Page Four

THE B.C.

LUMBER WORKER

August 9, 1943

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...

SAY WHAT YOU PLEASE

HOW ABOUT COOKHOUSE CREW?

Editor, The Lumber Worker:

The cutting from The Lumber Worker that you sent to Brother Cooner, he has passed on to me and though I can see plainly that you and others are doing your best for the cookhouse worker, it also is plain to be seen that the boss is again giving the cookhouse the old run-around.

It seems to me that it is about time that the Supers_in the camps did a little thinking. Surely hey can see that it is hard to get cook- house help and when they do get them, they can’t keep them. I mean good ones.

He will say, “My God, ten years ago I could get all of the good flunkeys that I wanted for $30 per month.”

Yes, that is right, and the flunkey was better off than he is today, and that was during the depres- sion.

And now let us see just how much better off he is.

He pays the flunkey $5 per day but remember this is only in some camps, not all of them.

‘The flunkey’s tax in most cases is 40% or $2 per day. This leaves him $3. From this amount he pays $1.50 per day for his board and bed which leaves him $1.50. He works four hours overtime every day including Sundays and all holidays.

Now, let us figure just straight time for overtime. Four hours over- time would be $2.50. I mean that this is the amount that the com- pany would have to pay annyone outside of the cookhouse,

But the flunkey does not get this overtime.

And now let us figure it in an- other way.

He does not get the $2.50 for the overtime, but he works the time just the same.

It is impossible to take the $2.50 from the $1.50 that he has left, so he is really paying the company $1.00 per day for permitting him to work for them, and on top of this he must pay $1.00 per month for the doctor, insurance, and Workmen's Compensation.

Now which term would you use, pretty good or pretty rotten.

And is the boss doing as good as he did ten years ago?

Til say that he is, and he damn well knows it, and still he wonders why he can’t keep help in the cookhouse,

‘The above figures of course ap- plies and includes all cookhouse help, cooks, bakers, butchers’ help- ers and flunkeys.

Of course, the boss don’t figure this way, but it is damn near time that he did, if he wants to keep help in the cookhouse.

‘Trusting that this article will be published in The Lumber Worker,

Fraternally,

GEORGE C. McLAUGHLIN. Port Hardy, B.C.

Editor, The Lumber Worker:

I note that the Board of Indus- trial Relations are considering overtime for many departments in the lumber business, but, as usual, the cookhouse and those employed in it are again laid away like the unknown soldier.

The powers that be in Ottawa always forget the ones that it is impossible to get along wihout, and the ones that put in the long- est hours of all workmen. I refer to the cooks, bakers, helpers and flunkeys.

At present Bro, Wolf, Bro. Mc- Laughlin and myself are employed by the Maxwell Construction Co. here at Port Hardy. I have charge of a cookhouse feeding over five hundred men. Work starts at 4 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., which is 9% hours. Then we have two hours off, start- ing work again at 3:30 p.m. as supper is served at 6 p.m. and we finish between 7 and 7:30. So you can see that we are putting in well over 13 hours work per day. And remember this goes on for seven days per week. And Sundays is always the toughest day of the week because the men expect a better dinner on Sunday. Breakfast is always an hour later on Sun- day because the men think that they they should sleep in on a day that they are not working. But this makes a big different to the Cookhouse Crew for it takes just as long to cook dinner on Sunday as it does on week days. So we must start our work at 4 a.m., as on any other day. The cookhouse crew has the repertation of being tempfirementle, but just think, have they a reason for being tem- prementle?

Ye gods and little fishes! Thir- teen hours per day, ninety-one hours per week, 365 per year, go- ing at breakneck speed over a red- hot stove. Having to listen to every- body’s pretty complaints from the bellyache to the shortage of ra- tions and none one cent of com- pensation for working almost double the hours of any one else in camp.

The cookhouse crews in all log- ging and construction camps are either paid by the day or month, and should a cook or flunkey for some reason or another have to work two or three hours over- time, beyond the 13 hours, he has already worked, the head cook has no way of paying him for it. The only way we can handle a case of this kind is to give these men two or three hours off the next day, and this, of course, throws this extra work on some other cook or flunkey who when asked to double up the work for one meal, tells the head cook to go to hell, and walks out. Then we must all work short-handed until these men are replaced. And by that time the re- mainder of the crew is ready to blow up, because they have been overworked and they know that they will receive no extra pay for this extra work,

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This does not only cause hard- ships on the cookhouse crew, but it affects the men as well for it is not reasonable to expect a short- handed cookhouse crew can do as good or as much work as a happy full handed crew and this results in dissatisfaction all over the camp for when men are not being fed well, they can find fault with every- thing. But they don’t mean to. It is just human nature, and in all cases it causes many changes. Log- gers quit because the food is not up to what it has been in the past. Cooks, bakers and flunkeys quit, because they are being blamed for something that they have no praw- er to put right. And the result is that it is a month or six weeks before things are back to normal again and by that time everything is just about ready for another blow-up.

