Wl fl v7 sai F We Gil Wu 7 4 | e Photo courtesy Local 2695 ¢ Union and company representatives meet to display I.W.A. colours at flag raising ceremony. Holding the flag (left to right) are mill manager Mel Jones, Local 2693 President Wilf McIntyre, and Business Agent Berthier Levesque. To Levesque's right is John Lorenowich, First Vice President of the local union. Domtar White River employees hoist first I.W.A. flag in Ontario to mark improvement in labour relations The I.W.A. CANADA national flag is becoming a more popular item these days. Right across Canada the flag is being raised as members are showing the union’s colours. This happened in White River, On- tario in late March when Local 2693 members at the Domtar Forest Prod- ucts mill got together with manage- ment to raise the union colours along- side the company flag. White River is a small community of about 1,500 people situated along Highway 17, about 200 miles east of local union headquarters in Thunder Bay. It is mostly a forest industry de- pendent town, so the presence of the union flag is an acceptance of the high profile that the I.W.A. has there. In fact the flag raising marked the first time, in the province of Ontario, that the union’s colours were hoisted outside a company operation. Wilf McIntyre, president of Local 2693 says that the Domtar head office in Montreal has given its operations more autonomy in recent years to al- low decision making at a local level and, as a result, labour relations in general are very good in the White River operation. “We think that it is important, espe- cially during these turbulent times be- tween the labour movement and the Ontario government, to keep labour relations on as positive a note as pos- sible,” says Brother McIntyre. “The labour movement and working people in general have been getting clob- bered by the Harris government, which has been supported by many of these large forest companies.” During the flag raising ceremony Brother McIntyre and Firest Vice President John Lorenowich were pre- sent with the local union committee, headed by Job Steward Les McCaig, committee member Gary Pearson, unions business rep Berthier Levesque (who works out of the Dubreilville local union office to ser- vice Wawa, White River and Dubreil- ville areas), and other union members and management. IMPROVED LABOUR RELATIONS The flag raising served as a symbol- ic event to mark the improved labour relations that have taken place in the operation. In 1990 those labour rela- tions slumped to an all-time low when the union took the company on in a nasty 4-1/2 month strike in the dead cold of winter. The workers struck over the issue of seniority rights. Business Agent Claude Seguin, a business agent for the Domtar opera- tion at the time of the 1990 strike, says that the company tried to take away plant seniority and apply depar- tamental seniority in its place. “The people would not give up their seniority for sure,” says Brother Seguin. “In fact they gave nothing up.” Domtar was obviously willing to force the union to strike during a re- cession in the economy when lumber prices plummeted. “The labour relations between the workers and the supervisors have re- ally changed a lot,” adds Seguin. “Af- ter the 1990 strike some of the lousy managers were cleaned out and the membership actually became more productive with less supervision.” COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT SIGNED The Domtar operation also holds the distinction of being the first sawmill in Local 2693 to reach the pat- tern aggreement set by the standards of the Northern Ontario District Coun- cil, which is a union association of Lo- cal 2693 and Local 1-2995 in Ka- puskasing. That pattern agreement, ratified by the 165 workers in White River, in De- cember of 1995 saw an across-the- board wage increase of 3%, 3%, and 3% in each year of the three year contract and a $1,000.00 signing bonus. The union negotiating committee, headed by Brother McIntyre, also acheived some important benefits © gains. Life Insurance and Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance is being increased from the current $45,000 to $50,000 by the end of the contract. Weekly indemnity will be jacked up from the current $465.00 to $525.00 per week by the end of the contract. Long term disability is being in- creased as well to a maximum of $1,800 by the end of the agreement. The workers will also see increases in Long Term Disability coverage that will eventually pay out a maximum of $1,800 per month from 50% to 55% of. wages. In other benefit areas the company will increase safety boot allowance from the current $20.00 per year to $40.00 per year by the end of the deal. It will also pay out more to the vision care benefit plan. There is also new coverage for chiropractic services. To accomodate new production schedules, the union has agreed to some flexibility to allow the planer to run six days a week. Six day opera- tions may also occur in such areas as dry kilns, shipping and the packaging of shavings for a one year period un- till the new planer is put into place. After that happens they will return to the 5 day work week. The union also negotiated impor- tant improvements for vacation scheduling. 4 MILL AND TIMBER SUPPLY The two line chip and saw and can- ter mill has a production capacity of over 216,000 finished board feet on a 10 hour shift. Currently the mill is op- erating on 5 eight hour shifts a day. It produces almost exclusively 2 x 4’s and 2 x 6's as studs and as dimen- sional lumber. The mill also has an edger optimizer and specializes in 8 and 16 foot lengths. The lumber goes to a tray sorter system and is then sent to the kilns before planing. Domtar can store over 2 million board feet under a weather protective roof for shipping. In addition to drying and planing its own lumber, Domtar has a profit shar- ing agreement to dry and process green lumber from the Olov Havelshrud mill in Hornepayne, On- tario, which is certified to I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-2995. In 1993 the company entered into a renewed Forest Management Agree- ment with the Ontario government. Domtar’s bush operations are certi- fied to Local 2693. Currently about 85 workers are employer running feller bunchers, grapple skidders, delimbers and slashers. At one time the woodlands division had over 250 workers and as many as 42 cut and skid teams. Today it can get all the wood in with only 5 or 6 feller bunchers. ¢ On the job is Local 2693 member Henry Duplassie, a chipper/canter operator. 12/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1996