings
are pretty hopeless, that they
could make extensive repairs
and still not have anything, in
fact, one could conclude that
they are beyond the state of
repair, beyond the point of no
return. They were intending to
make them as comfortable as

~ possible until June 1972, and by

that time we would have
something better. The
buildings now sitting in the
proposed new camp site were
to be fixed up and everything
ship shape, even electric heat;
if power source permitted, and
this to be done by 1972 —
promises, promises, etc. About
eight weeks later along comes
the board of directors and
reverses the decision. . And
away go the promises...

The crew here in Zeballos
needs some help. I don’t know
from where it is to come, but
this thing should not be per-
mitted to exist in this day and
age.

I know not who the major
share holders or board of di-
rectors of Tahsis Company are
but would venture to guess the
majority are not Canadians,
that as well as a Danish prince
there are some Chase

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER
SR SO

LYNN LARSON

Manhattan Americans in-
volved and calling the shots.

Although local
management’s attitude leaves
much to be desired they are not
calling the shots but must do as
they are told, and are
helplessly in a position of being
the Judas bull.

Is it any wonder that Tahsis

Company’s annual turnover in
crew in 1967 was 500 percent
and shows no evidence of
improvement in 1971? Do you
think it ever will as long as this
keeps up? The turnover in
crew is part of our problem too.
Sam Rogers,

Secretary,

Zeballos ub teest IWA.

Federation of Labour.

“HOT.”

public in Dawson Creek.’’

BLOCK NEWS 'HOT'

Products produced or distributed by the Peace River
Block News in Dawson Creek, including newspapers or
commercial printing, has been declared “HOT” by the B.C.

Secretary-Treasurer Ray Haynes stated today: ‘This
strike, which began on September 7th by 11 members of the
Printing Pressmen’s Union for a first agreement, is another
example of the tremendous struggle that workers and their
unions must go through for union recognition. The employer
is paying rates $2.00 lower than Pressmen members em-
ployed in fair newspapers 40 miles away.

“In view of the company’s statement that it intends to
try to publish from behind legal picket lines, the Federation
has declared such newspaper or any other products
produced or distributed by Peace River Block ews

“The union is now printing an alternate ewenapen
similar to the Vancouver Express entitled the Dawson
Creek Express. We believe this strike and this alternate
newspaper deserve the support of all trade unionists and the

TREAT ALL EQUALLY

An arbitration board, in a
majority decision, has ruled
shop stewards can’t be dealt
stiffer penalties than ordinary
union members just for being
stewards.

The decision involves 13
stewards given three-day
suspensions for an alleged
wildcat strike at Sunar In-

dustries Ltd. of Waterloo, Ont.
The company, said the board,
“must treat all participants
equally.”

The board reduced the
penalties to one-day suspen-
sions. Stewards still, as union
officials, can make their union
liable for monetary damages
by their actions.

WAGE SETTLEMENTS
DROP IN THIRD QUARTER

Collectively bargained wage
settlements showed a lower
rate of increase in the third
quarter of this year than in the
corresponding period of 1970.

Average wage settlements
for the third quarter of 1971 in
compound terms was 8.1 per-
cent. The comparable figure
for 1970 was 8.8 percent, ac-

cording to the federal labor
department.

The figures are based on a
continuing analysis of
collective agreements cover-
ing 500 or more workers.

Of the 73 agreements
reached in the third quarter of
1971, 25 were three-year pacts,
43 for two years and five were
one-year agreements.