The remedy for all of this trou- ble is overtime for the cookhouse crews, and a day off each week. We are just human and there is a limit to Human Indurance.

Come on you big loggers, give your cookhouse crews a break and you will not have so many breaks in your logging crews.

You can’t expect to work us dou- ble time, seven days per week for a single day’s pay, and as long as you do expect it, you are in for plenty of grief.

GEO. W. COONER.

Port Hardy.

SUPPORT AWARD

Editor, The Lumber. Worker:

The following resolution was passed by our local at a recent general meeting and I have been instructed to forward same to you:

“WHEREAS: It has been brought to our attention that the Kelly Logging Co., Ltd., Pacific Mills and Morgan Logging Co., refuse to deal with the IWA up to this time with respect to the award of the Ar- bitration Boaid which was in favor of the employees, and

WHEREAS: the Puly and Paper Industry and the Logging Industry are so closely related,

THEREFORE, we, the members of Local 297, IBPS & PMW appeal to the Minister of Labor to cor- rect this condition by bringing about an immediate settlement, because. by so doing we will be ensured of a continued supply of an essential war commodity.”

Yours truly,

(Signed) DAVID G. HUNTLEY.

Secretary, Local 297 and BPS

and PMW.

OFFER APOLOGY

Editor, The Lumber Worker:

At a meeting of the Shop Stew- ards held on July 23 a motion was passed as follows: “M.S. & C..that we take necessary action of apol- ogy to Camp 6 through the medium of the Lumber Worker by means of a letter written by the Secre- tary.” The following is what we have drafted out for your consid-

UNION DIRECTORY

IWA-CIO, District Council No. 1. Sec'y, Bert Melsness, 504 Holden Bldg., Vancouver; phone PAc. 4151. Executive meets at 10 am. every second Wednesday at the District Office.

IWA-CIO Local 1-71. Secretary, E. Dalskog, 201 Holden Bldg., Van- couver; phone MAr. 9436.

IWA-CIO Local 1-80. Secretary, H. Valley, P.O. Box 430, Duncans Phone: Duncan 388.

IWA-CIO_ Local 1-85. Business agent, Al Dewhurst, Box 569, Port Alberni. Phone: Alberni 1052. Meets the 2nd Sunday of each month in Victory Hall, Port Al- berni, at 7:30 p.m.

IWA-CIO Local 1-217. Secretary, Bill Bennett, 506 Holden Bdg., Van- couver. Phone PAc. 4151. Meets every 2nd Friday at local head- quarters, 506 Holden Bldg.

IWA-CIO Local 1-357. Secretary, Jack Lindsay, Room A, 650 Colum- bia St, New Westminster, B.C. Phone: N.W. 3137.

IWA-CIO Local 1-363. Secretary, Ernie Anderson, Royston. Phone: Royston 269X3. Meets the last Sunday of each month in IWA Union Hall, Courtenay, at 2:30 p.m.

Aero Cumshewa IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-71. Secretary, W. Mackie, Cumshewa Inlet, Q.C.I.

IWA-C1O Sub-Local 1-71. Secre- tary, Arvid Sovik, c/o J. R. Morgan Loging Co., Camp No. 2, Cumshewa Inlet, Q.C.1.

IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secre- tary, Jack Jardine, c/o Aero Tim- ber Products (Raft) Ltd. ,Port clements, Q.C.I.

IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secre- tary, Robert Dale, c/o Aero Tim- ber (Vasey) Ltd., Port Clements, QC.

IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secre- tary, T. A. Hurst, c/o North Shore Log Co., Garibaldi, B.C.

Aero (Headquarters Camp) IWA- CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Sec'y, M. Mc- Queen, c/o Aero Timber Products, Juskatla.

Camp A-35, IWA-CIO, Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, Mike Freylinger, c/o Pacific Mills, Camp A-35, Queen Charlotte City, Q.C.1L.

Bella Coola IWA-CIO Sub-Local

1-71, Secretary, Tom Willett, c/o Pacific Mills, Camp C-42, Bella Coola, B.C.

Chehalis IWA-C1O Sub-Local 1-71. Ralph Gregg, Secretary; Vedder Logging Co., Harrison Mills, B.C.

Chilliwack IWA-C1O Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, Floyd Cusack, Chilliwack.

Church Creek IWA-CIO_ Sub- Local 1-71. Secretary, D. F. Brady, c/o Kelley Logging Co. Church Creek, Cumshewa Inlet, Q.C.L.

Huxley IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, Ed Reed, c/o J. R. Mor- gan Log Co., Huxley Island, Q.C.L.

