THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

The B.C.* Federation © of Labour is receiving en- thusiastic response from the general public for its campaign to make jobs the number one political issue in the province and in the country. .

The Federation has opened a Citizens’ Lobby for Jobs office and hotline in Vancouver, are running ads on unemployment in the papers, and have had over three thousand question- naires returned by the unem- ployed expressing their feelings. |

The questionnaires were dis- tributed at a shopping mall in- formation campaign in over forty malls throughout B.C. The returns have given the Federation an insight to the

“SYD THOMPSON

problems faced by thousand of jobless.

Working closely with the Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress in the cam- paign are the seventeen B.C. labour councils.

The mass demonstration held on the grounds of the Legislature in Victoria, March 30th, pointed up how successful the Federation has been in making the subject of unem- ployment widely discussed in B.C.

Few demonstrations have been as successful in bringing to the attention of the provinc- ial government labour’s de- mand that quick action is

needed now to get people back to work.

LE

Federal Labour Minister John Munro has released the terms of reference that the Commission of Inquiry on Re- dundancies and Lay-Offs will operate by.

Regional President Jack Munro is a member of the three-man commission. The other two are Dr. A. W. R. Car- rothers and Charles Perreault.

Following are the terms of reference:

The Industrial Inquiry Com- mission, to hold and cause an inquiry to be made into:

(1) the redundancy and lay-off procedures utilized by em- ployers

(2) the — union/ management relations in redundancy and lay-off situations, their mutual and respective obligations to employees and to the community at

large : (3) the access to prior infor-

mation on redundancies ‘and lay-offs

(4) the effectiveness of federal legislative, regulatory and

yrogram measures to assist in re- ney and lay-off

d situations the po

(5)

sin

of employers, unions and government with a view to avoiding lay-offs to the extent possible and mini- mizing their adverse ef- fects when they do occur the possibility of develop- ing a code of good practice with respect to redund- ancies and lay-offs

any matters incidental or relating to any of the fore- going matters

and for these purposes to consult with or procure infor- mation from any organization, individual or group of persons, and to accept for consideration any submissions or other rep- resentations made by or on behalf of interested persons or organizations and to, on or before the 28th day of Febru- ary 1979, submit its conclusions and recommendations to me, as Minister of Labour, with respect to the aforementioned matters in the interest of miti- gating the adverse effects of redundancies and lay-offs

which may affect industrial relations.

The Commission may engage the services of such

(6)

(7)

technical or expert advisors,

clerks, reporters, and assist- ants as it deems necessary or isable to assist it.

SYD THOMPSON

“A BORN FIGHTER AND A MAN IN A HURRY”

. Syd Thompson, President of Local 1-217 IWA, Vancouver, was re-elected by acclamation March 11, to his eleventh term as Local President.

Syd has the distinction of holding the office of president longer than any other local president in Regional Council No. 1. He was installed in office January 11, 1959, after defeat- ing the incumbent president ‘Lloyd Whalen, in a bitterly fought election.

This will be his last term as president. Under- the IWA constitution persons holding office must automatically re- tire at age sixty-five.

During his years in office, Syd has remained a highly con- troversial figure. He is com- pletely outspoken and express- es his views in a powerful voice which, regardless of the size of the meeting room, seldom needs the aid of a ‘‘mike’’.

A born fighter anda manina hurry he became an im- placable enemy of past Regional Council administra- tions, for what he regarded as too timid an approach to taking on the employers.

Many people in the IWA today feel his long battles with

those administrations helped immeasurably to build the or- ganization.

Under his strong and capable

_ leadership Local 1-217 grew to

be for many years the largest local union in the Inter- national. Unfortunately, the Local has decreased in size in the last couple of years due to the City of Vancouver’s de- cision to allocate industrial property to high-rise develop- ment.

As Local President, Syd has also played an active role in the New Democratic Party, the B.C. Federation of Labour, and the Vancouver & District La- bour Council, whose president he has been for many years.

