VOL. XLI, No. § siern canadi lumber worker: VANCOUVER, B.C. <>" MAY, 1973 REGIONAL PRESIDENT Jack Moore (left) and newly ‘phe elected Local President Ben Thompson. LOCAL 1-71 ELECTS BEN THOMPSON PRESIDENT Ben Thompson, the long- time Ist Vice-President of Lo- cal 1-71 IWA, was elected Local President by acclamation at 1- 71’s Annual Delegated Meeting » May 19, in Vancouver. ’ The former President Ernie . reer declined nomination. It is expected that he wili take over as skipper of the Local’s boat ‘‘Green Gold”’ used to ser- vice the far-flung camps on the coast. Other officers elected by ac- clamation were: Walter Kozij, Ist Vice-President; Bob Pick- ering, 2nd Vice-President; Bill Wilson, Financial Secretary; Ed Gill, Conductor; George ~ Kofoed, Warden; Dan Otto, Six-Year Trustee. A referendum ballot will be conducted for the position of 3rd Vice-President which is being contested by Waldemar Penner and Ed Pearson. Approximately 100 delegates attended the meeting which re- quired two days to complete , the vast amount of business on ~ the agenda. B.C. PERMIT No. 2075 VANCOUVER, B.C. Vancouver, THE LUMBER WORKER 2859 Commercial Dr., RETURN REQUESTED The delegates dealt with 119 resolutions, five By-Law changes, Officers’ Report, Fin- ancial. Report, Trustees Re- port, Loggers’ Holding Society, heard from four guest spea- kers and held elections for offi- cers and delegates to the Re- gional and International con- ventions. The following are the names of the delegates elected to the conventions: REGIONAL CONVENTION Rod Robinson - Nass; Art Jones - Holberg; Howard Bush - Nass; Gerrit Dake - Empire Lumber-Squamish; Waldemar Penner - Terrace; Terry Thompson - Nekite; Walter Kozij - Vancouver; Ed Gill - M.&M. Log Sorting; R.B. Pick- ering - Vancouver; Bill Good- win - Vancouver; Al Pellegrin - Woss; Duane Petersen - Bella Coola; Bill Meers - Mahatta River; Bill Christy - Wedeene River; Ed Pearson - CFP- “N’”’; Don McKilligan - Nass; See “LOCAL 1-71” Page 5 ' AT SOMASS MILL IWA RANK AND FILE MEMBERS BLOCK PPWC RAIDING ATTEMPT By BILL HAWKES Local 1-85 Member By a decisive vote on May 16 the employees of MacMillan Bloedel’s large Somass saw- mill at Port Alberni showed that they wished to remain within the I.W.A. and rejected EMPLOYERS VETO RESOLUTIONS IWA Regional President Jack Moore, who recently at- tended the ILO’s 2nd Tripartite Technical Meeting for the Tim- ber Industry in Geneva, re- ports that only the. Canadian and American employer repre- sentatives abstained from vot- ing on the significant social re- Solutions approved at the con- ference. Purpose of the meeting was to discuss the conditions of work and life in the worid tim- ber industry and seek means to improve the lot of the workers. The conference was compri- sed of world representatives from both employer and em- ployee groups. Moore repre- sented western Canadian woodworkers and John Bill- ings, President of Forest In- dustrial Relations Ltd., repre- sented western Canadian em- ployers. During the two-week meet- ing a number of wide social measures of importance to woodworkers were adopted. Chief among these suggested that: @ Remuneration systems should take into account the seasonal nature of forestry work and that urgent consider- ation be given to provide guar- See “ILO MEET” Page 5 WOODLANDS VOTE BACKS NEGOTIATING . COMMITTEE Four hundred members of Local 1-184 IWA Saskatchewan employed at the Woodlands Enterprises Ltd., Prince Albert, have voted by over 80 percent to back their Negoti- ating Committee’s attempts to win a first IWA agreement in the operation. The members have been working up to now under a con- tract negotiated by the La- bours’ International Union which the IWA was forced to inherit when they won certifi- cation from the I.L.U. in 1972. The Union’s Negotiating _ that an officer will be ap Committee headed by Region- al 3rd Vice-President Stan Parker and assisted by- Local President Alex Smith and Fin- ‘ancial Secretary Ted Becker plus representatives from all the operations, has been meeting with the Company for the past two months without success. The Union has now applied for the services of a