The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-05-24
South's Lumber Workers Promise To Be Big Hope in Union Campaign
Labor Also Looks To Textile, Oil,
 Chemical Fields

(EidtOE's Note: This is the sec- end of three dispatches by MEAS outstanding expert on labor and business that give you c preview of the big fight planned in Dixie this summer by the CTO and AFL for a million new members.)
 By s. BURTON HEATH
 Birmingham, May 24.-(NEA)- Both the C.IO. and A.F.L. say that textiles, lumber chemicals and oil are the big fields from which they nope to get upward of Q million new members, between them, in the trites that both now are starting. Steel, which centerS here for the South, already is almost completely organized, and there are only a few istlated spots to be nopped up.
 The lumber industry probably is tlk least organized of any in the So1th. Specifically 1t appears to offtr an excellent opportunity, and the C.I.O. in particular hopes to pick up one or two hundred thou sand members in 1t.
 <, Production Low
 Tie picture as it will be pre- sentsd is about like this: There are i45OOOO workers in the basic lunnbsr industry in the country. Some 135,O0O of these are in the west are well organized and their average hourly wage is $1.l8. Less than 10000 are in the north; they are partially organized and their average hourly wage is 73 cents.
 In the South there are almost 265, 900 basic lumber workers, al- most wholly urlorganiEed and their average hourly wage Is 52 cents, less than half that in the linionized West and about two-thirds that in the partially organized North.
 But outside observers and at least some unionists agree with in- dusty spokesmen that the C.I.O. is riding for fall if 1t expects to get any large proportion of these 265,- 900 apparent candidates for organi- zation.
 The industry cites BI$ of Labor Statistics figures to show that man-hour production in the South is extremely low. This may be due in some part to the type of labor, but it is due even more to conditions that the beyond control.
 South Machinery Ancient
 A typical Douglas fir in the Northwest yields 1074 board feet of lumber, typical Southern pine only 99 board feet. An acre in the Northwest yields from 35,O00 to co., 900 board feet, an acre of second- growth Southern pine yields from | 1000 to 10000 board feet. The Vest ern industry is a highly mechani- sed, year-around; big mill business; the Southern industry is one of a multitude of ''peckerwood" mills title portables that work for a while until adjacent timber is ex- austed and then move along some- V1ere else. A substantial propor- tsn of the employees, of whom close k two-thirds are Negroes. work in tk lumber mills only when there isaothing to do on the farms.
 or these reasons, principally the ulclstry says that even at the pre- Ien low wage scale, a thousand feet of Southern lumber involves @ labc cost of $l5.52 as compared with $13.21 for Western lumber at the Ugh scale there and $10.32 for Northrn lumber at its intermed- fate lbor scale.
 Anyattempt on the part of the C.I.O. Q get wage scale comparable with tat in the West, many assert will reult in some 16O00 of the regions 17,0O0 mills closing down.
 There Is 8 large lumber prod uts indistry in various suotherr states employing probably in OK. cess of A,0O0 workers which may offer som field for organization Here the A.F.L. craft unions have an inside track and have no in tention of letting the C.I.O. get foothold.
 Conflict I'm Chemicals
 In the chemical industry, where the South. las seen a great war time expansi.n, there should be { hot conflict letween the CI.O. ol the one hand md two A.F.L. groups