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Audrey McLaughlin becomes NDP leader

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA — Yukon
MP Audrey McLaughlin was elected
as the Federal New Democratic Party
Leader here on December 2. With
support from 1,316 convention dele-
gates, Ms. McLaughlin narrowly
edged B.C.’s Dave Barrett by only 244
votes.

Ina dramatic turn of events, candi-
date Simon DeJong broke a commit-
ment to Barrett before the final fourth
ballot, giving McLaughlin great
momentum going into the final vote
count.

Throughout the leadership cam-
paign, IWA-CANADA delegates cam-
paigned and lobbied on behalf of Dave
Barrett, MP from Esquimalt-Juan
DeFuca. However, concentrated sup-
port from central Canadian constitu-
encies and unions such as the Cana-
dian Auto Workers and the United
Steelworkers also helped in giving the
McLaughlin party its victory.

IWA-CANADA First Vice-President
and Convention Delegate Gerry
Stoney says that it will take a while
for the dust to settle after Audrey
McLaughlin's narrow win.

“As everyone knows, we strongly
supported Dave Barrett for leader. We
know him well, know that he worked
hard, faithfully and effectively as
opposition leader and as head of the
B.C. government,” commented Bro-
ther Stoney.

“We intend no disrespect for Ms.
McLaughlin when we say that Dave
deserved better of the Party he has
served so well for so many years,” said
Stoney. “It is one thing for NDP’ers to
have decided that some other candi-
date was, for whatever reason, a bet-
ter choice. It was quite another thing
to victimize him in the now well-
documented ways that he was treated.

“Not only Dave, but the Party,
deserved better of many prominent

© Audrey McLaughlin

members. That said, we accept that
Audrey McLaughlin is now Leader of
the Party, and as time passes, there is

no doubt that everyone in IWA-CAN-
ADA will support her.”

“IWA members face crucial provin-
cial elections in British Columbia and
Saskatchewan. In addition, we face a
uphill struggle against Mulroney's
continuing campaign of shoving a
U.S. corporate agenda down Cana-
dian throats. In every leadership con-
test, one ‘side’ has to accept the will
of the majority and settle down to
work.”

Ms. McLaughlin's first responses
as new leader suggest that she under-
stands the difficult task of rebuilding
confidence and trust which is abso-
lutely essential. If she and her new
team continue in that vein, that con-
fidence should reappear.

Union President Jack Munro
played a key role in persuading Dave
Barrett to run for the leadership and
helped gain the support of some dozen
Members of Parliament.

‘Ahard lesson learned
| at NDP Convention

The only possible reason that any-
one would agree to carry a concealed
wireless microphone on their person
during an occasion such as the Fed-
eral NDP Convention is to hopefully
become a star on a television docu-
mentary such as “The Journal” on
CBC.

One of the positive things that
came out of the recent leadership

convention is that it will probably be
a long time before anyone at a Federal
NDP Convention or any other politi-
cal or labour convention will be talked
into wearing a hidden wireless micro-
phone for a television network, or
anyone else for that matter.

The colossal embarrassment to
some delegates who agreed to do this
at the recent Federal NDP Convention
will ensure that this will not likely
happen again.

The most glaring example of the
dangers involved was the exposure of
the meeting between Dave Barrett
and Simon DeJong. Barrett, who pre-
sumed he was in the privacy of a
closed room, discovered later that
DeJong was wearing a concealed
microphone. What had to be consid-
ered a very private meeting was
exposed to millions of Canadians the
night after the end of the convention.

The lesson for many convention
delegates from this experience will
undoubtedly ensure that “private
meetings” will be driven far into the
backrooms, well away from Conven-
tion centres and eavesdropping
reporters in the future. It will not stop
the meetings from taking place —
that is politics. But it will ensure that
private meetings will indeed be
private.

One delegate who admitted to wear-
ing a microphone justified this by
stating that he advised anyone that
he was talking to that he was “wired.”
This isn’t and would never be good
enough. Any conversation by anyone
within ten feet of the person wearing
the “mike” is recorded and the infor-
mation is available to the media and
to anyone else the media wants to
know about what was said.

