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