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thewestern canadian

VOL. XLIII, No. 3

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VANCOUVER, B.C.

See |

IWA COAST NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE and the forest industry’s Negotiating Com- .

lumber worker

= a Day ®

mittee holding their first meeting April 9, in the Hotel Vancouver, where both groups
presented their demands. The Unions’ Negotiating Committee is comprised of eleven Local
Union Presidents, one Financial Secretary, and two Regional officers. The industry
Negotiating Committee is represented by Forest Industrial Relations Ltd.and top officers of
the companies with operations on the coast.

"LABOUR REJECTS TURNER'S
_ WAGE GUIDELINES PROPOS,

Regional President Jack
Munro stated on his return
from attending the meeting in
Toronto between the Canadian
Labour Congress and federal
Finance Minister John Turner,
that the IWA will never agree
to controls such as_ those
proposed by the Minister.

Turner at the meeting May 7
suggested, that labour volun-
tarily limit its wage demands
during the next year to help
fight inflation, and proposed
certain guidelines for labour to
follow.

He stated that voluntary
restraints must be equitable,
that those who have been left
behind must be given an oppor-
tunity to catch up, and that
those earning low incomes
should be given more leeway
than those earning higher
incomes.

Munro and CLC President
Joe Morris argue that the
proposals do just the opposite.
While they suggest an increase

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of up to 8% in the next year for
higher income earners and
12% for lower incomes, this in
effect would give a person
earning $5,000 a year a
maximum raise of $600, while
someone at the $30,000 income
level would be entitled to a
raise of $2,400.

This does not meet the CLC
criterion of equity, said Mr.
Morris. The labour movement
would agree to a government
plan to fight inflation only if it
involved a more equitable dis-
tribution of income and if, in
addition to salaries and wages,
voluntary restraints included
other forms of income such as
rents, dividends, profits, pro-
fessional fees, land speculation
and housing.

The Congress’ issued an
official statement after a
meeting of ranking officers of
affiliates on May 9. The trade
union movement is prepared to
do its share in the fight against
inflation but will not consent to
discriminatory treatment of

wage earners, pensioners and
those who have no means of
protecting themselves.

The Congress would continue
discussions on the issue if the
government would agree to
take positive steps including:

1. Increasing the supply of
housing to reduce its cost.

2. Regulation of rents to
curb ‘‘gouging of tenants’’.

3. An active program to curb
land speculation.

4. Regulation of oil and gas
prices.

5. A negative income tax or
some form of tax credits to
protect “‘those who have little
or no bargaining power and
who fall into lower income
brackets”’.

6. Full employment policies
to abolish the high rate of
jobless.

7. An increase in old age
pensions.

8. A guarantee that corpor-
ate tax concessions will be
used to create jobs and not end
up in higher dividiends.

>

HANEY LOCAL HOLDS
NEGOTIATIONS SEMINAR

Local 1-367 held a Seminar on
the May 1 weekend to inform
plant committee representa-
tives and shop stewards about
negotiations. The meeting was
very well attended with about
fifty participating actively in
the one day conference.

Regional Research Director
Doug Smythe explained the
economics behind this year’s
negotiations and also how each
of the cost demands had been
worked out and the economic
reasons behind them.

Bob blanchard, Regional
Third Vice-President also
attended the Seminar and
called for the representatives

to follow directions from the
negotiating committee and
warned them of taking job
action on their own.

Blanchard pointed out that
last year’s negotiations were
hampered because a few hot
heads saw fit to act on their
own without consultation or
sanction from the negotiating
committee.

Joe Fowler, President of the
Haney local and Eric Wood,
Secretary-Treasurer of the
local, both expressed satisfac-
tion with the way the seminar
went and especially with the
large turnout of plant commit-
tee representatives.

-Management and

PROGRESS SLOW AS |

APRIL-MAY, 1975

INDUSTRY PRESENTS |

| TWENTY-SEVEN DEMANDS __

—

Regional President Jack
Munro, spokesman for the

| Coast Negotiating Committee,

reports that little progress has
been made to date at the bar-
gaining table. Most of the time
has been taken up by the
parties explaining their re-
spective demands.

The employers — through
Forest Industrial Relations —
have presented twenty-seven
demands to counter the Union
demands. These demands —
which they refer to as
proposals — are all designed to
weaken or destroy the collect-
ive agreement.

The Union’s Negotiating
Committee has informed FIR
in no uncertain terms that they
will not agree to accepting any
of the employers’ proposals.

Heading the list once again is
the proposal to institute the
seven-day work week as
a means of increasing
productivity.

Another proposal demands
that any employee who has
participated in illegal job
action within 30 days of a
Statutory Holiday will not be
entitled to Statutory Holiday

pay.

To provide for continuing
shifts, the employers have
proposed that when there is no
scheduled break between
shifts, a shift employee is
expected to remain on his job
up to a maximum of two hours
until. a replacement arrives.

Hitting at the loggers, the
employers are once again
‘demanding that the cost of
board and lodging in the
logging camps be increased.

The other twenty-three
demands are equally bad and
their presentation by the em-
ployers will add nothing to this
set of negotiations.

The employers in the
Southern Interior, taking a leaf
from their counterparts on the
Coast, have also presented the
Union’s Southern Interior Ne-
gotiating Committee with six
counter proposals.

At the moment the Union’s
Committee is studying these
demands but have no intention
of agreeing to them.:

When and if there is any
positive break or progress
made in either set of negotia-
tions, IWA members will be
informed through leaflets and
bulletins.

LESS WORK STOPPAGES
UNDER B.C. LABOUR CODE

The new Labour Code in
British Columbia is being
credited with the 25 percent
reduction in work stoppages in
the province last year com-
pared with two years ago.

Work stoppages in 1974 still
accounted for 1.5 million man-
days lost, but this was
relatively good in relation to
the record number in Canada
as a whole — almost 9.4 million
man-days.

Deputy Labour Minister
James Matkin says the Code
deserves some credit for
lessening the
management warfare which
peaked in 1972. B.C.’s labour
legislation went through
drastic revision in the first
year of the present NDP ad-
ministration. It met sharp
criticism from both
labour,
especially the B.C. Federation
of Labour. It is still not the
ideal of either side. A main
criticism of some labour
leaders is the wide powers
given to the Labour Relations

Board. :
The Board, not the courts,

now has the power to ad-
judicate matters relating to
strikes and picketing. This has
brought a big change. In 1972
the courts served over 50 in-
junctions in just one long

labour- .

labour dispute, according to
Matkin. Even the- judges .
realized that industry. was

‘using the injunction as a

weapon.

The deputy minister gives
the dispute at the aluminum
smelter in Kitimat last year as
an example. In the past the
employer would have applied
for an injunction against an
illegal walkout. In this case
former IWA president Jack

See “LABOUR” — Page 2

LOCAL 1-217.

Local 1-217 IWA, Vancouver,
has won certification for the
thirty-five employees of the
Goldwood Industries Ltd., the
last non-union sawmill in the
Local’s jurisdiction.

The plant is located in Rich-
mond. :

Local Financial Secretary
Doug Evans, who headed up
the organizing campaign,
stated that the Local had tried
repeatedly in the past to win
certification of the mill without
success. -