e Peter Botsman, researcher with Australia’s Evatt Foundation, spoke at con- ference. + Aussie labour representative says international alliances a must International labour solidarity and cooperation has been around for fieeles - both in theory and in practice. As the unrelenting trend to globalize the forest industry economy continues, the labour movement is being caught off guard as corporations trample around the world in a seemingly uncontested fashion. It’s time that workers banded peiget et to counteract these power- ful global forces, says Peter Botsman, a representative with the Evatt Foundation, the Australian Labour Movement’s think-tank. One of this country’s leading activists for the disabled workers, Wolfgang Zimmerman, an Execu- tive Director of the Disabled Workers Foundation of Canada, has received an appointment to B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt’s Advisory cil for Persons with Dis- ies. The early July appoint- ment followed Zimmerman’s ap- intment to the Order of Britis lumbia. On June 25th, prior to the appointment by Harcourt, B.C. vernment General David Lam aaa the Order of B.C. Award _ to Zimmerman to recognize his con- tribution to the prevention of dis- putes. pee reamerman says he is “ver rivile, and very hon- = Beitesive one of the highest awards bestowed on a citizen. __ For more than a decade, Mr. _ Zimmerman himself a disabled _ worker, a former member of IWA, Local 1-85 in Port Alberni, has de icated himself to exposing the _ issues of disabled workers to the __ The Premier’s Advisory Council for Persons with Disabilities was tablished 3 years ago. eongt a body was called for in 1981 Brother Botsman was in Van- couver in early June at the global Labour Conference to encourage delegates from other International Unions to create awareness in their own respective organizations. A researcher with the Evatt Foundation, Brother Botsman appeared as the ball carrier for the Australian Timber Unions. The Evatt Foundation has been involved im many -issues over such as forestry, privatization and trade issues and pushes’ for international solidarity on a number of fronts. “We’re in the same boat as all Disabled workers’ activist appointed to premier’s council Receives Order of B.C. honour during the International Year of Disabled Persons, it wasn’t until after B.C.’s Rick Hansen road his wheelchair around the world in 1985 - 86, that more thought was given to getting an advisory council operating. The concern for rehabilitation and reintegration is becoming more high profile than it ever has before. Governments across the globe, in Germany, Australia, and now the United States, have acted with leg- islation to help the disabled. On July 26 the enabling legisla- tion to the Americans with Disabilities Act, brought in by U.S. President George Bush three year ago, was put into effect. In B.C., the DFWFC Chas been in the forefront of the fight for the dis- abled workers. Recently, Mr. Zimmerman and his colleagues at the DFWFC, received $35,000 from the province to do research for the establishment of a Disability Institute at Port Alberni’s North Island College cam- us. R The DFWFC is doing work on a sophisticated data collection system required to put together a detailed business plan for Institute. The Statement calls for talks amongst woodworkers The participants to the forest industry sector workshops also agreed to release a statement at the end of the conference which call for further co- operation amongst international trade union affiliates at a higher level and made the following recommendation: “This conference recom- mends that an Asian- Pacific Labour Solidarity Project be set up to encour- age environmental stan- dards, planning, sustain- ability and economic devel- opment within the global timber industry. The labour movements of the Pacific rim, beginning with the countries repre- sented at this conference - Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Mexico should create work- ing dialogue and methods of information sharing. In order to facilitate this process we recommend an Asian-Pacific timber (workers) meeting should be convened in Vancouver involving the key labour movement representatives from the countries above and that this be convened within the next 12 months.” Canadian timberworkers,” Botsman told the Lumberworker. “Unless particularly American standards are raised, then we as workers are all threatened across the Asian Pacific region. We have to develop a concept of labour solidarity so that the workers conditions in the tim- ber industry are brought up rather than pushed down.” “We realize that our achieve- ments as a labour movement over the last century in Australia are at stake in the new global economy,” said Botsman. “Our labour move- ment is vulnerable and we realize that we have to make international alliances to survive.” Because Canada has a forest industry that is much more devel- oped, Botsman believes Aussie tim- berworkers can learn a great deal about bargaining with large employers. He also says “it’s no longer possible for national labour movements to preserve their bene- fits and conditions in their own domestic economies. We have to have an international labour soli- darity project in all of our industry’s sectors.” Botsman says its easily possible for unions to communicate across international boundaries in the computer age. The Evatt Foun- dation in Australia now communi- cates with 32 research centres glob- ally by means of electronic mail. Communication networks in North America such as the WEB Network and the IGC Peace Network offer the labour movement. an excellent communication system. iS = ¢ Wolfgang Zimmerman, ex-local 1-85 member and an Executive Director of the DFWEC, is keeping up the fight for disabled workers. provincial government is looking at receiving a business plan, partly based on the data, by the end of this year. The NIC business plan is also being funded to the tune of $10,000 by the Federal Government. Any ipoyermment of any political stripe should now be able to see the light and recognized the tremen- dous burden placed on society by disabled workers. LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1992/9 In 1990 alone, in the province of British Columbia there were over 850,000 man days of work lost to disability. Nationwide the costs of support- ing disabled workers is enormous, and in the tens of billions. According to Zimmerman a ‘holis- tic’ approach is needed to reinte- grate workers. “We need to deal with these issues in a much more progressive way,” he says.