~~

* IWA’s ex-counsel Suzan Beattie says she has appreciated working with IWA
members for past 12 years.

The IWA's General Counsel Suzan
Beattie has left the union for a new
position at the Provincial Industrial
Relations Council. In early July IRC
Commissioner Stan Lanyon an-
nounced that Ms. Beattie, along with
several other appointees would be
joining the Council as new Vice-Chair-
person for a3 year term.

The appointment ended Suzan's 12
years of duty with the IWA. She and
others brought new credibility to the
IRC which had, until following the fir-

ing of former Socred Commission Ed
Peck, been boycotted by the B.C. Fed-
eration of Labour.

The IRC, which was created from
the notorious anti-labour legislation
called Bill 19, has undergone changes
to reflect a newer, more balanced ad-
ministration of labour law in B.C., and
is going to be renamed the Labour Re-
Jations Board. i 3

Suzan says that unions and labour
practitioners have long awaiting
changes to the Industrial Relations
Act which took place following a re-

view process which was conducted
earlier this year. The Fall sitting of the
legislative assembly provided the NDP
government an opportunity to make
legislative changes in labour law to
create a level playing field. (See page
one — B.C. Labour law.)

As a Vice-Chairperson, Ms. Beattie
will be sitting in judgment of cases
brought to the new Board under its
Adjudication Division.

When she started at the IRC in Sep-
tember Ms. Beattie brought a solid
academic background in combination
with experience in litigation process-
es.

Hired in 1980 following a 2 year
practice in family law litigation, Suzan
started litigating arbitration cases for
the former IWA Regional Council
No.1. She travelled a circuit through-
out B.C. and some parts of Western
Canada arguing cases for the union.

Following the recession of the early
1980's her duties changed as the Re-
gional Council began to put emphasis
on instructing local unions in dispute
resolution techniques to avoid costly
and time consuming arbitration pro-
cedures.

Suzan says that when that concept
solidified, many local unions partici-
pated in learning grievance tech-
niques and there was eventual payoff
with union locals resolving a vast ma-
jority of grievances before they
reached arbitration.

In addition Suzan worked closely
with former Regional National Health
and Safety Director, Verna Ledger in
teaching W.C.B. Advocacy courses to
numerous local union affiliates. Both
women worked to keep local unions
up-to-date on court challenges and
W.C.B. case appeals.

Born and raised in the B.C. lower
mainland, the 46 year old labour
lawyer has a solid background in
academia with three undergraduate
degrees in psychology, economics,
and business administration.

er now at labour board

During her undergraduate years at
Simon Fraser University, Suzan did
some statistical research on how both
labour and management would per-
ceive the then 1974 changes to B.C.
labour laws. Her statistical review of
1974 labour law perceptions was pub-
lished in a business journal. Later, as
an undergraduate she became an edi-
torial assistant for "Western Labour
Arbitration Cases" where she ana-
lyzed arbitration cases for publica-
tion.

While practising law for the IWA in
the mid-1980's, Suzan was chosen as
an adjunct intructor of a course on
collective bargaining at SFU. Since
then she has returned every year to
teach the part time evening course.

Such background has given Suzan a
background which goes beyond legis-
lation and case law. While teaching
academic courses, she has delved into
some policy analysis of labour legisla-
tion across Canada. In addition she
has looked at broader based policy is-
sues of collective bargaining in the
United States and some parts of Eu-
rope.

At the IRC and new Board, Suzan
will no doubt remain up to her neck in
adjudication hearings and decisions.
For a period of 6 months following
her hiring she is not able to sit in on
hearings involving the forest industry
or IWA-CANADA. But after that, IWA
members and their counsel may very
well be sitting in front of Suzan and
her new IRC colleagues.

Suzan says her experience at IWA-
CANADA is invaluable in her new role.
Her exposure to the centralized col-
lective bargaining regime in British
Columbia's largest private sector in-
dustry is unparalleled.

Suzan stated she "will always appre-
ciate all that I have been taught by the
men and women who work in the
woods products industry. It has been
a privilege and a pleasure to represent
these members for the last 12 years."

Training

Continued from page seven

Deputy Minister of Employment and
Immigration, Arthur Kroeger, put
‘Canada's record on training into some
ective by noting that in success-
West European economies like
Germany, the number of apprentices
trained each year was approximately
600,000. According to Kroeger, if the

same training effort was carried out in

Canada, the equivalent number would
be about 300,000 apprentices. In fact,

actual number is less than 30,000.
Those comments are reinforced by
recently compiled survey of training
Canada. According to that sur-
the average employee in Canada
ives approximately 14 hours of
ing per year. And of that total
ost of the training hours were devot-
to either orientation or mandatory

ety and health training. ‘

Although detailed information on

it training effort in the forest in-

has not been compiled, a num-

recent studies have identified

and importance of training in

. By far the most significant

ese was an analysis of ths.b.C.

products industry prepared for

estern Wood Products Forum by
iting firm Ernst and Young.

W.W.P.F., which is a labour-

nt organization jointly run

‘ADA and forest products

nies, sponsored the research

June 1991. The main obiee

he project was to provide an

nt of the human resource is-

ts in the B.C. indus-

According to the research findings,
the wood products industry in British
Columbia is facing dramatic re-struc-
turing pressures which will require
substantial new commitments to
training in the years ahead. The
largest single factor driving these
pressures is the changing profile of
the province's forest resource.

In some regions those pressures are
the result of the inevitable shift to sec-
ond-growth forests. In other regions it
is the result of overall declines in an-
nual allowable cuts. But most of all it
is the fact that in every region operat-
ing and harvesting standards are be-
ing substantially revised to meet more
stringent measures of sustainability.

The study found that those revi-
sions, along with the technological,
competitive and marketing pressures
within the manufacturing sub-sectors
of the industry, will require significant
new initiatives in the training area.

If the experience of other sectors in
the Canadian economy are any indica-
tion, responding to these training
needs will require a fundamentally
new approach. One of the best exam-
ples of this new approach has been
implemented by the Canadian Auto
Workers Union (CAW) in collaboration
with auto parts manufacturers.

In their sector, they are facing many
of the same problems that we must
deal with in the wood products indus-
try; over-capacity in the manufactur-
ing end of the business, rapid and
continuous technological change,
competition from foreign suppliers,
changing consumer preferences.

After spending half a decade study-
ing the problems within their sector,
the CAW and the auto parts companies
decided to form a training council to
oversee the development and imple-
mentation of a training program to
deal with some of the problems in

their industry.

Under this program, the training
council has drafted the curriculum
and training plan for an Auto Parts
Certificate. Designed for production
workers in the industry, the certificate
program provides 120 hours of train-
ing over a three year period. Starting
in February, 1993 the program is pre-
pared to train up to 10,000 workers
per year in a variety of locations
throughout Ontario.

Prospective trainees receive 40
hours of training each year. An $18
million federal-provincial-industry
funding agreement provides trainees
with straight-time hourly pay for all
their training hours. Under the agree-

ment, the employer is partially reim-
bursed for the direct costs of training.

To what extent the auto parts sec-
toral training council example can be
replicated in the wood products in-
dustry is difficult to say. Clearly, the
interest and commitment of both the
industry and the CAW played an im-
portant role. As well, economic pres-
sures within the sector were
important motivators.

Given the current state of forest in-
dustry problems, it is time to get seri-
ous about training. That effort will
have to be focused and co-ordinated if
it is going to have a meaningful im-
pact on our problems.

¢ Canadian workers receive little classroom time outside of orientation or
mandatory health and safety training.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1992/23