CONVENTION

e At the convention National First Vice President Neil Menard (left) and National Second Vice President

Fred Miron pause for a break at front stage.

Delegates demand that FRBC keep commitments

° Darrel Wong

¢ Bill Routley

The most talked about resolution this year was
the I.W.A.’s demand that the NDP government
keep its commitment to forest workers by creating
Forest Renewal B.C. jobs.

Bill Routley, President of Local 1-80, who sits on
the Work Force Committee of FRBC, said that
there is a great deal of frustration in getting the
system to work well, but that I.W.A. members
should know that both the opposition Liberals and
Reform were totally against the I.W.A. having any
say in what happens. He said that the forest indus-
try is not interested in letting workers have a say in
how we manage the future of the forests in the
province.

“They’re not interested in having workers that
are displaced, whether it’s by technological change
and their decisions, or by land-use decisions,” he
said. “They couldn’t give a damn about what hap-
pens to displaced forest workers. They’re worried
about their profits and the bottom line.”

He said that, all too often, FRBC jobs that are be-
ing created are going to the lowest bidder and that
the union is beginning to get its message across.

“Pm hoping that within the coming months, cer-
tainly by the spring of next year, we’re going to
have in place a program that truly connects dis-
placed forest workers and gives them a leg up and
the first right of refusal to work in the new jobs
that are going to be created in Forest Renewal
B.C.

Dave Haggard, President of Local 1-85 and a
member of the Board of FRBC, said that there are
three major problems that FRBC faces: the indus-
try, the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry of En-
vironment.

He said that “...quite frankly those two ministries
have made a decision that they believe that the
Forest Renewal fund is their own personal bank
account that they can dip into whenever they feel
like it, and for whatever reason they think is neces-
sary.”

Brother Haggard said that the Forest Service and
the Ministry of Environment apply their rules and

regulations to the Act which say that work has to

go to the lowest bidder.

Meanwhile, said Haggard, industry players like
MacMillan Bloedel, Canfor and Interfor are sitting
back and saying it is not their problem to create
jobs.

He charged that the companies nearly destroyed
FRBC “because of their incompetence and igno-
rance.”

° Jeff Broughton

Darrel Wong, President of Local 1-71, said that
the real problem with FRBC is that the industry
has too much control of it.

“That's the real problem...the applications are
being made and the forest industry isn’t working
with the I.W.A.,” he said. “They give a lot of lip ser-
vice but they are not working with us.”

Brother Wong said that FRBC has only created
jobs for 15 Local 1-71 members.

“The industry has made a decision collectively to
make goddamned sure that this program doesn’t
work, and they’re making sure it doesn’t work for
LW.A. members, and they’re making sure it doesn’t
work for their employees.”

Jeff Broughton, of Port Alberni Local 1-85, said
that FRBC is a hot topic of discussion amongst the
rank and file in the operations.

“I think that in the last election we were
promised a lot of things by the soon-to-be govern-
ment of British Columbia,” he said. “And one of the
things we were told, that we were going to have
more input, we were going to get more jobs, we
were really going to have FRBC working for us.”

He said that things have not happened as expect-
ed and that the union should “put the government's
feet to the fire on this one.”

Brother Broughton said that his fellow crew
members have worked only 7-1/2 months this year
and that times are lean.

“Well, there is where FRBC can come in-line and
put some of our guys to work or retrain them or do

something because it’s getting worse and worse
out there.”

Carmen Rocco of Local 1-80, said that some peo-
ple who work for the Forest Service have been told
they cannot run any applications through until they
get their hands on FRBC money.

He said there is too much delay in the FRBC
process. f

“When you send a proposal in to FRBC it goes
the Ministry of Forests and then it goes to the Min-
istry of Environment and it sits on those damn
desks,” said Rocco.

Ron Norgaard of Local 1-71 said that on the Sun-
shine Coast in B.C. the local union has an agree-
ment, with the native band, that the natives will
work under a standard agreement with the I.W.A.

The band has put in an FRBC proposal and was
refused, the reason being that FRBC did not want
to pay union rates. Thus the natives are being
forced to bid non-union.

“FRBC has got to get their act together,” said
Norgaard. “They've got to get I.W.A. rates for our
people [who] are willing to go out there and work
and put the loggers back to work that they
promised that this funding was for.”

Bob Matters, President of Local 1-405, said that
the union should be out defending FRBC and that
the fund is, in effect, a tax on industry which will
create jobs for union members in the future. He
said that employers themselves have done little to
create jobs for union members.

At the back of the convention hall, members of the Resolutions Committee pose for a photo op.

12/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1996