ie e In attendance at conference were (I. to r.) IWA-CANADA Local 1-363’s Chris Miles, and Kevin Hopton; Local 1-217’s Jim Parker, and former IWA staffer Clay Perry, now an associate with the B.C. Commission on Resources and Environment. International labour conference examines the effects of free trade on workers, environment An International Labour Solidarity project is needed to unite woodworkers in the Asia-Pacific region, said delegates to a Conference held in Vancouver from June 4-6. The Conference called “Labour and the Environment in the Global Economy,” was spon- sored by the B.C. Federation of Labour, the Simon Fraser University Labour Program, the Oregon AFL-CIO, the University of Oregon Labour Education and Research Centre, the Washington State Labour Council AFL-CIO, and the Evergreen State College Labour Centre. Woodworkers’ representatives from Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia participated in workshop sessions to discuss the impact of free trade on workers in the forest industry and to discuss strategies for international actions to protect workers rights and the environment. Peter Botsman, a researcher with the Evatt Foundation, the Australian Labour movement’s think tank, says that timber work- ers in his country are in danger of losing the hard fought gains of a century of struggle. He said that the heads of forest corporations running operations in Australia are in other countries and that low wage competitors in Asian nations such as Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are driving down wages and working conditions in Australia. He said that lack of environmen- tal standards and low wages in those countries are setting new lower cost competition which is effecting Aussie workers. “Years ago we could afford to sit back and not pay any attention,” says Botsman. “But now if the forests are mowed down in those countries, without any replanting or silviculture, we’re faced with unfair competition.” That competition, according to Botsman, is jeopardizing the Australian timber workers’ attempts to work on a compromise basis with the environmental move- ment. In the early 1980’s Australian workers gained some major break- through in fair pay systems and equipment allowances. Now, says Botsman, many benefits are being taken away. “They (the corporations) are play- ing a new game now,” says Botsman, “and its name is free trade.” New Zealander Paul Harris, a representative with the University of Waikato Centre for Labour Studies and a representative with his country’s 25,000 - 30,000 mem- ber Council of Forestry Unions, says collective bargaining laws are being attacked, the 40 hour week is gone, and minimum wage laws are abolished. New Zealand’s 12% unemploy- ment figures are rising as is forest industry unemployment in a indus- try which provide 6% of the coun- try’s GDP. Harris says Fletcher Challenge is bashing wages with its free trade rhetoric and that much of the radia- ta pine is being exported to other countries for value-added process- ing. Brother Harris says New Zealand’s timber workers who are now dealing with International Paper and Boise-Cascade, now require help. “We would like to know what kind of labour relations practices we can expect them to bring.” U.S. based International Paper will soon be the largest player in the log export market. Rich Nafziger, epee assistant. to timber policy rural develop- ment at ashingion State Governor Booth Gardiner’s office, says that free wheeling U.S. poly makers are against an overa industrial policy because it runs against the grain of free trade. Because states like Washington and Oregon: don’t have industrial policies to protect workers or the environment, Nafziger says the U.S. doesn’t want Canada to have an industrial policy either. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, industry has nearly eradicated now all of the old growth timber on pri- vate lands and the little that remains on federal lands. The industry is targetting those lands for deregulations. Mr. Netened say a full policy is needed in all countries to safeguard the environment and protect the labour community. IWA-CANADA delegates Chris Miles and Kevin Hopton of Courtenay Local 1-363 say the B.C’s forest policy is experiencing problems. Brother Miles says the province’s Small Business Enterprise program has only taken away good payin; union jobs in the logging sector an resulted in environmental damage by low-bid contractors. Brother Hopton says that credi- ble processes that have created log- ging plans in the Tsitika Valley have been sidelined by preserva- tionist group pressures and that the government’s environmental policy is running amok. IWA-CANADA Local 1-217’s Jim Parker says that workers are start- ing to realize that globalization is bringing a lowering of environmen- tal standards and that there is an opportunity for the labour move- ment to get the public on their side in protecting the ecology. Other delegates to the worksho) included the IWA-U.S.’s researc director Bill Street; IWA-CANADA Local 1-217 Gordie McRae; Clay Perry ex-director of IWA-CANADA Environment and Land-Use Department and an Assistant to B.C.’s Commission on Resources and Environment; Iry Fletcher, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO; Steve Duetch, a professor at the University of Oregon Labour Education and Research Centre; and Gordon Westrand and Howie Smith of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehouse- men’s Union. Delegates call for Asia- Pacific labour co-operation Delegates to the conference work- shops on the forest industry agreed on a consensus basis that there needs to be a start at getting some exchanges of information going on an international basis to combat the global assault on the labour movement and the environment. At the plenary session several workshop groups gave sectoral reports on their deliberation. In addition to the forest industry, the working sector groups included manufacturing, public services, the building trades, and fishing and agriculture. The forest industry sector work- ing group presentation was given by University of Oregon’s Marcus Widman who outlined the need for international labour partnerships to exchange the following types of data: 1. Information on Corporations 2. Public Policy 3. Environmental and Regulatory Practices 4, Trade Policy Issues 5. Productivity Measurements 6. Scientific Developments 7. Value-Added Research and Development 8. Labour and Work Practices 9. Worker Education and Training Capital Formation/Worker Ownership Worker Re-training and Transition Policies Individual Union Policies © New Zealander Paul Harris stressed the need to exchange information on cor- porations and their labour practices. EE ee ___._._... | 8/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1992 :