© Czech delegation members with the IWA's Clay Perry (third from left) were Michael Taus (.) Kokasca Alphonse, and Union Presi-

dent Robert Zednick (r.).

Czech woodworkers curious to
find out about IWAs structure

In early November IWA-CANADA
played host to a small delegation from
the Wood, Forestry and Water Indus-
tries Workers’ Trade Union of Czecho-
slovakia who were in Canada to learn
more about Canadian trade unions.

A three member delegation consist-
ing of union president Robert Zednik,
Kokasca Alphonse chairman of the
Forest sector of the union, and inter-
national relations officer Micheal Taus
was greeted by IWA officials and given
a warm welcome.

The union is one organization in the

* Czechoslovakian Confederation of
Free Trade Union which has been
undergoing rapid changes before and
since the collapse of state socialism in

Eastern Europe. Since that time the
union has become the first Eastern
bloc country to join the International
Federation of Building and Wood-
workers, a Geneva-based organization
dedicated to the advancement of
woodworkers around the world.

The Czech union has over 200,000
members in 7 different branches which
include a 60,000 member forestry
branch and workers in wood working,
furniture, paper and sawlogs, fine con-
sumer products and rivers and dams.
Altogether the union has 823 local
organizations across the country.

During the current political and
economic changes, the Czechs are
seeking the return of private property
and now are experiencing large scale

problems with unemployment. In the
past two years wood préduction in the
country has dropped by 30% while the
union’s membership has suffered a
corresponding decrease in its member-
ship.

According to Brother Zednik there
is a disillusionment amongst Czecho-
slovakian workers that the changes in
his country will bring about living
standards like those in Western
Europe.

However that assumption is far
from a reality.

“Some are saying that life was bet-
ter under the communist systems,”
commented Zednik.

However under state socialism
Zednik says his union had jnput but

little real influence in affecting the
social agenda.

And after 40 years of contact with
the ruling party the union’s current
membership is hesitant to lend power
to any one specific organizations. In
turn, the union's actions to influence
social, political, and economic change
is fragmented amongst political orga-
nizations which span the political
spectrum from the radical right to the
aie left.

Currently the IFBWW had sent
staff to Czechoslovakia from its affili-
ates in Norway, Sweden, Spain and
England to educate woodworkers in
traditions of western trade unionism.

“We want to learn from every model
of trade unions that we are exposed
to,” said Zednik.

The union leader also said the dem-
ocratic and geographically based local
union structure of IWA-CANADA is
similar to his union’s ideal of a new
structure.

The Czechs met with IWA-CANADA
president Jack Munro, an Executive
Member of the IFBWW. Munro
praised the Czechs’ efforts to learn
more about other models of unionism
and also cautioned the delegation
about embracing the free market
system.

Brother Munro offered the assis-
tance of IWA-CANADA to aid the visi-
tors in their struggles ahead.

“Workers around the world have
many pressures on them now and
must work together,” said Munro.

Among the many problems that
the Czechs face are those of environ-
mental degradation. Much of the for-
est land in the country’s three regions
has been damaged by sulphur dioxide
emissions (acid rain) from the many
coal burning factories and power
stations.

The union has struck a committee
to deal with the environment and has
begun to interact with the govern-
ment on several important issues said
Kokasca Alphonse.

Brother Alphonse also says that
the forests in his country have experi-
enced extensive storm damages in
several instances since 1979. Two
years ago a hurricane swept the Ger-
man and Czechoslovakian part of
Europe and toppled millions of cubic
metres of timber. The Czechs harvest
mostly coniferous softwoods similar
to those found in Canada.

Soviet delegation drops in on IWA officials

International Trade Union solidar-
ity got another boost in late Novem-
ber when a five member delegation of
Soviet: unionists visited Canada as
guests of the Canadian Labour
Congress. a

Between November 25 - December
3 the delegation headed by Mihail
Shmakoy, President of the Moscow
Federation of Trade Unions, was
received by Canadian unions in
Ontario, Quebec and British Colum-
bia. Other members of the Soviet
delegation were Yevgeni Makarov,
President of St. Petersberg Federa-
tion of Trade Unions; Yuri Dolgikh,
President of Tyumen Regional Coun-
cil of Trade Unions; Olga Yefimenko,
President of the Central Committee
of Textile Industry Workers’ Union of
the Ukraine; and interpreter Alexei
Zharkow of the GCTU’s International
Affairs Dept.

During their swing through BC.,
the Soviets met with ranking officers
of the B.C. Federation of Labour at
the Fed’s week long annual conven-
tion.

The delegation also met with IWA
-CANADA President Jack Munro and
other officers of our union and sat
down with them to briefly discuss the
ongoing changes workers are experi-

encing in the Soviet Union.

In a meeting held at IWA-CANA-
DA'S National Office, the Soviets were
curious to learn the system of collec-
tive bargaining that exists in Canada
and the methods by which we gain our
legal authority to bargain.

Guiding the Soviets on behalf of
the IWA was Clay Perry, who gave full

explanations to the visitors.

Mr. Shmakov told the IWA that, at
present, the government and new
employers in the Soviet Union are
“sparing no efforts to undermine the
solidarity of workers.” In many
plants, according to Shmakov, em-
ployers and the government are trying
to institute two or more trade unions

in the workplace in order to fraction-
alize workers.

The Soviet delegation was also curi-
ous to know how IWA collective agree-
ments deal with the application of
seniority and worker competency. The
visitors also were given information
on the apprentice training and the
certification of tradesmen.

@ At IWA-CANADA's boardroom in Vancouver were (1. to r.) Yevgeni Makarov, Alexei Zharkov, Mikhail Shmakov, Olga Yefimenko,
and Yuri Dolgikh, delegates from the Soviet Union.

10/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1991