EDI NDP making decisions in tough situations here's always on of two tough things that can happen in an election campaign: the New De- mocrats might win or they might lose. In the last British Columbia election the first tough thing happened. Since then labour’s party has been forced to face the tough reality of trying to govern a province split on environmental issues and in which business is used to getting its own way. The ties between government and labour, including IWA-CANADA, have been severely tested. Yet through it all, in spite of mistakes, slights, misun- derstandings and strained nerves, the New Democratic government of Mike Harcourt has done a job in tackling some of the province's most important issues. It is conducting a major timber supply review for the province. It has established a Commision on the Re- sources and Environment. Although the CORE process is entangled in controversy, the government has pledged to not move on any recommendations until workers’ needs are looked after. We will hold the NDP to its word. The government's decision on Vancouver Island (see page three) will create hardship for workers. Their con- cerns must be addressed. The IWA will be carefully monitoring every move that is made by the government to ensure that workers are not dumped on the street due to the land-use decision. In mid-April the government announced the creation of Forest Renewal B.C. It is one of the most important announcements that the province has ever made con- cerning the future of the forest industry. Over $400 million dollars a year on average will be reinvested in the forests of the province. Half of that will be in added silviculture to ensure more vibrant sec- ond growth forests. The other half will go to address en- vironmental concerns such as rehabilitation of streams and logging roads. The spending will create thousands of new jobs and training opportunitites for workers. These are good things that indicate the government's commitment to the future of the forest industry. Previ- ous governments never had the initiative nor the courage to make the kinds of decisions that the New Democrats have had to make. Their way of managing the forests was to let the status quo of overcutting and mismanagement continue. The entire Forest Sector Strategy Committee (FSSC) is to be commended for doing a working man’s job in coming up with some solid plans for the future of the in- dustry. The whole FSSC process was different than other study or commisions of the past. While the FSSC is an- other advisory group, the government treated it as something more. During its meetings the government threw its resources into helping out. It sent in top-level Deputy Ministers and assistants to monitor what was going on. It actively participated in the process. At the end of the day there just wasn’t another report that would sit around and collect dust. There were not a thousand recommendations that would go nowhere. The work of the FSSC was moved through Cabinet at a fast pace. The process has been a good one. Everybody has been satisfied to a degree which is the best that you can expect from any government. ‘This Forest Renewal Plan should serve as a example to other governments in other provinces. The needs of replentishing the forests are universal. Although the plan is a good one, it is not an answer to all of our problems. The government must not use it as ameans to setting aside more protected areas. LUIMBERUIORKER Official publication of WA-CANADA MAN GERRY STONEY. . President Nor PA GARCIN NEIL MENARD ... Ist Vice-President FRED MIRON . . 2nd Vice-President WARREN ULLEY. . 3rd Vice-President 5th Floor, HARVEY ARCAND , . 4th Vice-President 1285 W. Pender Street Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4B2 BROADWAY +2 PRINTERS LTD. ‘TERRY SMITH . . Secretary-Treasurer LOGGING PROFITS COAST SECTOR NK sill, ody, yy| —— £ INGRID RICE FOR THE LUMGERWORKER. U.S. bears down on Canadian workers in the brave new world of ‘free trade agreements’ Although the North Ameri- can Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been in force for about six months and has all but disappeared from the headlines, we should take stock of what is happening in international trade and inter- actions with the United States. When we look at what is happening with our sup- posed best trading partner we can see a more aggressive and unforgiving United States in the era of NAFTA. All we have to do is look at several hot spots to foresee that Canadian workers are in for a tough time in the years ahead. The U.S. has maintained its belligerent stand against the Canadian forest industry and has ignored the binational free trade panel’s decision to remove the tariff against Canadian lumber. That deci- sion has cost Canadian work- ers jobs. Fortunately lumber prices are high and most mills are operating at a profit even with the tariff in place. The U.S. has also ignored free trade panel decisions on grain and pork. Canadian farmers are suffering because of the decision to ignore or override decisions made by international tribunals. At this time Canadian Agri- culture Minister Ralph Goodale says that U.S, offi- cials are spreading false infor- mation about Canadian wheat producers and their pricing practices. He says the U.S, is harassing Canada internation- ally and trying to interrupt our shipments to South Amer- ican countries. At the same time the U.S. is using its Ex- port Enhancement program to subsidize its own grain sales in the region to the tune of over $1 billion. Canada and the U.S. are also at loggerheads over the Pacific Coast salmon fish- eries. For the past six months the U.S. government has banned all commercial salmon fishing in its Pacific Northwest waters. Salmon stocks in U.S. waters are al- most reaching the point of no return and have been devas- tated due to over fishing and the building of dams and hy- droelectric projects. Over 8,000 jobs have been lost. Now the Americans are pledging to go after our salmon stocks in the waters off of Southern Alaska. In facts in 1993 they took $65 million more of Canadian salmon than did Canadians. Unless they are stopped or an agreement is reached, what happened to U.S. salmon stocks may well happen to Canadian stocks as well. The effects would be dead- ly for Canadian fishermen Multinational corporations are flexing their muscles in a way that they would not have dared to before NAFTA who have been subjected to strict fish conservation laws. Canada has spent hundreds of millions preserving its salmon while the U.S. has almost wiped out theirs. They will wipe out ours too if we don’t stop them. The Americans are interna- tional bullies who often have little regard for the laws and customs of other countries. Free trade or no free trade. Salmon treaty or no Salmon treaty, it doesn’t matter to them. When you're a super- power you can do as you please. When you devastate your own resources, you move on to devastate some other country’s resources, if you have not already done so. Fish and lumber are not the only areas that Canada is un- der the gun. Currently our federal government is consid- ering a plain packaging law for tobacco products sold in Canada. It may decide to do away with fancy labeling of cigarette packages and put stricter health warnings on packages. In reaction to this the giant U.S. multinationals, RJR Nabisco Inc. and Phillip Mor- ris Co. Inc. have hired two top former trade negotiators Car- la Hills and Julius Katz, who both negotiated the NAFTA for the U.S., to argue that our packaging laws are against the NAFTA and are an expro- priation and violation of copy- right laws. Phillip Morris, which owns Kraft General Foods Inc. and 20% of Mol- sons says if the packaging laws go ahead it will reconsid- er investment in the food in- dustry in Canada. This could cause consider- able hardship for more than 4,700 Canadian workers, who are employed in 11 food pro- cessing plants across Canada. So in the age of NAFTA things are not getting any more pleasant with our largest trading partner. In fact, life is getting more threatening as the United States bears down on Canadi- an workers in the brave new world of “free trade” agree- ments which are not worth the paper they are written on. In a response to Phillip Morris’ threats, Maude Bar- low, chairperson for the Council of Canadians, said the message from Corporate America is straightforward. “It is very clear that this is more than a health issue. This is a form of blackmail by the company.” “Now (multinationals) are going to flex their muscles in a way that they would have not dared to before the NAF- TA because they did not have the clout.” Ms. Barlow is right. We haven’t even seen the first of it in the new NAFTA era. LUMBERWORKERJJUNE, 1994/5