A HISTORICAL LOOK
AT THE I.W.A.

In this issue of the
Lumberworker, |.W.A.
historian Clay Perry
begins a series of arti-
cles on the history of the
union, beginning with
the pre-I.W.A years.

PAGES 8-9, 15

three year agreement.

U.S. countervailing
duty threat on
lumber gets closer

by Doug Smyth
Research Director, IW.A. Canada

During October the U.S. Coalition
for Fair lumber Imports moved closer
to launching another countervailing
duty petition against Canadian soft-
wood lumber. Over the past few
months the Coalition has been orga-
nizing membership support and build-
ing a war chest in order to finance

their campaign. At the same time, the

threat of another duty has been used

to help the U.S. government to put

pressure on the Canadian provincial

governments to dramatically raise

stumpage prices for public timber and

to eliminate British Columbia's re-
8 straints on exports of unprocessed
= logs. If major concessions are made to
2 those demands or the U.S. industry
8 succeeds in having a tariff imposed,
® the B.C. and Canadian sawmilling in-
= ee will become severely crip-
8 pled.

During recent months the pressures

¢ UNION STRIKERS photographed here with their at the Malette United mili in Hearst took quick and decisive action. Out
on the picket line with their home made signs, the workers took only two days to get Malette back to serious talks fora past two years Canadian lumber ex-

Workers at Malette sawmills strike for
pattern agreement in northern Ontario

It took two strikes in two days for
I.W.A. CANADA to get a pattern
agreement for negotiations in north-
ern Ontario sawmills. On September
18, 225 union members at the Malette
United sawmill in Hearst and the
Malette Inc. sawmill in Timmins, On-
tario walked off the job in determina-
tion to get renewed collective agree-
ments.

Both mill went out simultaneously
to shut the company’s two operations
down tight. Since contract talks began
in July, 1995 Malette had not been
paying attention to union demands
and had not been trying to work out
some rough spots in the operations.

“We were determined that we were
going to start bargaining early on and
we were not going to let the strike
drag into months and months of nego-
tiations,” says Norm Rivard, president
of Local 1-2995.

The union put the company in a po-
sition where it had to sit down and
bargain.

“There would be no deal at one mill
and not the other,” says Brother Ri-
vard. “Our position was strong and
the membership came through.

Both ratification votes, counted on
June 15, reflected that. At the Malette
United sawmill the membership voted
88% in favour of the settlement while
the members voted 86% in favour at
the Timmins operation.

Highlighting the pattern agreement
js a three year wage across-the-board
increase of 9% spread out evenly with
3% in each year. The union

increases
also negotiated a $1,000 lump sum
cash payment in the first year.

Most importantly, the I.W.A. got the
company to back off on trying to
force the workers to work overtime
on weekends. The agreement at the
mills now says that overtime on Satur-
day and Sunday will be voluntary ex-
cept for the maintenance operation.

“This was something that we had to
get cleared up,” says Brother Rivard.
“The crews had become truly frustrat-
ed over the company’s arbitrary use of
overtime. Now the membership ac-
cepts the fact that there has to be
some overtime, within reason.”

At the Timmins operation, the
union negotiated new provisions
where the company can create week-
end work in the planing mill. They
would work Saturday and Sunday for
12 hour days, 8 hours at straight time
and 4 hours at time and one-half on
the Saturday and 12 hours at time and
one-half on Sunday.

All positions are to be posted and
voluntary.

In Hearst some new jobs will be
created loading out waste from the
mill by-products (chips and sawdust).
Four new jobs could arise. In addition
some new weekend maintenance
work may create new job opportuni-
ties.

“Our guys were getting fed up with
Malette’s use of contractors in moving
the waste products,” says Rivard. “We
think that any work to be done on the
mill site should be done by hourly
union employees.”

Another major improvement is that
of seniority retention. Malette will
now extend the recall period from
twenty-four months to thirty six
months.

There are a number of benefits ar-
eas were there is now a pattern for ne-
gotiations.

Life insurance and accidental death
and dismemberment insurance is in-
creased to $37,000 each per member.
Weekly disability coverage will be in-
creased up to $525.00/week by the
third year.

Long term disability increases to
$1,650/mo. by the third year and the
pension plan is being boosted. A joint
labour-management committee is to
be established to trustee the plan.

Another major improvement is a
new tool allowance. The company
shall pay out up to $300.00 a year to
qualified tradesmen upon presenta-
tion of receipts. The allowance will
cover voltage testers.

“This is definitely a recognition of
the employer that the workers have to
spend a great deal of money for tools
to do the job,” says Rivard. “We hope
to improve the allowance in future
years.”

It is not unusual for a tradesman to
spend between $10,000 - $15,000 or
more on tools that the company does
not supply.

In order to improve safety condi-
tions at both mills, the company has
agreed to one meeting of the joint
safety committee each month. Copies
of the proceedings will be distributed
to the union and posted on the plants’
bulletin boards.

As part of the settlement at the
Malette United sawmill in Hearst, the
company agreed to drop a grievance
arising from February 27 when the

Continued on page two

for another U.S. countervailing duty
launch have become intense. Over the

ports to the United States jumped by 2
billion -board feet, including 500 mil-
lion board feet in the first 8 months of
1995 alone. As a result, the Canadian
share of U.S. consumption is now ap-
proaching 36 percent - well above the
26 percent ratio of the late 1980's. Giv-
en the low lumber prices received by
U.S. sawmills throughout most of
1995, the dramatic increase in the
Canadian share has become a very
sensitive issue.
During the first 9 months of 1995
USS. single-family home construction
fell by 120,000 units compared to the
number started during the same peri-
od in 1994. At the same time, lumber
production in the U.S. West fell by 1.4
billion board feet.

However, our studies show that
most of the decline in western states
lumber output was caused by severe
shortages of timber from both public
and private lands. During 1996 further
reductions in regional timber supply
will bring about additional cuts in
lumber production. As a result, the
United States will become even more
heavily dependent on Canadian im-
ports. In turn, there can be no allega-
tion under U.S. trade law that Canadi-
an lumber poses a threat to the
American industry.

During the third quarter of 1995
US. economic growth surged by a 4.2
percent annual rate. Moreover, recent
monthly sales of existing single-family
homes have jumped to record levels.
High turnover of existing units is par-
ticularly important because tradeup
buyers eventually purchase new
homes. By 1996 new home sales and
starts should also rise significantly be-
cause fixed mortgage rates have now
dropped below the prime rate for the
first time.

Moreover, during the weak markets
which prevailed in 1995 most whole-
salers and retailers practised very
tight just-in-time lumber inventory
controls. As the market improves,

Continued on page three