CONVENTION 90 © Delegates from southwestern Ontario Local 1-500 (Hanover), one of five Ontario locals at annual convention. Delegates renew demand for log export restrictions from all lands F e Jack McLeman At a time when the industry has approached the BC. government to relax restrictions on log exports, IWA-CANADA has reaffirmed its opposition to the export of raw logs and cants. Delegates unanimously called on both the federal and provincial governments to legislatively ban the export of all raw logs and cants and called on the union to continue the publicity campaign on edu- cating the public about the effects of such exports. Local 1-85 delegate Jack McLeman said legisla- tion should be put into place to create more jobs in manufacturing plants in this country. “There shouldn’t be any way that any company can export a log from the north coast or from anywhere, or from native lands — that’s got to be stopped. And if there are [WA members that are involved in operations that are just strictly export- ing logs, they shouldn’t be put out of work.” Williams Lake president Harvey Arcand told the convention that log exports are not only a coast problem, but also have caused concern for millworkers in the interior of B.C. Arcand said that large amounts of old growth spruce are being exported out of the Fort Nelson area and are being loaded onto boats in Prince Rupert. He also told the delegation that logs out in the Cariboo region may eventually be shipped through the port in Bella Coola rather than being processed in sawmills in Williams Lake. Williams Lake sawmills have been suffering log shortages and the Fletcher Challenge sawmill is threatened with log shortages, said Arcand. The dimension mill section of the operation has been shut down due to a lack of sizable logs. The company could not obtain fir out of the © Erich Ewert © Warren Ulley Pemberton area as logs are being shipped out through Vancouver. Delegate Steve Drescher from Vancouver Local 1-217, who works at Westcoast Cellufibre Division of Howe Sound Pulp and Paper said he sees 12” by 18” clear lumber cants 24 foot long heading for Japan for secondary manufacturing while BC. mills have gone down. “It’s something that started in the 70's, and its snowballing, and getting worse day by day, year by year,” said Drescher. Port Alberni president Earl Foxcroft told the convention that exports have continued on the coast, especially in helicopter logging operations where companies try to justify the need for export markets because of high logging costs. “There is very little if any stumpage paid on that wood that’s helicopter logged,” said Foxcroft. “We should be saying to those people that we don’t need to log it by that method, we can use long line logging, and those logs should stay in this country and be processed in this country.” Logger’s Local 1-71 president Warren Ulley cited a union mill closure on the northern B.C. coast because of log shortages due to exports. Ulley was referring to a Tree Farm License in a situation, where three logging contractors were allowed exports under “standing green” permits to export timber. Although the Tree Farm License had an annual allowable cut of more than 1.5 million cubic metres, the mill ran short of logs causing the loss of 90 sawmill jobs. Erich Ewert, from Vancouver Local 1-217 said sawmills are suffering more down time because of a lack of good sawlogs. He attributed the raw mate- rial shortage to log exports and the custom cut cants that are being shipped overseas. Convention calls for value-added conference A resolution from Vancouver Local 1-217 callin; for a special two-day delegated conference to di with the value-added wood industry was approved at the convention. The resolution calls for the conference prior to the 1991 Wages and Contracts Conference in British Columbia to discuss ways and means of encourag- ing the development of a value-added industry. The conference will also address the organizing of such operations and examine the standardizing of agreements in the value-added sector. “Value-added, that’s where the future of this union may lie,” said Local 1-217 delegate Jim Parker. “A standardized collective agreement is also essential when it come to value-added, because there are unique problems in the secondary manu- facturing industry that need to be addressed.” Local 1-217 president Gary Kobayashi told the delegates that the future will see woodworkers with inevitable wood shortages which will drive the costs of logs higher. He said it will mean that the extraction of more value will be necessary to ensure employment. “Just like we're synonymous with the sawmilling industry and the logging industry, we want owners to know that when they build a value-added opera- tion, that its gonna be IWA,” added Brother Kobayashi. Mike Kokura from Local 1-85 expressed concern that local unions would negotiate substandard agreements which could undermine existing collec- tive agreements in the manufacturing sector. Kokura warned that the union must stand strong against rollbacks and that employers will always seek cheaper means of producing secondary wood products. Kobayashi said its going to bea hard pill for some people to swallow but that the union will probably be seeking a different kind of collective agreement for the value-added sector than exists in the pri- mary sector. Local 1-80 first vice-president Bill Routley said that the union must do organizing in the remanu- facturing industry with a contract which will bring up the wages in the largely non-union sector. rr 14/LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER, 1990