© The Plant Negotiating Committee at MacMillan Bathurst Inc.
in Pembroke, Ontario is (1. to r.) Lawrence Dupuis, chairman; Harold
Edwards, vice-chairman, Michael McCarter, local rep.; Emmett

courtesy Mike McCarter.

Godin; Rene Brixhe, national organizer; and Earl Chaput. Photo

Pension breakthrough

By LAWRENCE DUPUIS
Chairman, Sub-Local 1-1000
(plant unit)
LLOYD GODIN
Chairman, Sub-Local 1-1000
(office unit)

(MacMillan Bathurst Inc.)

PEMBROKE, ONTARIO —
Although we were last to set-
tle, among some 45 bargain-
ing units in the corrugated
paper box industry across
Canada, our members were
pleased with the outcome of
negotiations this year.

Coordinated bargaining

sessions were held in tandem
for the two units over a period
of five months. The terms of
settlement were ratified sepa-
rately by the members in each
of their respective units, on
the same day, in May. Ratifi-
cation carried by a clear
Majority in each case.

The highlight of these nego-
tiations is that we finally suc-
ceeded in getting a long-
overdue improvement to our
Pension plan: a fifty percent
increase in pension credits for
past service, along with bet-
ter early retirement provi-
sions.

All other aspects of the
wage package are on par with
the industry pattern settle-

ment.

Our membership’s average
age is about the highest in the
industry. Nearly one-third of
our members will be retired

over the next three to five
years. The existing pension
plan would not have come
near to providing them a
decent retirement income.

Disappointment was sharp
and lasting when joint negoti-
ations failed to come to grips
with the pension issue three
years ago. This had been our
first experience at a joint
table, so our membership
decided that the next time
around we would return to
single-unit, coordinated bar-
gaining, in order to make sure
that the crucial pension issue
would not again become lost
in the shuffle.

We are grateful to our
National President, Jack
Munro, for having allowed us
the services of Rene Brixhe,
National Organizer. His expe-
rience and technique as a
negotiator, were of great help
to our bargaining teams and
Local Representative, Mich-
ael McCarter.

This set of negotiations was
one of the most difficult we
have been involved with. It
was also most rewarding. Itis
remarkable that the whole
business was conducted fully
across the table, without any
third party intervention and
with the full committee at all
times.

We are very grateful for the
patience and full backing our
membership has demon-
strated.

cant wage and benefit improvem:

ents at the hardwood veneer manu-

facturing plant. Photo courtesy Bruce Weber.

One week strike
at Interforest

DURHAM, ONTARIO —
It only took one week for
Local 1-500 strikers to get
their employer back to the
table and to sign an agree-
ment. Seven days after 100
workers at Interforest Ltd.’s
veneer plant here walked off
the job, a two-year agreement
was reached.

Interforest manufactures
hardwood veneer for North
American markets. The Ger-
man-owned company also
processes hardwood logs from

Ontario and Quebec for ex-

rt.

The plant was struck on
July 21, after attempts to set-
tle with a provincial mediator.

Union workers were seek-
ing benefits equal to those of
the office staff. Dental, pen-
sion and life insurance bene-
fits were won by the strike.

Eleven of thirteen union
demands were met, including
across-the-board wage in-
creases of $1.00 per hour over
the two-year agreement.

Furniture plant closes doors

ELORA, ONTARIO —
Two weeks after IWA-
CANADA Local 1-500 mem-
bers struck Simmons Ltd.’s
Selig Division here, the em-
ployer closed its doors perma-
nently. Eighty-seven union
workers, many of them long-
term employees, are now per-
manently out of work at
the furniture manufacturing
plant.

The workers struck the
operation on August 17,
refusing to bow under to
unreasonable concessions.

Local President and plant
worker Bruce Weber, a Sim-
mon’s employee for the past
thirteen years, says that man-
agement in the plant was
inexperienced and didn’t oper-
ate the plant efficiently.

“The employees have
worked hard,” says Brother
Weber. “A lot of us have
worked here for more than ten
years and: this is how they
reward us.”

The Local President
strongly believes that the con-
cession demands and plant
closure are related to the
US.-Canada Free Trade
Agreement.

During negotiations, Sim-
mons informed the union that
they had to accept cutbacks
to compete with U.S. produc-
ers. Free trade experts believe
that the furniture industry in

¢ Picketers at Simmons Ltd. in Elora, Ontario are joined by National
Secretary-Treasurer Terry Smith. Two weeks after the strike began,
the plant closed permanently. Photo courtesy Bonnie Ewen Pyke.

