Ww printed in this issue THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER wy thewestem Canadian 34,000 LW. (Wor A} copies lumber worker Published once monthly as the official publication of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA Western Canadian Regional Council No. 3 Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC 2859 Commercial Orive, Vancouver, B.C. Phone 874-5261 Editor — Pat Kerr Business Manager — Wyman Trineer Forwarded to every member of the 1WA in Western Canada in accordance with convention decisions. Subscription rate for non-members $2.00 per year. EORGE sebnson and ten Guy, i in winning the battle at the recent B.C. Federation of Labour conven- tion, may find to their sorrow that it was a Pyrrhic victory that could end the effectiveness of the Federation in the province for some time to come. In going all out to win, they have saddled themselves with an execu- tive comprised mainly of right and left wing extremists whose views are poles apart and who certainly will never function as a unit in the best interests of labour. The only thing they have in com- mon is a fear and hatred for the NDP. Of course this point won't bother Johnson and Guy who have in- dicated in the past, their feelings about the New Democratic Party. To' make matters worse, Johnson and Guy, either out of ignorance or stupidity make light of the fact that three of the Federation’s largest af- filiates — the IWA, the United Steel- YRRHIC VICTORY? workers: AaEl fhe Goverment ier ployees — voted against them al- most unanimously and would have won had a democratic system of al- loting delegates been used. Their pious remarks that they would attempt to heal the rift bet- ween themselves and these unions after the convention, are plainly not true. They don’t want these unions involved in the Federation’s affairs because they are frightened of them and they made this very evident during the convention elections. While the IWA holds out little hope that the new executive of the Federation will display any more sanity than the previous one, it is suggesting for the sake of all the people the Federation represents, that close attention be paid to the views of the major labour organiza- tions in this province, if the Federa- tion hopes to be heard and re- cognized with any degree of author- ity. DECEMBER 1976 — JANUARY 1977 CENTRAL CONTROL ROOM Of course with the excessories it comes to a few million more. _PRESIDENT JOHNSON PRAISES MEMBERS | EOR BLEAK PROFIT PICTURE : _CORPORATIONS HIT BY KIERANS Former ‘Quebec and federal cabinet minister Eric Kierans wants to know just what is needed ‘‘to bring an end to the whining, whimpering and outright misrepresentation of the success of the past five years’’ by Canada’s 1,000 biggest corporations. Speaking to a meeting of the Conference Board in Canada, Kierans says the biggest threat to the giants is not the Trudeau government, but their own shrill cries about hard times befalling them: ‘‘That is the greatest danger to corporate giantism, the furious attacks on government and the unbal- anced picture of your own eee iene.” 5 The balanced picture, he said, is that profits increased ___ from $7.7 billion in 1970 to $17.8 billion in 1975, an increase of 131 percent. Meanwhile, the effective corporate tax rate has ~g4 agin 29.6 oy oo same peri of the estimated $7 billion in unpaid corporate taxes still on the books, Kieran’s said the largest 1,000 owe about $6 billion, t, as in the case of indi- ~ Contrary to the bleak k picture painted by corporate spokes- people in public comments, Kierans said Canada gives the big corporations ‘‘the most handsome package of subsid- ies, tax write-offs, allowances, deductions, cheap loans, ex- port credits’ and other give- aways ‘anywhere outside of Great Britain.” As for the talk of investment capital fleeing the country, Kierans finds it ‘strange that the Canadian dollar stays high and firm, which argues that more funds must be coming in than going out.” Business spokespeople who use this argument also neglect to mention there is a world- wide slowdown in the rate of capital spending, not just in Canada, he said. Kierans cited examples of corporate giants faring well in Canada who still claim publicly that they are hard pressed by government re- strictions. The Royal Bank’s assets have jumped 242 percent since 1967, assets of Canadian Pacific have tripled since 1970, and ahh ig Mines has doubled its assets over the past five years, with the company financing much of its expan- BS PROF LS ARIE OEE I sion through tax deductions provided by the federal gov- ernment. Imperial Oil has done like- wise, Kierans said. It has added $1.4 billion to its 1970 assets of $1.55 billion, and $424 ‘million of this expansion was financed by withholding “legally and without interest charges’? payment of cor- porate taxes, courtesy of a tax break introduced in 1970 to facilitate mergers. “This never comes out in business addresses to the shareholders or to anyone else,” Kierans noted. ee ee ee) LIGHTER SIDE Sam, the machinery sales- man, says that abstinence is a very fine thing — provided it is practised in moderation. * a . *& Chokerman Charlie advised that the logging foreman at Camp 6 joined Alcoholics An- monymous but never went to any meetings. He just drank and then sent in the bottles. % * te Kamloops Katie’s boy friend always does his thinking over a glass of beer. He figures that two heads are better than one. The Editor: On October 14, 1976 the Can- adian trade union movement carried out an outstanding, successful © demonstration ~ against the law enacted by the (Liberal) Federal Government that is apparently bound to destroy labor’s rights to free collective bargaining. This demonstration by the labor movement in Canada will go down in history showing that workers will not idly stand by while their freedoms are eroded by a management oriented government. It is with great pride that we note that our union was in the forefront of the battle against this discriminatory legislation. It is obvious that a lot of the effort was put in by officers and members to insure suc- cess. On. behalf of the Interna- tional Officers and all the membership I want to express our appreciation and gratitude on a job well done. Fraternally yours, Keith W. Johnson International President | \ | t | } The Law ‘Society of Upper Canada has incurred the wrath of the Canadian Labour Con- gress’ union label department for ordering a Toronto law firm to take the union label off its stationery. The Law.Society informed the firm of Copeland and King that appearance of the label of the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 343 on its letter- head represents a violation of the Society’s Code of Conduct. The Code of the Society, which governs lawyers in the province of Ontario, allows only the name of the firm anda list of the firm’s members on the letterhead. a a ‘UNION LABEL REJECTED BY LAW SOCIETY Ef a ee) But ‘Henry Rhodes, secre- tary-treasurer of the CLC union label department, says he is aarprised and shocked” at the ruling. He said he understands the intent of the Code is to prevent use of law firm’s stationery for unethical purposes, but is sure . the rule ‘‘did not intend to prohibit the union label.” In a letter to the Society asking that the ruling be with- drawn, Rhodes said he found it hard to believe that the Law Society ‘‘one of the oldest unions in Canada with the tightest closed-shop clause ever written’ should find it improper for its members to carry the union label on their letterheads.