Local 1-217

Continued from page six

Mexico as a further blow to the estab-
lishment of a value-added sector. The
Mexican labour market offers even
cheaper labour in competition against
Canadian and American workers.

Kobayashi says the union’s long
term survival depends on more jobs
out of less fibre and that low wage free
trade zones are a threat to good paying
union jobs.

INDUSTRIAL LAND BASE
UNDER ATTACK

Just as free trade is a threat to
Bisent and future job creation in the

forest industry, the local’s future may
be threatened by rezoning of indus-
trial land into residential develop-
ment.

The entire False Creek industrial
site was bulldozed in the early 1980's
to make room for EXPO ’86, then
subsequently sold off for residential
and commercial development.

Local union financial secretary
Erich Ewert, who has worked for 1-217
for 20 years says that if the union
doesn’t put its foot down to stop the
erosion of industrial land, especially
along the Fraser River, where most
milling and logging operations are,
then the local will eventually cease to
exist.

The local union is putting pressure
on the municipal government in Van-
couver to preserve all existing indus-
trial land.

LOCAL UNION PROGRAMS -

Local 1-217 takes pride in the fact
that every year, since it was estab-
lished, it has sent a delegate to the
CLC’s Labour College, of Canada. At
home the union takes priority in host-
ing Job Steward seminars for all its
operations.

Since the mid 1980's, Local. 1-217
has maintained an elected safety coun-
cil consisting of local union officers
and representatives from joint occu-
pational health and safety commit-
tees.

According to Brother Ewert, a for-
mer chairman of the safety council,
technological changes pose new prob-
lems for analyzing the safeness of
jobs.

“We've seen different kinds of acci-
dents now in the newer, high tech
mills,” says Ewert. “As industry
changes we constantly have to get a

© Clockwise from top left are Local 1-217 members: At Sauder Door, George Zacharias cuts a lite in a french door; at MB Canadian
White Pine, filer Rick Estok; at Sawarne Lumber Col, Swaran S. Hayer operates a chop saw cutting cedar siding; and at Westcoast
Plywood, Karen Hawkes feeds veneer through machine.

handle on these new scenarios.”

The local has participated with
industry in putting on joint seminars
in the handling of toxic wood preser-
vatives. Other prime areas of concern
in health and safety are on the job
safety instruction, lockout proce-
dures, and enforcement of WC.B
regulations.

POLITICAL ACTION

Local 1-217 is front and centre in its
support of the New Democratic Party
both provincially and federally.

According to Brother Kobayashi,
the local has among the highest per-
centage of IWA members amongst
any union local, who are members and

participate in party activities.

In November of 1990, recently
retired local union president Doug
Evans was elected as alderman on an
NDP civic slate in Burnaby. Brother
Evan’s win was made possible by the
help of ey IWA members including
campaign chairman Don Jantzen, for-
mer first vice-president of Local 1-217.

MPs hear IWA

Continued from page one

design values required in truss manu-
facture. The research director pre-
dicts that Canadian Spruce and Pine
will do well in the engineered a compo-
nent market in the U.S., where wood
with high strength, stiffness, and
structural integrity will be required.

The researcher predicts, based ona
major study being completed, that
market demand for softwood lumber
in the US., during the 1990’s will far
exceed the production of domestic
American industries. But he warns
that unless the Canadian dollar falls
and the 15 percent federal export tax
on shipments south of the border, is
reduced, then some Canadian soft-
wood producers are unlikely to sur-
vive the recession to enjoy the market
upturn. '

Since the export tax was imposed
by the U.S. in January of 1987, the
value of our dollar, versus its U.S.
counterpart, has risen by over 19%.

Smyth told the panel that the jump
in the dollar and increases in stump-
age have added huge costs to lumber
production, especially in the B.C.
interior.

“We all understand that the poor
US. lumber markets of the past two

years have depressed prices. However

when the size of the market pie
shrinks, we know we can maintain our
share by being cost competitive,” said
Smyth. “Both our (IWA) 1990 and
1986 studies show beyond any doubt.
that B.C. sawmills are by far the most
efficient in North America.”

“On a regular basis,” said Smyth,
“We are more than twice as produc-
tive as the U.S. industry.

“B.C. sawmills are still much more
efficient than the average U.S. mill,”
said Smyth. “However they have lost
much of their manufacturing cost
advantage that they enjoyed during
the mid-1980s.”

“They needed to maintain that
superiority in order to overcome a
serious disadvantage in freight costs
to the U.S. market.

Smyth said that the mills in the
US. Southeast pay up to $80 (U.S.)
less per thousand board feet for deliv-
eries to their own region than BC.
Interior mills do for access to the
same market.

Smyth said that, on a regional
basis, the B.C. interior is more than
twice as productive as the industry in
the U.S.

Through the early 80's the extra
efficiency helped B.C. producers
increase their share in the U.S. market
but now in the early 90’s the burden of
export tax related stumpage increases
and the high Canadian dollar is cur-
tailing some operations.

The research director presented fig-

ures that indicated over 20% of B.C.
sawmill and plywood plant workers
are unemployed.

Smyth said that Bank of Canada

Governor John Crow has been unable
to present evidence that inflation is a
real threat to the economy, and that
Crow apparently “felt that he had to
prevent a few ’hot spots’ in central
Canada from spreading to the rest of
the country by giving everybody a
strong dose of anti-inflation psychol-
ogy.
“For over 3 years, John Crow has
put the forest products industry in
severe jeopardy by trying to play a
confidence game in order to keep
investors happy,” said Smyth.

“What Mr. Crow has overlooked is
that current circumstances are much
different than they were in the 1970s”
said Smyth. “Much of the ‘heat’ in
Central Canada resulted from demand
generated by the robust U.S. econ-
omy. However, as the level of business
activity in the United States has
cooled, so too has the alleged ‘over-
heating’ in Ontario.”

The research director said the union
was pleased to see that the U.S. Fed-
eral Reserve Board has responded to
rising unemployment rates by cut-
ting its discount rates to banks for
commercial loans. The U.S. rate is
now down to 6 percent, nearly 5 per-
cent less than the Bank of Canada’s
rate.

“We hope that the Bank of Canada

finally sees the handwriting on the
wall and follows suit. Since 1987 its
policies have pulled our industry to.
the edge of the cliff. i

Smyth said “this unbearable situa-
tion must be corrected so that Cana-
dian sawmilling and plywood indus-
tries can meet the expanded market
opportunities which will occur during
the 1990s.”

He predicted that lumber and ply-
wood consumption in the United
States shall again approach modern
day record levels set in the late 80s.

But he warned that action must be
taken right away to soften the cost
disadvantage currently imposed on
the forest industry by the over inflated
Canadian dollar.

For over 3 years, Crow’s high inter-
est rate policy has been putting ply-
wood plants and sawmills out of busi-
ness. Canadian forest products
companies pay out a third more fo:
financing, and the spread between
some Canadian and U.S. short-term
rates widened to as much as 5.6 per-
cent, compared to the historical
spread of one percent.

“The seriousness of the current sit-
uation requires that immediate action
be taken,” said Smyth. “Failure to do
so will needlessly cripple Canada’s
largest export industry, and will cre-
ate enormous economic and social
costs associated with the direct and
indirect job losses that will take

place.”

———

14/LUMBERWORKER/FEBRUARY, 1991