TOM BARNETT, NDP-MP for Comox-Alberni and long-time
member of Local 1-85 IWA, is shown with two other Local
1-85 members Lyle Chand (centre) and Earl Jensen (left)
following the presentation to them of the IWA 25-year
certificates and dress buttons.

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

AT LOCAL 1-85 CEREMONY

ae

BARNETT RECEIVES 25-YEAR PIN

Highly popular Tom Bar-
nett, who has served as NDP
member of parliament for
Comox-Alberni for 14 years,
was recently presented with
his 25-year IWA membership

certificate.

The presentation was made
by Local president Walter
Allen who also presented cer-
tificates -to two other long-
time members of the Union,

Earl Jensen and Lyle Chand.

Barnett has been a member
of Local 1-85 since 1942.

In accepting his certificate, he
stated that he was proud to
be a member of the IWA and
this was reflected in the sense
of personal dignity one had
working under a Union con-
tract which was lacking in the
old days.

Another change which he
says has impressed him is con-
nected with hours of work.
He recalls that as a high
school student he worked in
a small town on Vancouver
Island as a summer worker in
a sawmill. The 60-hour work
week was made up of six 10-

¥

hour days and left little time
for pursuits other than work.

“In my first sawmill job
after high school, it was a
wonderful feeling to work
only 48 hours a week and to
have Saturday afternoon off,”
he said.

Barnett served as a local
union officer for three years
prior to his election to par-
liament in 1953. Two years
after he joined the union he
was attending IWA regional
and international meetings.
In 1944 he was a delegate to
the CIO convention in Chi-
cago.

The other two members re-
ceiving certificates also had
comments to make.

Lyle Chand came to B.C.
from the Punjab when he was
16 years old in 1932 and work-
ed at Hillcrest and in Van-
couver before starting in 1939
at A.P.D.’s power plant. He
worked at a number of jobs
around the plant and was nine,
and a half years on the job
of tail sawyer.

He joined the IWA in 1942.
Asked what he regarded as

Out of This World

DAYTON BOOTS

the most significant change
brought about by an IWA con-
tract during his 26 years as
a member, he said it was the
dropping of the differential in
pay between whites and non-
whites.

Earle Jensen was the first
member of Local 1-85 to serve’
a six-year term as trustee.

Well known for his work
with the A.V. Search and
Rescue Squad and as an ar-
dent hunter and fisherman,
he has worked at Alberni Pa-
cific Division since 1927, ex-
cepting for four years in the
Armed Forces during World
War II.

He said his interest in union
affairs went back to the days
of the old IWW when dues
were 10 cents a month. He
joined the IWA in 1937, and
is IWA plant chairman at
APD and a member of the

‘local executive board.

Besides improvement in
hours and in wages, the most
significant change he has seen
in his years as a lumber work-
er, he said, is in the status of
the worker as an individual.