Surely there are other ways for
those people who can be conned into
being walking stool pigeons for the
media to get on television.

They might consider going back to
just giving an interview on a subject
they agree to talk about, or they could
always enter a leadership race and be
satisfied with the amount of media
attention their performance merits.

— Gerry Stoney

UNION JACK and ED swap books

® Union leader Jack Munro signs a copy of his new autobiography “UNION
JACK" for friend Ed Broadbent during-IWA's Convention. In return, Broadbent
signed a copy of his own book, which was released last year. “UNION JACK”,
co-authored by Jane O'Hara, and published by Douglas and McIntyre, has hit
the best-seller list in B.C. since its release in late September.

B.C. Fed forms new
Environmental Task Force

VANCOUVER, B.C. — More than 890
delegates to the 34th Annual BC.
Federation of Labour Convention
unanimously supported a resolution
calling for the establishment of a task
force of trade unionists, aboriginal
peoples, and environmental organiza-
tions to develop policy on the environ-
ment and economy. The resolution,
adopted here on November 23, also
calls upon the Federation to “support
worker and community efforts to
develop logging plans which would
see critical watershed areas and eco-
systems protected in balance with
opportunities for economic develop-
ment based on resource use in the
areas...”

Roger Stanyer, IWA-CANADA Nat-
ional Fifth Vice President and Presi-
dent of Duncan Local 1-80, said the
labour movement must seek input to
establish clear priorities on commer-
cial forest lands.

“We have to remember that there is
a larger community that has a right
to have a say in what happens to
(forest) lands as well,” said Stanyer.

The Local President also mentioned
areas of agreement between the union
and environmentalists such as oppo-
sition to the continuing practice of
large and progressive clear-cuts, the
destruction of land base due to log-
ging road construction, the loss of soil
to erosion, the waste of wood fibre,
and the loss of jobs due to log export.

Stanyer told the delegates that the
labour movement must change its
direction and participate in submis-
sions to governmental bodies on the
environment and economy as well.

During Brother Stanyer’s term on
the B.C. Wilderness Advisory Com-
mittee in 1986, less than ten of some
1,150 submissions came from labour
groups and while serving on the 1989
Strangway Commission on the Envi-
ronment and Economy, less than five
out of two hundred and fifty submis-
sions were heard from trade unions.

IWA-CANADA’s Environment and
Land Use Department Director, Clay
Perry said, “It is not the fault of the
conservationist groups or of the work-
ers or their organizations that there is
no process in which all of these things
can be discussed and rational overall
solutions reached.”

Norm McLellan, of the Canadian
Paperworkers’ Union, said the resolu-
tion will help settle confusion on
issues and send the next NDP govern-
ment strong signals from the labour

movement, which is the party’s

strongest supporter.

Geoff Meggs, of the United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers, says the
resolution marks “a coming of age for
the labour movement.” He also said it
will guide labour in avoiding a narrow
approach to issues of conflicts.

The task force will develop a policy
which addresses:

e the need for a balance between sus-
tainable use of resources and envi-
ronmental protection.

© ways of increasing employment dur-
ing resource extraction and ways of
allowing irreplaceable watersheds
and wildlife habitat to renew them-

selves.

° procedures to resolve land-use
disputes.

e development of programs to pro-
tect workers against the costs of
environmental protection to include
dislocation and retraining allow-

ance.

e Roger Stanyer

Speaking in support of another
BC. Federation of Labour resolu-
tion calling for a Royal Commission
into the forest industry, IWA Local
1-405 delegate Klaus Offermann
said that such a Commission must
allow workers and citizens to have a
say in how forest lands are man-
aged.

“Working together and with an
NDP government, we could restock
the forest land, and restore our
ecological capital,” said Brother
Offermann.

_“The proposed Royal Commis-
sion will allow us once again to say
to the government and to industry
that we as woodworkers want to
earn our daily bread from this rich
land in such a fashion that our
children and grandchildren will be
able to do the same.”

2/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1989