Delegates from IWA-
CANADA locals across
the country gathered in
Vancouver, B.C. between
October 24-27 at the
union’s annual national
convention. See inside

for details.

PAGES 8-13

Say no to

IWA joins economic campaign
against union busting company

n November 30 over 1000 del-

egates from the B.C. Federa-

tion of Labour gathered in

Vancouver, B.C. for a protest
rally against MacMillan Bloedel's anti-
union campaign in Port Alberni. The
rally served as a focal point in uniting
the labour movement in its campaign
against MB's new open shop policy
which is designed to introduce com-
pany unions (“rat unions”) and non-
union contractors into all of its
operations.

MB has not been hesitant in declar-
ing its new open shop policy which
would undermine legitimate trade
unions and drive down wages and
working conditions that working peo-
ple have fought for decades to
achieve.

In Port Alberni the company is
herding company union employees of
TNL Construction across picket lines
set up by members of the Communi-
cations, Energy and Paperworkers
Union of Canada and the B.C. and
Yukon Territories Building Trades
Council. MB is determined to get rid
of legitimate unions.

All of this is taking place at the
company’s NexGen coated paper mill
construction site, a new addition to
the Alberni Specialties pulp and paper
mill complex, where Building Trades
members refuse to work along side
company unions or non-union work-
ers. The Building Trades have done all
of the construction work on the Port
Alberni pulp and paper mill site for
over 47 years and they refuse to re-
nounce their non-affiliation clauses
and work beside anyone but those
unions that are legitimate. MB has
$200 million worth of construction to
do on the NexGen site and it intends
to bust the Building Trades to do so.

The B.C Federation of Labour
passed an emergency resolution call-
ing for a plan of action against MB
which will include the following:
© a province-wide campaign in soli-
darity with the CEP, IWA-CANADA,
the PPWC, OTEU, and Building
Trades;

e the declaration of a consumer boy-
cott of MacMillan Bloedel products;

e coordinated economic action
against MB;

e establishment of a central fund to fi-
nancially support affiliates involved
and affected by this job action.

The boycott is part of the economic
action campaign against the company.

At the rally IWA-CANADA president.
Gerry Stoney told the delegates that
the union is ready to join in the fight
against MB.

“IWA members are committed to
fighting this fight, to carry forward
with this boycott until such time as
there’s an acceptable settlement
achieved out of MacMillan Bloedel,”
said the national union leader.

“They've (MB) got to bleed some
red ink,” said Brother Stoney. “That

will come about as a result of a boy-
cott of their products, wherever we
have to take that boycott.”

“We'll take it to British Columbia,
we'll take it across Canada, we'll take
it to the international market place if
that’s where we have to take it,” said
Stoney.

Stoney said that MB is an unfair em-
ployer and is trying to drive a wedge
into the trade union movement on be-
half of employers in B.C. and other
parts of Canada.

“The boycott will be carried by the
trade union movement and the boy-
cott will be carried in the interests of
the trade union movement to get
MacMillan Bloedel to accept the fact
that ‘rat unions’ are not acceptable in
Port Alberni or anywhere else in
British Columbia.”

Stoney said that the boycott will be
carried to the International Labour
Organization and the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions
for international support and expo-
sure of MB’s anti-union agenda. He
said that the trade union movement
throughout the world will know about
MB's unfair labour practices.

Don Holder, national president of
the CEP, said: “We will not work with
‘rat unions’ and we will not work with
non-union people.”

Brother Holder said that both
MacMillan Bloedel and Fletcher Chal-
lenge are out to smash the Building
Trades and undermine legitimate
unions. This has happened despite a

two year study of cooperation with
the CEP.

Continued on page two

Te

e IWA President Gerry Stoney addresses B.C. Federation of Labour rally calling

for action against MacMillan Bloedel.

Union changes its name
but retains old initials

IWA-CANADA is still TWA-CANA-
DA. However the national union orga-
nization has changed its name.

Reflecting the ever-changing nature
of the union, delegates to this year’s
national convention held in Vancou-
ver voted unanimously in favour of
adopting a new name for the organiza-
tion.

The union is now known as the In-
dustrial, Wood, and Allied Workers of
Canada (IWA-CANADA).

The national union no longer repre-
sents just those workers in the forest
industry. In fact it has represented

e UNION PRIDE is high on the agenda at the Amoco Fabrics and Fibers Ltd.
carpet backing fiber plant in Hawkesbury, Ontario. Local 1000 member Leo
Roy, above, and others are part of a union sub-local which has negotiated some
breakthroughs for IWA-CANADA. See story page fifteen.

é

workers outside the forest industry
for many years.

IWA-CANADA now has approxi-
mately 45,000 members in the
provinces of British Columbia, On-
tario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manito-
ba, Quebec and New Brunswick.
There are twenty one geographical lo-
cals situated in the seven provinces.

Most of the public still refers to
IWA-CANADA as the International
Woodworkers of America - Canada.
That misnomer has resulted because
of the fact that the union was part of
the International Woodworkers of
America from 1937 to 1987.

Known then as the IWA, the union
was once a powerful international
union with over 150,000 members in
North America, spread throughout
five regions in Canada and the United
States.

In 1986 the eastern and western re-
gions of the IWA merged into one sin-
gle Canadian region prior the eventual
split from the international. In 1987
IWA-CANADA held its first Constitu-
tional Convention as an independent
Canadian union in Nanaimo B.C.
where over 200 delegates gathered.

In 1987 two former locals of the
Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union,
Local 2693 and 2995, joined IWA-
CANADA to strengthen the union in
the northwest and northeast part of
Ontario.

Today the union is a very diverse
organization, representing workers in
primary and secondary forest indus-
tries such as logging, milling, and val-
3 ue-added manufacturing, non-forestry

H related manufacturing, and service in-

dustries.

The union’s constitution specifical-
ly states: “In recognition of industrial
diversification, conglomerate employ-

Continued on page two