@ SPEAKING TO AN ASSEMBLY of angry woodworkers assembled in
Parksville outside B.C. Forests Minister Dave Parker's public information ses-
sions on proposed changes in forests administration, Local 1-85 President Earl
Foxcroft repeated calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the management
of the province's forests. Foxcroft said that the layoffs will devastate commu-
nities on southern Vancouver Island.

Continued from page 1

The chief executive officer, who has
also stated in the past that more B.C.
mills will close if the provincial gov-
ernment doesn’t reduce stumpage
fees, has criticized the B.C. govern-
ment’s environmental policies. He has
termed both federal and provincial
politicians as uninformed, concerning
themselves with environmental issues

for political gain.

IWA officials believe that Fletcher
Challenge has an agenda of reduction
and elimination of sawmilling facili-
ties in favour of expansion in the pulp
and paper sector. The merger of

Crown Forest Industries and B.C. For-
est Products provided Fletcher Chal-
lenge with eleven sawmills in B.C. and
one in Alberta.

Fletcher Challenge is currently the
world’s second largest newsprint sup-
plier with additional interests in Chile,
Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and
the United States.

The company has applied to the
BC. Ministry of Forests for additional

Tree Farm Licences. Its 50 percent
owned Finlay Forest Industries Ltd,
is an applicant for a tract of forest
lands covering 61,000 square kilo-
metres near McKenzie, B.C.

JOB CUTS
STAGGERING

Although Fletcher Challenge Can-
ada claims that only 425 people will
be displaced during its post merger
rationalization, if one looks closer at
the true numbers of people cast aside,
the figure grows enormously. Total
union job loss is in excess of 800
members. Add on company employ-
ees displaced and the number exceeds
1,000.

Caycuse Logging Division

— 55 jobs cut (May/89)

— 20 additional contract employees
to be cut.

Port Renfrew Logging Division

— 70 jobs cut (May/89) — :

— 22 jobs to disappear with possible
elimination of dryland sort.

Youbou Sawmill Division

— 141 jobs cut (May/89).

Fraser Mills Division

— 100 jobs cut in rationalization with
Delta Plywood.

Tilbury Sawmill Division

— 50 jobs cut (December/89).
Victoria Sawmill Division _ y
— 247 jobs lost on seniority list
(June/89).

Elk River Logging Division

— at least 10 jobs to be cut.

Lumby Sawmill Division
— 96 jobs lost (March/89).

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Since Fletcher Challenge has ap-
peared on the scene massive job losses
have taken place. In the Fall of 1987,
40 of 111 positions disappeared at
BC. Forest Products’ Elk River Divi-
sion. BCFP suffered a wood shortage
becaueg of overcutting on private
land.

With the rationalization of BCF
and Crown Forests, Fletcher Challe
will be trucking small timber directly
from its Elk River Logging Division
to its pulp mill in Campbell River. At
least ten dryland sort jobs will be lost.

Despite reassurances in the Fall of
1988 to workers in Local 1-357 that
there would be no layoffs and dis-
placement at Fraser Mills, one hun-
dred workers will soon lose their jobs
at that plant in a rationalization with
aoa Plywood (Primex Acorn Divi-
sion).

“If you ask any individual that’s
working in this industry, in this local,
whether he or she feels that their job
is secure, that individual will proba-
bly say no,” says Ken Isomura, Finan-
cial Secretary at the New Westmin-
ster Local. “This sense of insecurity
can have a ripple effect. It can lead to
morale problems as well as increased
safety and production problems. I
think the whole spillover and ripple
effect is yet to be felt.”

In Victoria workers at the Fletcher
Challenge sawmill were shocked by
the February announcement. They
had been led to believe that the mill,
upgraded in mid-1988, was profitable.
Management and the workers had
worked very hard to get the mill into
top shape.

More than $1.5 million was poured
into the 1987-1988 modernization.
Despite a profitable mill, skilled work-
force, and a log supply from its own
TFL and the open log market, Fletch-
er Challenge is pulling the plug on
nearly 250 workers. Employees there
have an average age of 45 years and an
average of 18.5 years’ seniority.