concilia- tion officer and it is expected point- ed immediately and talks will be held before the end of the month. the raiding Pulp and Paper Workers of Canada. The result of the vote was: I.W.A. — 670, P.P.W.C. — 300, not voting — 69, spoiled — 8, for a total of 1047 eligible voters. Over 93 percent of the eligible voters cast a ballot and less than 29 percent voted for the flag- waving group that was at- ‘tempting to break up the bargaining unit. The week before in the Dun- can area the same raiding union managed, by a narrow margin, to gain certification of Ladysmith Forest Products, Mayo, and C.I.P.A., three saw- mills that represent a total of approximately 400 members. The I.W.A. is not satisfied that the vote at the three mills was conducted completely correctly, or that the eligible voters’ lists were complete, and has protested to the Labour Relations Board. How- ever whatever the outcome of our appeal we should ask our- selves why the P.P.W.C. gained support in these three small mills and were so soundly rejected at Somass. The employees at Somass had a few more days to study the issues and that may have had some bearing on the out- come of the vote but probably the biggest single factor that affected the Somass vote was the leadership of Regional 1st Vice-President Jack Munro and Local President Earl Foxcroft plus the work done by well-informed, rank and file I.W.A. members, both within and outside the plant. The P.P.W.C. has nothing to offer I.W.A. members, either in control by the members, local union autonomy, or nego- tiated contracts. Their union structure is poor and their negotiating record atrocious. They campaigned solely on the completely false statement that because I.W.A. Region No. 1 co-operates with other wood- workers on the North Ameri- can continent we are somehow controlled by others and then engaged in phony emotional flag-waving. They are in fact nothing but opportunists who in. IWA PENSION DATA WILL BE IN NEXT ISSUE The next issue of the Lumber Worker will contain the official Plan Summary of the I.W.A. — Forest Industry Pension Plan. That issue will also publish a guide to help members who belong to presently existing com- pany pension plans in deciding whether or not to take their contributions out of these plans when they are “frozen,” or to leave their contributions prey upon the pride Canadians have in our country. Because the raiders have nothing to offer there is, at times, a tendency for the well- informed I.W.A. member (both officers and rank and file members) to underestimate the appeal that flag-waving alone can have. We tend to for-. get that a number of unsavoury characters, including Hitler and Mussolini, have gained power with nothing more than a combination of lies and an appeal to nationalism. In the three small mills that the P.P.W.C. gained it is obvi- ous that the I.W.A. didn’t do enough to see that all the mem- bers there thoroughly under- stood the issues and were well enough informed on the struc- ture of both the I.W.A. and the P.P.W.C. In contrast, at Somass, by the time the vote was taken the majority of the members did understand what was involved. While leaflets, newspaper ads and lunchroom meetings played a part, and Regional and Local Union officers put in long hours, most of the credit for the result of the Somass vote must go to the dedicated I.W.A. rank and file members. They were determined that the Somass crew was not going to be misled into playing into the employer’s hands by breaking up the bargaining unit and they put in many hours, both on and off the job, talking to their fellow: workers. I.W.A. members from the other mills and logging camps within the Alberni valley also played an important part. They contacted the Somass members they knew, discussed the issues with them, and showed how important they felt it was that the bargaining unit remain intact. On the day of the vote‘a number of I.W.A. members representing all the mills and logging camps within the Alberni Valley voluntarily gave up a day’s pay to man an “ information picket line at the mill. They wore signs to identify which operation they See “IWA MEMBER” Page 2