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THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

IWA

By ROD BEATON
President, Local 1-288

The meeting held in Van-
couver at the Blue Boy Motor
Hotel on December 4, 1965,
was well attended by mem-
bers and delegates from all
parts of the province.

This being an election year
for the Executive, nominations
were open for all positions.
All officers were returned to
office by acclamation except
the two positions for Trustees,
one whose term expired and
one who resigned,

President—Rod Beaton.

1st Vice—Norm Carey.

2nd Vice—Jack Radford.

Financial Secretary — Ron
Grant.

Recording Secretary—Ernie
Smith,

Warden—Don McMahon.

Going out to referendum
ballot for Trustees are:

For 6 year Trustee—Ralph
Cockrane, Gil Robinson.

To fill in for the Trustee
who resigned with two years
left in his term are:

Bill Bruin, Jack MacDonald.

FORMAT

At a Council Meeting held

earlier this year it was decid- -

ed to change the format of
our Annual Meetings, where
in the past our Agenda was
based on the general meeting
procedure, this year we
changed to a Resolution form
of meeting. While we did have
some confusion because of the
transition, everyone agreed
that in future all business
coming on the floor of the An-
nual Meeting would be in
resolution form.

This will tend to create
more membership interest
prior to the Annual Meeting
because of the discussion that
will take place in the sub-
locals in preparing resolutions.

The resolutions that came
on the floor for discussion
covered all the pertinent prob-
lems facing the members in
the coming year and high on
the list were the coming ne-
gotiations next year and ne-
gotiating procedure.

BALLOT

The members at the meet-

ing made it very clear to the
Executive officers that at this

time they are not prepared to
enter Master Negotiations, al-
though the final decision will
not be made until after their
Wage and Contract Confer-
ence in early March and then
_ if necessary it will be decided

. by a referendum ballot.

m i selling meth-

4 will take place at a rapid
in the coming year. The

well aware of

1-288 MEET

this and are prepared to ac-
cept their responsibility to
see that it takes place in an
orderly fashion, but not at the
expense of the jobs of the
Inspectors and their place in
the industry.

The industry took many
years to build up the PLIB
trademark to where it was
accepted without question
throughout the world, because
it was independent and be-
cause it maintained a proper
standard. It has done a job
for industry that no other or-
ganization or association can
begin to touch.

INSPECTORS

The Inspectors are not go-
ing to stand by and see it torn
down by a few short sighted
people in the industry, and
yes, we are sorry to say, a
good number of them were
former PLIB inspectors. We
wonder where the “Bob Wal-
dons”, “Jack Hudsons” and
the “Bill Thomas’s” are. These
were men who had the cour-
age of their convictions and
did so much to build the In-
spection and Educational di-
vision of the industry.

The members of the Lum-
ber Inspectors Local hope that
the industry will see fit to set
up a Negotiating Committee
of top management people and
meet with the Union repre-
sentatives to bring intelligent

discussion to the bargaining
table.

RESOLUTION

A resolution on Borrowed
Men was dealt with and it was
resolved, that the situation
must be controlled and these
people must pay Union Dues
to our Local when working
under our contract.

There were a number of
Resolutions on contract
changes sent in and these
were referred to the Wage
and Contract Conference in
March, which is a good sign.

Finances, which always
come in for a healthy discus-
sion, were very seriously dealt
with. As you know two years
ago our Local put on a full
time Business Agent and as-
sessed all members three dol-
lars per month, for a total of
eight dollars Union Dues, The
Financial Secretary, prior to
the Annual Meeting was in-
structed to bring down cost
figures on the Business Agent,
car expenses, and negotiation.
This he did very ably and the
meeting was given the cost fig-
ures for each section. The
total cost of the Business
Agent came to $9,957.00 for
the year, including a leased
car which cost 9.37 cents per

LET'S MAKE
oe
SAFE VEAR

.. . backin’ up to look at yer handy work ..
about all them safety resolutions ya made?

. what

mile, this was within $300.00
of the figure budgeted for by
the Financial Secretary prior
to the hiring of a full time
man.

With the exception of Ne-
gotiations, which cost us some
two thousand dollars, all the
other sections, such as the
Welfare Fund, Accident and
Sickness Fund, etc., showed
gains, and the Local goes into
the New Year in a sound fi-
nancial position.

The business of the meeting
over, the members and their
wives and friends gathered
for a banquet and dance in
the evening.

Present as guests were
Brother Jack Moore, our Re-
gional President, who had
earlier spoken to the mem-
bers, Mrs. Moore and Mr. and
Mrs. Dan Radford. A good
time was had by all till the
wee small hours of the
morning.

The Officers and Members
of Local 1-288 would like to
wish all their fellow members
the best in the New Year and
thank them for their co-opera-
tion in the past year.

WHATS NEW ABour-

AYTOMATION 7 SVE

BEEN AUTOMATE) FOR
YEARS J

FROM PAGE 1

"STRIKE"

they fully realize that-in the
Alberta area the lumber in-
dustry is grossly underpaid as
compared to its counterpart
in the province of British Col-
umbia. The Fort Macleod
Plywood finishes plywood
from veneer manufactured in
the province of British Col-
umbia, where the basic rate,
effective March 1st of this
year, will be $2.17 per hour.
The Company’s attempt to
rationalize this spread be-
tween their British Columbia
employees and their Alberta
employees by stating they
cannot pay wages which are
higher than those being paid
in the area. Yet the facts are
that the cost of living is con-
siderably higher there than in
B.C., or at least every bit as
high. The emnloyees in Crow’s
Nest, Fort Macleod and the
Calgary area are beginning
to ask their employers as well

as the provincial government
“Why should the border of

Alberta and British Columbia ~

be used by the employers as
an excuse to maintain Alberta
as a low-wage area?”

It takes a lot of courage
and determination just a few

days before Christmas and in
bitterly cold weather to step
out on a picket line. This, to
their everlasting credit, the
employees of Fort Plywood
and Lumber Company deter-
mined to do and did. Without
that solidarity the settlement,
insufficient as it is, would not
have been possible.

The employers in the south-
ern area of Alberta are hir-
ing consulting engineers to
do their negotiating for them.
The attitude and approach of
these people to negotiations
does very little for labour-_
management relations, as it is
obvious that it is the intent
of the engineers to maintain
as low a wage as possible in
that area and are dedicated
to putting as much of the re-
source’s wealth as they pos-
sibly can into as few pockets -
as possible with the inevitable
result that the workers suffer.

The IWA has a big respon-
sibility in the province of Al-
berta, to bring the wages in
line with decent standards of
human dignity — standards
that they are far from enjoy-
ing at the moment.

EEO

AUTOMAKERS’ PROFITS

“Wow! Big Three automakers reported gross profits for

‘the first nine months of ’65. The eye-popping figures: GM

$2.9 billion; Ford $970 million; Chrysler $265 million. Total

for the three, an unbelievable $4.1 billion. Thus

, In nine

months, the three made almost three-quarters of a billion

dollars more than the United States
in a whole year on all foreign aid.
creased prices on ’66 models!”

government will spend
And the three have in-

Dca

FLY B.C. AIR LINES’