Island Locals gear

up for action
on forest policy

VICTORIA, B.C. — As a result of a
special one day conference four Van-
couver Island Locals of IWA-CANADA
have vowed to actively set up worker
forest-environment committees in all
their operations.

On June 22 representatives from
IWA Locals 1-80 (Duncan), 1-71 (Log-
ger’s Local, Courtenay), 1-85 (Port
Alberni) and 1-363 (Courtenay) met
here to discuss forest environment
issues and formulate plans of action.
It was the first such meeting of IWA
locals in Canada.

Attending the conference were 96
representatives from the executive
and rank and file of the local unions.
Following the day long sessions a
press conference was held to announce
the IWA's plan of action.

Roger Stanyer, IWA-CANADA’s
National Fifth Vice-President and
President of Duncan Local 1-80, told
the media that “we as workers can
alleviate concerns of others (the pub-
lic) as to what’s happening in the
industry.”

Brother Stanyer said that each local
union will be working to put the IWA’s
point across on timber harvesting
practices, and ensure that the envi-
ronment is being looked after from a
worker’s point of view.

The day long session saw speakers
from each local report on logging and
milling activity in each of their respec-
tive jurisdictions. The local unions

told the conference about forest land
conflicts which are arising in their
regions of the province.

Local 1-85 first vice-president Dave
Haggard told the conference that
present forest practices are long past
being acceptable. He pointed to
roadbuilding and logging techniques
presently used as destructive to forest
habitat.

Sy Pederson of Courtenay Local
1-363 said the union should work to
achieving “economic democracy” on
land use decisions.

“We the public are the landlords,”
said Brother Pederson. “The corpora-
tions who use our forest should be
made to put a major damage deposit
down — to insure job creation, refor-
estation and silviculture.”

Logger’s Local President Warren
Ulley presented a video on sky-line
logging systems as a demonstration
of alternative forms of harvesting. In
the future companies will be encour-
aged to use skyline harvesting sys-
tems as a way of minimizing road
building. The skyline harvesting sys-
tem, which can reach out 5,000 feet is
also in direct competition with heli-
copter logging.

Another video presentation of a
long-line system used in shelter wood/
logging (logging in standing timber)
was given. Such techniques are used
extensively in the U.S. Pacific North-
west.

However, Brother Stanyer said that
such methods are often hazardous to
workers’ safety and that there are
“tremendous safety issues in new
forestry.”

“Our current W.C.B. regulations are
written in somebody’s blood and we
must strive to protect the safety of
our members and other forest work-
ers,” said Stanyer.

Logger Tony Bennett from Local
1-85, said that workers should try to
get the Workers’ Compensation Board
involved while implementing new har-
vesting systems.

Murray Cantelon, an Executive
Board Member with the Logger’s
Local, said the W.C.B. should try to
pull influence with environmentalists

© Following daylong conference a panel of local union leaders field questions from TV
reporter. Seated (I. tor.) are Sy Pederson, President of Local 1-363; Dave Haggard, First
Vice-president Local 1-85; Roger Stanyer, President Local 1-80; and Warren Ulley,
President Local 1-71.

to make sure that they are aware of
safety issues affecting workers.

IWA-CANADA's Forest Environmen-
tal Planner Claire Dansereau updated
the members on the Forest Policy
Fund and the public relations plans
that the union has been developing.
Sister Dansereau gave a breakdown
and assessment of the forest land
base and designated park land and
eco-reserves in each local union.

Tom Fawkes, a private public rela-
tions consultant, said that public poll-
ing is currently being completed to
determine the exact direction of the
P.R. campaign.

Mr. Fawkes said that the public
perception of labour as being respon-
sible is on the rise, and that labour’s
messages are received as far more
credible than in years past.

Fawkes said the IWA must address
the public’s concern for well consid-
ered and well thought out solutions to
problems in the forest industry. He
also said that there will be difficulties
overcoming media hysteria but that
the majority of the public can be

influenced by the IWA National For-
est Policy.

Local 1-80’s First Vice-Presiden:
Bill Routley lectured the audience o1
the various forms of tenure in the
province. Brother Routley also gave a
general review of the B.C. Forest Ser-
vice which he termed understaffed
and inadequate.

Routley took a potshot at the goy-
ernment’s estimated annual allowable
cut of 72 million cubic metres, which
he said is based on 20 year old esti-
mates and lack of proper data.

