Forest talks again
at front and centre
as crisis deepens

By ERNIE KNOTT

Canada’s forest industry, which showed
some signs of recovery earlier this year, is
back in deep crisis. In this provice, the spr-
ing’s temporary revival now appears to have
been more the result of inventory replace-
ment and a small upturn in Canadian and
U.S. housing starts accompanying the dip in
interest rates than the predicted renewal of
the economic cycle.

Prices for studs, considered a reliable in-
dicator, peaked at $227 last June but now
stand at $165 and dropping. Cedar prices are
softening, plywood has dropped $1 a panel
and pulp and paper prices have also dropped
as result of Scandinavian pressure and pro-

~ tectionist moves by European Economic
Community countries.

Most of the corporate giants have already
taken stops to protect their interests. U.S.
monopolies including ITT, Rayonier and
Crown Zellerbach have followed
monopoly’s traditional pattern of “‘cut and
get out’’ and have sold their Canadian com-
ponents, having creamed the profits:

‘The economic situation has put
negotiations in the forest in-
dustry at front and centre once
again.’

Others, such as B.C. Forest Products and
MacMillan Bloedel have closed uneconomic
plants including the Victoria plywood mill
and the Chemainus sawmill after pumping
out millions (without modernizing) for in-
vestment elsewhere. They are rationalizing
production, speeding up their remaining
operations and cutting back on the work

’ force. For example, M-B’s Alberni Plywood
mill is down from 800 to 250 workers, its

Somass sawmill division has been cut from :

1,100 to 300 and B.C. Forest Products’ Vic-
toria sawmill, which resumed production
after a one-year closure, now has 21 less
tradesmen, nine less foremen and 15 less
production workers.

Productivity in these mills and in woods
operations is up 30 per cent in the short term
and much more over the last three years.
Following the advice of Adam Zimmerman,
president of Noranda and chairman of M-B,
the industry is now to be “leaner and

That policy has brought results at M-B
which reported a $12 million profit for the
second quarter of 1983. But it has brought
no new jobs.

The forest industry, which is the most
highly subsidized in Canada, is demanding
and receiving more government handouts —
the latest being B.C. Hydro’s offer to supply
cheap ‘‘surplus’’ power on a long term basis.

The federal government has come to the
rescue by pumping millions into silviculture
programs, many of them under the Employ-
ment Bridging Assistance Program. And the
provincial government is helping by relaxing
logging, reforestation and environmental
standards required under the Forest Act.

But above all, the economic situation has
put negotiations in the forest industry at
front and centre once again.

The industry has seized on the latest
economic indicators to demand sweeping
concessions from wood and pulp workers.
On Aug. 29, the employers reiterated open-
ing demands for a three-year agreement with
no increase in the first year and only three
and 3.5 per cent increases respectively in the
second and third years; for ‘‘flexibility’”’ of
production (six or seven-day production us-
ing cheap, casual labor); and for concessions
in statutory holiday provisions.

They have alse demanded expansion of

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 14, 1983—Page 12

contracting-out which would see a prolifera-
tion of non-union contractors in the woods,
threatening the very life of the union.

The three unions in the industry are facing.
the challenge in different ways. Both pulp
unions, the Canadian Paperworkers’ Union
and the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of
Canada have done some work to prepare
their memberships to fight. The result has
been a 77 per cent strike vote in the CPU and
75 per cent among PPWC members.

The IWA’s bargaining strategy, beginn-
ing last spring, was to ‘‘to go slow, hang

” during negotiations based on the
idea that a rising market would create the’
conditions for an acceptable contract over a
lengthy bargaining period. As a result, the
IWA leadership placed less emphasis on ac-
tive preparation of the membership for:
struggle and did not conduct a strike vote.

With the market-downturn since June,
that strategy has now come unstuck and the
forest employers, sensing that the IWA
membership is least prepared, is pressing
hard for concessions over a long term con-
tract.

The unions’ strongest course now would
be to mobilize a massive rejection vote and to
coordinate all further action through the
common front of wood unions that was put
together August 25.

The three unions’ most powerful reply to ©

the employers’ offensive, which now in-
cludes the threat of lockout action, is unity
and a unified bargaining position. And the
need for joint strategy and coordination

IWA.

‘The IWA’s strongest course now

would be to mobilize a massive

rejection vote and coordinate all
further action through the com-
mon front.’

Certainly woodworkers cannot afford
any more announcements such as that made
by IWA president last week that the union
would be prepared to accept a one-year wage
freeze if other demands were dropped. That
position not only contradicted the stand
taken by the other two unions, but also
undermined bargaining unity and
disheartened IWA members.

Also important is full participation of the
wood unions in Operation Solidarity since it
should be obvious that private sector unions
are next in line for the same assault on work-

. ing conditions, wages and trade union rights

that the Social Credit government has levell-
ed against the public sector. Mobilizing an
effective fightback against the budget and
accompanying legislation is a crucial part of
defeating the offensive of the employers on
whose behalf the July 7 legislation was in-
troduced.