Huxley (Fallers) IWA-ClO Sub- Local 1-71. Sec’y, Leonard Plottel, c/o J. R. Morgan, Huxley Is., QCL

Johnsons IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Sec'y, Sandy Turner, c/o Aero Timber Products, Shannon Bay.

eration for insertion in the forth- coming issue of the Lumber Worker:

It was brought to our attention at a recent meeting that at a baseball game held at Youbou re- cently between Camp 6 and You- bou Sub-Locals that one of the members of the Camp 6 team had a finger broken. The Youbou first aid attendant who was present at the game was asked to render first aid to the man, but he is reported to have refused both aid and the keys to the first aid room. We de- plore the actions of this man for his discourtesy to a visiting team member and wish to take this op- porunity of apologizing to the Camp 6 brothers for his actions.

(Signed)

Youbou Sub-Local of Local 1-80.

International Woodworkers of

America, CIO.

Kelley Boom IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, Frank Preston, c/o Kelley Log Co., Beatty Anchorage, QCI.

Morgan Cumshewa IWA - CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, H. Lout- tit, c/o J. R, Morgan Log Co., Cumshewa Inlet, Q.C.I.

Skedans IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, James Byron, c/o Qelley Log Co., Skedans Bay, Q.C.I.

Sunrise I!WA-CIO Sub-Local 1-71. Secretary, J. D. Nelson, Char- lotte City, Q.C.I.

Chemainus IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-80. Secretary, H. Erickson. Meets 2nd Wednesday of every month in Chemainus Community Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Crofton IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-80. Secretary, E. Frederickson, Crofton.

Duncan IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-80, Secretary, George Maynard, P.O. Box 472, Duncan. Meets on 2nd © Wednesday of every month in the K. of P. Hall, Duncan, at 7:30 p.m.

Hillcrest IWA-C1O Sub-Local 1-80. Secretary, Roy Francis, Duncan.

Honeymoon Bay IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-80. Secretary, James Mc- Millan, Honeymoon Bay, Lake Cow- ichan.

Ladysmith IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-80. Secretary, James Gilchrist, Box 210, Ladysmith. Meets the 1st Tuesday after the 10th of each month in Nicholson’s Hall, Lady- smith, at 7:30 p.m.

Lake Cowichan IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-80. Secretary, Archie Green- well, Box 51, Lake Cowichan. Phone c/o Gordon’s Store. Meets 2nd Fri- day of each month at 7:30 p.m. at Lake Cowichan Community Hall.

Paldi IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-80. Secretary, Albert Kidd, Paldi, B.C.

Rounds IWA-CIO Sub-Local_ 1-80. Secretary, J. Johnson, ¢/o Lake Logging Co., Rounds. Meets 2nd Thursday of each month in the cookhouse at 7:30 p.m.

Shawnigan Lake IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-80. Sec'y, George Hauk, Duncan, B.C.

Youbou Camp 3 IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-80. Secretary, James Clarke, c/o Industrial Timber Mills Camp 3, Youbou.

Youbou Camp 6 IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-80. Secretary, Joe Malbou, c/o Industrial Timber Mills, Camp 6, Youbou. _ Youbou Sawmill IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-80. Secretary, Wilf Killeen, Youbou.

APL Camp One IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-85. Secretary, Mark Mosh- er, Port Alberni.

APL Sawmill IWA-CIO_ Sub- Local 1-85. Secretary, Paul Nichol, Box 935, Port Alberni.

Alberni Plywoods IWA-ClO Sub- Local 1-85. Secretary, Mrs. Stevie Kielbiski, Box 67, Port Alberni.

Bloedel’s Sawmill IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-85. Secretary, Dennis John- ston, Box 746, Port Alberni.

Great Central Sawmill |WA-CIO

Sub-Local 1-85. Secretary, Frank LeClaire, Port Alberni. Vancouver Sawmill IWA-CIO

Sub-Local 1-217. Secretary, Lloyd Hunter, 2754 William Street, Van- couver.

Shingleworkers IWA-CIO Sub- Local 1-217, Sec’y, Ben Orr, 605 East 54th Ave., Vancouver.

Silverdale IWA-CIO Sub-Local

1-217. Secretary, W. H. Gibbens, R.R. No. 2, Mission, B.C.

Alaska Pine IWA-CiO Sub-Local 1-357. Secretary, George Lang- staff, 1833 Dublin Street, New West- minster, B.C.

Creosote IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1- 357. Secretary, Pete Seminow, RR. No. 3, New Westminster, B.C.

Mohawk IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1- 357. Secretary, Tommy Kipp, 669 18th Ave, New Westminster, B.C.

Royal City IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-357. Secretary, Art Rrmsay, South Westminster Post Office, B.C,

Fanny Bay IWA-CIO Sub-Local 1-363. Sec'y, Fred Olkavich, ¢/o V.LM, Camp 7, Fanny Bay, B.C.

“Stamp Out the U-Boat” . . .

Buy War Savings Stamps! ————————————

JOHN STANTON

Barrister, Solicitor, Notary

508 Holden Bldg. 16 East Hastings MAr. 5746