_ Pension plan fund growth is ‘impressive’

LW.A. Pension Trustees have had
occasion in recent years to be con-
cerned about the pension fund, as the
Pension Plan slogged its way through

ears of reduced earnings, reduced

Qeorivursry hours and solving prob-

lems brought on by reduced interest
rates in Canada.

Recently, however, there is good
reason for I.W.A. trustees to feel pret-
ty good about the pension plan.

This has been a year where growth
in the Plan has been “impressive,”
says Harvey Arcand, I.W.A. trustee
and National Fourth Vice-President.

“We started 1995 with a market val-
ue in our plan that was actually less
than it was in January 1994, and in the
next six months we've seen an in-
crease in the Plan’s market value of
over $130 million. That’s impressive,
to say the least.”

In fact, market values for the month
of July just recently released by Ross
Steeves, Investment Officer for the
1.W.A. Forest Industry Pension Plan
show increases in the Plan’s market
value of over $21 million for that
month alone.

“This is an increase of one million
dollars per working day in that month,
says Arcand, repeating that such sta-
tistics are “impressive” and “go a long
ways to achieving the goal of full
funding in our pension plan, a goal
that our members endorsed in 1994
negotiations. It’s good news.”

Gerry Stoney, National President of
LW.A. CANADA agrees with Arcand’s
comments.

Brother Stoney, spokesman for the
I.W.A. trustees on the Pension Plan’s
Investment Committee, points out
that a major portion of both 1991 and
1994 contract negotiations was devot-
ed to negotiating increased funding
for the Pension Plan to offset solven-
cy shortfalls which resulted primarily
from lowered interest rates in 1993
and 1994.

“Solvency requirements are the law
in B.C., as they were in Alberta when
our Plan had to be registered there,”
(B.C. had no Pension legislation until
1994), says Stoney. “In 1994 we filed a
solvency valuation with Pension au-
thorities which showed a 60% solven-
cy funding as of December 31, 1993.

Australian Trade Unionists
visit L.W.A. during mission
on education and training

An eight member delegation from
Australia recently dropped in to I.W.A.
CANADA's national office for a visit
with National First Vice President
Neil Menard, and president’s from
four union locals in British Columbia.

The delegation, headed by Trevor
Smith, National Secretary of the Con-
struction Forestry Mining Energy
Union (CFMEU) was in Canada as
part of its international mission on
Education and Training. The tour was
sponsored by the Forest and Forest
Products Employment Skills Compa-
ny (FAFPESC), which is a private
company funded by the Australian
government. The Aussie tour has a
goal of assessing what other govern-
ments and other trade unions are ac-
complishing in terms of training and
educating workers.

Also in the Aussie Delegation were
Craig Smith, Assistant Secretary of
the CFMEU’s Forestry Division; Nick
Murray, Executive Officer of the FAF-
PESC.; John Tompkins. General Man-
ager of Human Resources for Aus-
tralian Paper; Chris Northover,
Assistant National Secretary of the
CFMEU; Kevin Samuels, Quality
Manger for CST Timber Products; and
George Day, Resources Manager for
Boral Timber.

The four local union presidents
meeting the Australians were Local 1-
85 president Dave Haggard, Local 1-
3567 president Dave Tones, Local 1-
423 president Troi Caldwell and Local
1-425 president Brian Symmes.

The FAFPESC is a government
funded training company that has a
Mandate to develop, national training
Standards. It has is own independent
board of directors and acts as a

ce of information and advisor for
educational and skills training require-
ments. The tour was put together so
that the Australian representative can
observe what the benchmarks for
worker training and education are in
other countries.

Brother Menard gave the visitors an
overview of trade unions in Canada,
‘the and structure in Cana-
da and trade unions in the B.C. forest

industry.
He told the Australians that until re-

cent years Canadian employers have
done little if anything to train work-
force. He said that is changing with ef-
forts in the B.C. Interior and with the
New Forest Practice Code.

Brother Haggard spoke about For-
est Renewal B.C. and the fact that
workers will be receiving training and
upgrading when the program gets into
action.

Troi Caldwell informed the visitors
about the efforts of the Joint Industri-
al Planning Committee in the
province’s Southern Interior where
the union and the Interior Forest
Labour Relations have embarked on a
worker training program in comput-
ers, hydraulics and other areas. The
program is a success because workers
have been consulted on the program’s
development.

