EDITORI MacBlo out to bust unions with new open-shop policy ne of British Columbia’s largest forest compa- nies is out to break the union movement. MacMillan Bloedel Limited is now out to un- dermine legitimately organized building trades and introduce open-shop and “rat” contractors into all of its workplaces. The testing grounds is at the NexGen expan- sion project in Port Alberni. The company has reversed long-standing hiring practices to bring in an open- shop company run by a “rat” contractor and open the job site to non-union labour. As a result legitimate union companies, whose workers are members of the Building Trades Council and the B.C. Federation of Labour, have been pushed out of work by the multi-national forest giant. MB has said it will consider only bids from unionized com- panies whose employees sign forms to waive negotiated non- affiliation clauses in their collective agreements. In other words MB is trying to force the legitimate labour movement to renounce the exclusivity of jurisdiction in the workplace. This would be like telling IWA millworkers or loggers to work beside non-union workers in our workplaces. As a result members and supporters of the B.C. and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades council have been banned from the Port Alberni work site for not surren- dering to the company’s actions. To date nearly 70 people have been arrested by police under court order and face fines or imprisonment while MB herds, under police protection, a “rat” contractors into the operation. As MB will not back down and says it will “prevail”, ac- cording to company vice-president Gary Johncox, it appears that the company wants a war with the labour movement. Macmillan Bloedel must back away from hiring illegitimate “rats” and reverse it open-shop policy which encourages non- union labour. The labour movement in British Columbia will not be compromised by MB’s new open-shop policy. The IWA especially will not put up with or allow this em- ployer, or other forest industry employers, to break the legiti- mately organized trades that have fought long and hard to build the province. “Rat” contractors are not unions, but are rather employer dominated organizations that undercut legitimate unions by imposing inferior wages and working conditions on their workers and signing contracts which protect employers and not workers. Their wages, fringe benefits, vacation benefits, and living-out allowances are inferior to those of the legit- mate building trades unions. ‘The IWA has worked very hard with MB on land-use issues to ensure that the company can continue harvesting timber in the Alberni Valley and in other parts of the province. In exchange we had hoped that MB would continue to im- prove forest practices and be a responsible corporate citizen. Without the support of the IWA, the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union, and the other fine working people of Port Alberni, MacBlo would not be cutting the wood that it is today. So it brings us to great despair that MacMillan Bloedel has the audacity to stab the labour movement in the back and bring in this unscrupulous open-shop policy into the province. MacBlo has the audacity to flout the open-shop policy in its most recent employees newsletter. It has the audacity to use “alternative unions” (“rat” contractors) during the middle of contract talks with the CEP. It has the audacity to dump all over the workers who helped build the industry and the ce. It has the audacity to promote 1994 as the “Interna- tional Year of the Family” as it works to destroy the lives of union people and their families. ‘The gloves are off with MacMillan Bloedel. What was once adecent company is quickly becoming a greedy “rat” support- ing company. We intend to persuade MacMillan Bloedel to understand that this is an issue that has united the whole Jabour movement. JWA-CANADA will not permit MB to get away with its sinis- ter and cynical plans to break the union movement. Official publication of WA-CANADA GARCIA .» President “Nona ‘ Ast Vice-President Editor 2nd Vice-President Be 3rd Vice-President or, . 4th Vice-President UNEMPLOVIMENT INSURANCE OFFICE Wiz Za] OG A Y : : ce 5 x a ® y 5 8 Canadian lumber industry continues to be clobbered by U.S. lumber coalition despite era of ‘free trade’ It’s not too many years ago when Canadians were voting in the 1988 federal election. The great debate was over free trade with the United States. About a month away from election day the Canadi- an public was clearly galva- nized against the proposed Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The North Ameri- can Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was not even men- tioned back then, although then U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his multinational corporate backers had it all in their foresights. Free trade opponents were optimistic a month before the 1988 election. The polls said Canadians valued their sover- eignty and didn’t support free trade. Then something hap- pened. Voters suddenly began to be threatened if they didn’t support the deal, U.S. protec- tionism would come down on us. If there would be no deal, then its would mean a trade war and even worse and we would lose. The multi-nation- al corporations took up the newspapers and airwaves to tell us the only way out of pending disaster would be to support the FTA. Over five and a half years later we should remember that election. Canadians did get the free trade deal and look where it has gotten us. To use free trade supporter and Liberal Trade Minister Roy McLaren’s own terminol- ogy, relations between Cana- da and the United States are at a crossroads and risk grow- ing worse. After the FTA and now the NAFTA we have no better ac- cess to the American market than we did before. And we still are being clobbered by the Americans despite win- ning several decisions on the softwood lumber dispute. _ Despite a free trade panel’s appeal ruling on August 3 that Canadian lumber is not injur- ing U.S. producers nor is it subsidized, the Americans are threatening more action to punish Canadian producers. Since losing the most re- cent decision, which calls for a refunding of the tariffs col- lected by the duty, the U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Prices, which represents 2/3’s. of American lumber produc- ers, has accused Canada of rigging the panel on the soft- wood decision. On the side the Americans are introduc- ing GATT legislation that will make Canada’s log export re- striction laws countervailable. Texas state Senator Kay Hutchinson has urged U.S. president Bill Clinton not to refund the over $800 million to Canada and said the free trade agreements do not pro- The American lumber lobby is calling to punish Canada with the supreme rule of U.S. domestic trade law vide the authority to return the money to Canada. Fortunately by late Septem- ber some of the money had started to trickle into Canada. The province of B.C. alone is owed over $500 million in tar- iff repayments. B.C.’s Employment and In- vestment Minister Glen Clark predicted more rough things ahead on the softwood issue. “It’s clear that when you play with the Americans and they lose, they will simply change the rules of the game rather than admit defeat,” said Clark. The free trade panel has in- censed the U.S. lumber lobby and that means trouble for Canada. Just because we won LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER, 1994/5 fair and square under the rules doesn’t mean much. On September 14 the Coali- tion filed a suit in the U.S. Cir- cuit Court of Appeals in Washington. The suit, which could take 9 months and wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, argues that the dispute set- tling mechanism in the free trade agreement is unconsti- tutional in that the bi-national panel has been allowed to overrule U.S. law. The American lumber Coalition is now about to say the hell with entire free trade agreements, that its govern- ment pushed and supported, and is calling for the supreme reign of U.S. domestic trade law. Now it remains to be seen if the Clinton govern- ment will intervene on behalf of the free trade panel which it supported or whether it will cave into domestic pressures and side with the Coalition. For the Chretien govern- ment the only attempt to pro- tect Canadian interest is to defend the lousy trade deal in which the bi-national panel has won one for Canada. Now the Americans are go- ing after our log export re- strictions as a subsidy. Despite their own strict log export restriction laws on Federal lands, the U.S. assault on Canada knows no bound- ary nor admits no hypocrisy. Almost six years into free trade we don’t even have a set of rules to say what or what isn’t a subsidy in the lumber industry or for any other in- dustry for that matter. Meanwhile Prime Minister Jean Chretien is trotting around extolling the virtues of free trade. He wants to ex- pand NAFTA deep into Latin America. In November he heads a trade delegation into Chile, a country where Cana- dian mining companies freely exploit labour in a tax and royalty free environment while Canadian mine workers face more closures at home.