The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1923-09-28
LUMBERJACKS GET
Is CENTS AN HOUR
By SIDNEY WARREN
Federated Press Staff Correspondent

Vancouver, B. CAS- prosperity in
the Canadian lumber industry grows,
the condition of the workers gets
worse.
1t is estimated that over 100000
feet of lumber were exported from
the mills of British Columbia during
August. Orders are now on hand to
keep mills running through September
and October with future inquiries
brisk. Prices have held steady and
there are no signs of slackening at
present. Previous large cOnsignments
Of lumber sent to the Atlantic coast
during the past three months have
been absorbed and there is now no
cheap lumber available on the eastern
market.
In contrast to the bosses prosperity
the provincial government of British
Columbia has ordered lumberjacks to
fight fire on the logging companies
properties for 25 cents an hour and
board. When a fire recently occurred
at the Whalen Pulp and Paper comp
any's plant at Quatasino, men were
ordered to fight the fire at the govern
ment's wage and when they refused
were threatened with arrest by tn
fire warden. Then men of this camp
held out and refused to risk their
lives on behalf of the company unless
they were paid a decent wage for it
and in the end the company acceded
to their demand. Other loggers
throughout the province are taking
similar action and are refusing to
fight fires under the conditions laid
down by the provincial authorities.
The result may be the repeal of the
arbitrary wage scale for fire fighting.
One result of the present boom in
the lumber industry has been the re-
vlval OF many small logging camps
where logging operations are carried
on by Anticipated and frequently dan
gerous methods. These camps are
known, among lumberjacks and those
familiar with logging conditions, as
"haywire outfits" They are usually
operated by owners who are calitalists
only in an embryonic state. In hay
wire camps accidents are FREQUENT.
mainly due to the continual speeding
up with worn out equipment. In
many cases it is cheaper to kill or
cripple an occasional logger than to
install safety devices or buy new ma
chinery. Conditions in some of these
haywire camps have become so motor
iOus that it is difficult to find men
who will hazard working in them.
Often such camps must have three
crews employed-one working, one
leaving the job, and the third going
to it.
When the lumber industry was
slack, the haywire camp frequently
failed due to lack of proper equip
ment and necessary capital. At such
times loggers who had worked for
several months without drawing their
pay frequently lost all of their earn
lngs or at best recovered a part after
expensive legal procedure. So fla
grant were the failures of these hav-
wire camps that the provincial legis-
latUre was induced to pass what is
known as the Semi-Monthlv Paw Dav
&c. This act provided that ali log
gers must be paid every two weeks al
least. But since the day it was placed
on the statute books it has never once
been enforced against the logging
( companies. The result has been that
when slack times come in the lumber
industry and the logging companies
fail, the lumberjack finds that he has
worked several months for nothing.