Now is the time to settle native claims by Dan Miller ) HROUGH reading previous articles in the _ Lumberworker, IWA-CANADA members are aware that their brothers and sisters in { Slave Lake, Alberta, have been fighting for |__ over four years to achieve a fair collective agreement with Zeidler. It is a tribute to the guts and determination of the union members that they have maintained their position for so long in the face of an intransi- gent employer who has been aided by a sympa- thetic right wing provincial government. Tf you can imagine what it is like to be on strike for over four years to get a fair settlement, now try to imagine how the aboriginal people of British Columbia feel having tried for over 100 years to convince the federal and provincial governments to negotiate a fair settlement of their land claims. Since B.C. joined with the rest of Canada, the issue has been ignored, despite the fact that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 declared that aborigi- nal nations within British Columbia shall retain title until it is extinguished. With some minor exceptions on southern Van- couver Island and in northeastern B.C., Indians meher sold land, nor signed treaties giving up land. Instead, Indian people were relegated to reserves, where the amount of land was limited to 20 acres for each head of family of five persons. They were prohibited from homesteading where 320 acres were permitted to non-native settlers. There has been a his- tory of discrimination against Indian people by both federal and pro- vincial governments, which was intended to isolate them from the 74 rest of society, and to — orce them to give up important aspects of their culture. In 1914, an amendment to the Indian Act made it an offence for any Indian in British Columbia and the other western provinces to participate in any Indian dance outside the bounds of their reserve, or to partici- pate in any show, exhi- However, Premier Vander Zalm led the opposition to this, and no agreement was reached. We are all now aware that this ultimately led to the failure to reach agreement on the Meech Lake Accord, and Elijah Harper's stand to block the Accord in Manitoba. Vander Zalm’s stubborn refusal to recognize aboriginal rights has led to a series of court cases. The Courts have sided with the Indians, most recently in the Sparrow case on fishing rights; and the courts have also sent a clear message to the government that these issues should be negotiated. Most people agree that these issues must be resolved through negotiations. As one forestry worker said recently: “The government has passed the buck on this issue so that forest industry workers who are much closer to the action are ending up frustrated by the Indian’s blockades. The government is not doing us any favours by failing to deal with it.” As with any set of bition, performance, stampede, or pageant in aboriginal costume. The penalty was a twenty-five dollar fine, or one month in jail, or both. In 1875, British Col- umbia passed legisla- As with any negotiations the sides must submit agendas and realize they wont achieve everything negotiations, both sides must submit their agen- das and realize that they will not achieve every- thing. Labour under- stands this aspect of negotiating — which items they are prepared to bend on, and which tion that said no Indian could vote, and it took until 1949 before Indian people could do what you and I take for granted. But then the labour movement, aware that right wing governments are always trying to erode hard fought gains, understands that you have to fight for your rights; whether it be the contracting-out issue in British Columbia in 1986, or the days of protest to oppose unfair labour legislation. There was an opportunity in 1987 to lay the foundation for a new relationship, when the ten premiers and the Prime Minister met in March to compile a list of items to be included in Canada’s constitution. Indian leaders had asked for basic recognition, and six premiers were in agreement. are bottom line items that they are not pre- pared to grant concessions on. The more we delay negotiating aboriginal claims, the more the uncertainty, and the costs, grows. New Democrats believe the solutions can be found at the bargaining table, not at the blockades. Dan Miller is the Forestry Critic for the New Democratic Party of British Columbia. He is a member of the provincial legislature who is on leave of absence from Skeena Cellulose’s pulp mill in Prince Rupert. This is the fourth in a series of articles Mr. Miller has agreed to write for the Lumberworker. Fletcher Challenge continues closure program Fletcher Challenge Canada (FCC) has continued its financial chess game in British Columbia. On September 14, the New Zealand controlled com- pany announced the November 30 closure of its Fraser Mills panelboard operation which will throw 94 IWA -CANADA Local 1-357 members out onto the streets. At the same time, the company plans to get out of the Douglas-fir plywood market by announcing that it is selling its Delta Plywood Divi- sion. The layoff and closure announce- ments are perpetuating Fletcher Chal- lenge’s destructive presence in the B.C. forest industry. Since FCC’s creation, from the merger of Crown Industries and B.C. Forest Products in September, 1988, Joe LeClair says the workers at Delta Plywood have been told to “expect the worst.” “People are absolutely devastated,” says Brother LeClair. “Since this com- pany has come into this province, they have shut down mill after mill and camp after camp, and they haven’t lost one timber licence.” The local union is planning to take action to publicize the FCC announce- ment. “Fletcher Challenge is going to know they’re in a fight,” adds Brother LeClair. COMPANY CURTAILS INTERIOR OPERATIONS Three days preceding the above announcement, FCC informed Kel- owna Local 1-423 that its Armstrong lumber mill, about 35 miles north of well over 1,000 IWA members have lost their jobs in a company induced © Front end loader with fir peelers at FCC Delta Plywood. Company is ready to pull Kelowna, would be laying off one shift. To minimize the damage to the 140 onslaught of mill closures, downsiz- ings, and rationalizations. he shutdown at Fraser Mills fol- lows the cutting of 100 jobs in the spring of 1989 at that work site. Despite reassurances by FCC in the fall of 1988 that no jobs would be lost, now nearly 200 will be out of work at Fraser Mills after November 30. Local 1-357 president John Vernon charges that FCC is one of the worst corporate citizens in the province. Brother Vernon also charged that a comy 's pee He in poe uulp and paper sector and not the poli wood sector. “In selling the Delta Plywood oper- ation the company is missing an excel- lent opportunity for expansion in the USS. sanded Douglas-fir plywood mar- ket,” says IWA-CANADA research director Douglas Smyth. plug on plant workers. The jobs of 300 workers are at stake if a buyer is not found to continue the operation. Although the company says it will review its options at the end of November if a buyer is not found, the union’s consensus is that it plans to liquidate the plant. “Obviously Fletcher Challenge is not prepared to wait out the cyclical plywood market,” says Smyth. “We don’t think that Fletcher Chal- lenge has done a full analysis of the sanded Douglas-fir plywood market and that its decisions are based on other considerations,” adds Smyth. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest a large number of sawmills and ply- wood plants have closed. In the states of Oregon and Washington, 27 mills have already closed during 1990, and another 29 are so severely curtailed that many of those are likely to close as well. As a result of the 1990 closures in the states of Washington and Oregon, roughly 1% billion square board feet of plywood has been taken off the market. The spotted owl controversy, which has halted harvesting of some: old-growth stands from lands con- trolled by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, has created a vacuum in the U.S. market for B.C. plywood producers. “The long-term opportunities for sanded Douglas-fir plywood are very optimistic,” says Smyth. “The U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Colum- bia are the only two areas in the world which manufacture the high quality product.” Local 1-357’s first vice-president workers at the mill, the union has sought an agreement with Canada Manpower to begin a work sharing program. Most of the sawmill’s employees will work a 3 day week for a minimum 8 month period, after which the com- pany will re-examine the mill’s viabil- ity. “This way the majority of our peo- ple will still have an income,” says local president Troi Caldwell. “But there’s a lot of anxiety and frustration over the mills future.” While production in Armstrong is dropping, FCC’s plywood mill in Kelowna is receiving fewer peeler logs. As a result, 12 employees have been laid off indefinitely. The job sharing program with Can- ada Manpower will last for a maxi- mum of 26 weeks. LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1990/3