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THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

FROM PAGE 1

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"STRIKERS WIN BATTLE"

which were still being dump-
ed by strikebreaking “gyppos”
from the American side of the
border, However, they were
discovered by an alert IWA
patrol-crew and in ensuing
negotiations between the IWA
and the company, the Union
agreed to limited operation of
the two tugs by company per-
Sonnel for the purpose of
occasionally checking the con-
dition of the booms in the

water at the beginning of the
strike.

In the early morning hours
of December 12, 1967, four of
the regular five men tugboat-
crew requested the lifting of
the legal IWA picket line in
order for them to comply with
alleged company orders to tow
one and a half million board
feet of peeler logs from Port-
hill (border of Canada and
USA) to the Nelson booming
grounds,

When the salaried tugboat-
crew was informed by the
picketers that they were not
willing to lift the “line” for
this specific purpose, a com-
pany spokesman by the name
of John Murray addressed the
picketers under the watchful
eye of three uniformed RCMP
officers and ordered the tug-
boat crew to cross the legal
picket line or face the conse-
quence of company reprisals.

One of the salaried men re-
fused to cross a legal picket
line, but the three remaining
men succumbed to company
pressure and proceeded to
start up the tugs.

For the next four hours a
game of “cat and mouse” en-
rolled itself in front of the
TWA camera. In freezing tem-
peratures IWA picketers fol-

lowed the two tugs to the city
wharf, where supplies and
fuel had to be taken on board,
and set up an information
picket line around the docked
tugs. The company engaged
several of its office personnel
to cross this information pic-
ket line with food supplies
and rockgas for cooking pur-
poses.

Hamburgers and hot coffee
were supplied by the Local
Union and the picketers re-
mained on the alert for the
arrival of the required diesel
fuel. A local tank-truck driver
refused to cross the IWA
picket line and his employer
— ‘the Nelson B.A. Oil Dis-
tributor — also denied the
request from Kootenay Forest
Products to drive his truck
through.

Unable to take on diesel
fuel the two tugs were or-
dered back to their home base
at the company boathouse.

Brought to its knees by the
peaceful but determined ac-
tion of the IWA picketers,
the Company started to recog-
nize the stupidity of its uni-
lateral action earlier in the
morning and requested the
Local Union Strike Commit-
tee to open negotiations. In
the ensuing deliberations the
IWA recognized the possibil-
ity of an early strike settle-
ment without an adequate
supply of peeler logs for the
start-up of the plywood opera-
tion due to freeze-up of the
Kootenay River at Porthill.

The Company agreed to
stop the dumping of logs at
Porthill by “gyppo’s” and the
Union subsequently agreed to
let the Company tow the
booms in question to a point

UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYES of three RCMP officers
in uniform, Company spokesman Mr. John Murray orders
salaried tugboat crews to cross legal IWA picket line at
Kootenay Forest Products in Nelson.

where the Kootenay river
flows into Kootenay Lake,
where there is no danger of
log damage due to frost.

The matter would have
been closed right there if it
had not been for the publica-
tion of statement by Mr. R.
M. West, General Manager of

Kootenay Forest Products
Ltd., in the Nelson Daily

News dated December 14,
1967, wherein he said: “The

Union has been very cooper- ‘

ative in negotiating a solution,
I don’t know what the mis-
understanding really was.”

Being the General Manager,
Mr. R. M. West in our opinion
was completely informed of
the whole situation. We sug-
gest that Mr. West requested
the assistance of the R.C.M.P.;
we suggest that Mr. West
fully intended to break the
original agreement with the
IWA for the limited opera-
tion of the two company tugs;
we suggest that Mr. West in-
tended to fire the tugboat
crew if they had not crossed
the picket line, and finally we
suggest that Mr. West — true
to established precedents —
once again hopelessly blun-
dered in the field of labour-
management relations.

All strikes end sooner or
later and when the current
strike is over the production
of logs, lumber and plywood
will resume together with the
normal process of Union-Man-
agement relations under a col-
lective. agreement.

However the actions of
Kootenay Forest Products
Ltd. on the 12th day of De-
cember, 1967, can never be
erased from the minds of trade
unionists in the city of Nelson.

FEDERATION

DONATES
TO STRIKERS

The B.C. Federation of
Labour has donated five thou-
sand dollars out of its defence
fund to IWA strikers in the
Southern Interior. The Fed-
eration also donated a thou-
sand dollars to the members
of the Carpenters’ Union re-
specting the IWA picket lines
at Skookumchuk.

IWA

@IPPLE MTN.
7850

ABOVE MAP shows the original location of the booms of.
peeler logs near Porthill and the finally agreed upon
location near Sirdar.

ONE-AND-A-HALF MILLION board feet of peeler logs in
the water near Porthill (border of Canada and USA) en-
dangered by the annual freeze-up of the Kootenay River.

PERSONNEL MANAGER and other company staff unload
food supplies and rockgas from company station wagon
and %-ton truck. 5 Z

B.A, OIL TRUCK turns away from IWA information picket
line and unable to take on fuel company tugs return to
home base, mission unaccomplished.

ERMINED MEMBERS of Local 1-405, IWA, form an
0 arora ket line in freezing temperatures around

the moored at the Nelson city wharf.