Me Ee See ee
Local 1-423

Focus on:

This is the third in a series of
feature articles looking at IWA-
CANADA locals across the country.
It is our hope that members will
familiarize themselves with their fel-
low unionists in other jurisdictions.

Situated in B.C.’s Southern Interior
Dry Belt, IWA-CANADA, Local 1-423
represents a diverse cross section of
workers. With nearly 2,100 members,
the Local jurisdiction stretches
throughout and past the Okanagan
Valley from the Canada-U.S. border,
east up to Christina Lake, and then
on west of the Arrow Lakes, up to the
northern Okanagan Valley, south of
Enderby. Western borders of the juris-
diction run from the American border
north to Aspen Grove.

Local 1-423 represents workers in
plywood manufacturing, sawmills,
logging, pole making, secondary man-
ufacturing and tree nurseries/silvi-
culture.

Despite a rash of layoffs, tech
changes, and permanent closures, the
Local is holding tough in an area
where industrial unions are few and
far between.

“This (Kelowna and surrounding
areas) is a bad area as far as wages go.
The Chambers of Commerce in these
areas, don’t like to talk about it, but
the wages paid to most of the work
force are pretty damn poor,” says
Local President, Bill Schumaker. “In
fact, the Local Chamber in many of
their briefs, openly argue that for the
privilege to live in this beautiful val-
ley, workers should expect to work for
less money.”

Brother Schumaker says that most
of the area surrounding his Local’s
office, is a “tourist trap” from May to
September and adds that it’s “an
expensive place to live with wages
that are very depressing.”
INTERIOR LOCALS
WORK TOGETHER

The Kelowna Local, along with
Kamloops Local 1-417 and Cranbrook
Local 1-405, holds joint staff meet-
ings twice a year to discuss problems
and co-ordinate strategies in the

Southern Interior.

“We try to move in the same direc-
tion and stick to similar policies,”
says Brother Schumaker. “We've hung
together even after the IRO (Interior
Regional Office) disbanded nearly 25

years ago.

The IRO, to which Brother Schu-
maker is referring, was first set up as
an administrative body for the three
Interior Locals in May of 1954. At
that time in history, the Southern
Interior Locals were suffering from
lack of financial strength. The dues
from the three Locals were pooled and
administered by the IRO. Widely
scattered, independent operations and
fluctuating U.S. markets for Interior

e Veneer “welder” operator Seig Lehmann feeds random veneer widths into a machine
made with Japanese technology. The machine, property of Fletcher Challenge's
Kelowna Division, glues the widths together in 8 foot lengths.

© Local President Bill Schumaker (1.) and Local 1-423 member Nick Papov demonstrate
4’ x 8’ plywood sheet that has been “welded” with high strength glue and a string bead.

lumber products, created gaps in ser-
vicing the membership during the
late fifties and early sixties.

Local 1-423 received its first char-
ter from the then IWA District Coun-
cilin July, 1945. During the infamous
“October Revolution of 1948”, the
Communist led Woodworkers’ Indus-
trial Union of Canada disrupted Local
1-423 and a duplicate charter was
eventually re-issued later that year.
ACTIVE EXECUTIVE BOARD

Local Union By-Laws permit certi-
fications with 45 members or more to
have an “Area Representative” on the
Local’s Executive Board. Seventeen
Executive Board Members meet every
six weeks to conduct union affairs.
This includes the eight Table Officers,
of which four are full-time staff and
Business Agents. Full time staffers
include Brother Schumaker; Bob

© Working in the yard at Bell Pole Company Ltd.'s Lumby division are pole framers
Ken McClennan and Tim Cleverley (facing). Cedar poles are debarked by machine
peelers and finished by hand before being dipped in wood preservatives.

Schlosser, Financial Secretary; Troi
Caldwell, First Vice-President; and
Ben Landis, Third Vice-President.

HI-TECH MANUFACTURING

Union mills in Kelowna’s Local are
characteristically hi-tech. Fletcher
Challenge Canada has a modern
plywood-sawmill factory in Kelowna
on the shores of Lake Okanagan. The
plywood plant’s new Japanese tech-
nology includes a “veneer welder”
which glues random veneer widths
into complete 4’ x 8’ sheets. The mill
also boasts of a “Kitagawa Lay-up
Line” which eliminates random core
laying to create greater efficiency and
quality.

At present, Pope & Talbot Ltd.’s
sawmill at Midway is undergoing a
modernization of more than $10 mil-
lion. That company’s Grand Forks
sawmill, which cuts dimensional lum-
ber from Spruce, Fir and Pine is con-
sidered one of the most efficient in the
Southern Interior.

THREE MAJOR EMPLOYERS

In the late 1960s and early 1970s,
the Local started losing certifications
when the industry went on a takeover
binge. U.S. based Weyerhauser and
Crown Zellerbach (a Fletcher Chal-
lenge predecessor) started consolidat-
ing mills and timber supply. Mills in
Keremeos, Oliver, Greenwood, Arm-
strong, Falkland and Penticton
disappeared.

Now the timber supply in the Local
is mostly tied up by Fletcher Chal-
lenge, Pope & Talbot (a Portland
based multi-national) and Weyer-
hauser Canada. Weyerhauser has
mills in Penticton, Okanagan Falls
and Lumby.

Unlike the majority of other IWA-
CANADA Locals, the sawmills in
1-423’s jurisdiction, do not have to
compete with pulp and paper mills for
wood fibre.

However, long-term survival of
mills are questionable. Reforestation
efforts in the Local are sadly lacking
and Local President Schumaker says
the hi-tech mills are gobbling up tim-
ber supply. He also feels that the
Southern Interior is not getting its
fair share of reforestation agreements
under “FIRDA” (Federal Provincial
Forest Resource Development Agree-
ments).

ORGANIZING —
A KEY TO SURVIVAL

Local Financial Secretary, Bob
Schlosser, says that Kelowna has only
one independent logging crew certi-
fied (Davidoff Logging). Like Local
1-405, Kelowna lost a large number of
union logging contractors and sub-
contractors in the early 1980s due to
rulings on contracting-out clauses in
their collective agreements.

Today, logging for major compa-
nies is done by contractors and sub-
contractors, who further sub-contract,
out, falling, skidding, loading, and
hauling. The Interior is spotted with
“gyppo” contractors, some of whom
live in make-shift shacks and trailers.

“It’s like the coast was in the
1930s,” says Schumaker.

Union organizers must sign up each
individual contractor and/or sub-
contractor separately to get a pres-
ence back in the logging sector again.
The task is virtually impossible.

° Prefabricated housing units are manu-
factured at Chaparral Industries Ltd. in
Kelowna. Carpenters Bob Casper (1.) and
Wilf Baron nail a roof gable into place.

SECONDARY MANUFACTURING

At one time, the Local was diversi-
fied with varying certifications in the
secondary industries, such as sash
and door, furniture, boat and even
carpet manufacturing. Today, the
Local holds certifications at Chapar-
ral Homes in Kelowna, a pre-fab home
company that custom manufactures
homes for B.C. customers, and OK
Builders Supply, a retail building sup-
ply store.

Brother Schlosser, also President
of the South Okanagan-Boundary
Labour Council, says that organized
labour in the area must work to get a
foothold in expanding secondary
industries in the future.

© At local 1-423's office in Kelowna are (1.
to r.) Bob Schlosser, Financial Secretary;
Connie Evans, Secretary and Bill Schu-
maker, President.

L

UMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1989/7