Brother Routley said that the union
needs an army of IWA people to edu-
cate the public and keep tabs on the
forest industry.

Carmen Rocco of Local 1-80 told
the meeting of improper wood utiliza-
tion at Fletcher Challenge TFL #44
on Southern Vancouver Island.

Brother Rocco said that IWA mem-
bers must not only be concerned about.
loss of forest lands to parks but also
must keep an active watch over com-
panies which are wasting old growth
timber.

© Appearing before the Forest Resources Commission in May were (I. to r.) Norm
MacLellan, President of the CPU; Fernie Viala, National Third Vice-president [WA
-CANADA; Bob Henderson, President PPWC; and IWA-CANADA’s Clay Perry.

TWA joins pulp
unions before hearings

In a historical move IWA-CANADA
joined the two other major forest
industry unions in a joint submission
to the B.C. Forest Resources Commis-
sion in early May. Along with the
Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Can-
ada, (PPWC), and the Canadian
Paperworkers Union (CPU), the IWA
helped present a strong message to
the provincial government on the
administration of public forest lands.

Acting as spokesperson for the
unions were Fernie Viala, IWA
-CANADA’s National third vice-
president; Clay Perry, director of the

IWA’s Environment and Land Use
department; Norm MacLellan, vice-
president of the CPU; and Bob Hen-
derson, president of the PPWC.

The Forest Resources Commission
was in Vancouver on part of a cross
province tour to conduct public hear-
ings on the future of forests in B.C.

The three trade unions represent
60,000 or 3/4 of forest workers in the
province.

In the brief the three unions criti-
cized the massive corporate concen-
tration of the province's forests. The

briefs criticize harvesting practices
used by major corporations — that is
cutting the best and most accessible
timber.

The unanimous recommendation is
made that Tree Farm Licence or Pulp-
wood Harvesting Agreements be
granted when a link between tenure
and job creation is established. In
BC. the top four forestry companies
control over 93% of the annual allow-
able cut.

Regarding Aboriginal land claims,
the brief said that the B.C. govern-
ments refusal to negotiate is simply
to prolong “refusal of North American
European peoples to deal ina civilized
manner with the original inhabitants
of this continent.”

In respect to silviculture the sub-
mission said that the 350 million seed-
lings planted each year in the prov-
ince are inadequate and warned of the
imminent “falldown effect” as second
growth is not reaching a harvestable
size.

The unions claim that industry
regards silviculture as an expense to
be minimized and that it is carried on
from no general analysis from what is
good for the province.

The unions also call for increased
research and development in an indus-
try that is largely under foreign con-
trol. B.C. is characterized as simply a
“commodity producer” of basic prod-
ucts such as pulp, newspaper, wood
chips, sawlogs, and commodity
lumber.

A recent study by Deloitte Haskins
estimates that over $1.2 billion in
revenues from specialty forest pro-
ducts and nearly 4,000 jobs could
result from negligible investment.

The submission said “sources of
international capital that fund our
giant forest corporations have no sub

stantial concern for providing employ-
ment in British Columbia, present or
future.”

The CPU and PPWC call for in-
creased public participation in forest
land administration and recommend
that large tracts of forest be transfer-
red to regional boards which operate
on the principle of integrated resource
management.

Such boards would oversee logging
and reforestation and would be nomi-
nated by municipalities, community
organizations (business, environmen-
tal, professional), labour and native
communities.

IWA differs in_that it calls for a
system of Tree Farm Licence Man-
agement Boards overseeing harvest-
ing with worker and community rep-
resentatives involved throughout the
entire planning stages.

All unions call for removal of haz-
ardous chemicals in the workplace.
The treatment of lumber with health
hazardous anti-sapstains should be
stopped and alternative methods such
as dry kilning, waxing, and alterna-
tive packaging methods are recom-
mended.

The submission called for the elimi-
nation of dioxins and furans and other
organochlorines in pulp mill emis-
sions. The recent use of chlorine diox-
ides in the pulp bleaching processes
has caused extra risks for workers
breathing air from accidental chlorine
“gassings.”

The submission says the only way
the dioxin element can be eliminated
in pulp emissions is to eliminate the
chlorine element from the process.

The unions call for public review
and input into applications for new
pulp mills and the assurance that new
mills will be constructed to be envi-

ally safe.

6/LUMBERWORKER/JULY, 1990