His determination to fight for social justice stems from the “dirty 30’s.”’ Like thousands of other Canadians, Syd was booted from pillar to post while riding the freights looking for work.

He was thrown into jail in Lethbridge, Alberta, for six months because he _par- ticipated in an unemployed march and has never. forgotten his hatred at that time for the system.

He joined the army when the

Second World War broke out and served five years overseas in the Canadian Engineers.

After the war, he went to work in a sawmill plant in Lumby, B.C., where he joined the IWA. From there he moved to the Coast and found work at Weldwood Kent in Vancouver, where he became active in the union.

A strong family man, Syd is a non-smoker and a moderate drinker. His greatest pleasures are fishing and duck hunting..

A bit of a health nut, he does a lot of walking. His favourite jaunt is around Stanley Park where he can be seen most week-ends when he is not working.

A number of his critics claim Syd has mellowed in the last couple of years because he now supports the Regional Council. This is far from true. Syd has always been his own man and supports the . administration now because it is doing the job for the Union he wants done.

Perhaps Syd and his critics have both mellowed but what . ever the answer more and more people are fondly calling him the ‘‘elder statesman’’ of the IWA.

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It must be some indication of the depth of Liberal party con- cern, about Canada’s frightening unemployment rate that it took them almost two hours to find enough MP’s to turn back an NDP motion to adjourn the Commons Feb. 14, after New Democrat House leader Stanley Knowles charged ‘‘the government has

no plan to deal with this disaster.”

Knowles moved the surprise motion after Statistics Canada figures were released showing

unemployment had topped the million mark for the first time

in Canadian history and the Liberals refused to take action

on opposition demands to create jobs. :

Outside the Commons,

Canadian Labour Congress president Joe Morris repeated his call for a new budget and urged the government to pump money into public sector job creation. NDP leader Ed Broadbent, recovering from an operation, blasted the Trudeau Liberals from his bed side for playing politics instead of dealing with unemployment.

Inside the House there was an uproar, as the opposition parties moved for an all-party committee to study solutions to the unemployment crisis. But finance minister Jean Chretien turned back the suggestion, along with demands to bring in a new budget, saying the country was going through ‘‘a time of economic adjustment.”

Unemployment Insurance Statistics SSS ee ee rear

Benefits

Gross amount ($000)

Net amount (1) ($000) Weeks of benefit (000) Average weekly benefit ($) Claims received (000)

Beneficiaries (000)

NDP finance critic Max Saltsman blasted the govern- ment for its refusal to act, charging the government would have ‘“‘no way of coping with this problem for another six or seven months’ if it did not bring down an immediate budget.

“This is not business as usual any more,” Saltsman said. “Once you reach a million un- employed, you have a national emergency.”

Morris repeated the CLC’s proposals for tax cuts, in- creases in the old age pension and a housing construction program to get the economy moving again. He also called on the federal government to pressure the provinces to re- duce sales taxes.

% Change From

Dec. Nov. Dec. Nov. Dec.

1977 1977 1976 1977 1976 a eee ee 319,439 316,721 272,186 1 17

317,734 314,249 270,848 1 17

3,018 3,063 2,787 =1 8

105.84 103.40 97.65 2 8

317 318 304 - 4

824p 689p 731 20 13

Benefits

Gross amount ($000)

Net amount (1) ($C20) Weeks of benefit (000) Average weekly benefit ($) Claims received (000)

Beneficiaries(2) (000)

% Change From

To Date 12 Months 1977 1976 1977 1976 a ee 3,909,044 3,361,573 : 16 3,884,969 3,342,247 16 38,702 36,190 7 101.00 92.89 9) 2,806 2,678 _ Re 749p 701 7

(1) After cancellation of warrants and collection of overpayments.

(2) Monthly average Pp Preliminary figures — Amount too small to be expressed