Corrugated independents join local union On April 17, union officials at IWA -CANADA Toronto headquarters counted ballots of approval for the merger of three of the remaining inde- pendent local affiliates into a geo- graphical local union. The officials counted 201 approval votes out of 282 ballots from union members at three of MacMillan Bathurst Inc.’s corru- gated plant in Etobicoke (Local 1-76), Whitby (Local 1-242), and St. Thomas (Local 1-337). The ballots paved the way for a merger with IWA-CANADA Local 1-500, which has its headquar- ters in Hanover, Ontario. Since the formation of a Canadian union in 1987, the independent locals had been encouraged to unite within geographically administered locals. A series of meetings initiated by National union officers over the past three years helped smooth over appre- hensions that the independents seal “The independent local unions had e At MBI's Etobicoke plant are press operators (I. to r.) Bronston Hedderson, Eduardo Reyes and Joe Tonna. concerns as to whether or not they were doing the right thing for their members,” says National union repre- sentative, Tom Lowe, who services the corrugated units in southern Ontario. “It took some teamwork efforts to assure the members that they are better off this way within the National union structure. Among the key players in the Whitby plant were Gil Colbury and Wayne Dawson, while in the Whitby operation, Al Strickland, Tony Maine, and plant chairman, Hugh O’Donnell pitched in their efforts. Frank Bucz- kowski and Graeme Brawley were among the key role players in bring- ing the St. Thomas members into the geographical format. All three plants share identical col- lective agreements with another union certified plant in Pembroke, Ontario. Local 1-1000 has that certification. Master Agreements for the corru- gated section at MacMillan Bathurst expire on December 31, 1991. National officers such as Fourth vice-president, Bill Pointon; Third vice-president, Fernie Viala; Secre- tary-treasurer, Terry Smith; First vice-president, Gerry Stoney and union leader Jack Munro all helped to bring the local affiliates into the Na- tional union structure. By joining a geographical local, the corrugated units will now enjoy the services provided throughout the organization. INTER-CORRUGATED PACKAG- ING COUNCIL All four union memberships at the four MBI plants have been part of a new inter-union corrugated packaging council which was rekindled last year. The IWA affiliates have been get- ting together with affiliates of the Canadian Paperworkers Union to dis- cuss strategies and wage and contract. demands. Through the efforts of union repre- sentative, Tom Lowe, fourth National vice-president, Bill Pointon, and many others, the two sometime rival unions have been able to get together to form acommon front against the employer. “While we recognize each other's jurisdiction, we have been able to develop a new bond and determina- tion to stick together against the employer,” says Brother Lowe. In the last few meetings, of which the first took place in September, 1989 the two unions have developed what Lowe refers to as a “networking” through Ontario and Quebec which allows plant representatives to track down common problems and share information. As part of the strategy, the council has a goal of making sure that man- agement knows that the unions are communicating. More than 9,000 workers are mem- bers of the packaging council. Although such an inter-council was formed over 10 years ago and became a failure in its early stages, the recent positive approach by the CPU and IWA-CANADA marks a new era of cooperation in the corrugated sector. Focus on: Local 1-424 (Continued from page 6) Strathnaver, B.C, the kiln capacity dries over 700,000 board feet which is produced daily. Everything from spruce, pine and fir 1 x 4s to 2 x 12s is optimized, cut, planed, and kiln dried for customers all over the world. CONCERNS OVER TIMBER SUPPLY Operations like Dunkley’s, which gets about 35% of its raw material supply from an area based tree farm licence, are susceptible to timber shortages and rising timber costs. Some interior producers face stump- age costs which are triple that of their coastal competitors. Local union officials believe that the provincial government is playing a game to squeeze some smaller pro- ducers out of the market to allow major corporations to move in and clean up any forfeited timber rights. Local President Frank Everitt says that timber shortages will be appear- ing in the near future as past efforts to reforest have been sadly lacking. Brother Everitt says that announce- ments on federal cutbacks for reforest- ation will have a definite impact on such activity in the local’s jurisdic- tion. Federal Forest Minister Frank Oberle, who has a seat from the Prince George riding, hasn’t done a very good job of going to bat for the prov- ince of BC in renewals of Forest Resource Development Agreements, according to Everitt. The FRDA agreements have been almost solely responsible for inten- sive silviculture practices which have taken place over the past five years in the northern interior. WORKING WITH FOREST POLICY Local 1-424 is faced with many problems in forestry and environment. In such areas as MacKenzie, Quesnel and Vanderhoof, Houston and Prince George, the local union anticipates disputes over timber harvesting rights. Brother Everitt says that the new IWA-CANADA forest policy will allow the membership to speak uniformly on forest-environment issues. Although the local has little presence in the logging sector, Everitt says IWA Forest-Environment committees can exert pressure on an employer through their manufacturing facilities to clean up their contractors’ acts out in the woods. The forest policy calls for improve- ments in selective logging, proper wood fibre utilization and reforesta- tions of harvested areas. The local is particularly concerned about the granting of pulpwood agree- ments and the loss of timber supply for the solid wood sector. Also of concern is lack of a proper forest lands inventory to examine the quantity of timber that remains under the various public and private sys- tems of tenure. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Brother Everitt says that the local is seriously considering organizing new members in secondary industries (sash and door, cabinet makers) and lumber remanufacturing. In order to pursue new certifica- tion, the local is rallying its member- ship to improve the local union’s finan- cial position. A reduced staff and increased work load (staff representatives now visit each operation every 2 weeks) has put a large strain on local finances. The local union is becoming more politically active within the New Dem- ocratic Party, both provincially and federally. In traditionally conserva- tive country, the local has played a key role in the elections of Member of Parliament, Brian Gardiner (Prince George-Bulkley Valley), the NDP’s National forest critic, and MLA Lois Boone (Prince George North), the pro- vincial NDP’s regional development critic. © Patching fir plywood on the grading line at Weldwood’s Quesnel Plywood plant are: Ron Cleveland and Kathryn Robertson. © Local 1-424 represents more than 80 workers at automobile shops in Prince George. Here at Prince George Motors are: . to r.) Ray Ovington, Stewart MacNutt, Tony Girard, Ron Marcenuik, Art Dunn, Gary Fitzgerald, Tom Laing, Louis Levesque, Allan Neilsen, Don Hordos, Hubert Nyeste and Hubert Roberge. Ca —————————————=—= 14/LUMBERWORKER/MAY, 1990