IWA SUPPORTS CLC FREE TRADE ACTION PROGRAM

Officials of IWA-CANADA are sup-
portive of the Canadian Labour Con-
gress (CLC) Action Program released
in late February at a CLC ranking
officer’s meeting. In addition to con-
tinued efforts to repeal the Free Trade
Agreement (FTA), the plan of action
is a well-thought-out strategy to miti-
gate workers’ losses during the up-
coming onslaught of plant closures,
down-sizing, and take-overs.

A document entitled “A Working
Future — CANADA'S CHALLENGE”
outlines the CLC’s action program to
lobby all levels of government in a
co-ordinated attempt to minimize the
trade deal’s effects. The plan also calls
for national and international solidar-
ity. Education and awareness are also
goals of the plan.

The CLC has indicated it will work
with all affiliates, chartered bodies,
the New Democratic Party and other
progressive organizations to bring
labour’s message to both its members
and the general public through effec-
tive education and communication
programs.

The CLC is to meet with the federal
government, while the provincial, and
territorial federations of labour are to
meet with their respective govern-
ments to demand safeguards against
the effects of legislation.

Job retraining allowances, mainte-
nance of earnings during retraining
and job search, insurance funds that
secure worker needs for pension cred-

its and severance pay are among the
demands to be made by the labour

groups.

a

2/LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1989

Labour also insists that the busi-
ness dominated De Grandpré Advi-
sory Committee on Adjustment be
scrapped and another committee be
formed with assurances that labour
representatives be at least equal part-
ners in the design and implementa-
tion of training programs.

The Federation, in co-operation
with its affiliated unions and char-
tered bodies, pledges to monitor the
effects of the FTA. An economist will
analyze, collect and distribute infor-
mation and government studies on
both sides of the border, then dissemi-
nate the information to affiliates.

Interest-free loans between trade
unions are encouraged and to be
enhanced by President Shirley Carr,
Hot cargo edicts and national strike
support committees are to be formed.

Boycotting is expected against
companies that try to union-bust or
unnecessarily close plants. Efforts to
achieve anti-scabbing legislation are
included in the document.

The most innovational approach
the CLC outlines in its plan of action
is for a joint effort with the interna-
tional trade union movement to have
all General Agreement On Tariffs and
Trade member countries legislate

human rights and fundamental free-
doms into their trade agreements.

This effort follows the European
Trade Union Institute’s attempts to
have the European Social Charter, a
1961 instrument which assures fun-
damental economic social rights and
freedoms, incorporated into the 1992
European Economic Community’s
trade pact.

Another stated goal is that of com-
munity solidarity. CLC and NDP
social, economic, and environmental
policies will be popularized in co-op-
eration with progressive groups and
interested community groups.

GEORGETTI SLAMS TRADE DEAL

Speaking to an NDP Trade Panel in
Vancouver on February 24th, Ken
Georgetti, President of the B.C. Fed-
eration of Labour, slammed the
Canada-US. Free Trade Agreement.

Georgetti said that American cor-
porations are not going to tread
lightly through subsidy negotiations.

The Federation President said that
the FTA does not define a subsidy or
indicate how subsidies will be han-
dled in the trade agreement.

“I know that one does not sign a
contract and then try to agree on
how to resolve disputes arising out
of that contract,” said Georgetti.

“They (the Americans) are now
examining our social programs, our
regional development programs and

even the level of our Canadian dollar
in search of “subsidies” to which they
can respond with countervailing
duties on our exports.”

In November 1988 the President of
the US. National Association of Man-
ufacturers, Alexander Towbridge,
wrote that “... if the Free Trade
Agreement is finally ratified by the
Canadians, it will be important to
eliminate the exchange rate advan-
tage gained by Canadian producers
over their U.S. counterparts in the
period, 1976-86.”

The FTA has provisions which will
make our labour standards, health
and safety standards, environmental
standards, and technical standards
negotiable with the Americans.

“We predict that the meaning of
‘compatibility of standards’ will
become that of reducing them to the
lowest common denominator. Corpo-
rations already move at will from
country to country in search of the
least regulatory interference into their
lives,” echoed the speaker.

He also said that “merger mania”
has swept over American industry in
the form of corporate raids, leveraged
buy-outs, and mergers in the airline
and trucking industries. Canadian
business leaders are following the
same restructuring under the conti-
nental trade arrangement.

Georgetti said that the recent
merger of Molson’s Brewing with

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