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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1973-08-09, Page 1Marie Williams, of Mr, and Mrs. Jack ,110 Hinck• St., was s graduates, July 28, in Sound Regional of. Nursing. A .1969 • of Norfolk NGener l al, she Nursing Assistant staff of Goderich drs Marine and I Hospital before the two ysar.course Sound. Her brother mo from Regina for Md, to attend the ion. Janet has scoop - ion in Owen Sound. olwi Q„ ,nlNamts graduated July 9 from Depot Division + • R.C.M.P., Regina. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Williams, grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Chester Festoon, and his sister,' Janet, attended the graduation, at which Con- stable Williams gave the valedictory, address. A mem- ber of the Depot Division Recruit Band, and of the senior troop at the time of the Queen's visit, John was stationed at Regina on Cen- tennial duties, until posted to Melita, Manitoba, August 6. Dominion Road Machinery Ltd. Personnel Manager L. B. Graham confirmed on Tuesday morning that the Goderich road grader company and Local 1863 of the International Association of Machinists and Areospace Workers had finalized a new contract agreement for both hourly em- ployees -and office_ staff; Mr. Graham declined to give any details of the new pact but ._explained that the agreement would cover two years. The hourly employees and of- fice staff are employed under separate contracts although they are members of the same union and the same local. Negotiations were also carried out on a separate basis and were ratified by the union members independently. DRMCO union executive members were among em- ployees at the plant now on holidayrl and were unavailable for comment. - Mr. Graham said in an inter- view with the Signal -Star that the new agreement represented "a good deal" for the em- .,ploye.es. The company now em- ploys 707 workers. At present DRMCO is tur- ning out an average of four units per day. Mr. Graham said that during some weeks that figure has been surpassed but that it represented an overall average of production. Business prospects for the nextsix months at least appear Overseas markets remain by far the strongest for DRMCO with .Africa purchasing a.great many of the graders. Most of the factory's output is marked. for export: shahsr PanCoinpan' yresldenl Ned slshop was. •rich for meetings' with local plant manager BIH Gard- addition to meeting, with the local management Mr. lunched with Goderich Mayor Harry Worsell, right, tar strike \in 10th week and Signal -Star Publisher R. G. Shrier, left. Mr. Bishop, second from left, presents a Sheaffer pen and pencil set to Mr. Shrier while Bill Gardner, second from right, presents a similar gift to Mayor Worsell. feeIs:.'effects trike by menthes of 2 of the International of Chemical' Workers the Domtar Chemicals ifto Salt mine in is.now in its tenth nd some Goderich men are begining to ex- ncern over the effect wages may be having awn of Goderich. Schaefer, president of erich Businessmen's ion, said in an inter- Tuesday- that the lass timated $346,875 - in ince the strike began and' -to have`'soine"ef the community. effect is hard ' to 'though," he ex: (0 Mnces arship Dominion Road ry Company. Ltd. an - this week that Culbert, son of Mr. Laverne T. Culbert of me Street in Goderich selected as the 1973 of„the ."Champion" attending the plained. "For Inst nce the tourist trade is dow this year and its hard to tell ow much bearing the strike has on business." "That much money can't be— taken - out of Vie economy without its effect* being felt though," he said, "Common sense tells you that.?" The 185 striking employees would normally receive about $138,750 per month according to mine manager Gordon Muir. "Some of the employees are doing part time work," Mr. _Muir observed, ,"but there's a big difference between the mon- thly wages__and $25 per week strike pay." The average rate at the mine previous to the strike was about $4.40 per hour. The salt workers contract ex- Culbert Britannia Rd. Wer old rt n �noderlch, won ttu�ngl�isnof tltleMin, the Provincial Lawn sowNng Association's second stage playdown at the Fairmont Lawn Bowling Club In London of Waterloo in the Saturday .July 28 and advanced to the Provincial cham- he "Peenerl to to plonships at the Kingston Lawn Bowling Club last Satur- htimajor day. Lee won the semi-final competition with three wins �' ne graduated y h r10 scholar from the against no. losses. In Kingston M showed a very eosmmen- • Diatrict double perforntencobut As runneust �ps LN received Dave a 'institute, rows from Burlington. clock -Trophy as a memento. pired on.March 31 and they left their jobs at midnight Sunday, May 27 demanding higher wages and improved fringe benefits. Local 682 president Harold Leddy said at the time that the u'rion had agreed.. to sign a three year contract with Dom- tar although they had originally asked to negotiate in terms of a two year agreement. The local is demanding an increase to bring wages paid at the local mine on a par with those paid by Canadian Rock Salt at its Windsor complex.. In addition to wages and hours of work the dispute also centers around matters of fringe benefits such as vacations and medical coverage of the workers. Union negotiators rejected a Domtar offer of. increases amounting to $1.05 over the three year contract. Local 682 countered with a demand for $1.65 over the same contract period. Domtar'• last offer was ter- • med a "generous one" by mine manager Muir, The union is also demanding an increase of $10,000 on the -life insurance policy paid for by asking for implementation of a drug plan and changes in the company's vacation and hours of work policy. Membersof Local ..682 em- ployed at the Domtar Evaporator plant have also lost several days work due to the strike. Employees at the evaporator plant ,are employed under A separate contract althoogh they are members of the same local. The striking local' members cut the evaporator operation off with a picket line for a tot4kof 19 days. The day the strikPbegan all employees at the evaporator plant were out when they refused to cross picket lines set up by the strikers. In protect of a a truck crossing their line at t (Continued on page 12 Despite gloomy forecasts by economists about the future of business for North America, and indeed the world, Louis (Ned) Bishop, President of Sheaffer Pen Company, main- tains the future, for his com- pany at least, remains bright. Mr. Bishop was in Goderich last 'Wednesday for meetings with local plant- manager Bill Gardner. A great deal of the company president's time is spent travelling around the world and back meeting with Sheaffer Pen Company representatives and distributors on every continent. Mr. Bishop bases much of his confidence on the Canadian Sheaffer pperattQn; "Our operation in Canada isf handled much ' better than anywhere else in the world,;" he, told the Signal -Star in an inter- view. • "At the moment I can't see the establishment of any more plants in Canada," he said., "but rather a program of ex- pansion at our existing facilities." The Goderich operation at present employs 66 persons at its Huron Road plant and an additional 12 salesmen are af- filiated with it as .well. Mx Bishop foresees this growing, in the not too distant future. In general the foreign operation has -an advantage over the United States plant in that a price freeze is in effect south of the border Elsewhere? "Things are great. Judging by growth things are fantastic," Mr. Bishop notes. - The Sheaffer president sees North America's main exper- tise (especially jn Canada) in the field of distribution. This area of the company's business is likely,. to expand .at...a faster rate than actual production, he say*. .., • "Manufacturing expansion will occur as the need arisen," he explains, "and with that. local employment should go up. Although actual plants for the production of Sheaffer Pens are in- operation only in Canada, the United States and Australia, Sheaffer has distribution and other such operations in Japan, Southeast Asia, South America, Mexico, Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Bishop's visit to Canada is part of a• continuing policy of involvement the company,, president has set for himself._ "I want to die a person, not, just a name," he explains, "I must be totally involved in all our operations." "It is much easier to convey . policies in a face to face con- frontation with our men in various countries than by han- ding down memos and -written directives from head ,office. I'm really not that good at writing memos and directives because I'm just not that smart," he notes. Mr. Biahop also feels that through•peraonal meetings with those responsible for operations 154 countries around the world and situations can differ radically. Despite this individual, grass roots approach, Mr. Bishop: brought in a program 'of global -marketing, a system replacing a fragmented-- set up which changed the control local distributors had over such things as advertising. "We are now centralized and that provides us with better controls. We direct our adver- tising to the consumer where he is buying," Mr. Bishop said. "Sheaffer always had a good name," he