FOREST AROUND

FINLAND

it will continue to demand more of what it considers its rightful share of corporate profits.
....The bargaining table between the two sides now occupies the full time of many intelligent people on both sides, and practically the whole scene of the relationship between employer and employee is governed clause by clause in master agreements.
....Just how far we can go with this negotiating phobia we now find ourselves in is a guess but soon it must break down in chaos.
....Labor leaders have difficulty today in even getting the rank and file to listen to them. Wildcats have occurred that even the top labor leaders are powerless to stop for some time. Management stands by and is totally frustrated by such acts, but is also powerless to do anything.
If this isn’t the start of chaos, what is?

START THINKING............
....I would suggest at this point that instead of throwing up our hands in despair we evaluate the scene and start thinking.
....What causes wildcats?
....What causes the friction that exists so strong in some camps and mills?
....Why do normally mild-mannered men stop work and follow the advice of some strong voiced person who is disregarding his union and his employer?
....Why do some labor leaders call down the bosses as if they were preparing for World War III?
....Why do some management people make the senseless statements they do about labor leaders?
....Don’t we all know we’ve got a good thing going here in B.C.? Of

.. This is the second in a series of articles on Bill Moore’s recent tour of the forest industry in Finland. The writer talked to various people, and conducted a personal study of that country’s forestry operations. One of the highlights of his talks was the information he garnered on Finland’s labor-management system, to which he devotes this month’s column.

....This has never materialized nor is it likely to in the near future.
....The prerogative of management doing the managing is still the order of doing business in Finland, even though the work force’s standard of living is on a much higher plain than a few years ago.

A GOOD MOOD...........................
....However, this system that allows a group of management and staff to sit down with elected representatives of labor in a given plant has been conducive to setting up a fairly good mood of co-operation in the plants or operations.
....Naturally, the system is only as good as the representatives on the committee, and can only function progressively if its terms of reference are broad and spelled out.
....Let us look at our own forest in-dustry, particularly the logging camps and mills, and see just where this production committee system might do us all some good.
....As the years have progressed since World War II the relationship between management and labor has gone through great changes.
....Before the war the camps and mills were run by what may be called the firm hand of management. We now find that what was the firm hand has become the soft shoulders of man-agement.
....By this I mean that with the increasingly heavier voice of labor bargaining for its place, management has found it needs the direction of legal assistance more and more in its answers to all forms of labor’s demands.
....The affluence of the work force here in B.C., as elsewhere in North determination on the part of labor that

course we all know, but between the human frailties of power platforms and disgruntled individuals we are all swept along in a very fast changing labor-management world.
....This industry has many logging camps and mills operating today that only need a few incidents of irritation to cause untold trouble and possible work stoppage.
....These irritations can generally be traced to a lack of understanding by a manager or foreman who is not infor-med or who does not act promptly to see that proper corrective measures are taken.
....Time and time again these problems are created.
....This industry is not noted for its over abundance of managers or foremen who have been trained in the psychology of people.
....The old methods of “you , and you, and you, take the boat” were once the order of the day, but now we find in its place a far different atmosphere.

OLD TACTICS OUT
....This industry needed those tough bosses for its very survival in times gone by, but today when we are competing with many other industries for talent the old tactics do not work and will never work again.
....There is no area set aside at present in our camps or mills where, without the pressure of negotiating, men from management and the work force can sit down and look into any and all foreseeable problems.
....Management needs more than ever to explain itself and its actions these days. What better place to do it than with an elected delegation of its own work force.
....Management needs more than ever to sit still and listen to the voices of the work force.
....Apart from what is wrong, there just might be a few suggestions on how the job might be better accom-plished. The work force needs a platform to stand on to speak out about the job they are doing. If a man is to work on a sidehill in the rain, untangling his feet from underbrush, then that man should have a right to speak out about his job.

WANT ANSWERS
....If a workman must work in the fumes or smoke of a plant and be expected to perform his job with diligence then that workman just may

want to know a few answers to his questions.
....Personnel officers or managers are not always the persons he will turn to. Instead he may choose to go to his shop steward or the grievance com-mittee. From there on his questions are in the hands of negotiators and too often the waste of time by all concerned is frustrating.
....Is it naïve to think that at this time in our short industrial life we can find ourselves unable to cope with one another directly?
....I’m sure the first people to applaud some sort of area where so many molehill problems can be answered and solved, before they become mountains, would be the negotiators of management and labor.
....A production committee of equal numbers from management and labor, properly organized, given good terms of reference, and backed by the leaders of management and labor could possibly be of great help to so many of the grass roots problems at camp and plant level.
....Serious thinking would have to be used by both sides in setting up such a committee, and if formed, it is necessary that the minutes of such meetings arrive in the hands of the leaders of both sides. In no way should the rights of unionism be infringed upon by such a committee, for the labor delegates would naturally be union men.
....Management also would not neces-sarily be bound by a committee deci-sion, but if a majority concurred on a given subject, it should be manage-ment’s concern to see that the subject is dealt with.

DISCUSS PROBLEMS
....The subjects of work methods, camp or plant environmental prob-lems, housing, future plans, and the preventative problem areas of the job could all be discussed at such meetings.
....It would seem that meetings of at least once a month could have a chance to accomplish something of the good of all, if sincerity and trust were in that room. The presence from time to time of union leaders, management leaders, as well as chokermen or edgermen, all giving their views before such a committee, would be in order.
....Why couldn’t such a committee function in a camp in the Queen Charlottes, or a mill in Campbell River

and be effective for the company as well as the work force?
....If such a thing is impossible then maybe we’d better forget such stale words as democracy or freedom of speech. After all they were coined by silly old fashioned men who only built our nation.
....The above is written for those who are not yet ready to throw in the towel. This forest around us in B.C. is still full of such men, in management and on the work force .
....Think about it.

Keep out of the bight,