APRIL-MAY, 1977 SAFETY CONFERENCE The IWA Spring Regional Safety and Health Conference will be held in the Towne and Country Inn, April 1 and 2, in the City of Cranbrook, 600 Cranbrook Street. Registration will commence at 8:30 a.m. on April Ist. The Conference commences at 9 a.m. each day, ending at 5 p.m. on April 2nd. Because I have ten thousand pounds I sit upon my stern, And leave my living tranquilly for other folks to earn. For in some procreative way that isn’t very clear, Ten thousand pounds will breed, they say, five hundred every ear. divas Ihave a healthy hate of economic strife, I mean to stand aloof from it the balance of my life. And yet with sympathy I see the grimy son of toil, And heartily congratulate the tiller of the soil. | I like the miner in the mine, the sailor on the sea, Because up to five hundred pounds they sail and mine for me. For me their toil is taxed unto that annual extent, According to the holy shibboleth of Five-per-Cent. € So get ten thousand pounds, my friend, in any way you can, And leave your future welfare to the noble Working Man. He’ll buy your suits of Harris tweed, an Airedale and a car; Your golf clubs and your morning Times, your whisky and cigar. He’ll cosily install you in a cottage by a stream, With every modern comfort, and a garden that’s a dream. Or if your tastes be urban, he’ll provide you with a flat, Secluded from the clamour of the proletariat. With pictures, music, easy chairs, a table of good cheer, A chap can manage nicely on five hundred pounds a year. And though around you painful signs of industry you view, Why should you work when you can make your money work for you? — j So I’ll get down upon my knees and bless the Working Man, Who offers me a life of ease through all my mortal span; Whose loins are lean to make me fat, who slaves to keep me free, Who dies before his prime to let me round the century; Whose wife and children toil in turn until their strength is spent, That I may live in idleness upon my Five-per-Cent. And if at times they curse me, why should I feel any blame? For in my place I know that they would do the very same. Aye, though they hoise a flag that’s red on Sunday afternoon, Just offer them ten thousand pounds and see them change their tune. So I’ll enjoy my dividends and live my life with zest, And bless the mighty men who first — invented Interest. Robert W. Service WHISTLE-CLEAN “Instead of drafting laws which presume guilt on the part of B.C. working people, the Minister of Labour should have been praising them for passing the closest legal scrutiny with flying colours. The loggers and the miners and the rail- way workers, et cetera, of this province have whistle-clean unions, probably because they will not tolerate anything less. That same spirit ensures the futility of bad, policitally- motivated laws.” Bill King, New Democratic M.L.A. FOR Revelstoke — Slocan speaking in the legislature on Government amendments to the Labour Code ~ person. THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER WAALEN With th’ kind of money they save by usin’ push buttons in place of labour you’d think they would come up with push button executives an’ save some real dough! Editor’s note: The following two letters are strongly critical of the jokes published in the Lumber Worker which the writers believe to be demeaning to women. We don’t share their view and for this reason are requesting other readers to write in. telling us what they think of the jokes. If enough readers find them objection- able we will discontinue pub- lishing them. The Editor: : I am appalled with the jokes concerning women appearing constantly in the Lumber Worker. The Lighter Side was very heavy. It seems you agree with men beating, cheating on and ridiculing women. I do not find this funny.. At a past Regional Convention there was a resolution voted on for the Women’s Cause for equality and rights of the women in the working field and the home. All IWA members voted unanim- ously for the resolution. But by printing this trash you are defeating the intent and pur- pose of that resolution. How can I take this garbage home to my family? I want my children to believe in my work and union; but also in me as a To achieve this equality we have to start in the home. For our children to accept without doubt it must come naturally. I am proud to be a women and proud to be an IWA member, do not make me ashamed of the latter. If you must continue to print jokes in poor taste then please give equal time to both sexes — Mrs. Sharon Feuz 1-405 The Editor: In support of Sister Feuz’s letter, I must state that I also am appalled at the lack of taste in the jokes and cartoons found in our otherwise excellent paper the “Lumber Worker’’. Not only are the Sisters, but most Brothers at KFP Plywood Plant shocked at the lack of taste in the jokes. We urge you to change the jokes or give the Sisters equal time for their jokes. We in the IWA must be in the forefront of the fight for rights of all segments of society who are being discriminated against, that includes, women, children and native peoples. | We belong to perhaps the most progressive union in the world, but these jokes found in the Lumber Worker are anything but progressive. We are proud of our union but this is a serious breach of confi- dence in the union and we hope to see changes in the joke content by the next issue. Brother Bruce Bystrom 1-405 POWERFUL CASE FOR PENSION INDEXING Not only is the case for pension indexing powerful, but it is also relatively easy to inflation-proof pension plans: Those are the conclusions two economists have reached, one in a study of pension plans and the other in a _ syndicated column. James Pesando, a Univer- sity of Toronto economist, has published_a paper through the Canadian Economic Policy Committee. and C.D. Howe Research Institute, which suggests the answer may lie in pension investments giving a return which rises and falls with rate of inflation. Short term investments may be the answer, according to Pesando. But this report also suggests another option: in- dexed bonds. Pesando suggests bonds could pay two kinds of interest: a relatively low basic rate, and a floating rate geared to in- flation. Don McGillivray, a column- ist for Southam news service, suggests pension plans can be fully inflation-proof ‘‘if the private sector uses a little imagination in designing the Soe and investing the pension un ae ‘Why should pensioners be protected while the rest of us have to fight and bargain and work to keep our incomes from’ being reduced by inflation?” McGillivray asks. “Precisely because pensioners no longer have the chance to work or the clout to bargain.” McGillivray suggests argu- ments by private industry to the effect that indexed pen- sions are only affordable by governments, because of their taxation powers, are “questionable” at best. “Private industry can treat the situation as a challenge to show the same kind .of ingenuity which produced private pension plans in the first place,” he writes. “Or it can stand by, wringing its hands, until the government moves in.” CLC vice-president Julien Major, meanwhile, has suggested workers should control more of their own pension funds. Major told a recent confer- ence on retirement and pre- retirement training that ‘‘we have defaulted badly by allowing control over (pen- sion) funds to pass to others.