explains, "but we • fell down in the area of con- -sumer awareness:" n so many different countries he Sheaffer -. Pen authorities are better able to underatand nd assess problems which may be so different from one coun- ry to the next. Sheaffer Pen •distributes in Sales and Sheaffer ac'cep- _;talility are now better than ever, he says,. -- Canada..hasict always been a good operation, the, company -president. admits, "but we lear- ned from the bad times." "We looked into the situation because we had to find a way to. stay in Canada so we reorganized the company in such a way that we could do that," he explained. The relationship -between Speidel and Textron Ltd. and Sheaffer Pen has been con- fusing for many people and Mr. Bishop set the relations out this way: "Speidel is a separate entity. No matter where they would have located their plant (which is set up in quarters ren- ted from Sheaffers at their Huron Road Complex) Sheaffer would have been their distributor." - "Speidel might just as 'well have located in Toronto so Bill Gardner and I had to do a hard selling joky to- get them here in Goderich," he explained. "They are an entirely separate com- pany with ,their own it management and all Mr. Gard- ner -is to them is a landlord." Textron, a company of which both Shes'ffer and Speidel are divisions "is a multi -market type. company" Mr. Bishop ex- plained. "They own many industries, of various types, in an attempt to level out returns to in- vestors. That is, when business is down 'for one industry it is likely up for ariotF} r and this ;" M levels out returnsr. Bishop' said. The Textron-Sheaffer con- nection is seen as a "strict1 legal" one. "We treat Speidel just as we - would any other -vendor- whose product Sheaffer's system distributes,", Mr. Bishop said. While in Goderich Mr. Bishop met briefly with Mayor Harry Worsell and lunched with His Worship and Signal Star Publisher R.G. - Shrier. - In last week's edition, of the Goderich Signal Star it was in- correctly reported, that Town ''k Council would meet Thursday August 2 to consider the ap- plication of Suncoast Estates for the necessary planning changes to . open the way for development of a $2,000,000 shopping plaza proposed by the developing firm. Town Council meeting, which would normally have been held on 'that date, was postponed for one week since it fell so close to the Civic Holiday weekend. As a result the application by Suncoast, which received the recommen- dation of Goderich Planning Board two weeks ago, will be on the council's agenda when it meets this evening, August 9. Plannirr'g Board handed down its decision to recom- mend to town council that it Local business expands to Exeter proceed with the necessary changes after a committee of the whole meeting, which. took place following a marathon session of the Board on July 25. Board. members listened to nearly' three hours of presen- tations from legal counsel representing both the Goderich Businessmen's Association and Suncoast Estates, as well as a presentation and petition from the "Build the Mall Commit - tee", before moving into closed session. After another 90 minutes the , decision was agreed upon with only one dissenting vote. ' The recommendation by Planning' Board came as something of a surprise to many of the 30 persons who janimed the council chambers. Just before the meeting went behind closed doors Municipal (Continued on dao. 12 Rawson, speaking on behalf of Rawson and-Swartman Ltd, announced—on Tuei ay mor- ning that his company recently completed the purchase -of an Exeter men's clothing store. Walper's Men's- Wear, more recently known as George Vriese Men's Shop, has been purchased by the Goderich firm for an undisclosed amount. The shop is located at 401 Main Street in Exeter. Mr. Rawson -said the new store will Carry much the same merchandise as does Rawson's Men's Shop in Goderich. He added that with two stores, shoppers who do not find exac- tly what they want in one will have, the opportunity to pur- chase frons stock at the slater store. The Exeter outlet will em- ploy two people under the management of Ed Gackatetter. Bob Hirano and Helen Hand wIN be In Godedoh later this month to conduct this year's version of Art Trek. Hirano is primarily Interested in sculpture while Mrs. Hand has in- formation for persona who make weaving their craft. The pair are travelling under the joint sponsorship of the On- ' tarso Ministry of Community and Social Services and the Ontario Society of Artists. Ooderich and ams people are expected. to turn out M record numbers for this unusual experience arranged for by the Goderich Art Club. -