THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER 2 wa) MAN OF THE HOUR RETIRES Retiring business agent and former first vice-president Howard Webb was presented with a 25-in. colour television set by Local 1-424 Prince George on Sunday, Oct. 22, as a mark of appreciation for his long and diligent service to the Local. Taking part in the present- ation ceremony in addition to Local president Ross Inglis were Joe Morris, executive vice-president of the Cana- dian Labour Congress and for- mer president of IWA Region No. 1, and Jack MacKenzie, regional first vice-president. Webb was the man of the hour in the bitter strike of 1953. He became known for his leadership and morale- boosting qualities throughout that long strike which lasted 102 days. Much of the credit for the local’s victory in that fight belonged to Webb. While he found time to de- vote his energies to other ac- tivities, his main interests have always been with ‘the union. In 1948 he was elected recording secretary of the Giscome sub-local. On May 20, two years later, he won election to the post of finan- cial secretary of Local 1-424 and he held this position un- til 1963 when he became first vice - president and business agent. — He held the last dual post until this year when he did not seek re-election in view of his retirement. Webb was the first paid of- ficial of the local. Morris paid tribute to Webb’s zeal in carrying out his duties. He said that he had dedicated his life to serving the local and he had fulfilled his responsibilities with great success. The CLC officer took the opportunity of ramming home the message of organization to the members. He said the labor movement must keep JACK MacKENZIE Regional 1st vice-president paid felbite to Howard Webb on behalf of the Regional Council. at its job of influencing so- ciety, yet it was not doing the job it should be doing in or- ganizing unorganized workers so that they could receive the benefits of union membership. He said much of the prob- lem lies in British Columbia’s labour legislation. Neverthe- less, the labour movement must concentrate more of its energies on the organizing job that has yet to be done. According to figures given by Morris, there are 1.9 mil- lion organized workers in Canada and of these only 190,000 belong to the Quebec- based Confederation of Na- tional Trade Unions. Yet, he said, the CNTU is claiming greater representation on the Canada Labor Relations Board. (Federal Labour Minister Jack Nicholson, who is the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre, has announced plans to revise the.CLRB. The CNTU now has one repre- sentative on the board, al- though it has not taken part in board deliberations since November, 1966. The CLC has three representatives on the board and management has four. The chairman is appoint- ed by the government. The CLC has expressed fear that government revision of the board will mean that the CNTU will get equal rep- resentation on the board and it opposes this strenuously.) Morris said the CNTU ap- pears to have influence with the federal government be- cause Immigration Minister Jean Marchand was a former president of the CNTU. Morris debunked the argu- ment that the CNTU has great and growing irfluence. He said: “While the CNTU tries to make out that it has a lot of influence, there are 520,000 trade unionists in Quebec. The CNTU has 175,000 of them and the CLC has 330,- 000 of them.” _ MacKenzie brought the good wishes of the regional council to Webb in his retirement. He, too, paid tribute to the retiring official’s services to the local. Reporting on the voting on the Munroe Report and in the government supervised strike vote, president Inglis said there was an approximate 75 per cent rejection of the Mun- roe recommendations. How- ever, he said he was sorry to report that some operations did vote in favour of it. The government-supervised strike vote was held Septem- ber 22 and again the result was disappointing because the overall vote showed a major- ity of only eight in favour of a strike. Inglis said, however, that the five operations voting in favour of strike action were the largest companies involv- ed, four of them being North- wood Mills and the other be- ing B.C. Forest Products (A. FI). Because of confusion in Williams Lake where the em- ployers were handing out the Munroe report, a special bul- letin was put out, advising the membership in that area that no official acceptance of the report had been given the union’s negotiating committee by the employers. However, on October 11, after the negotiating commit- tee had failed to get the Northern Interior Lumber Association’s labour commit- tee to move off the Munroe report, Dick Mahoney, who represents the Northern em- ployers and the Williams Lake group, handed the un- ion a letter, advising that the employers had officially ac- cepted the report. Inglis reported that the Williams Lake membership overwhelmingly rejected the report in an overall vote. But again the result of the strike vote was disappointing. Three operations voted not to strike MR. LOCAL 1-424 HOWARD WEBB voices his thanks to the Prince George members for the colour TV presented to him by the Local Union on his retirement. and Merrill and Wagner Ve- neer, Sawmill and Planer vot- ed strongly in favour of strike action. Inglis then reported on settlements at Tubafour in Quesnel and Weldwood at Lac La Hache. (See story on page 10). In his report on the inter- national union convention in Portland, Ore., in September, Doug Edwards said the local’s delegates, including the staff, were opposed to a resolution raising the contribution to the staff pension plan from 10 cents to 20 cents per member per month. But the opposi- tion was to no avail because the convention passed the resolution. The local’s delegates also voted in favour of raising the LOCAL 1-424 MEMBERS attending the Quarterly Council Meeting October 22, in Prince George. Y international per capita tax from 75 cents to 90 cents. The IWA caucus had decided that since the American sections of the International were go- ing to pass a 25 cents increase, it would be better to support the lesser amount. Edwards said a very im- portant resolution was adopt- ed under which a member who works less than five days in any month will be exoner- ated from paying dues. He said this would go a long way in straightening out the con- fusion on exoneration proce- dures. A report on the regional convention in Vancouver re- ferred to a debate on fire fight- ing rates of pay. As an ex- ample, reference was made to See “HOUR” Page 9 JOE MORRIS CLC executive vice-preside ‘ tribute to Howard Webb pec invaluable service to the over the years. IWA ‘