Local 1-405 gives union

presence in south eastern
region of British Columbia

nthe mountainous country of the

East and West Kootenays and up

into the Rocky Mountain ranges,

the IWA is alive and well. Since

1944 our union, under the juris-

diction of Local 1-405 has repre-
sented the interests of forest industry
workers in British Columbia’s south
eastern interior.

Today with its headquarters in the
city of Cranbrook the local union con-
tinues to represent approximately
2,000 workers in 19 different opera-
tions.(See map opposite page).

The local union first gained its
strength during the 1940’s. However
the communist led split in 1948 saw
all certifications drop out of the
local’s jurisdiction. It wasn’t until 1956
that Kootenay Forest Products came
back into the IWA and other opera-
tions followed it back to the union.

Over the decades the union has
held its ground as many smaller oper-
ations amalgamated and merged or

were taken over. By 1980 the union
represented as many as 3,300 mem-
bers.

But the following recession and a
wave of technological changes saw
the membership drop down as low as
1,500 during the 1982-83 years.

Today the local union’s largest
employers are Slocan Forest
Products, Evans Forest Products,
Pope and Talbot and Crestbrook

Forest Industries. All companies have
some of the most efficient operations
anywhere in B.C. *

BARGAINING THROUGH. THE
IFLRA

Since the early 1960’s, Local 1-405
and other IWA southern interior
locals (Local 1-417, Local 1-423) have
negotiated standard agreements with
the Interior Forest Labour Relations
Association (IFLRA). Like their-union
brothers and sisters on the B.C. coast
and northern interior, Local 1-405

prefers a system of master joint bar-
gaining sessions to achieve a level
playing field in their collective agree-
ments. Not all operations are IFLRA
affiliates however.

The largest IFLRA company is
Crestbrook Forest Industries with
nearly 600 workers in five operations.
Pope and Talbot is also a member,
employing 280 IWA members at its
giant Castlegar mill that it bought
from Westar in 1992.

After the 1986 strike, 55% of the
local unions members were bargain-
ing outside the IFLRA in independent
agreements. However, major employ-
ers like Slocan and Evans, do adhere
to the basic wage and benefits negoti-
ated in IFLRA agreements.

“I think master agreement bargain-
ing is going to carry on at least for a
number of years,” says Local 1-405
president Wayne Nowlin, who has
held the presidency position since
1968. “The IFLRA gives us a stable
structure to deal with issues before
and after contract talks.”

During contract talks in 1991 the
IFLRA, however, was pressing the
three southern interior locals to get
out of provincial negotiations and go
for an exclusive southern interior
master agreement. This was turned
down flatly by the union locals who
wanted to maintain the principle of
parity with the coast.

MAJOR EMPLOYERS

Slocan Forest Products is one of
the larger employers with sawmill
operations in Slocan, and Radium Hot
Springs. Both are state-of-the-art
dimension sawmills which employ 380
IWA members between them. Another
important Evans Forest Products
sawmill is Donald with 175 union
workers and its high grade plywood
plant in Golden (205 workers), both in
the northern region of the local union.
The singly most productive mill is the

STBROOK
CRES' :
FOREST INDUSTRIES LTD.

e Truck driver Tim Kirn gets aboard after cinching up the binders for
Crestbrook Forest Industries near Creston, B.C.

Pope and Talbot 3 line dimension
Castlegar sawmill which produces
over a million board feet of lumber a
day. Atco Lumber in Fruitvale has two
IWA certified operations with its
sawmill and planer, and veneer plant.

Crestbrook has three mills, in Canal

Flats, Elko (each with 180-200 work-

ers), and Cranbrook (150 workers).
The local union also holds one of its
two logging certifications at its
Creston Woodlands Division in the

¢ Local 1-405 financial secretary Edith Skiber (1.) stops in for a chat with Kelly Sallis (m.) and Sandy Robinson, union
employees at the Castlegar Savings and Credit Union in Castlegar.

east Kootenays. Canal Flats and Elkco.
are dimension sawmills with the
Cranbrook mill handling the larger
timber and is known as a “board mill”.

All the Crestbrook operations sell
their chips to the company’s giant
pulp mill in Skookumchuk, about 20
kilometres north of Cranbrook. That
mill is certified to the Pulp Paper and
Woodworkers of Canada, Local 15.
Relations between the two unions are
good according to Brother Nowlin.
The Skookumchuck Pulp Mill is
undergoing an expansion which will
increase its demand for wood chips.
Brother Nowlin says that the IWA
mills won’t be able to meet the chip
demand. As a result Crestbrook will
be going for better log utilization in
the woods and will be importing chips
from Alberta.

LOCAL UNION STRUCTURE AND
OFFICERS

‘The local union is governed by a 17
member executive board which meets
quarterly. Its by-laws say that any
operation with over 25 members must
be entitled to at least one representa-
tive on the executive.

The local union’s president Wayne
Nowlin has been in the IWA for more
than 3 decades. Originally from
Kootenay Forest Products in Nelson,
Brother Nowlin is one of the IWA’s
elder statesmen. He is a past secre-
tary-treasurer of the Nelson, Trail and
District Labour Council and spent
twelve years as president of the East
Kootenay and District Labour Council
until 1987.

Brother Nowlin, who plans to retire
in 1994, has also served as a member
of the former IWA regional executive
board and now sits as a member of
the union's national executive board.

The local financial secretary is
Edith Skiber, who is also a trustee of
the national union. Originally from
Castlegar Savings and Credit Union in
Castlegar, Sister Skiber has held that
position since 1980. She is expected
to retire later this year.

2
10/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1993