Local committed to
organizing and politics

IWA-CANADA Local 1-367 holds the
distinction of being the union’s only
jurisdiction which represents workers
in the cedar shake and shingle indus-
try. The 2,100 member local union
also represents sawmill workers, log-
gers, and other assorted worker
groups.

Local 1-367’s boundaries stretch
from Pitt Meadows, east to Hope,
BC., and then northward up the Fra-
ser Canyon to Lillooet. In fact, in 1956
the New Westminster Local 1-357 gave
the local some of its territory.

In the early years the local repre-
sented a large number of loggers and
workers in primary breakdown plants,
and it wasn’t until the late 1960's
when workers from the International
Union of Shingle Weavers, Sawmill

e At Green River Cedar is shake packer
Jaswinder Oberoi.

Workers and Woodsmen Local 28,
merged with 1-367 to provide the local
with its shake and shingle operations.

Inits heyday the Fraser Valley local
had close to 3,000 members. Over the
years the membership shrank as the
number of loggers was greatly re-
duced. In the depths of the recession
in 1982 the local dwindled to only
1100 members.

But the union built up its member-
ship to the present level through
aggressive organizing campaigns.
Today it has a reputation of being one
of the most active locals in the IWA for
organizing new members.

LOCAL UNION STRUCTURE

Each certification in the local union
is entitled to a representative on the
Executive Board which meets month-
ly to conduct business. The local has
some 70 bargaining units.

In addition to President Dave
Tones and Financial Secretary Sonny
Ghag, the local union has five vice-
presidents which represent a cross-
section of the membership.

Annual delegated meetings are held
alternately at the local headquarters
in Maple Ridge and in Chilliwack.
The local union, like many other juris-
dictions, uses the referendum ballot
when its by-laws are amended.
MAJOR OPERATIONS

The local union breaks down into
about 1/3 each of the following; shake
and shingles, sawmills and remanu-
facturing, and logging.

Fletcher Challenge Canada and
International Forest Products are the
two big employers with over 1,000
employees between the two.

Hammond Fletcher challenge has
its giant cedar mill in Maple Ridge
which employs 340 workers on two
shifts. It has a 170 man dimension
sawmill at Boston Bar about 80
kilometres north of Hope, and a
major logging operation at Pitt
Lake. The company also employs 30
uniion members at its Albion reman
plant in Maple Ridge.

Interfor has a large white wood
sawmill in Pitt Meadows, a 180 man
mill in Whonnock (Pioneer mill), and
logging operations in the Hope area.

‘The local also represents up to 150
members at the Pelton Reforestation
Centre and Nursery and the Van
Vloten ornamental nursery, both of
which are in the Maple Ridge area.

It also represents workers in the
construction trades, trucking, a pal-
let plant, and plastic bottle manufac-
turing.

SHAKE AND SHINGLE SECTOR
NOW GROWING STRONGER

During the 1980’s recession, major
integrated forest companies, like Mac-
Millan Bloedel, Crown Zellerbach,
British Columbia Forest Products,
and Interfor, got out of the shake and
shingle manufacturing business.

By the mid-1980’s these major com-
panies were buying logs, giving them
to smaller manufacturers and having
various contractors take risks of pro-
duction costs. Many small non-union
operations rose to make inroads into
the markets.

e A falling crew unloading from a boat at Fletcher Challenger's Pitt Lake Logging

Division are (1. to r.) Aki Kyllonen, Ned Jukic, Rob Barrington, Seppo Kyllonen, Mauri
Kyllonen, Jorma Kyllonen, Eero Kyllonen. amd John Mesich. The Kyllonens are all

brothers.

Since then markets for cedar roof-
ing products have grown enormously,
despite a U.S. imposed tariff and ban
on the products in areas of the city of
Los Angeles, a major market. Cur-
rently, large mills, such as Scott
Cedar, Green River Cedar, Meeker
Cedar Products, and TBM Cedar,
have added extra shifts to keep up
with the demand.

During the 1986 US. countervail
action by the Reagan Administration,
the IWA fought for and received an
export ban on cedar logs, blocks,
blanks, and boards, from Canada.

Brother Tones says that action
saved the industry from going under

and being relocated to the United
States.

e At the local union's boardroom in Maple Ridge are (I. to r.) financial secretary Sonny
Ghag, president Dave Tones, and first vice-president Barry King.

Union, has worked for the IWA for the
past 18 years. She will be joining 14
other NDP candidates to seek the
positions of mayor, aldermen, and
school trustees.

Local president Tones says that the®
union is visibly present in the commu-
nity and regularly gets media atten-
tion when statements of a political
nature are made.

He also adds that the local union
has helped make political converts
out of newly organized workers.

COMMITMENT TO THE
UNORGANIZED

The Fraser Valley local union has a
full time officer; 2nd vice-president,
Lyle Olson, who oversees organizing

LOCAL 1-367 FRASER VALLEY

AREA
ENLARGED

LOCAL BELIEVES IN POLITICAL
ACTION

“We're not only active when elec-
tions are called,” says Brother Ghag.
“All year around we're very active in
all levels of politics.”

_In fact, the local union is recog-
nized for playing an instrumental role
in the 1988 election of NDP Member
of Parliament Joy Langan (Mission-
Coquitlam).

_ Local 1-367 provides office facili-
ties, releases union campaign work-
ers, and provides financial assistance
to NDP candidates at all levels. Pro-
vincially the local does solid work in
the two ridings of Mission and Maple
Ridge, although it supports candi-
dates in three other ridings in its
jurisdiction.

As this issue goes to press the local
is donating its resources in support of
a pro-labour slate of candidates run-
ning in the November 17 Surrey civic
elections. Sandra McElroy, who is an
office staffer at the local, is running
for Alderman on an NDP slate.

Ms. McElroy, a member of the
Office and Technical Employees

Map. ~- bby Ingrid Rice

(see story page 7). An organizing
team of five union members has been
formed to help pitch in when their
help is needed.

“We recognize that the times are
changing and we will be seeing fewer
primary breakdown units, loggers,
and the eventual shrinkage of the
IWA,” says Tones. “When we were
down to 1100 members, we had to
‘wake up and smell the coffee’. So now
we're much more active.”

The local was asked by 120 workers
at a plastics bottling plant in Pitt
Meadows (Leyland Industries Ltd.)
to represent them in the fall of 1988.
After union certification a bitter
8-month strike followed which ended
after a massive union rally protestin;
the arrest of union officials for alleg
activity against scabs.

“The bottom line is that workers,
wherever they are, need representa-
tion,” says Brother Ghag. “Their prob-
lems and concerns are similar, no
matter what industry you look at.”

Continued on page 15

6/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1990