Brother Tones spoke briefly on the
Fraser Training Society, which has
provide skills upgrading to loggers
and spoke about some of his local
union’s efforts with Interfor.

Brother Symmes spoke briefly on
the Northern Interior Forest Training
Initiate which cover Locals 1-425 and
1-424.

The Australians informed their
LW.A. counterparts that their last In-
ternational Mission which took place
in 1989 (mown as the Tripartite Tim-
ber Industry Mission) has brought
many positive results. Out of 56 rec-
ommendations made then, 32 in-
volved education, training, sills forma-
tion and related issued. Practically all
of the recommendations are in place
or are being worked on.

The international mission is travel-
ing to find out if the changes they
asked for in 1989 have made the Aus-
tralian industry more competitive.

The FAFPESC is a national industry
training body. It also sets national
training standards and provides ad-
vice to government and government
agencies.

It is involved in the following sec-
tors: forest growing and management,
harvesting, sawmilling and process-
ing, timber fabricated products, tim-
ber and wood product merchandising,
panel product manufacturing, and
pulp and paper manufacturing.

In negotiations in 1994, we negotiated
lump sums into the Plan by the Indus-
try, and saw improvements in both
contributory hours and in interest
rates, so that if a solvency valuation
were done today it would show 76%
solvency funding. This is an impres-
sive turnaround, and we’re quite
pleased with it.”

Our membership endorsed a pro-
gram of full funding for our Pension
Plan at the outset of 1994 negotia-
tions, and our program in negotiations
reflected that desire.

“I.W.A. members in our Pension
Plan have reason to be very happy
with the direction the Plan is going,”
says Stoney. “If this kind of growth
can continue for any length of time,

our goal of full funding will be real-
ized sooner than planned.”

A note of caution however.

“The market value of our Pension
Plan depends on the vagarities of both
Stock and Bond Markets in Canada in
particular, but to some degree all over
the world. Markets can and do fluctu-
ate, often to considerable degree, and
downward fluctuations have the ef-
fect of reducing the Plans market val-
ue,” Stoney points out. “The bright
side is that if we retain even half the
growth we’ve seen this year so far, we
will still have done very well indeed.”

The following is a brief table outlin-
ing the market value of the I.W.A. Pen-
sion Plan this year, as compared to
1994.

MARKET VALUE YEAR AGO

January 1995
March 1995
June 1995
July 1995

e NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DISABILITY

Park plan
coastal fo

A huge wilderness park proposal
northwest of Vancouver is a non-
starter, says I.W.A. CANADA.

The union says it will work to stop
a proposal for a 260,000 hectare
wilderness reserve in the Elaho, Clen-
denning and Upper Lilloett drainages.

The park has been suggested by
Lower Mainland green groups, partic-
ularly the Western Canada Wilderness
Committee.

“This proposal goes way beyond the
provincial government’s 12.5 to 13
percent limit for protected areas in
the Lower Mainland and South Coast
region,” says union vice-president
Warren Ulley, adding that the British
Columbia government already has a
public process in place to designate
parks in the region.

“We've urged the government to
stick with the process they set up,
which we think can arrive at a reason-
able compromise for the remaining
protected areas in the region.”

$1,053,711,746
$1,114,325,640
$1,185,133,617
$1,206,533,524

$1,054,826,610
$1,005,333,824
$ 980,284,666
$1,009,168,171

MANAGEMENT RESEARCH Co-chairman
Peter Lawrie (r.) presents Port Alberni MLA Gerard Janssen with a plaque
of appreciation following the provincial government’s donation of $1 mil-
lion to the Institute’s Endowment Fund. In late June the federal govern-
ment also donated $1 million to the fund.

threatens
rest jobs

LW.A. CANADA is a participant in
that process along with representa-
tives of the forest industry, communi-
ties, small business, environment, out-
door recreation, mining and others.

Yvette Wells of the province’s Land-
use Coordinating Office says the gov-
ernment has no plans to abandon the
advisory process.

Western Canada Wilderness Com-
mittee, the group sponsoring the
wilderness park, has issued a series of
warlike news releases recently, indi-
cating anger at legally granted road
permits in the region and urging more
moderate environmental groups to
drop out of the public process.

In early August a planned “camp-
out” in the area northwest of
Squamish fizzled when only about 25
people took part.

“WCWC has had serious financial
problems lately,” Ulley pointed out. “I
sense desperation.”

- Kim Pollock

LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1995/11

Photo by Wayne Chose