co 8 thewestern-canadian VOL. XLIII, NO. 1 } i lumber worker VANCOUVER, B.C. se Te ae IWA NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE at the Saskatchewan Forest Products Corporation, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Back row, left, Neil Menard, President of Local 1-184; Irene Soderlund; Don Erhardt, Business Agent of Local 1-184. Front row, Carof Blair; Sally Yurchak. AT PRI INCE ALBERT | MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS 2 : r em | fant Ss 2) 2) = | ee) > i j son $100.00 per month have been negotiated by Local 1-184 IWA, Saskatchewan, for the clerical staff of the Saskatchewan Forest Products Corporation, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The new one-year agreement boosts the top rate for the clerical staff to $834.00 per month. The lowest rate is $500.00 per month for junior clerks. A number of major break- throughs were made in the fringe benefits and include: © One additional Statutory Holiday bringing the total to eleven. © Health & Welfare premiums completely paid for by the Company. © Weekly indemnity pre- miums increased from 39 to 52 weeks. e Long Term Disability at Dal & oo) eo s =z io = i4 w a VANCOUVER annually in line with the cost- of-living. © Three weeks holiday after one year; four weeks holiday after ten years; and five weeks holiday after 20 years. © Leave of Absence clause for compassionate reasons; in- volvement in federal, provin- cial, civic or municipal politics; extended vacation or maternity leave. The Union Negotiators also got the Company to agree that Union members going into full- time Union work would be given leave of absence for the length of time away without having to re-apply annually. Negotiating for the Union were Local 1-184 President Neil Menard, Local 1-184 Business Agent Don Erhardt, Sally Yurchak, Carol Blair, Irene Soderlund. 75% AT AGE 60 JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1975 CLC SEEKING HIGHER PENSIONS AS “CITIZENSHIP MONTH” THEME The Canadian Labour Con- gress has announced that it is after ‘‘an adequate pension — 75 percent of wages at 60 years” for all workers in Canada covered under the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans. “The campaign was actually launched in February of 1974,” CLC President Joe Morris stated, ‘‘when unions were encouraged. to establish committees to examine existing pension protection, study the needs for im- provements and assist in a broad education program to rally public support for such improvements,’’ he said. “Citizenship Month this year will inaugurate the second phase of the campaign. Our efforts this February will be directed toward pressuring the governments to change the- Canada-and Quebec Pension ~ Plans so that all Canadians might look forward to an adequate pension in their retirement years.” The CLC president continued “Trade unionists have tradi- tionally been concerned about the social and financial prob- lems of Canada’s older resi- dents. In far too many cases our senior citizens are living at a bare subsistence level. Many of them thought they would be able to retire with an adequate pension and then found out too late that they were wrong.”’ In 1970, only 39.2 per cent of the Canadian workforce were covered by private pension plans. The changing nature of the country’s labour market means that many workers change their jobs every five or six years during their career. Many of these job changes take place before the employee is entitled to vesting rights in his pension meaning that he loses the benefit of employer con- tributions to the plan on his behalf. Also, the worker’s next employer may be enrolled in a different scheme-or-in-no plan - —at all. It has been estimated that only four to ten per cent of private pension plan con- tributors receive full pension benefits when they retire. ‘‘Something must be done to protect the majority — of Canadians when they enter their retirement years,” Mr. Morris said. ‘‘We talk. about allowing our older cifizens to live in dignity. The fact is that dignity for those people living solely on Old Age Security and Canada or Quebec Pension is more like poverty.” He said the Canadian Labour Congress ‘‘Citizenship Month” campaign in February will rally the Canadian trade union movement and Canadians ~ generally around a program of pressure on the governments to make Canada and Quebec Pension Plan benefits available at age 60 by 1981 and to increase the amount of pension benefits by 2.5 per cent per year until they reach 75 per cent of wages in 1996. ‘“‘The CLC is also recommending that Canada and Quebec ion-Plar contributions be based on a worker’s full salary and not just, on the- present ‘maximum yearly pensionable earnings’ system. This would eliminate the current inequit- able situation in which lower income earners pay a larger proportion.of their income for coverage than people at the top of the wage scale,’”’ Mr. Morris said. ae = Aes | ‘ww! @ | NOTICE | IWA members at the Coast and in the Southern and North- ern Interior are urged to care- fully study the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) clause material printed on pages 6-7 of this issue. This material was prepared by Doug Smyth, the Union’s Research Director, to give the members a basic understand- ing of the COLA agreement and to ensure that they receive their proper COLA adjust- ments when due. LOCAL 1-80 RECOVERS WAGES FOR MEMBERS President Fernie Viala of Local 1-80 IWA, Duncan, has reported that the Local Union has been successful in recover- ing $25,734.50 in wages owed to 87 former employees of the Slegg Forest Products sawmill at Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island. The company ceased opera- tions in March 1973 after the -crew shut the mill down because of financial problems involving paying of wages and benefits. The sawmill never reopened as the company was unable to raise the financing needed to pay back wages and many outstanding debts. The IWA in Duncan has ever given up in the fight to recover money owed to workers employed by Slegg. Acting on behalf of the IWA, the Labour ‘Relations Department of British Columbia seized all money realized from a recent Auction Sale of sawmill equipment and land owned by Slegg Forest Products. Plus the $25,000 in back wages, approximately $20,000 was recovered for worker benefits such as: Pension Plan payments, Medical Services and Health & Welfare premiums, Workmen’s Compensation and Unem- ployment Insurance payments and some of the back Union _ dues owed to the Local Union. UIC UPS BENEFITS TO MAXIMUM OF $123.00 The Unemployment Insur- ance Commission has notified the Regional Council that ef- fective January 1, 1975, benefit payments will ‘be increased from the maximum of $113.00 a week in 1974, to $123.00 per week in 1975, minus income tax. The new maximum weekly insurable: earnings for unem- ployment insurance commenc- ing: January 1, 1975 will be $185.00. This represents an in- crease of $15.00 per week from the maximum of $170.00 in 1974. The benefit payments will be increased from a maximum of $113.00 per week (less income tax) in 1974 to $123.00 per week (less income tax) in 1975 for those who qualify by virtue of the increase in insurable earnings. The Unemployment Insur- ance Act requires that the maximum level of weekly in- surable earnings be adjusted each year to correspond to the percentage rise in the earnings © index calculated by the De- partment of National Revenue. The basic premium contri- bution rate remains unchanged in 1975. -The employee pre- mium will continue to be $1.40 per $100.00 of insurable earn- ings and the full employer rate is 1.4 times the employee rate; See “BENEFITS” — Page 2 IWA WAGE MEET MARCH 21-22-23 The IWA Regional Wages & Contract Conference which sets the Union’s contract demands for presentation to the industry, will be held March 21-22-23, in the Hotel Georgia, Vancouver. For the first time all three negotiating areas in B.C. — the Coast, Southern and Northern Interior — will have dele- gates at the Conference to formulate one overall major set of demands covering the three areas. Approximately two hundred delegates are expected to attend the three-day meet. ee .