THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER OCTOBER-NOVEMBER,1977 effective October 3, 1977, with the following and related re- sponsibilities: 1. To act as trouble shooter in all situations where our members’ civil rights or human rights are infringed upon. 2. To start an active education program dealing with human rights and civil rights among our member- ship. 3. Investigate discriminatory hiring practices by em- ployers with whom we have a bargaining relationship. 4. Promote job opportunities for minority groups. 5. Establish contact with or- ganizations of minority groups and act as a liaison between them and the I.W.A. these various groups must be determined. These problems will differ from group to group and may also vary from place to plac.e Other problems may be lesser or greater depending on the length of residence and/or the rate of assimila- tion into the broader commun- ity. Third, we must learn of and communicate to our members just which services and agencies, both public and pri- vate, are presently available to meet the special needs of these identified minorities. And help them to use them. Obviously, the new Minority Groups Officer is going to have to be asking a lot of questions of officers, staff, committees and members at all levels of the union. members (e.g. Italian, Portu- guese, Oriental and Indian) have English language diffi- culties that cause many of them to be 1. largely restricted to the middle and lower level wage categories 2. restricted from effective and full participation in union activities. We'll also not unlikely find at least a few of our brothers and sisters within the union are guilty of fostering racial intol- erance and discrimination, both against members of some minorities and within minor- ities themselves. What ever we find — we'll have our work cut out for us. Our new Minority Groups Officer has some definite ideas of his own on each of these ———————_— Se Lyle Kristiansen, 38, has been employed at Kootenay Forest Products (Sawmill Division) in Nelson, B.C. since 1969, and has been a member of the I.W.A. for the past ten years, He is Second Vice-President of I.W.A. Local 1-405 and is Past President of the Nelson, Trail and District Labour Council. He is a former Secretary and Director of the Nelson District Community Resources Board, and a one time Programme Chairman of International House at U.B.C. Lyle, his wife Vera, and their three children have resided in Nelson since 1967. Vera is a former private legal secretary and Nelson School Trustee. ee Commenting on the task ahead, Kristiansen, who will be working out of the Region No. 1 office in Vancouver, suggested that the most difficult part of his new assignment will be narrowing down the terms of reference and setting out 2 or 3 priorities. “It would be all too easy to -end up running around investi- gating and stirring up individ- ual problems without getting anything solid accomplished,’’ he said. “That would be largely a waste of the government’s money and also a waste of our time.” First on the agenda is to identify which minority and ethnic groups are con- centrated within our member- ship, where they are located, and in what numbers. Secondly, the nature of the problems faced by members of It is important that these questions be answered when asked — fully and soon. That means taking time and work — but there simply is no other way to do the job. Maybe we'll find that the minority groups within our union and industry just don’t have any problems that differ from the rest of us. Maybe — but not ruddy likely! We'll likely find that some minorities, particularly native peoples and (Asian) Indians, face discrimination in hiring (and posting?) in some oper- ations. We'll likely also find that others, particularly from some native cultures, encounter some difficulty in adjusting to the industrial environment and life style. We'll probably find that a number of ethnic minority William Doherty, a_vice- president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has in- troduced a touch of humor into the debate about indexed ions. At the same time, he s put across a telling point. rty wrote an open letter to Colin Brown a spokesman for the National Citizen’s Coalition, an organization made up of directors and senior officials of several major corporations, including financial institutions. The coalition has been lobbying against the present indexing of federal public employees pensions to increases in the consumer price index. Brown had that Former Finance Minister Donald Macdonald would be drawing a $138,000-a-year pension if he lived bo be 80. % =* rf | : | : ] Ta = * i RP etorean See Bic} Doherty proposed, instead, a mythical example: Ali Makhatchakala who emigrated 35 years ago from Azerbaijan, a Soviet republic where it is common for people to live to 130 or older. If Makhatchkala, a clerk grade 2 with 35 years service, retired this year on full pension he could be getting $5,212.93 a year; If, because of his family history of longevity, he lived to be 145, with a hypothetical annual increase in the cost of living of seven percent, he could be drawing an: annual pension of $1,639,468.20. But, Doherty points out, Makhatchkala would be paying $62,900.07 a month for his former $200-a-month two-room apartment, $185.56 for a loaf of bread and $195 for a quart of milk, problem areas — but — more of that later. Right now we’d like to hear from you — the members of the I.W.A. — to get your opinions — and some facts. Your co- operation is asked for — now. why? In the words of our own I.W.A. Constitution: Section 6: ‘‘It shall be the re- sponsibility of the officers and members of this Union to pro- mote the following purposes: C. To encourage -all workers without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, or political belief to share equally in the full benefits of Union Organization.”’ Need We Say More? ? ? * If you have an opinion or a problem that you wish to discuss in this subject area, please contact or write to: Lyle Kristiansen, Minority Groups Relations Officer I.W.A. Regional Council No. 1, 2929 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C, V5 4C8 Phone: 874-5261 All inquiries will be treated in confidence if so requested. DENTAL PLAN PAYMENTS The Regional officers have been instructed to make representation to the College of Dental Surgeons and Dental Mechanics, urging that they make it mandatory for dentists and dental mechanics in British Columbia to accept Dental Plan Cards for payment of dental work. At present a number of dentists and dental mechanics flatly refuse to accept the Cards and force the patients to pay the total bill. GOOD OLD McDONALD’S PAYS LOWEST WAGES WASHINGTON, DC — The arch-enemy of a fair and equal minimum wage for teenage workers is none other than the king of the golden arches — McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc. Kroc has donated substantial dollars to supporters of a subminimum wage for young workers and the McDonald’s empire has lobbied on behalf of such legislation. Kroc has an obvious interest in keeping their wages low, each McDonald’s employs 50 to 80 young part-time shift workers, for a total exceeding 150,000. McDonald’s is the largest private youth employer in the country, with teenagers and students comprising ap- proximately 90%. “It’s 150,000 kids busting their tails out there that makes us tick,’’ comments the per- sonnel director at Hamburger Central, the McDonald’s headquarters in the Oak Brook suburb of Chicago. However, in gratitude for their hard work, McDonald’s prefers to sub- stitute ‘‘recognition,’’ “competition” and ‘‘praise’”’ for adequate wages. At Hamburger University, the training ground for Mc- Donald’s managers, aspiring supervisors are taught how to use praise, competition, and rap sessions to maintain a complacent young workforce. And where that hasn’t worked, McDonald’s has not been above forcing employees to take lie dectector tests, including views on unions, or face dismissal for refusing. Thus far, the McDonald’s tactics have worked. Profits are in the millions each year, and Kroc boasts: ‘Unions haven’t been able to touch us with a ten-foot pole.” McDonald’s caused one Time Magazine investigative reporter to comment, “Basically, I suppose, Mc- Donald’s is the epitome of capitalism — a success story built on shabby business practices; McDonald’s is a morally corrupt organization that is not doing anything illegal.” McDonald’s believes that fat earnings depend on lean pay — and it’s willing to spend money to keep it that way. In 1971, Kroc donated more than $250,000 to the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), and in 1972, Nixon staunchly supported a ‘youth differential.” In May, 1972, the House of Representatives actually passed a bill which would have allowed the hiring of 16- and 17- year-olds and _ full-time students at 80% of the minimum. Nicknamed the ‘“‘McDonald’s bill,” its greatest supporter was. Representative John Erlenborn of Illinois, ranking Republican on the House Labor Subcommittee. and it just so happens that McDonald’s Hamburger Central is located in Erlenborn’s district. The ‘‘youth differential” or ““McDonald’s_bill’’ . was defeated in the Senate, and Nixon was defeated by Watergate. However, Erlenborn was re-elected to Congress by his rich and conservative district — and is once more proposing a youth subminimum wage this year. The amendment to the 1977 minimum wage bill, sponsored by Erlenborn,. calls for workers under the age of 18 to receive 75 or 85% of the new minimum wage, and for workers between the ages of 18 and 21 to receive the sub- minimum for the first six months they are on the job. “This proposal is just like a McDonald’s hamburger,” noted SEIU _ Legislative Director Richard Murphy, “not too much meat, pretty greasy and bad for the digestion. ‘‘Erlenborn comes from the fifth-richest district in the nation, and maybe the families in his district can afford a youth subminimum. “However, the country as a whole cannot accept this concept. What it means, essentially, is that employers will be encouraged to fire adult workers in low-wage jobs and then hire young people at the subminimum. “Firing the parent to hire the child is no solution to teenage unemployment. Rather, we must create enough jobs to go around and uphold the dignity of all workers, regardless of age, through equal pay for equal work.” THE DISPATCHER Ze re. > Bo mm rs a > z i) | | IWA Convention delegates voiced their disapproval with the Social Credit government’s tampering with the province’s Labour Code by passing a resolution demanding that the legislation (Bill 89) be with- drawn. Speakers pointed out that the new Bill will now allow em- ployers to openly interfere by telling their employees not to join labour organizations. The Bill also gives them the right to refuse unions the names, addresses and num- ‘bers of employees on the payroll. ’ | a : =) 4 |