Three IWA officers, Inter-
national President Keith
Johnson, Regional Ist Vice-
President Wyman Trineer and
Region No. 2 President J. M.
Bedard, were nominated
as worker delegates to the
Second Tripartite Technical
Meeting for Woodworking In-
_dustries held January 14-
24, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The conference was spon-
sored by the International
Labour Organization.

Johnson served aS a
worker delegate from the
United States while Trineer
and Bedard acted as worker
delegates from Canada.

Regional President Jack
Munro had originally been
nominated to attend the con-
ference but due to pressure of
work declined the invitation

Y-FEBRUARY, 1975

and suggested his ist Vice-
President attend in his place.

Agenda for the conference
included creation of em-
ployment in the woodworking
industry, training of workers
and managers, and review of
the two basic themes of the
First Tripartite Meeting in
1967 — technological changes
and safety, health and welfare
in woodworking industries.

Countries invited to partici-
pate in the meet included:
Argentina, Brazil, Canada,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland,
France, Federal Republic of
Germany, Ghana, India, In-
donesia, Ivory Coast, Japan,
Panama, Philippines,
Romania, Uganda, Russia,
United Kingdom, and the
United States.

Fase

CREDIT UNION EMPLOYEES
VOTE TO JOIN LOCAL 1-405

Employees of Castlegar
Savings Credit Union at
Castlegar, B.C., chose Local 1-
405, Cranbrook, B.C. to repre-
sent them as their bargaining
agent when the majority
signed up into the Union and an
application for certification
was filed with the Labour
Relations Board of British
Columbia on November 21,
1974, ‘

While this application was
pending, the Board chairman

from the Credit Union, made a -

submission to the Labour Rela-
tions Board challenging the

I.W.A. as not being. an ap-
propriate Union to represent
their employees. This,
however, was refuted by the
Board and on January 10, 1975
certified Local 1-405 for all
employees of the Credit Union
within the jurisdictional
boundaries of Local 1-405,
I.W.A., except those excluded
by the Act.

The Local Union has since
notified the employer to com-
mence negotiations which date
has not as yet been deter-
mined.

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

130,000 IN B.C. AIDED BY MINCOME

Approximately 130,000 senior and handicapped citizens in British Columbia will benefit
from the latest cost-of-living: increase to all beneficiaries of the MINCOME programme
introduced in 1972 by the NDP provincial government.

The increase which was effective January 1, 1975, is $5.17 per month and will bring the
maximum monthly MINCOME payments to $234.13 per person.

The increase is the fifth since the programme was implemented. Earlier cost-of-living
increases occurred in October, 1973 ($9.02 per month); April, 1974 ($8.15 per month) ; July,
1974 ($4.87 per month); and October, 1974 ($6.92 per month). _

RIOT CONTROL EXERCISE
BRINGS PROTEST FROM CLC PRESIDENT

The Canadian Labour
Congress has __ strongly
protested against a recent riot
control exercise staged in
Nova Scotia during which the
rioters were represented by
Canadian troops play-acting as
trade unionists.

“There is no excuse for riot
control exercises to select
working people as_ their
target,” CLC President Joe
Morris said in a letter mailed
to Prime Minister Pierre
Elliott Trudeau. ‘‘It is divisive
and destructive and has no
place in Canadian society,
particularly when the local
authorities and populace are
drawn into the exercise.

“The Congress finds this
type of behavior repugnant and
disgusting,” the letter said. “‘It
is offensive in the extreme and
does a grave disservice to the
working people, not only in the
Maritimes but throughout the

rest of Canada.”
Copies of the letter were

mailed to Progressive Con-
servative Party Leader Robert
Stanfield, NDP Parliamentary
Leader Ed Broadbent and the

premiers of the four Atlantic
provinces.

MUNRO ALSO
PROTESTS |

Regional President Jack
Munro has added his voice to
that of CLC President Joe
Morris in protesting the use of
the Canadian military in
carrying out exercises aimed
at strike breaking.

President Munro termed the
operation disgraceful and an
insult to the hundreds of
thousands of past and present
union members in Canada who
have done so much to pioneer
and build the country.

He has demanded a prompt
investigation of the incident
and a public apology to the
labor movement from those
responsible.

Munro also stated that if no
action is taken it would in-
dicate that the government
was aware of some strong
reasons for remaining silent
which could only bode ill for
labour’s future.

TO A WORLD DRIVEN BY INFLA TION

-)

...and other pressures towards
compromising on second-best,
Dayton’s makes no contribution.

x
That is why Dayton’s loggers

have won more world championships
than any other boot ever made.

*

It has always been, and still is,

‘the choice of the man
who knows the best—and is

prepared to pay for it.

TELEPHONE
253-6671

VANCOUVER, B.C.

The riot exercise was staged
during the first week of De-
cember at Camp Debert in No-
va Scotia, the letter specifies,
and involved militia members -
from the Prince Edward Island
Regiment, Nova Scotia High- .
landers and the Princess
Louise Fusiliers. It was
directed at demonstrators
made up by two field squad-
rons from Camp Gagetown
which called themselves the
Maritime Union Federation
and represented a group of
“striking or dissident workers
from the fictitious Andrewville
Aviation Company.”

The workers were depicted
as engaging in terrorist activi-
ties which provided the excuse
for the local police, at the
request of the attorney-
general, to ask for military
assistance aimed at controlling
and putting the workers down,
the letter continues. Reports
also indicated that the local
population was invited to co-
operate with the military
authorities and that the
exercise was planned in local
consultation and with the full
knowledge of the area officials,
the provincial government and
the RCMP.

“Not only does the Congress
formally protest this disgust-
ing display but it wishes to
know if this. is now your
government’s policy and if this
type of behaviour is to be ex-
pected in the future,’’ Morris
concluded in his letter to Mr.
Trudeau.

In covering letters to each of
the four Maritime premiers,
Mr. Morris charged that, if the
news reports were right in
stating that the exercise was
conducted ‘‘in the full know-
ledge and cooperation of your
government, (then) you have
committed a grave disservice
to the working people of your

province.” =

SS

The NDP government in
British Columbia is the only
government in Canada which
provides free bus service to the
people on New Year’s eve.

The service is provided by
the government in the hope
that those who are prone to
drink and drive during the
festive eee will leave their
cars at home an
buses. : ae

The government j
cerned over the duane 4
crease in drinking drivers in
the province and is doing its
utmost to find ways and Means

of resolving th vee:
problem. © difficult