SAWFILING, METAL
EXPOSURE, AND THEIR
HEALTH EFFECTS

After completing a study on
exposure of sawfilers to
cobalt and chromium,
researchers suggest more
monitoring of workplace
metal levels and increased
health testing is necessary

PAGES 8-9

Zeidler strikers (left to right).
Clarence Penner, Carl Davignon,
Dino Smith and Ray Dumaine
wait opposite front gate

of Slave Lake plant.

The Longest Strikes

Government allows scabs to decertify Edmonton
plywood plant while Slave Lake strike continues

ogether they have been the

longest active strikes in IWA

history and the history of

Alberta. One chapter in the

sad history of a labour dispute

against union bashing Zeidler
Forest Industries has come to an end
while another continues.

On February 5, 1993 the Alberta
Labour Relations Board allowed 100
scabs to vote to decertify the IWA at
Zeidlers plywood plant in Edmonton.
After nearly 5 years of sustained
strike action against a scab herding
employer, the Alberta government has
helped the company remove union
certification.

Meanwhile at Zeidler's Slave Lake
veneer plant a strike is well into its
eighth as the company continues
to Panna te meet with the union. The
veneer plant has been scabbed out
and the company has continued to
refuse to negotiate in good faith.

"The Slave Lake operation has been
out since April 11, 1986 while the

In July of 1992 scabs at the
Edmonton plywood plant applied to
the labour board to decertify. This
was approved and the ALRB put out
two ballot boxes, one for those who
were employed before the strike
began, and one for those who worked
after it started.

Those who were employed before
the strike voted 60% in favour of keep-
ing their certification to IWA-CANADA,
Local 1-207. The scabs in the other
box voted against the IWA.

Then in a turn around the ALRB
ordered that 100 of the scabs be
allowed to vote and have their vote
counted. The rationale of the Board
for allowing the 100 scab votes was
that 60 IWA members have left since
the strike began and that Zeidler hired
on an additional 40 workers since the
strike began. Therefore, according to
the ALRB, they were not replacing IWA
jobs on strike.

The union's decertification is a dev-
astating blow to the striking members
and to the entire Local 1-207.

“In this day and age it’s hard to
believe that the company can stack a

decertification vote with a bunch of
scabs and the government will let
them get away with it,” says IWA Local
1-207 President Mike Pisak. “It’s an
absolute disgrace that they used gov-
ernment sponsored union busting tac-
tics to take the union certification
away after we fought that company
for so many years.”

“The strikers at the Edmonton plant
have shown a lot of guts and should
go to work with their heads held
high,” said Pisak. “There is more need
in that plant for a union today than
there ever was and we'll get it back in
the IWA someday.”

Under the Labour Relations Code
the striking employees have the right
to return to work ahead of scabs after
a decert vote. Since then the union
has worked to negotiate a back to
work agreement.

The company has left workers at its
Slave Lake plant waiting. Zeidlers
refused to deal with them until the
Edmonton strike was finished with.
The union has proposed that the

strike be settled and that workers go
back.

Clayoquot
decision gets
rally support

Over 5,000 forestry workers and
community supporters gathered in
Uclulet on August 14 to show their
support of the B.C. government's deci-
sion on Clayoquot Sound. The rally,
billed as Clayoquot Rendezvous ‘93,
was organised and sponsored by a
broadly based coalition of community
and labour groups.

Workers, both IWA and non-union,
their families and supporters drove to
the rally at the west coast community
to show support for planning process
that spawned the government deci-
sion to log parts of 350,000 hectare
Clayoquot Sound.

Those in attendance came from the
Vancouver Island, the mainland coast,
and as far away as Prince George. A
13 km. convoy of highway logging
trucks and vehicles linked to make
the west coast journey.

Supporters of the Clayoquot Sound
decision have been frustrated by the
lack of media coverage given to those
who support the government’s deci- '
sion. The media has been fixated by
environmental protesters who have
staged repeated blockades of logging
crews.

The rally crowd heard numerous
speakers including IWA-CANADA presi-

Continued on page seven
=

However the local fears that the
same thing could happen at Slave
Lake as happened at Edmonton.

Anna Gardiner, former IWA chair-
person at the Edmonton operation
told the Lumberworker “the strike
was going on too long and we were
losing it. The decert vote was going to
come and there’s nothing we could do
about it.”

Joe Martha, plant chairman at the
Slave Lake picket line, told the
Lumberworker that the scab decert is
a “shame, and disgrace, and disaster.”

“It (Alberta) is like Chile or Brazil,
they (the government and employers)
are out to wipe out workers,” said
Brother Martha. “Why would they
take all of the people who have
helped build up Zeidler for years and
kick them out, replacing them with
scabs, and smashing all of their
rights.”

Sister Gardiner said that the Zeidler
strikes were a “set up by the politi-
cians, the Progressive Conservatives
in particular, to show employers in
the province of Alberta that unions
can be broken.”

Since the strikes began the
Conservative government introduced
a new labour code that says a strike
will automatically end after 2 years of
strike action.

“If Zeidler can keep workers out for
seven years, there’s no reason in the
world why employers can’t keep out
employees for two years and the
union will be gone.”

After the call-back Sister Gardiner

Continued on page two