The continuing crisis in the forest industry
and the forest monopolies’ exploitation of
the resource without regard for the future of
the province or its people demonstrates the
need for all three unions to work together to
develop a long term economic plan for the
industry, aimed at maintaining employment
and economic security.

Woodworkers now face the most serious
challenge by the employers and the govern-
ment. But British Columbia’s woodworkers
have a long and militant tradition of struggle
— and given good, timely leadership and
unity, they can meet that challenge.

Ernie Knott is a member of the Wood-
workers’ Committee of the Communist Par-
ty and a member of IWA Local 1-118.

LABOR.

needs particularly to be emphasized in the

y * RY.

BC YT attacks’ ‘monetarism

Canada’s economic woes are caiised
by foreign ownership and control of the
private sector, the unchecked influence of
banks and financial institutions and a
“collective lack of purchasing power in
the hands of Canadians,”’ the B.C. and
Yukon Building Trades Council has
charged.

Ina brief to the Royal Commission on
the Economic Union, headed by former
finance minister Donald McDonald, the
council hit federal and provincial govern-
ment ‘‘monetarist policies’ for creating
“disastrous levels of unemployment.”

Building trades president Roy Gautier
told the commission, which held the first
of nation-wide hearings in Vancouver last
week, that the council has outlined ‘‘three
objectives for the Canadian economy:
adequate secure levels of income for all
Canadians; full employment; and con-
tinual progress towards equitable
distribution of the goods and services
which we can collectively provide.””

Gautier also told the commission that
“all presenters should be asked to state

Faculty praised for —

~ The 130 non-teaching staff at the three
Lower Mainland campuses of Kwantlen
College were back on the job Friday with
anew two-year agreement that the college
administration has pledged will take
precedence over any powers granted the
college by provincial legislation.
The staff, members of the B.C.
Government Employees Union, waged
_an 11-day strike which received strong
support from students and the college
faculty.
BCGEU negotiator Linda Tosczak
said the faculty support — most stayed

_ away from classes during the strike —

was an important factor in breaking the
deadlock in negotiations.

Members returned to work after \
Kwantlen boosted its first-year wage hike
offer from four to five per cent, with a
three-per-cent hike in the second year.

And the college administration pledg-
ed that the agreement will take

Lockout leaves bitterness

_ The 250 workers at the Vancouver
plant of Western Canada Steel returned
to work Friday following a six-month
lockout that local union president Boyrs
Lessy called a ‘‘heartless act at a time of
high unemployment.”

The members of the Canadian
Association of Industrial, Mechanical
and Allied Workers voted 71 per cent to
accept a 28-month agreement providing a
total wage hike of 14 per cent. The com-
pany also withdrew all concessions
demands, but union officials said the
lockout has left a legacy of bitterness.

“They hadn’t even taken a strike vote
when the company locked them out,”’
said CAIMAW leader Cathy Walker.

; sf
at ie LABOR NOTES

other corporate giveaways;

’ Richmond hotel. Others signed a petitio
return to the bargaining table.

their own views of what Canada’s
economic objectives should be, because
we believe that it is important to establish
a national consensus on this important
question.”

The Building Trades brief contained a
program for recovery, which included: —

@ Federal-government-imposed
change controls and investment regula
tions for foreign-owned corporations;

@ Nationalization of major banks
financial institutions;

@ Elimination of wage controls p
grams; 4

@ Immediate hikes in the amount and
duration of Unemployment Insura
benefits;

@ A massive poblic job creation pr
gram around housing and ‘“‘sociall
necessary capital works;”” : S|

@ Immediate hikes in pensions and
social assistance; i

@ Elimination of tax loopholes and

@ Expansion of secondary. and ter :
tiary industry. '

precedence over any powers granted
them by provincial legislation. Th
Public Sector Restraint Act and the Com
pensation Stabilization Amendment Act
introduced along with the Socred budg'
July 7, will if passed allow the freezing 0
roll back of wages and the dismissal of
employees without cause.

During the strike, called when
Kwantlen negotiators refused to match
collective agreement negotiated at thi
former parent institution, Douglas Co!
lege, many. students showed their suppo!
by registering for classes at an unofficial
desk set up by BCGEU Local 59 at a

at the picket lines calling on the college t

More than 90 per cent of Kwantlen $~
faculty refused to cross the picket line, in
a support action termed ‘‘unique in the
recent history of B.C.,’’ by faculty
association president Ralph Stanton.

Western Canada Steel is a subsidiary
of Cominco, which Walker said h
been responsible for the majority of da
lost through labor disputes in B.C. this
year. :

Members of the United Steelworkers :
waged an eight-day strike at Cominco’s-
operations at Kimberley and Trail last
spring in a battle against the company ‘si
demands for major concessions, and 4—
strike is currently being waged at Fording
Coal

The agreement provides an average
wage hike from $13.99 per hour to $16.05
per hour for laborers, while tradesme
will receive a boost from $15.20to $17.44
hourly.

Phy

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