NEW BRUNSWICK
MILL SURVIVES
TOUGH TIMES

Linking the IWA to the Mar-
itime provinces is Local
1-306 in New Brunswick
where workers at a plywood
plant are happy to be back
to work after a four year
shutdown.

SEE STORY PAGE SIX

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- <s : lL

e TAKING THE OATH - for another two year term are the national officers of IWA-CANADA. Former First Vice President

Bob Blanchard (left) administers the oath of allegiance in December of last year. L. to r. are Second Vice President Fred

Miron, Financial Secretary Terry Smith,

Vice President Neil Menard, and Third Vice President Warren Ulley.

IWA president and industry leader join to
defend UIC system for seasonal workers

In a major presentation to the Fed-
eral Working Group on Seasonal
Work and Unemployment Insurance,
IWA-CANADA President Gerry Stoney
blasted the accuracy and relevance of
recent news reports that forest work-
ers are the largest users of unemploy-
ment insurance benefits in Canada.

“Those reports are based on the
work experience of a very small and
very seasonal components of our in-
dustry,” said Brother Stoney. “If you
did a more accurate analysis, you
would find that the forest industry as
a whole performs at pretty much the
same level as all manufacturing indus-
tries in Canada when it comes to the
ULL. program,” he noted.

Stoney’s remarks were directed at a
recent Statistics Canada study of U.I.
premiums and benefits during 1989
and 1990. The study and subsequent
news reports highlighted those indus-
try groups that recorded the highest
usage of U.I. benefits. Not surprising-
ly, the report found that the most sea-
sonal industries in Canada such as
logging, silviculture, fisheries and
agriculture were the most active re-
cipients of U.I. benefits.

“It’s just plain wrong to single out
workers whose jobs are subject to
enormous seasonal variation and say
that those workers should be denied
proper access to the U.I. program,”
said the union president.

The IWA was not alone in its criti-
cism of the report on seasonal work
and U.L benefits. Frank Dottori, Presi-
dent of Tembec Inc. and co-chair,
along with Brother Stoney, of the For-
est Sector Advisory Council also criti-
cized the conclusions of the report.
According to both men “the U.I. sys-
tem can operate effectively, but only
if it is allowed to do what it was

meant to do - be an insurance sys-
tem,” the two men noted. “And if we
could achieve that objective, then em-
ployers and labour should be given
some real voice and autonomy in run-
ning that system,” they added.
According to Brother Stoney, “the
reports on U.I. usage are something of
a mug’s game because they draw at-
tention away from the larger issue —
how to create sustainable employ-
ment‘in this country”. Stoney also
note that,” it is time to recognize that

Fourth Vice President Harvey Arcand, President Gerry Stoney, First

our U.I. system is being asked to solve
a much broader range of problems
than was ever contemplated when it
was first designed as a insurance sys-
tem,” he said. “That isn’t the fault of
those who are unemployed and it’s
time we recognized that unless we are
prepared to seriously address jobs,
work and their sustainability, our in-
surance system isn’t going to make it
into the next century,” he added.

Continued on page two

© LOCAL 1-3567 MEMBERS Hans Clausen (1.) and Russ McKay are welders at
the CIPA plywood veneer plant on Annacis Island B.C. Story on the operation

on page eleven.

Mac Blo dispute
comes to end
in Port Alberni

One of British Columbia’s most se-
rious labour disputes in recent years
has come to an end - for now. A four
month strike against MacMillan
Bloedel in Port Alberni came to a con-
clusion March 6 when 850 members of
the Communication, Energy and Pa-
perworkers Union Locals 592 and 686
voted to accept and three year con-
tract which will impose new work
rules for construction at the mill site.

For the past 47 years MacMillan
Bloedel used legitimate unions to do
construction work at the Port Alberni
operations but last year it introduced
an agressive new open-site policy
which encourages the use of company
union and non-union labour.

MB's new open shop and open site
policy is designed to drive down
labour costs by undermining legiti-
mate trade unions.Their introduction
of a company union in Port Alberni

sparked picket lines by the B.C. Build-
ing Trades and an eventual walkout
and strike by the CEP.

The struggle against MB gathered
support from the entire legitimate
labour movement in B.C. To support
the strikers in Port Alberni, the B.C.
Federation of Labour called for a plan
of action against MB which had a co-
ordinated economic action against the
company, including a boycott of its
products.

The IWA joined its Sisters and
Brothers in the CEP, the PPWC and
the Building Trades in its battle
against MB. The union also realized
that it is an issue for the entire labour
movement.

“What MB proved by taking on the
CEP and the Building Trades is that
they were willing to sacrifice four
months of best pulp and paper mar-
kets that have been seen in years in
order to try and get the cheapest con-
struction labour possible,” says IWA-
CANADA president Gerry Stoney.
“Fortunately there has been an agree-
ment that will see that this does not
happen.”

As part of the settlement at Port Al-
berni, MacMillan Bloedel will now op-
erate its construction under a new
“Code of Ethics” which will last the
term of the contract. Under this new
code, MB must abide by new rules if it
uses any contractor not certified with
a legitimate trade union. These rules
are intended to ensure that some ba-
sic economic, safety union priciple
standards are met.

No worker may be paid less than a
comparable rate for a mill employee.
Straight time hourly pay for contrac-
tor journeyman will be the same as
journeyman rate in the mill. In addi-
tion the contractor won't be able to
pay any worker less that the straight
time base hourly rate for the mill.

By the end of a three year contract
negotiated, the base rate will be
$19.85/hour, while the tradesman
rates will go to $25.87/hour.

To add further costs to MB if it
wants to use these contractors, it will

Continued on page two