Satety Presentation IWA EMPLOYEES of MB&PR’s Westminster Shook Mill Division received congratulations and commendations from Management and the Union at a special safety meeting April 8, for working one year accident-free. Picture on left shows Plant Chairman Ken Barden holding the Presidential Award presented to the crew for its fine safety performance. Stand- ing next to Barden is Mike Major, Plant Safety Committee Chairman. Local 1-357 Vice-President John Hachey is shown in picture on right congratulating the crew for its achieve- pca ‘FLY B.C. AIR LINES’ IN SIXTH YEAR Evaluation Proves Worth By REGIONAL EVALUATORS THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER UR experience indicates that Plywood Evaluation, in its sixth year in the plywood industry of B.C., is continuing to produce satisfactory results . We would go so far as to say these are the best results so far attained by any section of our industry, in the area of setting wage category adjustments and relationships. This is not only true in the case of the Coast, but applies also to the B.C. Interior operations. Does this mean we think evaluation is a perfect system? Certainly not. No system is perfect, nor is any system. im- possible of improvement. Are we saying then, that, in no single job category can a higher rate be attained through the old method of wrist-twisting than by evalua- tion? We do not claim this will happen in every case, either. What we do say is that for every superior rate at- tained during the contract year through wage revisions by negotiations, evaluation has brought gains to many cate- gories. We refer particularly to categories which often re- ceive little or no considera- tion prior to the advent of evaluation. An added advantage to the plywood member is this; if he feels his job has increased significantly, he has the ma- chinery available to him whereby he can take steps to have his job studied. An in- cumbent, himself, has the op- portunity of giving the job in- formation or job change in- formation, firsthand to the Evaluation Team by the method of personal interview. Incumbents have also the op- portunity to review and criti- cize the subsequent draft job description, before it becomes final, so that it may be cor- rected if necessary before the Evaluators determine the rate according to the Manual. The part of evaluation which at present gives most concern to the Union has been the rapid growth of the industry with the consequent increased demand for job study. Because of this need, each party to the contract, [WA and FIR, hired an additional Evaluator in order to expand the single joint-industry team to two joint teams. This action was taken in September of last year. Training of the new men began immediately. After a period of concentrated atten- tion to the academic aspects of training and learning, which were carried out separately by the IWA Evaluators and St i t the FIR Evaluators, it wal! felt advisable to advance to © field training. This meant, undertaking actual on-the- job evaluation by the two teams in the manner ordin- arily carried out by a fully experienced team of Evaluat- » ors. There were two main rea- sons for changing to actual in- plant evaluation at this point of the training period. After initial “book learning,” ad- ditional knowledge is gained + most quickly by so doing. | The large backlog of “blue | form” applications for job — study indicated also the need to get into field work as quick- ly as possible. These applica- tions were received from + fifteen of the seventeen ply-. wood plants under the plan, _ and requested the study or re-study of about 185 cate- — gories. This made it necessary to turn our attention more di- rectly again to producing <« evaluated rates. At the beginning of this year, the Industry Evaluation Committee drew up a rather rigid schedule of evaluation * work. This was done in order | that the above mentioned |, work load could be reduced | as quickly as possible. With the two teams in the field, our present position in regard to the schedule is this: * Completed since January 1, 1965—44 jobs, involving three plywood plants. In process—94 jobs, involv- ing five plywood plants. Blue form applications im , for study—86 jobs, involving ten plywood plants. Added to this, there are a number of new plywood plants producing or coming * into existence, some definitely coming under the evaluation plan, and others presumably so once they are producing and ‘become certified. Company Plan | Defeated | An attempt to remove the cookhouse crew at the Powell « River Lumber Company, Kel- sey Bay, from the Joint Pen- sion Scheme and _ seniority provisional rights, has been defeated by officers of Local , 1-363 IWA. < The Company contracted 4 out the cookhouse in January and informed the employees | that they were cut off from’ the Pension Plan and senior- ity rights. They were then, given the choice of working with the contractor or taking alternate jobs in the woods. The Local officers insisted that all contract conditi and benefits in effect must be guaranteed by the Com a and it could not escape : committment by con: out jobs in the operation. The issue was settled w ing them into the Plan.