—
———4

—

e Last year new Local 1-217 workers had to strike for a first contract at Victor Carpets and Dream Carpets. Photo taken

in March 1993.

Local 1-217 boosts organizing program to
-bring in members from other industries

At one time it had one of the largest
memberships in the International
Woodworkers of America. During the
late 1970’s IWA Local 1-217 boasted
over 7,000 members mostly in sawmill
scattered along Vancouver's harbours
and the Fraser River.

Twenty-five years later things have
changed drastically. During the 1980's
modernization and urban pressures
cut the membership down to a shad-
ow of its former self. In 1994 the
Vancouver local union has about
2300-2500 members. When times are
good in the construction industry the
membership ranks can swell to over
3000.

The local union has all the primary
lumber manufacturing and many of
the secondary manufacturing opera-
tions under certification. To survive
Local 1-217, like many other local
unions in the IWA, has been organiz-
ing outside of the forest industry.

In the past two years the local
union has concentrated on successful
organizing campaigns to bring in sev-
eral hundred new members from non-
traditional areas.

Local 1-217 president Gary
Kobayashi says that the local union
has won five of the last six certifica-
tion campaigns on an automatic certi-
fication process. Under labour laws
introduced by the provincial NDP gov-
ernment in early 1993, there is auto-
matic certification if a majority of 55%
of the workers sign applications for
membership cards.

Brother Kobayashi says the local
has to get out there and organize to
survive.

“Many of the areas along the north
arm of the Fraser River and in the
False Creek area (the former Expo
site) were lost the housing, commer-
cial ventures and other forms of
development,” says Kobayashi.
“Today we are looking for members in
the secondary manufacturing and
other industries to become part of the
IWA.”

So far the response has been posi-
tive.

“In the Vancouver area the IWA has

a solid reputation and is well known
even among non-union workers and

employers,” add Kobayashi. “This has
been a tremendous boost to our orga-
nizing drive.”

Before the Labour Code changes
took place the union certified a health
food operation in the Tilbury
Industrial Park, in Delta B.C., which is
south of Vancouver. In October of
1992 about 45 workers at Vita-Mills
signed up with Local 1-217 and have
since had wage increases and major
adjustments in pay.

Shortly thereafter the union certi-
fied workers at Victor Carpets in
Richmond and at the Dream Carpets
warehouse in Vancouver where the
ownership is common.

The local also signed up a small
woodworking operation known as
Pinewood Furniture and, after the
introduction of the new Labour Code,
certified 35 workers at Suncrest
Cabinets in Richmond.

After trying to organize Mitchell
Island Forest Products, owned by
Terminal Forest Products Ltd. for
over 10 years Local 1-217 was finally
successful in the summer of last year
as 45 members joined the union. The
workers are now covered under a.col-
lective agreement which is close to
the coast master agreement.

The first certification brought into
the local under the new Labour Code
is an operation known as Medievel
Glass, which manufactures etched
glass, leaded glass, door panels, and
other decorative glass and entrance
way fixtures. That plant added 50 new
members to the IWA.

Local 1-217, has counted to a great
extent on the organizing skills of Bob
Turner, a 25 year union member and
certified millwright who comes from
Terminal Forest Products operation
on Mitchell Island in Richmond.

Brother Turner, who serves as
Warden on the Local Executive
Board, has worked as an organizer on
a full-time and part-time basis.

“We have needed to go after non-
traditional areas more so than some
of the other local unions in the IWA
because there are no more forest
companies to organize,” says Brother
Turner. “In the Vancouver area there

is potential for thousands of new
members outside the forest industry
and those that are affiliated to the
industry in some way such as machin-
ery manufacturers, and suppliers,
etc.”

To get its organizing campaign up
and running the local union, in coop-
eration with Lyle Pona, National
Organizing Director, did an extensive
survey on non-union operations with-
in Local 1-217’s jurisdiction.

“We don’t believe in waiting for
people to call,” says Turner. “We sur-
vey the area and then contact the
Labour Relations Board to see if a
plant or operation is unionized or
not.”

Often the first contact with workers
is an introductory leaflet along with
an organizing booklet put out by the
national union. The information hand-
ed out serves to answer some of the

questions that potential new member
already have.

Then, says Brother Turner, the local
does up leaflets to address specific
issues within the targeted operation,
such as seniority rights, union securi-
ty, vacations, and health and safety
issues, lack of benefit plans, and low
wages, etc.

In order to reach out to visible
minorities, which often make up a
large part of the workforce, the local
union does up fliers in such languages
as Punjabi and Vietnamese,

Brother Turner says that the issues
that will get people to join union are
not simply wages and benefits.

“In most cases they (unorganized
workers) join the union to get some
basic rights that we in the trade union
movement take for granted,” say
Turner. He points out that such issues
as dignity in the workplace, seniority,
and grievance procedures are often as
if not more important than wages.

“A lot of the companies don't even.
live up to the minimum requirements
of the Employment Standards Act,” he
says.

With automatic certification proce-
dures in place things are a little bit
easier for organizing and the playing
field is more level.

Employers are no longer able to.
threaten their employees with impuni-
ty. They can no longer promise work-
ers increases in wages and promise
better benefits during a union’s orga-
nizing campaign and then later break
those promises, without committing
unfair labour practices.

During Local 1-217’s current cam-
paign drive Tumer says that employ-
ers are aware that the union is active-
ly organizing and that they are very
sophisticated about how the address
the workers on the issue of union cer-
tification.

The Local is currently actively orga-
nizing in Vancouver and in the Tilbury
Industrial Park in Richmond where it
has leafleted and made contact in sev-
eral operations, They include Tri-Star
Industries, a pulp and paper mill
equipment manufacturer with about
100 workers; Optimill Machinery, a
sawmill machinery manufacturer with
over 70 employees; Westmar
Engineering, a fabricating shop with
over 45 workers; Hertco Kitchens, a
kitchen cabinet maker with about 100
workers; Makita Industrial Controls, a
sawmill computer and software com-
pany, and Northstar Lumber, a small
reman operation.

The union is after these operations
and more. It has contacts in 15 differ-
ent operations in the Greater
Vancouver area.

Brother Turner uses caution to
never promise the workers anything
that the union can’t deliver on. The

Continued on page eleven

Local organizer Bob Turner (left) talks to potential union member outside
Tristar plant gate in Tilbury industrial park.

10/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1994