Local 1-357 IWA conducted an educational seminar for its membership in the
Board Room of the Local Union office on March 23. Oliver McMillan, Assistant
Director of Research and Education from Portland, led the discussions, which
“The Inheritance”

centered around the films

and

“The Grievance”

while

Wyman Trineer, President of Local 1-357, gave a detailed analysis of the

government-proposed anti-labour Bill 33 and Evert Flannery, Local Union Edu-

cation Director, announced that a series o > emi
Upon completion of the session, the students expressed their appreciation for

the quality of the discussions. Lunch was provided by the Local Union.

€ seminars are being contemplated.

IN “SHAKEDOWN” CASE

1-118 WINS REINSTATEMENT
OF FIRED EAST INDIAN MEMBER

Officers of Local 1-118 IWA
Victoria, have been success-
ful in having reinstated, one
of two East Indian members
dismissed from the job for
making accusations that other
members of their race were
forced to make financial con-
tributions to company person-
nel to retain their jobs.

e The Local Union took the .

men’s case to arbitration and
in a majority decision won
full reinstatement to the job
with lost-time pay for one of
them.

TOUR TICKET

The two men while em-
ployed at the Sooke Forest
Products Ltd. in Victoria, ac-
cused company personnel of
forcing East Indian members
of the mill to contribute to
the purchase of a $1400 world
tour ticket, a new engine for
a motor boat and taking a

_ $120 cheque and forging the
signature.

Following the accusations,
the Local Union officers
brought the matter to top of-
ficials of the company who
declined to take action. The
officers then laid a complaint
with the RCMP who conduct-
ed an investigation.

While no charges were laid
by the RCMP, it is known
that they came to the conclu-
sion that the $120 cheque had
been forged.

MEN FIRED

Shortly after the police
closed their investigation the
two men were fired on the
grounds of “making improper
and unfounded allegations
about company personnel.”

Dr. I. D. Pal, Associate
Professor of Economics, who
was the Unions member on
the Board in his minority re-
port favouring reinstatement
of both men stated in part:

“Tt is important to note that
the grounds offered for the
discharge of the two grievors

are the so-called “improper
and unfounded allegations
about the company person-
nel,” but the entire weight
and emphasis of Mr. Lan-
skail’s argument, the counsel
‘for the company, was on the
harm the publicity about the
statements had done to “the
reputation of the company.
Two important persons whose
names would seem to provide

the crucial link in the case,
Jack Smith and Amarjit
Singh Bal, were not called in
by the company to testify.
But Mr. Kuldip Singh Bains,
the manager of a local travel
agency was called, who start-
ed his testimony by saying
that he gave the free air
ticket for round-the-world
trip to Mr. L. Grunow, and
then under cross-examination
from Alex MacDonald, later
admitted that the air ticket
had been fully paid for. This
leaves “the source” of pay-
ment for the air ticket unex-
plained, especially when Mr.
Bill Grunow admits in his
testimony that there was
nothing unusual about the
free air ticket in question, as
he himself had received free
(air) tickets many times be-
fore, though he denied any
knowledge of who had paid
for these tickets. There is an-
other significant point in Gru-
now’s testimony. He admits
that D. S. Gill and other em-
ployees of the company used
to come to his house for a
social evening from time to
time. Testimony by Mr. H.
A. Smith, the president of the
company, added nothing to
explain the matter. In answer
to my question, he admitted
however, that the discharge
of the two grievors had not
cleared his personnel of the
allegations mentioned above
and that he had instructed
the company staff not to ac-

cept any free gifts from the

employees in the future.

COMPANY POLICY

“The company policy for
recruitment of mill workers
as confirmed by Mr. Ander-
son in his testimony raises
more questions than it an-
swers. It is not an accepted
practice of employers to dele-
gate full authority to some
workers to hire other work-
ers. It is clear to me from
Anderson’s testimony that
there was nothing to prevent
A. S. Bal from creating an
impression among his fellow
workers that his continued
good will.was necessary for
them to keep their jobs.

“In the background of this
atmosphere prevailing in this
company, I can see why the
grievors would turn to their

union about the pressure of
making contributions for
gifts, etc. for the company
personnel, and not to the
management.
after they have taken this
step requires a thorough in-
vestigation. One may be
tempted to conclude, how-
ever, that since the two griev-
ors gave written statements
about extortion charges to
their union, therefore, they
contributed to the publicity
given to this: matter which,
according to the company
counsel, hurt the name of
the company. And this is in-
deed the line of argument
used by the counsel for the
company throughout the hear-
ings of the Arbitration Board,
as mentioned above.

PRESS MEDIUM

“In their testimony, the two
grievors did not give an im-
pression as if they would
have sufficient political so-
phistication to want to put
pressure on the company
through the medium of the
press.. My colleagues on the
Board are of the view that
perhaps Banta Singh Sihota
became the villain of circum-
stances in this case, but that
D. S. Gill continued to co-
operate with union officials in
their alleged harassment of
the company management.

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L
a
ec
i
S
T
o
N
E

What follows *

1-424 ANNUAL MEETING

The Annual Meeting of Local 1-424 will be held April
27-28, in the Simon Fraser Inn, Prince George.

Approximatély 200 delegates representing all the oper-
ations in the Local Union will be in attendance to deal
with the resolutions submitted for consideration.

“T beg to differ with both

“my colleagues on this matter.

Gill’s picture in the IWA
paper, along with the story
of the statements is the only
proof that has been offered in
support of this contention.
First, there is no evidence to
show that the picture was
taken for the purpose of this
story by that IWA news-
paper.

VARIOUS STEPS

“Secondly, I am not pre-
pared to offer any opinion re-
garding the various steps
taken by the union in this
matter until I have full in-
formation on certain aspects
of the case which are outside
the terms of reference of the
Arbitration Board, but which
seem to impinge on the case
under consideration. It will
be a sad day for the indus-
trial relations in this province
when we come to the conclu-

sion that any expression of
grievance by an employee to
his union is a proper cause
for dismissal.

BE REINSTATED

In any case, the reasons
given by the company to dis-
charge the two grievors seem
to have been totally disre-
garded by the company coun-
sel in favour of the reasons
of harm done to the company
by the so-called publicity of
the statements of the two
grievors. It is clear, therefore,
that the two grievors should
be reinstated without delay.
The company has neither de-
nied the original allegations,
as no effort was made at the
hearings to challenge the
“statements” concerned, nor
has it been able to prove that
the two grievors were the
cause of publicity on this mat-
ter.”

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