This year the union’s Annual Constitutional Convention hosted by the prairie locals took place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in October where over 180 IWA-CANADA members from six provinces were present PAGES 6-13 Fed resolution supports B.C. forest workers This year's 38th Annual B.C. Feder- ation of Labour proved a rallying point for the province’s labour move- \ ment which is supporting forest in- dustry workers during a period of rapid transition. On November 29 an emergency res- olution was introduced to the conven- tion which calls upon the provincial B.C. government to pay special heed to forest workers who may eventually lose their jobs after the provincial re- view of its land use policies. The reso- lution, which recognizes that the forest industry is the backbone of Vancouver Island and many B.C. com- munities, says that reduction of tim- ber harvesting will have severe economic impacts and result in the elimination of union jobs. The Federation of Labour adopted the motion that it supports meaning- ful transitional compensation to union workers in the forest industry and the community where they live and work. a, © AT THE CONVENTION — in Saskatoon, National union Trustees Bob DeLeeuw of Local 1-207 and Edith Skiber of Local 1-405 present Trustee Report to delegates. See inside for Convention highlights. Forest practices code unveiled At long last the B. C. provincial gov- ernment is getting tougher with forest companies who try to get away with shoddy forestry practices. On Novem- ber 9th Premier Mike Harcourt an- nounced that the province is headed for a legislative Forest Practices Code @ iriver he released a discussion paper pointing the road which the province is taking. ‘The government says it will have a new forest practices law in the spring of next year. B.C. Premier Mike Har- court said until now there has been no one comprehensive set of rules that governments could use to enforce good forest practices. The new provincial Code will con- solidate and improve existing laws, according to the government. The Forest Practices Code will be applied to all private and public lands in the TFL (Tree Farm License) and wood lot licenses which make up over 93% of the forest lands in the province. The government is allowing until the end of this year for public com- ments before it introduces legislation He es tings yon ong O1 a offi- cials me told the IWA that Biodiver- sity guidelines, which are new in this Code will result in annual allowable cut back reductions of about 3%. That may almost certainly result in the loss of IWA jobs if steps are not taken to create new employment in the indus- "Nine province is also at the same reviewing cut levels across the an eye to reduce AAC levels in various regions of the province. In 1992 the NDP government introduced legislation to bring har- vesting rates into line with true long range sustained yield. 3 The proposed Code has drawn a mixed reaction from IWA-CANADA. The union has always supported a leg- islated Forest Code. “Our members have long pushed for responsible logging practices in this province,” said IWA-CANADA Presi- dent Gerry Stoney. “We agree with the intent of the Code; to ensure prop- er management of public forests. But Wwe want to make sure it means more jobs for forestry workers, not less jobs.” Brother Stoney said that the union has some specific proposals that can lead to more employment in an im- proved forest industry. The government’s new enforcement mechanisms to be in the legislation in- clude the following. e increases in court ordered fines from $2000 to a maximum of $1 mil- lion or more plus clean up costs. the range of administrative penal- ties will be increased. ¢ the Crown may remove the li- cense holder's right to cut wood in ex- treme cases, ° approval of future logging permits may be based on company’s current performances. The government is also going to cut down on the size of clearcuts and will be prohibited if alter- nate methods of harvesting can pro- Continued on page two The emergency resolution was brought about by a recent dev- elopment in the windup of land-use negotiations under the province’s Commission on Resources and Envi- ronment (CORE). On November 23 the CORE session for the Vancouver Is- land region wound up. Continued on page two e IN NORTHERN ONTARIO — Local 1-2693 Business Agent Claude Se- quin (middle) visits with Danny Valliere (1.) and union chairman An- gelo Gendron at their Dubreuilville offices. In 1992 over 325 workers at Dubreuil Brothers Ltd.’s sawmill and bush operations left their employees’ association to join the local union. See story page 14.