B.C. LUMBER WORKER

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IWA Education

NEW CANADIANS taking advantage of the English language

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classes sponsored by Local 1-85,

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IWA., Port Alberni, are from left to right, starting at the back row: Tara Singh, Local Safety Director; Alois Aumair, Gerry Wong, Mark Dak Leon, Mehar Singh, Kurt Eisenkolla, Gabriel

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UNION JOB RELATIONS is the s Quesnel, under the tutorship of Organizer Jim Lehman, seen standing at the extreme left.

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ubject which this Local 1-424, IWA, class is now studying at

Christoph, Helmut Meyer, Cor Keizer, Max Stabbert, Harm Triemstra, and J R. Nelson (Teacher).

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course follows the outline introduced at the Parksyille Staff Seminar.

CCL Unionists Defend Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining has not outlived its usefulness, declared Financial Secretary Lawrence Vandale, when in association with Vie Forster, Secretary of the Vancouver Labor Council, he met two representatives of management in debate on Town Meeting in Canada recently.

The IWA member of the trade union team expressed the opinion that the values of collective bar- gaining had been obscured by the introduction of suspicion, distrust, and lack of good faith, with the view of employers that labor could be treated as a commodity.

Sound Principles

Collective bargaining would op- erate to the advantage of the whole community, he declared, when the following principles are adopted.

1. Full acceptance by manage- ment of the collective bargaining process and of unionism as an institution. The Company should consider a strong union as an asset to the management. 2. The Union recognizes that the welfare of its members depends on a suc-

" cessful operation of the business.

‘The Company should stay out

the Union’s internal affairs

seek to alienate the work-

more union-management consul- tation for solutions to situations that could be provocative.

In stating previously that sus- picion and distrust were detri- mental factors in establishing good faith in collective bargain- ing, the following quotation fur- ther bears this out: At the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, a Mr. Teplow cautioned against the set- ting up of union-management study groups to consider prob- lems involved. “Many employ- ers,” he said, “may be inclined to accept this as an apparently reasonable proposal but in so do- ing they may be walking into a trap.”

I would hesitate to suggest that this statement is in the best in- terest of labor-management rela- tions, and more particularly when it is made to the top body of the Employers’ Union or Association.

Strike Weapon

On the other occasion before the Ash Commission of Enquiry into the ICA Act, Mr, Olson, then an executive of the BCCMA me- tal division, had this to say: “A strike should be implemented within a 24-hour period after the strike vote is taken—for the pro- tection of both parties.”

The Chairman, Mr. Ash, then asked: “Would not that have the

in saying ‘bargaining’, I should say, serious bargaining. We find that we are getting through the bargaining ‘period, through the Conciliation Officer, through the Conciliation Board period, much more quickly than we did before, because we are using the strike Weapon.”

- Does this indicate ‘bargaining in good faith?’ Not in my opin- ion. Collective bargaining in some instances has not been given a fair trial.”

Vie Forster declared: “The working people fought for the just right to have a voice in the determination of the price they would receive for their labor, in the hours of labor, in the safe and healthy condition under which they would work, and all those factors which today we find in a collective contract. This could be achieved only through collective bargaining, that is by being able to sit down with their employers, and negotiate on hose factor’ which determined their standard of life.

Won By Struggle

It took years of heart-breaking shuggle by the workers to achieve collective bargaining. The workers paid a heavy price. That struggle is not yet fully won. There are still employers who resist.

So, today, throughout the world, we have collective bar- gaining recognized by govern- ments, through law, and recog- nized by people as just and demo- cratic, and most important, as necessary.”

Course Teaches

English

Classes in the English lan- guage were introduced last October by Local 1-85, Port Alberni, to help their new Can- adian members become better citizens and safer workers on the job.

With the able help of Mr. Nel- son, a full time teacher in Port

Alberni, the students are learning

' ‘|enough English to converse with

their fellow workers.

The class at the moment con- sists of six different nationalities, East Indian, Chinese, Swiss, Ger- man, Dutch and ‘Austrian.

Local 1-85, allows the class to use the Board Room in the Local Office, pays the teachers wages and supplies all the books needed for the course.

1-424 Starts Classes

IWA staff members in the Prince George area, who at- tended the staff seminar at Parksville earlier in the year, are now busily engaged in pro- moting an educational program for the members of Local 1-424, IWA.

Organizers Jacob Holst, and Jim Lehman are conducting classes in Union Job Relations at Prince George and Quesnel re- spectively, for both day and

afternoon shifts. The attendance has been excellent and a marked enthusiasm is reported on the part of the students.

The courses are modelled after the outline introduced by the International Educational Depart- ment representatives, Ed Kenney and Joe Miyazawa, and which has proved effective for basic train- ing. -

Other courses will be sponsored by the Educational Department at an early date, in accordance with previous announcements.

“I started to write a drinking song once.”

“What happened, old boy?”

“I couldn’t get past the first two bars.”

CO-OPS BUILD HOUSES

Most ambitious co-operative housing project yet attempted in Canada has been launched in Ontario, and the subject of much discussion during the re- cent parliamentary hearings on the National Housing Act.

Some 1,500 Ontario families are at present members of study groups launched and guided by field workers of the Institute of Social Action, an extension de- partment of St. Patrick’s Col- lege, at Ottawa. The movement is headed by Rev. F. A. Marroco,

English-speaking director of the

Social Action Department of the Canadian Catholic Conference.

66 Starts 1953

Sixty-six new housing starts were made under, the plan last year, and it may result in hun- dreds more this year, Father Marocco believes,

Co-op housing, as conceived in “thé St. Pat’s Plan”, is group action by a number of families to provide themselves with homes, usually by buying land together, buying materials to- gether, sub-contracting together and sharing one another’s labor.

The plan appears to be in no way a threat to private enter- prise—indeed it is a form of pri- vate enterprise.

“Far from taking. business away from anybody, co-op hous- ing groups are creating a de- mand for building supplies and for labor that otherwise never would exist,” says Father Mar- rocco,

Study First

To ensure that only those who otherwise could not afford hous- ing are helped, study groups guided by the college have a strict membership policy. For ex- ample, men who already own adequate homes are not admitted. Similarly, women, unmarried people who do not need housing, and physically handicapped per- sons’ who cannot participate in the building program are not admitted.

“Members put up a heavy la- bor equity after months of study and organization, and no one gets something for nothing,” says Father Marrocco.

Construction of 34 Ottawa area homes began in June, 1953, and will likely be finished in June, 1954. The other pilot group, of 82 units, is at Lindsay.

A Real Union Shop And No Mistake!

No less than TEN unions work in harmonious association with the management of The Van- couver Sun to produce the daily issues of Western Canada’s leading newspaper that go into two out of three British Columbia homes. The Sun is happy to be a real Union Shop throughout, with agreeable relations with all its organized crafts and personnel,

PHONE TAtlow 7140 FOR DAILY HOME CARRIER DELIVERY

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