Vancouver, B.C.

October 2-6

CONVENTION

1989

Munro challenges members
with convention address

Broadbent says goodbye
as federal NDP Leader

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Four days
after announcing that he will resign
from his seat in the House of Com-
mons at the end of 1989, Federal New
Democratic Party Leader Ed Broad-
bent addressed delegates at IWA
-CANADA’S Third Constitutional
Convention.

On October 2nd, Mr. Broadbent
made his last appearance in British
Columbia as NDP leader and paid
tribute to the relationship between
the IWA and the social democratic
movement.

“You as members of this union . . .
have jointly worked with the NDP not
by accident, not because of a coming
together of interests on a particular
issue ... but because we have over-
spalinin ely been the forces in our
society that have worked to create a
different kind of Canada,” said
Broadbent.

“The trade union movement and
the Party go hand-in-hand about the
kind of country we want to create.”

Broadbent again declared the affin-
ity of the NDP and the labour move-
ment, saying that trade unions have
always been in the forefront of fight-
ing for social justice. He said the
combined forces of the trade union
movement outside the House of Com-
mons and the NDP inside the House
will carry on into the future.

He told the delegates that in the
last 100 years in the developed world,
trade unions and social democratic

vernments in Canada and Western

‘urope have combined to create
wealth and distribute it equitably.

Broadbent said the IWA and the
NDP have shown leadership on envi-

ronmental issues, but said the ulti-
mate responsibility must lie with
those in power.

With respect to concern about the
environment, Broadbent said: “The
threat facing our forest industry is
not wilderness preservation, but gov-
ernment and corporate policies that
permit over-cutting, soil erosion, and
inadequate forest regeneration.”

Broadbent commended the IWA for
its approach in calling for a long-
range public forest-use policy.

“There has to be a serious coherent
policy put into place that takes into
account the legitimate need for jobs,”
said the outgoing leader.

IWA-CANADA President Jack
Munro characterized Broadbent as
honest, credible, and having the most
integrity of anyone in Canadian
politics.

“Day after day, year after year his
concern has been the well-being of

good honest Canadians and ordinary
people,” said Munro.

Brother Munro also said that
Broadbent will be remembered as one
of the “Great Three” which include
Tommy Douglas and David Lewis,
former Federal NDP leaders.

“For the last 50 years it has been
our Party that has been instrumental
in every piece of social legislation in
Canada and it’s because of people like
Ed Broadbent,” said Munro.

Broadbent took a good part of his
speech to condemn the Conservative
government's Goods and Services Tax
for its complete lack of fairness. He
also spoke out against VIA Rail cuts
and poverty amongst Canadian
children.

VANCOUVER, B.C. — In his opening
address to the Third National Con-
vention, IWA-CANADA President Jack
Munro told delegates that our union’s
position on the future of the forestry
industry is a serious matter in which
all members must work to publicize.

“Our position on that serious mat-
ter is not simply to adopt the employ-
ers’ viewpoint,” said Munro. “From
bitter experience we know better than
to believe that all the high-sounding
concepts and lofty ideals — such as
Forests Forever — will never be
allowed to interfere with a profitable
balance sheet.”

Later during the Convention, a new
Union Forest Policy was unveiled
which provides the IWA’s viewpoint
on a sustainable forest strategy, land-
use and tenure, the environment and
research into the value-added sector
of the industry.

Munro said that the industry is
headed in the wrong direction. “We
have every reason to believe that in
the absence of rigorously enforced
policies from the federal and provin-
cial Governments, the old approaches
will continue with disastrous conse-
quences for our segment of the
industry.” *

Munro noted that a Chief Executive
Officer of one of the nation’s major
forest giants recently declared that
the future is in pulp, not lumber.

“Governments seem prepared to
abandon the solid wood side of the
forest industry, rather than pursue
the need for greatly expanded value-
added lumber products,” said the
Union leader.

“Common sense and past experi-
ence show that providing jobs does
not automatically follow from the
industry harvesting more wood, or
from making more money. But it will
follow if the delegates here at this
Convention and hundreds of thou-
sands of other Canadians force our
governments to require the corpora-
tions to provide more jobs as a condi-
tion of their forest licences.”

Munro told the delegates that the
Union is not at war with environmen-

tal groups. “Governments and corpo-
rations know that if we the environ-
mentalists get together on issues,
there will be no turning back.”

He also said that government wants
confrontation between labour and
environmental groups to divert atten-
tion away from the real issue of poor
industrial and governmental per-
formance.

Munro cited Sweden as an example
of a responsible, vibrant culture which
respects environmental integrity.

e IWA-CANADA President Jack Munro.

“Other countries have shown that
the forest can be a major source of
revenue for first-rate health, educa-
tion, and social systems without
destroying the environmental values
which are equally our heritage.”

Munro said that Canada needs to
come up with a new way of handling
forestry and environmental issues.

“We need a process where people
can start coming up with solutions.
We don’t want our neighbours think-
ing that somehow because we are
woodworkers, we are the ‘new crimi-
nals’. We are good, solid, hard-working
citizens who want to work today and
want our children to work tomorrow.”

© More than 200 delegates to the National Convention observe a minute of silence in
respect of those forest workers killed on the job in 1989.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1989/9