UEST COLUMN

Seasonal workers must fight
to maintain their Ul benefits

by Clay Perry

otwithstanding the appointment by
federal labour minister Lloyd Ax-
worthy of former IWA president
Jack Munro as chair of a commit-
tee to recommend upon unemploy-
B “—/ ment insurance in “seasonal
industries,” it is clear that the Feds do not
harbour any friendly intent for Canada’s for-
est industry workers.

Axworthy commissioned at public expense
a “study” which “reveals” that workers in
some places and industries draw more U.I.
benefits than workers in other places and in-
dustries.

As we have pointed out to the government
in a brief, this observation has all the moral
and intellectual content of an observation that
people who are frequently sick draw more
health care benefits than those who are al-
ways healthy.

The point of social insurance programs is,
and always was, to make as even as possible
risks that would otherwise be very unequally
distributed. Leonard Marsh, one of the most
influential of the shapers of Canada’s social
programs, put it this way: “(Social insur-
ance)...does not mean, more particularly
for...unemployment that there must be a pre-
cise actuarial adjustment of premiums to risk
in each individual case. The contributors who
do not draw on the fund help to aid the un-
lucky ones who suffer unemployment...”

So why is Axworthy spending public funds

to undermine the
social consensus
that makes such
programs possible?
It is partly the gen-
eral meanness that
pervades society to-
day.

It is worse in the
U.S., where while
the two political
parties compete to

see who can pro-
vide more generous
tax breaks for the middle class, thirty million
people go to bed hungry every night. But we
are not far behind in Canada and gaining
rapidly.

So dozens or hundreds of people with for-
est industry skills hit a “job market” that has
no openings for them.

And of course the service jobs in the vicini-
ty diminish in number. Even if the laid-off for-
est worker had the requisite skillls, and could
compete effectively with younger people, no
such jobs exist for them.

We will have to depend upon there being
somewhere in the decision chain, some peo-
ple with an understanding that Canada needs
a forest industry, that there is in the industry
an irreducable element of seasonality (you
can’t plant trees when it is 40 below, or log ef-
fectively in 8 feet of snow, you can’t keep
making lumber for which the market has been
destroyed by monetary policy, etc.) that the

Unemployment in-
surance for seasonal
workers is also
threatened by a
group of technical
advisors that are be-
sotted by the notion
that if “disincentives
to work (U.I. bene-

Even @f laid-off forest workers had

requisite skills and could compete

with younger people, there are no
jobs for them to go to

industry needs
skilled people with a
commitment to it,
and to the communi-
ties that engage in it,
and therefore, that
Canada needs an Un-
employment Insur-
ance program that
will provide some

fits)” were removed,
seasonal workers would find other jobs.
These folks have no conception of the cir-
cumstances under which forest workers get
laid off, and worse, their ideologies prevent
them from learning.

Forest industry workers do not, of course,
get laid off one at a time. The spirit of Christ-
mas past does not appear at night to desig-
nate an individual sinner against capitalism,
and punish him.

They get laid off whole shifts at a time, or
even whole sawmills or logging camps, at a
time. And as they are laid off, nearby mills or
camps are also probably getting laid off. They
almost certainly are not hiring.

stability of income
for the workers, families and communities
concerned.

But that won’t happen unless you fight for
it.
Oh, one more thing. While governement is
trying to sell ideas about “scaling back” UI
benefits for “seasonal workers,” the fund,
which is paid for by the contributions of
workers and employers, has a surplus of
about $2.6 billion.

Clay Perry is a semi-retired former IWA staff
member who has been the director of a number of
departments over the years. He still advises and
offers his services to the union on occasion.

CORE gives an equally bad report in Kootenays

by Kim Pollock

third vice-president Warren Ulley,

Government estimates show that

Code, the Timber Supply Review and

“CORE: The Sequel” - it’s coming
soon to the Kootenay-Boundary re-
gion. And IWA-CANADA will have a
major role.

The B.C. Commission on Resources
and Environment tabled its reports on
East Kootenay and West Kootenay-
Boundary at the end of October. Since
then the reports, which recommend
the creation of several new parks and
designation of large tracts of Special
Management Lands, have been the
subject of intense speculation and
lobbying.

“Byeryone believes the government
will now try to negotiate a settlement,
hopefully one that offers a more se-
cure future for workers and their
communities,” says IWA-CANADA

who represented forest workers at the
West Kootenay table.

IWA has formed a coalition with
other labour groups and expects to be
a major player in the coming negotia-
tions. The IWA groups includes repre-
sentatives of Locals 1-405, 1-417 and
1-423, whose members work in the
Kootenay-Boundary region.

The group has been lobbying gov-
emment, informing union members of
the likely effects of CORE and other
government programs and reaching
out to other sectors of the communi-

“We have to make clear the effects
CORE’s proposals will have on jobs
and communities in this region,” Ulley
noted.

e The union estimates that over 400,000 cubic meters could be removed from
the region’s AAC if the CORE report is unchallenged.

CORE alone would remove over

400,000 cubic metres from the re-
gion’s annual allowable cut.

“But it’s not just CORE; it’s also oth-
er programs like the Forest Practices

Protected Area Strategy. We can’t
take the kind of economic damage
this will cause.”

Continued on page sixteen

° National President Gerry Stoney

National 1st V.P. Neil Menard

Incumbent officers re-elected
in national referendum ballot

Two incumbent national officers of
IWA-CANADA have been re-elected to
their positions. Both union President
Gerry Stoney, and First Vice President
Neil Menard have been reinstated to
their positions following a national
referendum ballot.

Brother Stoney was challenged by
Loggers’ Local 1-71 Executive Board
member Kevin Cameron. Brother
Cameron is a mechanic at Western
Forest Products’ Juene Landing log-
ging division on Vancouver Island.

Brother Menard was challenged by
Local 1-424 member Larry Hanrahan.
Brother Hanrahan works at the Weld-
wood Canada plywood plant in Ques-
nel B.C.

Referendum ballots went out to all
local unions across the country which
administered the direct vote through
local union balloting committeess.

On December 16 a Tabulating Com-
mittee met in Vancouver, B.C. to tabu-
late the ballots sent in from the local
unions. The results are as follows:

Gerry Stoney 12,812 votes, Kevin
Cameron 5,770 votes. Neil Menard
13,528 votes, Ed Hanrahan 4,748
votes,

Brother Stoney first became union
President in March of 1992 when he
succeded retiring president Jack
Munro. At the 1992 national conven-
tion he was elected to the presidency
by acclamation. Prior to becoming the
President, Brother Stoney served as
First Vice-President from 1988 to 1992
and as National Financial Secretary
from 1982 to 1988.

Brother Menard has a long history
of service to the IWA, having served
as a Regional and National Officer
from 1976 to his present re-election.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1994/3