Canada will be totally re-
shaped in the next ten years
as import tariffs are elimi-
nated. Canadian workers will
be forced to accept low wages
and benefits or lose their
livelihoods.

“We've been hearing that
we had to take cuts for the
last six to eight years,” says
Brother Weber. “But this year
they hit us with demands that
would cost us about $4,000
each in lost wages and bene-
fits.”

Cuts were demanded when
business in the Elora plant
was at a high and employees

were working overtime. A
gutting of seniority rights,
cuts to pension plans, and a
reduced wage rate/piece rate
system were part of the
employer’s agenda.

Average wages in the plant
were less than $9 per hour for
the membership which con-
sists of mostly women.

Bruce Weber says that
there may be a spillover effect,
in other parts of the economy
in southwestern Ontario.
Such industries as appliance
manufacturing and other sec-
ondary industries are also on
the free trade hit list.

Mill goes union

LAC LA BICHE,
ALBERTA — National Orga-
nizer, Lyle Pona reports a suc-
cessful union certification
here at Northem Forest In-
dustries Ltd.’s sawmill and
planer facilities. On July 24,
forty-four of sixty ballots
approved of IWA certifica-
tion.

The new union workers are
now members of IWA Local
1-207. Lac La Biche is approx-
imately 150 miles north east
of union headquarters in
Edmonton.

During the certification
drive, the employer threat-
ened the crew with mass lay-
offs and interrogated some
employees on their involve-
ment with the Union.

A company-called meeting
by Mill Manager, Gary Boos
prior to the certification vote
application on July 7 back-
fired on the employer. While
being threatened with mill
closures and a long Zeidler-
type strike, the workers were
very disturbed. After the
intimidating tactics failed,
the employer put on a differ-
ent mask, promising addi
tional wages and benefits if
the workers voted against the
union.

Mill Manager Boos also
unsuccessfully approached
the Lac La Biche area local of
the Metis Association in
attempts to help form an
employee Association. More
than 80% of the workers are of
Metis background.

_“The employer tactics
didn’t wash with this crew”
said Brother Pona. “We could
have pursued an unfair lab-
our practice with the Alberta
Labour Relations Board but
we felt that the support from
the workers was so great that
it was unnecessary prior to
the vote.”

“TI wish we had these type
of crews all over the prov-
ince,” said Local President
Mike Pisak. “They stuck
together after the employer
tried to step allover them.”

Three days before the certi-
fication vote was authorized,
Northem laid off a shift at the
mill and went to the ALRB to
unsuccessfully keep those
laid-off employees off the vot-
er’s list.

Mill Manager Boos was on
staff at Zeidler Forest Indus-
tries Ltd.’s Slave Lake saw-
mill when 23 IWA workers
were fired in November of

1986. Boos’ testimony at a
subsequent ALRB hearing
against the striking union
members helped persuade the
Board not to rehire them.

Boos has said, in the local
media, that unionization of
Northem employees doesn’t
necessarily mean that the
workers will get higher wages.

“Throughout the cam-
paign, the employees spoke
of substandard wages, bene-
fits, and poor working condi-
tions such as unhygienic
lunch and washroom facili-
ties,” said Pona, in a press
release.

Brother Pona also said that
“the solidarity exhibited by
the workers throughout the
campaign will be an impor-
tant factor in achieving itlate
first collective agreement.”

Negotiations for a first con-
tract begin on September 1.
Improvements in wages and
working conditions are on the
Union’s agenda.

Wages at the mills, which
cut and plane aspen, poplar,
and spruce, start at a dismal
$8.50/hour with no benefits.
Employees also suffer from
lack of a proper accident pre-
vention program.

Average age in the mill is
less than 25 years, as a high
turnover rate is apparent.

Commenting on the organ-
izing drive, Local 1-207
Financial-Secretary Bob
DeLeeuw said that “the work-
ers realize they have to stick
together. Lyle (Pona) did one
helluva job in convincing
them that we all may be in for
a battle with this employer.”

In December of 1988, pro-
vincial Premier Don Getty
announced government
approval for a $16 million mill
construction project. A spe-
cialty plant that will produce
hardwoods for pallets and
high grade furniture timber
should be in operation in late
1989 or early 1990.

The proposed plant is to be
built adjacent to the mill
recently organized. Timber
from a forest unit east of Lac
La Biche and also from the
Cold Lake Weapon’s Testing
Range, will provide raw mate-
rial for Northem’s Canadian
and European hardwood
markets.

ATTEND YOUR

LOCAL UNION MEETINGS

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1989/13