THE GREAT CHARACTERS IN 1.W.A. HISTORY In this issue, |.W.A. historian Clay Perry writes about some of the colourful union leaders of the past, in- cluding Syd Thompson (right), late President of Local 217. PAGES 12-14 e At TimberWest’s Honeymoon Bay logging division, the union has worked to create additional bargaining unit jobs under the New and Evolving agreement negotiated in 1994. L. to r. are National Representative Scott Lunny, and Local 1-80 members Greg Smith, Don Green and Pat Kinney. See story page ten. Union calls for review of FRBC’s activities I.W.A. CANADA National President Gerry Stoney says that the union is disappointed with the September 12 decision of the Board of Forest Re- newal B.C. (FRBC) to recommend that surplus funds be returned to the provincial treasury. “We are disappointed with the Board’s decision because we think it doesn’t address the real issue of putting our members to work improv- ing our forests,” says Brother Stoney. “That's been our priority all the way along; we want to get FRBC projects up and running as quickly as possible and have I.W.A. members preferential- ly trained and dispatched to do that work,” he adds. “To date that hasn’t happened; forest companies have been far too slow in putting forward projects and government ministries have been just as slow in giving ap- proval to the proposals that have been submitted. Meanwhile our members are working less.” The union president called for a speed-up to the review of all of FRBC's activities. “It is our understanding that a re- view is now underway and hopefully the results of that review will change [.W.A. CANADA visit to Europe reveals importance of labour on trade issues by Phillip Legg Assistant Research Director hat’s so impressivee about the Canadian forest industry is not its size. In a typical year, the U.S. indus- try, for example, har- vests more trees, cuts more lumber and produces substantially more pulp and paper products than its counter- part here in Canada. Even the European forest products industry has more impressive produc- tion statistics than is the case for Canada. ‘The old European Common Market countries — now referred to as the European Union, E.U. for short — are major producers of paper and pulp, and have a growing capacity in some of the lower end panel and lumber products. If you add in the capacity and production of the major Scandi- navian producers who have recently joined the E.U,, their combined pro- ‘duction and harvests quickly dwarf those recorded in Canada, No, what’s really impressive about Canada’s forest industry is just how vulnerable it is within the world trade arena. If you look at export trade sta- tistics for any of the last ten years, the most compelling number, from a Canadian perspective, is that half of the forest products that are traded in- ternationally in any given year are made in Canada. The United States is an enormous producer of forest products, but it also has an equally enormous appetite for forest products. So while it trades in forest products internationally, that trade represents a small fraction of its total production in a year. Similarly, the forest products produced by E.U. member countries are largely con- sumed within that large market area. For the Canadian forest industry, export markets are everything. Up- wards of 80% of Canada’s annual pro- duction of forest products are export- ed. The process generates over $40 billion in sales annually and supports a direct and indirect employment base, within Canada, of close to one million people. As impressive as these numbers sound, there is no escaping the fact that international trading rules, partic- ularly those that impact forest prod- ucts, can often become something of a raw nerve for the Canadian industry and the broader Canadian economy. U.S. claims against our softwood ex- ports, for example, can easily threaten our more than 14 billion board feet of lumber that is shipped to that market. New standards established in Europe or the U.S. for re-cycled content in pa- per or the chlorine-free status of pulp send similar tremours through the pulp and paper side of the Canadian industry. In more recent times, the focus has shifted to environmental perfor- mance. Are Canadian forest manage- ment practices sustainable? Do our methods of harvesting (eg. clear cut- ting) degrade forest lands? Although this shift has been led, in large measure, by environmental in- terests who are keen to use interna- tional trade pressures to shut down industrial activity in the forest sector, these pressure tactics single out the Canadian industry more so than any other national producers. With so much of our production dependent on international trade, when the rules for that trade are changed — whether it is because of environmental concerns or outright protectionism in a major mar- ket — Canada’s forest sector feels the pinch first and hardest. It is against this background that Canadian governments, particularly the provincial government in B.C., have been moving rapidly to out-flank and defuse criticisms of our forest management practices which have leveled by international environment groups. Everything from government- to-government briefings on forestry (eg. former B.C. Premier Mike Har- court met with European government representatives in 1994) to the staffing-up of embasseys and consular offices with greater forestry expertise, has been part of the Canadian govern- ment’s response. For their part, Canadian forest products companies have mobilized a similar effort. Individually, most com- Continued on page two the direction of FRBC so it will start to do what it was intended to do - con- nect displaced forest workers with good forestry jobs. We would expect that review to be fast-tracked.” Brother Stoney says that concrete results must follow the review and that displaced forest workers must be picked up by FRBC projects. “If that happens, and the program is successful and displaced for workers who want jobs and training get them, then that puts the whole discussion of surplus funds into a different con- text.” Stoney said the union is continuing to devote a considerable effort to en- sure that displaced workers are taken care of. After FRBC was created in April of 1994 it brought in over $461 million from stumpage fees in its first year while less than $40 million was spent. In the 1995/96 fiscal year, it brought in over $480 million while only about $158 million was spent on approved projects. In the past year alone, there has been a surplus of over $320 mil- lion. The Board of FRBC has voted to re- turn nearly $330 million to general government revenue as it expects to be sitting on a $928 million by the end of March 1997. There is no doubt that it is concerned that the NDP or any government, for that matter, will look at FRBC reserve funds closely in fu- ture years as a source of general rev- enue. Continued on page two Convention °96 set for Vancouver I.W.A. CANADA is holding its 10th Constitutional Convention at the Re- naissance Vancouver Hotel Harbour- side between November 4-8. Over 180 delegates from across Canada are ex- pected to attend. This year’s convention will feature nominations, on November 6, for the positions of National Officers of the union. On September 12, current Na- tional President Gerry Stoney an- nounced that he will not seek renomi- nation. The convention will be co-hosted by LW.A. Local 217 and 1-3567. Local 217 President Gary Kobayashi and Lo- cal 1-3567 President Dave Tones will open proceedings. Former 217 Presi- dent and now Burnaby City Council- lor Doug Evans is scheduled to give a welcome address. Scheduled speakers include I.W.A. National President Gerry Stoney (Monday a.m.) Federal NDP Leader Alexa McDonough (Monday p.m.), B.C. NDP Leader Glen Clark (Tuesday a.m.), B.C. Federation of Labour Pres- ident Ken Georgetti (Tuesday p.m.) and Canadian Labour Congress Presi- dent Bob White (Wednesday p.m.). Also featured will be a revised LW.A. Forest Policy and the introduc- tion of a new Return To Work Policy for the union.