Western Pulp and Paper

AUGUST 1964 PAGE 1 Ocean Falls Local 312 Scholarship Awarded by Peter Marshall

[photo] Miss Carol Peterson [photo[ Mr. Don Herschmiller

Ocean Falls Local 312 has awarded scholarships of $250 each to students Carol Peterson and Don Herschmiller. Normally the Local awards an annual scholarship of $250 to one of the graduating class at Charles High School. However, this year, as there were two really outstanding students and as there was no award in 1963 the Local decided to award two scholarships for 1964.

Carol is a member of Local 312 employed in the local Hudson's Bay store. She will be going to UBC this fall. Don is also a member of Local 312, presently working in the Electric Shop and will also be attending university this fall.

Carol's father, Carl Peterson is also a member of Local 312, being a Welding Shop lead hand. Don's father is also a Local 312 member, lead hand on the Carpenter Millwright Crew.

AUGUST 1964 PAGE 9 OCEAN FALLS REPORT by Peter Marshall

Local 312 July Meeting

The meeting voted to fully endorse the actions of the Executive, this included the publication of the United Worker and went on record as being opposed to any further Company actions to ham-string the 312 executive.

The meeting also agreed to refer a letter that we had received from CZCL which refuses to grant any member of Local 312 permission to make long distance phone calls during working hours to the Board of Industrial Relations for an interpretation under the Labour Relations Act.

It was also agreed that our grievance on rents and services should be sent to the next step, which is to Vancouver.

A telegram should be sent to Mr. Galloway, President of CZCL asking for his personal intervention on behalf of a woman employee in the local Hotel who had been refused compassionate leave. Local management had failed to acknowledge a request for an urgent meeting to discuss the matter.

Brother Mike Crocker, who works in the Pipe Shop was elected to fill a vacancy on the Local's standing committee.

The August meeting is cancelled due to the fact that half the Executive would be our of town on vacation.

Job Evaluation

Brother Len Reitlo has stepped down from the Job Evaluation Committee, and Brother Ivan Pedersen, from the Groundwood has filled the vacancy.

AUGUST 1964 PAGE 9 OCEAN FALLS REPORT by Peter Marshall

Groundwood

The Ocean Falls Grinder room is one area where Job Evaluation is needed. The place has the appearance of a Penal Establishment of the 1750s era. The work is hard yet the pay is among the lowest in the mill, $2.39 an hour. It reflect no credit on CZ, nor the Union for that matter.

Suggestion Plan

I was amazed to learn that the Suggestion Plan Committee had stopped meetings, meetings were no longer scheduled by management

Hotel Revolt

The employees in the Martin Inn, members of Local 312 have been in revolt the past few days. The girls in the Cafeteria had finally had enough of continual complaints from customers about the quality of food, so they demanded and got a meeting with the Hotel Manager.

The minutes of the meeting showed five pages of beefs, mainly about the quality of the food they had to serve, particularly on night shift, left overs, etc ...

Northland Strike Best wishes for a successful settlement of the current Northland strike.

Hotel Improvements

We now have a rug on the floor in the local Beer Parlour (Ladies side only), a progressive move, but Local 312 has been fighting for years to get acoustic tiling and better ventilation.

Last year at negotiations the Company agreed to get an engineering survey done on the question of air conditioning in the Cafeteria and Coffee Shop. Don't know what happened to the survey or the report, but the Company never fulfilled its promise to advise the union of the outcome.

Overtime

It was interesting to take part in the hearing by the Board of Industrial Relations into the application for exemption from the Hours of Work Act requested by the employers in the Pulp and Paper industry in BC.

Mr. Blair's submission from the Bureau on behalf of the Companies was technically and grammatically perfect but it was completely lacking in basic understanding of what actually goes on in the Mills. Lets get down to basics, excessive overtime, haywire scheduling and long hours, instead of hiding every thing behind decimal points and industry and plant wide statistics.

The unions must have made some impression on the Board because they have decided to send the Board vice-chairman to make a personal investigation in each Mill.