The local’s current executive board consists of first vice-president Bob E Matters from Galloway Lumber, sec- _ ond vice-President Blaine Butler- _ Henderson from Evans Plywood in _ Golden, third vice-president Alonzo Stuart from Pope and Talbot's forestry division in Nakusp, recording _ secretary Jorma Puupponen from Evans sawmill in Donald, conductor Tony Ferreira from Pope and Talbot's Castlegar mill and warden Stan McMaster from Slocan Forest Products in Slocan. The local holds its meetings in the Labour Centre on 9th Avenue in Cranbrook. It has had a 1/3 share in the building with the BCGEU, and the Carpenters Union since 1976. __ Altogether eleven unions have offices _ inthe centre. Until January of this year the Local 1-405 union maintained an office pres- ence in Nelson where business agent and former first vice-president Klaus Offerman worked. Declining member- ship resulted in the office being closed. Brother Offerman was an employee at the Kootenay Forest Products plywood mill which shut down in the mid-1980's. TOUGH TO ORGANIZE - During the last 3-4 years the local union has spent a whack of dough try- ing to bring some non-union opera- tions into the IWA. The locals mem-_ bership number will slowly decrease in the future if its current certifica- tions stay the same. “There are a number of non-union mills around and if we get operating under the current labour laws, there’s some patential there,” says Brother Nowlin. : The Kootenays have high unem- ployment belts, which make it tough to organize. “With the unemployment situation in our region, people are scared half to death about their jobs,” says Brother Nowlin. This fear neu- tralizes the new advantages brought on by the NDP labour code. In the Kootenays there are many small family-run sawmills and logging operations that are almost impossible to get at for organizing. There are more portable mills and bush mills than there were 10 years ago. Local 1-405 has been waiting, for a number of years, to represent con- tract owner operator truckers. Over the years these truckers have made advances to the IWA before negotiat- ing with parent companies. However after they get their agreements they stop talking to the IWA. Sister Skiber says that sooner or later the truckers are going to see the need for organized representation. The local is waiting to take another shot at 3 operations which it tried to organize before. In 1990 it tried to organize Shelley Cedar in Lardeau. After the operation shut down the union lost its certification. In ‘91 Local 1-405 fought employer interference to lose a vote at International Lathe and Lattice near Castlegar. Not long before that it lost a vote at Wyndell Box and Lumber out. of Wyndell, B.C. Although the union had 60% of the check-offs signed, threats and intimidation caused a loss at the ballot box. SUPPORT FOR NDP Like other locals in the IWA Local 1- 405 has always had an affinity for the New Democratic Party. It officially began its affiliation to the party in 1970. That affiliation paid off when one of the IWA’s own members, from Local 1-405 financial secretary Lyle Kristiansen was elected as a federal member of parliament in 1979. He went on to become the NDP’s critic on health and safety issues. After sit- ting out one term between 1984-1988, Kristiansen was re-elected to the house where he sits today. In addition the local union has sup- ported railway worker Sid Parker, who has held the federal riding seat in the East Kootenays since 1984. Provincially the IWA successfully supported four NDP candidates in the 1991 provincial election. They are Anne Edwards (Kootenay), current minister of mines and resources, ° Local 1-405 president Wayne Nowlin, who has been local union president since 1968, is one of the IWA’s elder statesmen. Corkey Evans (Nelson-Creston), Ed Conroy (Rossland-Trail) and Jim Doyle (Columbia). Although NDP provincial govern- ments has generally kept out of forest industry ownership it did help get Kootenay Forest Products sawmill up and running after it ran into financial difficulties in the early 1970's. It bought the operation from private owners and, at one time, had union representatives sitting on the compa- nies board of directors. ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS The local union hasn’t been hit with big confrontation over environmental issues. Brother Nowlin says that there are concerns over future logging in the Slocan Valley. The greater portion of the valley is a rural residential region where almost every major creek is a consumptive watershed. If logging is forbidden in these areas, Nowlin says the “environmen- talists have the capacity to put our members out of work.” \ \ Donald WA CANADA 2 Golden LOCAL = °2"™" \ KOOTENAY ARROW LAKE \ shy Canal Flats o rd ( But he points at industry for not making enough changes to protect the environment. Brother Nowlin says the industry is concentrating more on its public relations efforts than actually changing the way it does things in the woods. “The clear cuts aren't getting any smaller,” says Nowlin. “They are get- ting larger and more pronounced. I think there’s a lot of public relations snow jobs going on. In the past five years there hasn’t been a lot of change.” The local union president says that the NDP government should not delay in putting forward a legislated Forest Practices Act, as recommended by the Forest Resources Commission in 1992. “It would be an absolute disaster if this government didn’t enact legisla- tion to have a forest practice act etched in stone. If the industry goes to voluntary, self enforced guidelines, I think it will be a total disaster in the final analysis.” NX »y =. Radium *S, Hot Springs 4 \I>. N es é ) { \ \ \ \ \ ( \ wh ~~, oN 1 Cranbrook “\\ Galloway ‘ ‘\ CEko. Map illustration by ingrid Rice e The local union has approximately 2,000 workers at 19 different operations in southeastern B.C.