= LY They’re fighting with all their strength at Boise Cascade in Fort Frances arid Ken- ora to save the union that freed them from transient labor status and virtual slavery to the pulp and paper monopolies. ° FORT FRANCES — It’s the second spring on the picket line for the striking members of Local 2693 Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union on strike against Boise Cascade. ; Some 140 workers at the Fort Frances and Kenora Division of Boise Cascade went on strike Oct. 11, 1978 to oppose a company demand in the new agreement that would have effectively smashed the union. The key issue in the 21-month old strike is the company’s demand that the workers buy their own equipment includ- ing skidders, which are tractors used for skidding trees from where they are felled toa pile or skidway site. Skidders cost up to $50,000 to buy brand new and have to be replaced every three to five years. Even prior to this, in a July 5, 1978 strike, members of Local 2693 had struck Boise Cascade to protest the company’s disregard for the collective agreement with the union by hiring owner-operators who ran and maintained their own skid- ders. The union charged this was a bla- tent attempt to break their organization and Boise subsequently announced that in the forthcoming contract talks it was going to insist that all of its employees would become owner-operators and work on a piece-rate system. Gov’t’s Shameful Role Throughout the workers’ struggle with Boise, the Government. of Ontario played its shameful role in the strike on behalf of the U.S.-based multi-national even before the strike officially began. Right from the beginning Queeen’s Park backed the company. First the Ontario Labor Relations Board ruled that the original protest strike against the’ use of Owner-operators was an illegal strike, and ordered the strikers to return to their jobs. The strikers returned to work for one day and then struck again. This time, the Ontario Supreme Court found the strik- ers guilty of contempt of court and fined them $50 each plus $25 for every day they refused to return to work. Ina vicious move to starve the strikers into submission, lawyers for the com- pany began to issue writs and ordered the local sheriff to seize money from bank accounts as well as to confiscate furni- ture, TV sets and other personal prop- erty to make up the fines. Kids who shared the same first names as either of their parents had money seized from bank accounts, just like their parents. Then, when the strike was officially on, the Ontario Tories dispatched an army of Ontario Provincial Police to in- timidate the strikers and try to smash the strike. Literally hundreds of OPP have been on the picket lines, helping scabs through, and trying to demoralize the strikers. Last January it was revealed the OPP had tapped the phones of seven members of Local 2693. The police gave the strik- ighting for nion’s life It’s taxpayers dollars that Boise Cascade strikers have to fight against in their struggle for justice. The Ontario Tory government has given Boise $1.7-million from the public purse to refurbish one of its plants while Queen’s Park, by last August had blown more than $2-million to supply the strike-bound company with scab herders and picket line goons in the form of the Ontario Provincial Police. IN RECOGNITION OF 18 MONTHS OF INTENSIVE UNION BASHING... ES sie SN ws . SON \ \ y Ve Ni ( \ i es WE AWARD YOU 1.7 MILLIONS OF WORKERS TAX DOLLARS / ‘ ay S x WS 3 m ) Va ers no reasons to explain why they were tapping the phones. In December police searched the homes of union leaders. Ontario’s Attorney. General Roy McMurtry later conceded the warrants were illegal. , The strikers have experienced narrow brushes with death. Last summer two strikers operating a small row boat, pic- keting a long boom, were run over by a Boise Cascade tug. The men almost drowned when they were dumped into the water. Another striker came within inches of being blasted to death with a shot gun, when a scab fired into the wall of a strike hut used by the picketers to keep warm on the line last winter. Support for the strikers from or- ganized labor throughout Ontario and the rest of Canada has kept the strike alive, but there hasn’t been enough mass public -pressure to force the U.S. multi-national to settle the struggle. A fund raising campaign involving the adoption by a local unions or groups of workers of a strikers’ family has kept a large number of the strikers at least with food on the table during the fight. However, since Canadian Labor Con- gress president Dennis McDermott’s promise in August 1979 to ‘‘bring down the whole weight of the Canadian labor movement’ on the company to force it to negotiate a settlement, little else has been heard or seen of the top leadership of the labor movement in the issue. Women Join Struggle Virtually every union supporter on the picket line has been harassed in some form or other. Every single picket cap- tain has faced legal charges. Strikers have been ordered to stay away from the picket lines and the strike area by county judges. The union has appealed numer- j ous rulings in the courts and have had © most of them overturned. To keep the picket line functioning, the wives decided to replace their hus- bands who were banned from picketing, The OPP, who had practiced assaulting women strikers on the Fleck picket line, displayed the same kind of brutality against the Boise strikers’ wives. One woman wore a neck brace all last winter because of an injury sustained when she was hit in the mouth by an OPP officer. Police continue to harass. strikers and their families by conducting surveillance of their homes, following them when they go out, and conducting nuisance searches. ‘‘Where’s Mass Support?’’ On Sept. 11, following a letter sent to Boise employees by company president H.W. Sherman telling them Boise no longer recognized the union and that the company had sold all of its equipment, used in its woodlands operations, McDermott promised the CLC would give Boise ‘‘ ahot-foot.’’ But, aside from messages of support and the adoption campaign the labor movement leader- ship has been reluctant to launch a mas- sive campaign of concrete, mass pres- sure behind Local 2693 to compel the company to settle. Meanwhile Boise continues to boast that no one is paying attention to the tough words occasionally uttered by labor leaders. The other unions who went out on : i { on nih ‘ = a strike nearly two years ago with Local | 2693, but who have since returned, will be coming up again this summer for con- tract renewals. After the massive sac- rifice made by the Boise strikers overthe past 21 months, the strikers and their supporters are expecting an all out mobilization of labor in support of Local 2693 to ensure they can return to work in dignity and with job security. Lumber and Sawmill workers fought too hard to end the transient nature of their work, which made them virtual slaves to the pulp and paper companies, to see it go down the tubes after such a noble fight. Less than a vicious move to turn back the clock to a time when bush workers worked like horses and were treated with even less respect. \)] | PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 9, 1980—Page 10. ;