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° At the Ontario Federation of Labour's annual convention in November the I.W.A. was present at a protest on Bay

Street in downtown Toronto against the Harris government. L. to right are Local 2693's Wilf McIntyre, National Service
Representative Bob Navarretta, National Second Vice President Fred Miron and Local 2693 Executive Officers Bruce
Frost, Lloyd Szkaley, and John Lorenowich.

Union increases its activity in OFL with
election of Wilf Mcintyre to executive

For the first time ever the I.W.A.
has representation on the Ontario
Federation of Labour's Executive
Council. On November 21, Local 2693
President Wilf McIntyre received sup-
port on 1,785 out of a possible 1,789
ballots cast at the OFL Convention to
become one of 16 Executive Vice
Presidents at large.

“Ym very pleased to join the slate of
officers elected at the OFL,” says
Brother McIntyre, who ran for the po-
sition on two previous occasions. “I
think that the other unions in Ontario
are now beginning to recognize the

I.W.A. as we become more active and
visible in the provincial labour organi-
zation.”

In fact the I.W.A., with nearly 12,000
members provincially, now ranks as
the fifteen largest union in Ontario.
The union has grown significantly in
the past three years and is becoming
more well known in labour circles.

Brother McIntyre said the OFL is
now united in its opposition to the
Conservative government of Mike
Harris and is fighting back. (See story
on London protest, page one)

“I think there is a rebellion that is

going to happen in the province,” says
McIntyre, referring the the Harris gov-
ernment’s slash and burn cutbacks of
over $6 billion from the provincial
budget. “Ordinary working people are
soon going to directly feel the impact
of these cutbacks and they are going
to see that the middle class is being
eroded.”

Severe cutbacks to health care and
education are going to effect every
family in the province and McIntyre
says the OFL must help lead the fight
back.

Fred Miron, Second National Vice

Photo by Tom

President of the union says that
Brother McIntyre is a good choice for
the job because he is a grass-roots
union actvist.

“I think that Wilf will do a good job
for the I.W.A. in increasing our
union’s profile,” says Brother Miron.
“The current OFL President (Gordon
Wilson) and officers have shown ope-
ness towards our union and are ready
to have more of our input.”

McIntyre’s election was made possi-
ble by strong support from National
union President Gerry Stoney who
lobbied for his inclusion onto the
favoured slate of candidates. McIntyre
also received valuable support from
Miron and other local union presi-
dents in Ontario including Local
2995's Norm Rivard, Local 1000’s Joe
da Costa, Local 500’s Bruce Weber
and Local 700’s Tony Iannucci.

“We plan to play a very active role
in the OFL,” says McIntyre. “We need
to get our people on more committees
and get even more active in the deci-
sion-making that goes on.”

With government attacks on Work-
ers Compensation, the Ministry of

g Natural Resources, labour laws and
§ social programs, McIntyre says the en-

tire OFL will have its hands full.

The government wants to cut the
Minister of Natural Resources budget
by 50%.

“We just can’t let that happen,” says
McIntyre. “The province is inviting
disaster and the environmental
groups will be all over us for non-en-
forcement of rules and regulations -
especially in the forest industry.”

He said that the! government has cut
WCB benefits by 5% while cutting em-
ployer premiums at the same time.
Harris has also eliminated the Royal
Commission on the WCB. In addition,
one out of every three Industrial Safe-
ty Officers is having their jobs elimi-
nated in the province.

“Harris is going too far,” say McIn-
tyre. “He has to be stopped and it
takes a strong and united labour
movement to join and lead the battle.”

McIntyre says the Harris govern-
ment vows to eliminate anti-scab laws
and take away automatic certification
procedures will be disastrous for
labour relations. It is also taking away
first contract arbitration and cutting
Ministry of Labour staff.

“I doubt that industry wants to see
confrontation,” he says. “But it looks
liké that is what’s going to happen.”

