DEC. 1996 ¢ OUTGOING 1.W.A. PRESIDENT GERRY STONEY (left) has his arm raised by Canadian Labour Congress President Bob White following Brother White's speech to the union's national convention in Vancouver. White praised Brother Stoney's many years of service to working people. See story page thirteen. LWEA, CANADA’ re This year the |.W.A. celebrated its 10th year as an independent Canadian union when over 180 delegates gathered in Vancouver, B.C. for their annual convention. PAGES 10-16 CONVENTION Evans Forest Products Golden operation saved by joint efforts of government, industry and union n all-out rescue plan to save Evans Forest Prod- ucts Ltd. has paid off as the B.C. company has been saved from going into receivership. On De- cember 19, the company’s plywood mill in Golden fired up operations for the first time since October 7, when pressure from creditors forced Evans to shut down, throwing 250 I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-405 members out of work. Altogether, 600 employees, in- cluding loggers, haulers and staff were affected in Golden. Also affected were 105 I.W.A. Local 1-417 members who were laid off at the company’s cedar mill in Malakwa, about 200 km. east of Golden. Twenty union truckers were also laid off. That mill also started up on December 19 when a maintenance crew first went in. A $44.4 million restructuring plan, put together by Jobs Protection Com- missioner Doug Kerly, will see the creditors kept at bay. The plan will see company owner and entrepreneur Georges St. Laurent put in $24 million to upgrade the operation and pay some debts. On December 19, B.C. Premier Glen Clark spoke to a crowd of 150 Golden residents at the town’s civic centre, praising the community’s hard work and tenacity in working for a solution to save the town. He added that the high costs of log- ging in the Golden area must be solved as part of a long-term solution. I.W.A. CANADA National President Gerry Stoney was also present to commend the government and inform workers that any other government would have allowed the workers’ jobs to disappear without assistance. Forests Minister Dave Zirnhelt and MLA Jim Doyle were also present at the public gathering. The provincial government is kick- ing in $21.5 million worth of loans, stumpage deferrals and Forest Re- newal B.C. funding while the I.W.A. sub-local has agreed to a one-year wage deferral of 15%. In addition, the government is doing a review of stumpage rates in the Golden Timber Supply area. The com- pany says that current rates are too high and wants to pay only 25 cents per cubic meter, which is salvage rate. The plywood mill has an annual allow- able cut of 375,000 cubic meters. The government has promised to look at the feasibility of constructing logging roads and a causeway in the Kinbasket Reservoir, which would give the company access to timber north of Golden. It will also examine sharing some road building costs with the company through the Small Busi- ness Enterprise Program. Other assistance from the govern- ment is the allowance of larger clear- cuts, which will not exceed maximum allowances under the Forest Practices Code and some further relaxation of Code requirements by allowing the company to log beside second growth that has “greened-up” to heights of only 2 meters vs. the normally re- quired 3 meters. All of the above changes will assist in getting the company back to a solid business plan. “We knew that everybody had to pull out the stops to look for a solu- tion to keep the company operating,” says Local 1-405 President Bob Mat- ters. “The crew is looking forward to working with the company to make the mill even more viable in the long term. They produce world class prod- ucts which have a bright future.” Brother Matters adds that the com- pany needs to diversify its product line. “No matter what happens, if all things fall into place with this restruc- turing plan, the plywood plant just can’t remain a plywood plant,” says Matters. “Evans has to create more di- versified products to create new mar- kets and new jobs.” In October, before the closure, the government offered the company $7 million loan to help build an LVL pro- duction facility, provided that the ply- wood mill would keep operating. In Local 1-417, the union is relieved to see the company up and operating. “We're glad to see the Malakwa op- eration going before Christmas time,” says Joe Davies, the local’s financial secretary. “We were concerned, for some time, that the company was headed into receivership.” Continued on page two Union holds national vote for top jobs There are electoral races for two of the top jobs in the union now taking place, as four candidates compete for positions at the National office. As of press time, referendum voting is still being carried out in various I.W.A. CANADA locals across the country. Running for the position of National President are Port Alberni, B.C. Local 1-85 President Dave Haggard and the B.C. Loggers’ Local 1-71 President Darrel Wong. On September 12, incumbent Na- tional President Gerry Stoney an- nounced that he would not be seeking re-election, thereby clearing the way for an open election for the presiden- In the other electoral competition, incumbent National Third Vice Presi- dent Warren Ulley is seeking re-elec- tion while New Westminster-Fraser Valley, B.C, President Dave Tones is also campaigning for that position. All union Brothers were nominated for the election on November 6, dur- ing the I.W.A.’s Tenth Constitutional Convention which was held in Van- couver. Nominations for the positions of National Officers were conducted by former Local 1-423 President Bill Schumaker, now retired. Nominating Brother Wong for the position of National President was Lo- cal 1-71’s First Vice President Nick Doubinin while Brother Haggard was nominated by Local 1-85’s First Vice President Larry Rewakowsky. Following I.W.A. tradition, Brother Stoney declined a nomination for re- election, which was given by Brother Tones. Neil Menard was elected as Nation- al First Vice President by acclamation after being nominated by Saskat- chewan Local 1-184 President Dennis Bonville. Brother Fred Miron was elected by acclamation to another term as Na- tional Second Vice President, having been nominated by Thunder Bay, On- tario Local 2693 President Wilf McIn- tyre. Local 1-2995 President Norm Ri- vard declined contesting that position following a nomination by Local 1- 2995 Financial Secretary Damien Roy. Brother Ulley received his nomina- tion for Third Vice President from Darrel Wong while Brother Tones was nominated by Local 1-3567 First Vice President Sonny Ghag. National Fourth Vice President Har- vey Arcand won re-election by accla- mation after being nominated by Lo- cal 1-425 President Brian Symmes, The position of National Financial Secretary was filled by incumbent of- ficer Terry Smith who accepted the job by acclamation following a nomi- nation by Vancouver Local 1-217 Pres- ident Gary Kobayashi. By rule of the National Constitu- tion, ballots were sent out to the local unions no later than 15 days after the Continued on page two