THE IWA
iS ON

CTOIKE |
©

Strikers at Terminal Forest Products Mainland division were out nearly nine weeks for justice in the workplace.

Workers return from strike at Mainland Sawmills
with pact to help resolve long standing issues

While most of the coastal member-
ship of IWA-CANADA was awaiting
the outcome of negotiations and an
eventual contract ratification vote,
some sawmill workers in Vancouver
had to take strike action to resolve
some serious issues with their em-
ployer.

On September 9, Local 1-217 mem-
bers at the Terminal Forest Products

Ltd. Mainland Sawmill division in
south Vancouver began strike action
against their employer in order to put
an end to discrimination, contracting
out, lack of job postings and other
anti-labour practices in the work-
place. The strike lasted into its ninth
week before the employer agreed to a
settlement which will hopefully create
peace in the workplace. On November
8 the crew went back to work, after
voting 67 to 7 in favour of a new three
year contract, which included the ma-
jor wage and benefit gains bargained
for in the coast master agreement.

Labour relations at the mill, which
is a client company of Forest Industri-
al Relations (FIR), the employer bar-
gaining agency on the coast of B.C.,
have been terrible and getting worse
during the past several years as the
mill’s management had been extreme-
ly arrogant. Many problems built up
and came to a boil when the strike
took place.

Before the job action took place the
employer would not agree to train
tradesmen or allow its senior workers
to advance. Over 60% of the mill’s
workforce is Indo-Canadian and Ter-
minal has not allowed these workers
to advance with equal opportunity.

One long-time employee, Pritpal
Jauhol, worked as an oiler alongside
millwrights and other maintenance
erew workers. Brother Jauhol had
tried for years to get a job posting and
training for a millwright’s position.
Like other workers at Mainland,
Brother Jauhol had witnessed several
tradesmen brought in off the street
over the years to get the best jobs.
Management allowed some workers
to be trained through the back door
and wouldn't operate an honest sys-
tem where proper job postings and

i were made available.

On June 14 of this year Brother
Jauhol suffered a massive and fatal
heart attack while at work in the mill.
Soon after his death the company be-
gan a contractor to do the oil-
er’s job. This callous action incensed
the crew.

The union demanded that the job be
properly posted and the company re-
fused, claiming that the oiler’s job was
phased out due to automation. This
was untrue. Although some automa-
tion had been introduced, there was
still a lot of work that had to be done
manually such as filling various tanks.
The employer then transferred these
duties to the millwrights and filers.

To seek some middle ground the
union suggested that the oiler’s job be
rolled into a millwright job if an ap-
prentice program was put in place.
The company refused to meet the
union with their top decision-making
brass.

The incident, almost pushed the
union into calling a strike in mid-Au-
gust but the local held off because the
IWA was in broad general negotia-
tions with FIR. Then the walkout be-
gan on September 9.

In late 1991 during IWA-FIR negoti-

© Striking workers paid a visit to union’s national convention in late October where delegates paid honour to them.

ations there was almost a similar
walkout at the operation when the
crew wobbled over discrimination in
the workplace and the lack of a safety
program. Back then the local union
similarly asked the IWA provincial ne-
gotiating to pull the Mainland opera-
tion out of general negotiations to put
pressure on the employer after the
company fired three workers and dis-
ciplined one worker, committee mem-
ber Joginder Sunner, who refused to
take verbal abuse from management.

Jim Parker, ex-chairman at the
plant, and now a local union business
agent, was one of the fired workers
along with Jim Uppal and Surjit Mor.
All were eventually reinstated.

Brother Parker says the mill’s own-
er, prominent local businessman Asa
Johal, has let the management of the
operation get away with way too
many bad labour practices. The mill’s
General Manager Albert Kovlaske has

been labeled as a racist and a tyrant
by the union.

At one point when Indo-Canadian
workers staged a walkout, Kovlaske
tried to influence the white crew
members to not join. He also has not
given employees equal opportunity,
regardless of their racial origin.

Kovlaske has also practiced nepo-
tism. He has awarded high paying jobs
to sons, nephews, friends, and other
family members while overlooking the
largely Indo-Canadian workforce.

“This type of behavior can not be
tolerated in this day and age,” said
Brother Parker. “There’s no way we
will let it go on.”

The union has made it very clear
that all workers must be given equal
opportunity and that racist attacks by
management must come to an end.

Workers at the Main-
land mill have been
fighting for basic
rights which have ex-
isted in union work-
places for years

The memorandum of agreement
which the workers voted on includes
the following provisions.

e a streamlined grievance proce-
dure.

° a facilitated process to improve
communications and solve problems.

© application of special mediators
to help resolution of disputes that
arise.

© job postings for several premium
job categories and job training.

© an agreement to prevent manage-
ment from doing bargaining unit
work.

“It is unfortunate that it took more
than eight weeks on strike to get this
grossly unfair treatment resolved.
These issues could have been re-
solved without a strike if the owner-
ship had gotten involved early. The
union certainly made them aware that
the operation was way off track,” said
Parker. “With this agreement we have
now, we hope to build a relationship
that will find solutions instead of hav-
ing no relationship and no solutions.”

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1994/7