Focus on:

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

Like the other ‘Prairie’ provinces,
IWA-CANADA Alberta Local 1-207’s
jurisdiction covers its entire province.
With its office in Edmonton, the local
presently boasts of more than 1,200
dues-paying members.

The Local is also supporting 250
bargaining unit positions which exist
at the striking Zeidler Forest Indus-
tries Ltd. plants in Slave Lake and
Edmonton. Strikers at the Slave Lake
veneer plant and stud mill have been
off the job since April of 1986 and
were joined by workers in the Edmon-
ton plywood plant in March of 1988.

The two Zeidler strikes have been
the focus of attention for IWA mem-
bers and a struggle for the trade union
movement in Alberta.

TWO LOCALS MERGE

The IWA became actively involved
in organizing lumber and sawmill
workers in Alberta as early as 1938
with organizers such as Syd Thomp-
son (a retired Vancouver Local 1-217
President) and J. Savage. Early
inroads into representing workers
were made at the Etter McDougall
Company, south west of Edmonton in
the Buck Lake District.

© Marlene Cote, quality control inspector,
at Weldwood Canada’s Alberta Welstrand
Division in Slave Lake.

The IWA eventually gained a pres-
ence in lumber camps in the White-
court and Slave Lake regions north-
west of Edmonton, and eventually
grew to more than 1,000 members.

During the internal disputes be-
tween the white and red blocs in
British Columbia in the late 1940's,
the union pulled out of Alberta to put
all its energy into solving problems in

In the mid-fifties, organizers like
Mike Sekora and Bill Grey rebuilt the
local and Alberta was granted its
Charter in Region One of the IWA in
1955. The newly rebuilt union pres-
ence flourished and eventually the
two locals were formed, locals 1-206
and 1-207.

With its jurisdiction south of Red
Deer, Local 1-206 eventually experi-
enced membership loss and had to
merge with Local 1-207 in 1978.
THE LOCAL TODAY

Local 1-207 has two full-time Busi-
ness Agents; President Mike Pisak
from Weldwood Hinton Woodlands
Division, and Financial Secretary Bob
DeLeeuw from Nelson Lumber Com-

pany in Lloydminster. Brother De-
Leeuw has been on staff since 1973.
Together they cover fourteen union
operations which go as far north as
High Level (Canfor sawmill) and as

far south as Lethbridge (Regent
Homes).

Governed by an eleven-member
Executive Board, the locals hold
board meetings four times a year while
the business agents make regular vis-
its to the operations for sub-local
meetings.

CANFOR AND WELDWOOD
MAJOR EMPLOYERS y i

With 238 employees at its High
Level Alberta Sawmill, canfor Corpor-
ation, is the major employer in Local
1-207. At present the Canfor, High
Level Mill is up for sale along with
other Canfor union operations at
Hines Creek and a plywood mill at
Grande Prairie.

The other two major employers are
Zeidler’s and Weldwood Canada with
an oriented strand board plant in
Slave Lake and woodlands opera-
tion in Hinton.

TREE PLANTERS ARE UNION

Local 1-207 boasts of one of the few
collective agreements in Canada to
benefit tree planters and silvicultural
workers.

At its Hinton Woodlands Division,
where 45 loggers are covered by the
IWA, Weldwood has a small crew of
company tree planters who are pro-
vided all the benefits that the loggers
receive. In addition, the collective
agreement has language which stipu-
lates that all employees of silvicul-
tural contractors must join the union.
Tree planters receive full layoff pro-
tection for up to one year and an
additional month for each year of
service.

“Weldwood is probably doing a bet-
ter job than most companies are with
regards to forest management,” says
Mike Pisak, “but there always is con-
cern that it is never enough.”

The Hinton logging operation par-
tially supplies the nearby Weldwood
pulp mill with raw material.

PRESENCE IN SECONDARY
INDUSTRY

Local 1-207 has diversified itself
into collective agreements within sec-
ondary manufacturing. It has certifi-
cations at Nelson Lumber Company, a
prefab homes operation in Lloydmin-
ster; Regent Homes, a mobile home
manufacturer in Lethbridge; and
Travellaire, a recreational vehicle
plant in Red Deer.

Workers at the plant enjoy among
the highest rates of pay and benefits
in Canada. However with low wage
competitors from central Canada and
cut-throat competition creeping up as
a result of the Canada-US. Free Trade
Agreement, collective agreements in
secondary manufacturing are becom-
ing more difficult to obtain.

¢ Onstrike at the Zeidler plywood plant in Edmonton are (I. to r.) Greg Langer, Owen
Baumgartner, Kevin Lakoduk, Tana Stratton, Robert Babee, Adrian Mearns, Al

Henry and Elizabeth Sanderson.

HUGE POTENTIAL FOR
MEMBERSHIP

IWA-CANADA has been paying spe-
cial attention to Local 1-207 to help
increase its membership. In July of
1989 National Organizer Lyle Pona
successfully organized 60 employees
at Northem Forest Industries Ltd.’s
Lac La Biche operations.

Brother Pona remains active in the
province, planning future drives.

UNFAIR LABOUR LAWS

“The employer's right to use scab
labour has been our largest problem,”
says Pisak. “If Zeidler wouldn’t have
been allowed to have scabs in the mill,
the strike would have been over before
it started.”

The lengthy strikes at Zeidler’s have
been prolonged by the legalized strike-
breaking tactics of the ruthless

© At Weldwood Canada’s Hinton Woodland Division is grapple-skidder operator Brian
Strawson.

Local President Pisak says that
there is a potential for a membership
of 7,000 in Alberta which would make
Alberta the largest membership of
any local in the country.

Blue Ridge Lumber, on the out-
skirts of White Court, has 450 non-
union employees. The mill is owned by
the Crown Alberta Energy Corpora-
tion.

Weyerhauser Canada has recently
purchased Pelican Spruce Mills oper-
ation in Drayton Valley, Edmonton,
Edson, and Boyle, all potential tar-
gets for the IWA.

[anu

© Edger Operator Vy Van Vu on the job at Fletcher Challenge Canada’s Grand Cache
Forest Products Division. The mill produces approximately 400,000 finished board

feet per day.

employer aided by the Edmonton
Police and RCMP.

Like the Gainers’ strike in 1986, the
police have escorted scabs across
union picket lines and have beaten
and harassed union members.

Pisak says that the Alberta Labour
Relations Board rarely enforce its
decisions when a union is awarded
favourably.

“All they do is tell the employer to
stop and by that time the employer
has done all the damage it wants,”
says Pisak. :

The Alberta Labour Code, intro-
duced in November of last year, stipu-
lates that if a strike lasts two years,
the collective agreement and strike
will be disbanded.

Among Labour Codes, Alberta's is
considered the most regressive in
Canada.

The Local, in a province dominated
by right-wing conservatives, has
openly supported the provincial New
Democratic Party and has cam-
paigned on its behalf.

“As soon as the working people of
this province wake up and realize that
the Getty government isn’t doing
them any good, it’s going to help
those in the trade union movement,”
adds Pisak.

Premier Getty, who has ignored the
Zeidler situation, has alienated the
public now to a point where the NDP
is leading in public opinion polls.

“Despite this damned government
and its oppressive labour laws, we've
still managed to get some of the best
collective agreements in Alberta,”
says Brother Pisak.

8/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1989