The officers and ataff ot the Renional Council

wish all SWA members and their families

ee

al ‘athe sa os ee oo a Happy Ne rat Lise

Vol. XLVII No. 8

VANCOUVER, B.C.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1979

FOUR MEMBERS of Local 3-38 IWA, Shelton, Washington, are shown picketing one of the eleven gates at the large Simpson Complex. The strike lasted almost two months and ended in victory for the Union.

FOR SIMPSON WORKERS:

STRIKE ENDS IN VICTORY

Fourteen hundred members of Local 3-38 IWA employed by the Simpson Timber Company of Shelton, Washington, started returning to work December 3rd, following a two-month

strike over a contract dispute and allegations of sexual harassment.

The employees struck the operation last Ocotber 8th, to protest the firing of a young women whose dismissal was a clear violation of the collective agreement.

The Local officers also charged that her dismissal was a vindictive action by the Company because she had pre- viously pressed charges of sexual harassment against one of the management officials.

Local President Jim Lowery reported that Miss Toni Gilbertson applied for work at the Company’s plywood plant last May. During the job inter- view she was subjected to a number of embarrassing ques- tions on the size of her breasts. Following this ordeal she was informed that she wouldn’t be hired as the size of her breasts could be a safety hazard on the job.

She immediately laid charges of sexual harassment with the Washington State Human Rights Commission. When Company officials

learned of the charges they offered her a job as a labourer cleaning up in the plywood plant.

After five days working as a labourer and doing a good job according to her supervisor, a job became vacant for a dry belt offbearer. Miss Gilbertson applied for the position and was accepted.

However, after approxi- mately twenty-five days on the job she was suddenly dis- missed for what the Company claimed was poor work.

The Local immediately charged the Company with violating the collective agree- ment. The agreement that the Local has with the Company contains no _ probationary clause. The only stipulation is that employees with less than forty working days cannot bid on job postings.

While it can be argued that Miss Gilbertson didn’t have the right to bid on the job, the Company knew this and broke its own set of working condi- tions by giving her the posting.

The Local Union took the

See “VICTORY” page 2

TAWA MEET:

IWA DEMANDS CUTS IN INTEREST RATES

Ruinous interest rates have caused B.C. forest industry companies to lay-off or an- nounce plans to lay-off about 1500 woodworkers. Projections are that unless governments bestir themselves, this could reach 10,000 before the winter is over.

In response to a telegram from Local 1-217, President Syd Thompson protesting these interest rates and_ the economic ruin they leave in their wake, Prime Minister Clark invited I.W.A_ repre- sentatives to meet with him to discuss their problems.

Jack Munro lead the dele- gation that included Regional 1st Vice President, Bob Blan- chard, 1-217 President Syd Thompson and 1-357 President, Gerry Stoney.

“We got a written brief together in record time and flew down there only to dis- cover that Clark couldn’t make the meeting — he was arguing with Alberta Premier Lougheed over which one of them would get to double our oil and gas prices”’ said Munro.

“The Liberals were even worse. It took nine telephone calls over a period of 34 hours to find out that their leader didn’t have time to meet with us.”

“Ed Broadbent of the NDP was the only National Leader

who agreed to meet with us. He brought Finance Critic, Bob Ray and B.C. MP’s Ray Skelly, Ted Miller, Svend Robinson, Jim Fulton and Ian Waddell. That was a good meeting.”

‘‘On the convenience side, we met with Industry, Trade & Commerce Minister Alexander and Environment Minister John Fraser.

“Our brief called for an acceleration of mortgage in- terest deductability pointing out that the benefits from the announced plans had already been more than cancelled by huge increases in interest charges for government sponsored mechanisms to win mortgage money for emergency home purchase assistance program and for a thorough study of the Canadian housing industry.”

‘We don’t pretend to have all the answers to these problems and we told them that we ex- pected more answers from them — they’re the Govern- ment, after all!”

“We made one thing clear though. We are sure as hell not going to accept that working people be the only ones to sacrifice to defend the Canadian dollar. We let them know that if that is what they have in mind, they can expect some hell-raising from the

I.W.A.,”’ Munro concluded.

MUNRO, FOXCROFT _

The accusation by Don Lans- kail, President of the Council of Forest Industries, that worker carelessness and neglect is the most common cause of acci- dents in the forest industry, has been bitterly criticized by IWA officers.

Regional President Jack Munro took issue with Lanskail when the two of them were guests on Jack Webster’s morning TV _ programme November 30. Munro sug- gested that Lanskail was defending the poor record of

LAMBASTE LANSKAIL

the Workers’ Compensation Board by his attack.

He stated that the IWA was not prepared to allow the WCB and industry to lay the blame for accidents on Union members when the WCB and industry were negating their responsibilities in accident prevention.

In answering Lanskail’s remarks that there was need for improved cooperation between labour, management and the WCB in the field of See “IWA OFFICERS” page 2