ae oe ae

R.L. Cushing

Continued from page twelve

Now the window sector has been
taken over by plastic and aluminum

ons and the company should be

out of this line in the next couple of
years.

New sawing systems have been the
single largest factor in tech change as
less saw tailers are needed now than
at anytime before. The company can
put melamine or arborite onto parti-
cleboard stock with a 12,000 watt Jam-
inator which acts as a thermo gluer.

Other equipment commonly used
includes a Scheer saw which perfectly
cuts through particleboard and
veneer, a hot melt edge banding
machine, veneer trimmers and dowl-
ing machines.

The plant faces non-union competi-
tion in Saskatchewan and Manitoba,
and Brother Smith says it would be
good to see the competition organized
into a union(s).

Wages at the plant are leading the
sector in the prairies. Most of the jobs
are paid by the hour with a probation-
ary period before a worker gets the
full rate.

All skills training are done on the
job as workers start out as helpers
and then work their way up the scale.
Top job is $15.05/hr.

* Veneer trimmer Ken Buckingham gives it the straight edge.

Full-time workers are also covered
by a benefit package which includes
medical, dental, prescription drugs,
long term disability insurance and
accidental death and dismemberment
insurance.

Wolfgang Zimmerman
Continued from page thirteen

During past years the Council has
consisted entirely of persons with
actual disabilities. This time it will
include a senior labour representative
and a senior management representa-
tive.

These two appointments recognize
that labour and management must
play a key role in the reintegration of
injured workers.

Zimmerman says the Council is
looking for new directions to reflect
the reality of changing society which
is now more aware of persons with
disabilities.

“We want to ensure that people
with disabilities have a chance to par-
ticipate and earn a decent living,” say
Zimmerman. “But doing so we can
reduce the costs of disabilities in both
human and economic terms to indi-
viduals, employers, trade unions and
society as a whole.”

Efforts to create a new Forest
Industry Disability Management Insti-
tute in B.C. at a new site of the North

Island College in Port Alberni are well
underway.

The new Institute has been champi-
oned by the Disabled Forest Workers
Association of Canada, (DFWFC) of
which Mr. Zimmerman is an Execu-
tive Director.

In December of last year the provin-
cial government and a majority of the
directors of the DFWFC, received a
draft business plan to get the Institute
underway.

The DFWFC also now has a disabili-
ty management manual and has
received $20,000 in funds from the
Federal Secretary of State to develop
a joint labour/management training
program on introducing disability
management strategies in the work-
place.

IWA-CANADA has joined with
MacMillan Bloedel and the Canadian
Paperworkers Union in working out
plans to get a trial project which will
aid disabled forest workers in getting
back on the job. To date a time and
place for the program’s initiation have
not been established but it will even-
tually take place in B.C.

The way the IWA, MB and the CPU
are going is the way of the future says
Zimmerman.

In his job as Chairman of the Coun-
cil, Zimmerman will continue to push
for a legislative approach to getting
disabled workers back to leading
fruitful productive lives. The legisla-
tion is coming.

“We need to look at the shape and
content of what the legislative agenda
will take place in,” he says.

For all intents a purpose, Zimmer-
man says a “comprehensive statutory
framework will benefit everyone and
will also reduce costs of disabilities
and enhance productivity across the
boards.”

Today, companies are reviewing all
aspects of their competitiveness and
are finding that health care costs are a
important part of their overall cost
structures.

By introducing pro-disabled worker
legislation in the provinces’ and feder-
ally, Canada would be following the
leading example of Germany, Japan,
Australia, and as of recent the United
States. The trend to legislate rights for
persons with disabilities is gaining
momentum in the modern industrial-
ized world.

Local 1-324

Continued from page nine

been the IWA representative and on
the Board of Directors of the centre
since the beginning. A

Most IWA members work in outly-
ing areas and can reach the Centre
with only a phone call or letter. Cen-
tre staff have toured the sawmill at
The Pas and the worksites in outlying

areas.
FUTURE POTENTIAL

Brother Anderson says there is a
potential for the local union to grow if
labour laws are changed to make

pe puizing fair.
it year the union attempted to

organize non-teacher employees at
Frontier School Division which is the
largest public school division in Mani-
toba covering over 1/3 of the
province, from Cranberry in the east
to Thompson in the northwest. During
the campaign the Manitoba Labour
Relations Board ruled that the IWA
had to organize all of the units cover-
ing approximately 700 employees at
_ the same time. This made it impossi-
ble to do without an additional army
of organizers.
_ In the spring of 1992 former CPU
1-830 members at 3 plants in
asked to join the IWA. Over
0 workers at MacMillan Bathurst
Inc., Domtar Packaging and Price-
are now in the union and are
‘recognized as IWA-CANADA Local 1-

The three sub-locals are now recog-

d under their former autonomy

d preliminary discussions have

place to consider a merger
Local 1-324 and 1-830.

e At a contract logging camp, Brother Anderson meets with crew of Cormorant Logging. L-R are Bill Shlachetka, Morley
Shlachetka, Alfred Fenner, Glen Schlachetka, and Larry Ladoucer. The union is now negotiating an agreement with
Repap which will cover logging contractors.

LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1993/15