National Secretary-Treasurer Terry
Smith, Local 1-2693 Recording Secre-
tary Claude Seguin, Local 1-2693
Trustee Claude Morrissette, Local 1-
2693 Business Agent Ken Paquette,
and others.

Earlier a commemorative supper
was held to raise money for the tomb-
stone. IWA President Gerry Stoney
was the keystone speaker while over
200 people were in attendance, repre-
senting all local unions in the area.

Brother Stoney told the crowd that
“I think we are heartened and given
strength by the way Rosvall’s and
Voutilainen’s friends in the labour
movement and this community
responded to their disappearance and
death - how this tragedy served to
unite and strengthen their community
and union.”

Stoney said that Rosvall and Vouti-
g lainer were “honourable men,
= engaged in a just cause.”
“The working people and labour
3 community of Thunder Bay were
5 more united and stronger than every

| 8 before. They had faced down the dan-

° IWA-CANADA President Gerry Stoney (middle) spoke during the dedication of the headstone to mark the graves of
the labour martyrs. To his right is Don Hutsul, president of the Thunder Bay and District Labour Council. To Stoney’s

left is Wilf McIntyre, president of IWA Local 1-2693.

Union martyrs’ sacrifice recognized further
as workers donate headstone to gravesites

On April 28 of this year, Labour’s
Day of Mourning, IWA-CANADA offi-
cials joined with the officers of the
Thunder Bay and District Labour
Council to dedicate a headstone for
the grave sites of labour martyrs
Janne Voutilainen and Viljo Rosvall,
two Finnish-Canadian organizers who
gave their lives during a 1929 strike in
the bush lands of northern Ontario.

Brothers Voutilainen and Rosvall
were murdered in late 1929 during a
strike against the American Pigeon
River Company, and their murderers
were never found and prosecuted.

Both men vanishedj near Onion

Lake east of Thunder Bay (known
then as Port Arthur) when they were
sent in to organize the strike for the
Lumber Workers Industrial Union of
Canada, the ancestor union of the IWA
in Thunder Bay.

In the spring thaw of 1930 the bod-
ies of both men were found by union
search parties who staked out the
Onion Lake area. Both men fell vic-
tims to murderous attacks, in their
efforts to organize the strike.

This year the men’s grave sites were
marked with a special headstone
which was donated by the Thunder
Bay and District Labour Council, in

so ornan on with IWA-CANADA Local
1-2693.

At 2 p.m. in the afternoon IWA-
CANADA National President Gerry
Stoney unveiled the tombstone and
paid homage to the memory of the
two Brothers who are buried at River-
side Cemetery in Thunder Bay. Also in
attendance were Don Hutsul, Presi-
dent of the Thunder Bay and District
Labour Council, Local 1-2693 Presi-
dent Wilf McIntyre, IWA-CANADA
National Second Vice-President Fred
Miron, Local 1-2995 President Norm
Rivard, Don Campbell from the execu-
tive of the TBDLC, IWA-CANADA’s

) 2 ger together and done the best thing

possible under the circumstances -
stood together, determined to carry
on and not back down.”

The 1929 strike that the two men
were organizing for, was conducted in
spite of physical threats of violence,
against union men. The local media
establishment put a news black out on
strike organizing activities.

In May of 1992 both Rosvall and
Voutilainer were inducted into the
Canadian Labour Congress’ Hall of
Fame. Today a commemorative
sketch and plaque of the two men is
housed at the Labourer’s International
Union Hall Local 1-83 in Toronto.

None of the events would have
been possible without the hard work
and dedication of Don Hutsul, Presi-
dent of the TBDLC. His persistence
paved the way for the events of this
year and last.

Brother Hutsul has successfully
approached the Ontario government
to eventually name two lakes after the
labour martyrs. The lakes are in the
vicinity of Onion Lake, where the men
gave their lives over six decades ago.

Repap deal

Continued from page ten

Other new gains in the contract
include new revised sawmill training
program which will assist workers
during the introduction of technologi-
cal change. This program will be run
by a joint committee for the term of
the agreement.

In addition workplace safety and
health committee members are now
to be given up 16 hours of paid leave
annually in order to attend health and
safety education conferences.

The union also won some gains in
vacation pay for senior employees.
Those workers with 24 years of
seniority or more will now get 6
weeks vacation at 13% of their gross
earnings.

Other contract improvements
include increased leave of absence
periods for senior employees and
leave of absence for compassionate
reasons (up to 6 months).

The negotiations also cover tree
planters in the province which will
see the same increases in pay and
benefits.

All treeplanting contractors which
go onto Repap’s claim must be signa-
tory to the collective agreement.
Those contractors are some of the
few who operate under a union con-
tract in Canada.

In June union and Repap met to fur-
ther discuss the log and chip hauling
contract between Repap and the
Northern Wood Haulers Association
(NWHA), an employer association rep-
reeented in negotiations by Local 1-

anti.

e Local 1-324 president Jim Anderson, left, talks contract with union bushworker Ghislain Lamarre near Thompson,
Manitoba. 4

16/LUMBER