22 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES 



In July of 1934 slight discontent was evidenced in the Spruce Falls Com- 

 pany's operations in the Kapuskasing section, but what first appeared like a 

 big and possibly protracted strike was amicably settled, and no further signs 

 of unrest amongst these workers in the woods appeared. 



Early in September, however, discontent broke out amongst the workers 

 of the Abitibi Power and Paper Company at their Iroquois Falls and Smooth 

 Rock Falls operations. Here the men, organized by the Lumber Workers 

 Industrial Union, made a demand upon the Company for a higher rate of pay, 

 shorter working hours, better living conditions, recognition of camp com- 

 mittees and for the right to organize and hold meetings in the lumber camps. 

 No negotiations were entered into by the men and the Company, and a strike 

 was declared. 



Careful investigation by the Government disclosed the fact that there 

 was no just cause for declaring a strike, and yet efforts to get the Compny 

 and men together were in vain. The Minister of Lands and Forests personally 

 met a delegation of the strikers at Iroquois Falls, gave them a most sympathetic 

 hearing, made definite and reasonable proposals, which were refused. 



Subsequently, about a month later, a number of settlers desirous of 

 working appealed to the Attorney-General for the right to work unmolested 

 by the strikers, and a further investigation revealed the desire of over three 

 hundred men to return to work if they could do so safely. The Minister of 

 Lands and Forests caused a meeting to be called at Cochrane on the 30th 

 of October at which was read his memorandum, in which he pointed out, 

 amongst other things, that while they had a right to strike and picket they 

 must do so peacefully and that no breach of the laws of Ontario would be 

 tolerated. The following day a number of men returned to work and the 

 strike was called off. A situation somewhat akin to this occurred during 

 October in the same Company's operations in the Sault Ste. Marie section, 

 where the Minister of Lands and Forests made certain proposals to the affected 

 workers which were rejected. Later on the strikers, representing only a 

 percentage of the workers, realizing they had not public sympathy behind 

 them returned to work. 



The considered opinion of the Minister, who met the strike leaders and 

 discussed the situation with them, is that some of the more prominent of 

 them, sufficiently influential to sway the others, were not particularly anxious 

 to effect any settlement and were not in sympathy with methods of negotia- 

 tions and conciliatory principles that apply in this country and that should 

 govern the settlement of industrial disputes. 



TIMBER SALES AND LICENSES 



Only nineteen timber sales under public competition, as indicated in 

 Appendix No. 11, took place during the fiscal year, all of these, excepting one, 

 covering small areas and all carried out in favour of active logging operators, 

 most of them being small dealers. Ten covered exclusive pulpwood proposi- 

 tions where the cordage was limited, and the others, with the exception of one, 

 were mixed propositions. There was but one tender each in thirteen cases, 