Union defends .
forest practices
at Yellow Pages
U.S. convention

by Phillip Legg
How we log in Canada is becoming
a more critical issue outside this
country as the environmental move-
ment, both here and internationally,
attempts to organize trade boycott
campaigns that target Canadian forest
products. Their campaigns have in-
volved a lot of high profile demonstra-
tions, a lot of media manipulation, but
most of all, a heavy distortion of infor-
mation on how we harvest and man-
age our forest resources in Canada.
Led by groups such as Greenpeace,
these campaigns initially targeted Eu-
rope as a market area where a boycott
of Canadian forest products could
have a serious impact on our industry.
More recently, however, these cam-
paigns have started to target key re-
gions in the United States where
5 ian forest products have a well-
established market presence. As in
Europe, the U.S. campaigns are pro-
pelled by both local and international
environmental groups who have very
extensive experience in generating
and sustaining high-profile, media-dri-
ven campaigns.

The most recent flash-point for
these U.S.-based boycott campaigns is
in California where Greenpeace has
joined forces with the San Fransisco-
based Rainforest Action Network to
lobby and pressure U.S. consumers of
Canadian forest products. In this re-
gion the groups have been fairly selec-
tive with their campaign; at the con-
sumer end they have targeted the
major telephone companies who pub-
lish telephone directories; at the pro-
ducer end they have singled out
MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. which is a ma-
jor supplier of directory newsprint for
these companies.

But the rationale for selecting MB
goes well beyond the company’s pro-
file as a producer of this specialty
newsprint product. MB is the largest
and highest profile forest products
company operating in the Clayoquot
Sound region on the west coast of
Vancouver Island. For the environ-
mental movement, the issue of logging
in Clayoquot Sound figures promi-
nently in both their fund-raising ef-
forts internationally and their public
campaigns against Canadian forest
practices.

It was against this background that
the I.W.A. decided to actively partici-
pate in a major panel discussion on
forest practices which was held in San
Fransico in November. The event was
sponsored by the Yellow Pages Pub-
lishers’ Association (Y.P.P.A.), a
group whose member companies are
part of the $5 billion per year market
for Canadian pulp and paper exports
to the U.S. Included in the panel were
representatives from three environ-

mental groups who have been actively
promoting a boycott campaign in Cali-
fornia. And the central question for
the panel was how the forest resource
in Clayoquot Sound would be man-
aged.

Given the local union’s direct expe-
rience in Clayoquot Sound, Dave Hag-
gard, President of Local 1-85, was
asked to represent the I.W.A. on the
panel. And his message to the Y.P.P.A.
audience was very clear; woodwork-
ers have shown a tremendous amount
of tolerance and patience while the
land use plan for Clayoquot Sound
was developed; woodworkers have a
long-standing commitment to sustain-
able forestry; but most of all, wood-
workers expect honesty from all sides
in the forestry debate, especially the
environmental movement, when it
comes to talking about how we log in
Canada and B.C. in general or Clay-
oquot Sound in particular.

Although the panel discussion pro-
vided an important opportunity to talk
directly to consumers and openly
challenge and rebut the environmen-
tal reps, the I.W.A. used the session in
San Fransisco as a launch for a broad-
er lobbying campaign that the union is
promoting within the labour move-
ment both in the United States and in
Europe. ie

As part of that strategy the I.W.A.
organized a briefing session with rep-
resentatives of the California State
Federation of Labour. The session
provided an opportunity to speak di-
rectly to labour activists in the San
Fransico/Northern California region
about our experience with forestry is-

sues and our priorities in terms of sus-
tainability. The reaction from the U.S.
labour reps was very encouraging and
it is clear that a more extensive fol-
low-up effort will be required by the
I.W.A. if we hope to counter the boy-
cott tactics that are being used by the
environmental movement both in
North America and in Europe.

To date, the efforts to counter the
boycott pressures in Europe by devel-
oping a more effective trade union
network have been limited to some
preliminary discussions by National
President Gerry Stoney who contact-
ed a wide cross-section of labour con-
tacts while he was attending the
Trade Union Congress (T.U.C.) con-
vention in September of this year.
During his sessions with European
trade unionists he was told that the
1.W.A. had to develop a more exten-
sive information package for the
labour movement in Europe because
their understanding of practices and
standards in the Canadian industry
was very limited.

Developing that information will
have to become a priority within the
1.W.A. if we hope to counter some of
the significant trade and boycott
threats that are underway currently.
Work has already begun to update the
union’s national forest policy. In the
months to come, those efforts will
have to be combined with a broader
package of research and information
which will help support an effective
and on-going trade union network on
these issues.

Phillip Legg is the Assistant Re-
search Director for I.W.A. CANADA

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- LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1995/9