° At Pacific’s Mesachie Lake logging division on Vancouver Island, are (above 1.
to r.) camp chairman Gord Ohman and committee member Jack Nahirnick. Be-
low (1. to r.) are landing man Mike Holman and landing bucker Dan Miles.

Union members get ready
for battle with Pacific

1.W.A. CANADA members in British
Columbia who work for Pacific Forest
Products and MacMillan Bloedel
should not be fooled by both compa-
ny’s new status as “associate mem-
bers” within Forest Industrial Rela-
tions (FIR) says Local 1-80 President
Bill Routley.
He wants to inform union members
that FIR will be acting only as an in-
formation service to these forest com-
panies during coast master agreement
bargaining sessions in 1997 and that
both are trying to deceive their work-
ers by declaring themselves as associ-
ate members.
“Both Pacific and MacBlo have ab-
solutely no legal status within FIR as
‘associate members,” says Brother
Routley. “That and 25 cents will get
them a phone call.”
Routley points out that both compa-
nies will simply be monitoring what is
going on between the I.W.A. and FIR
and will paying a fee to do so.
_ “After we negotiate an agreement
with the rest of the industry these
companies can decide to buy into it,
into part of it, or reject it completely
and go their own way,” adds Routley.
“They both will have no impact on the
legal bargaining structure of FIR.”
“ee local union president says that
Pacific’s October 25 move to deac-
credit from FIR is an attempt to ride
on MB's coattails and look for a less
restrictive collective agreement. The
1.W.A. has already taken a strong posi-
tion by applying to the Labour Rela-
tions Board to consolidate all of MB's
operations into one single bargaining
unit.

Tn 1994 Pacific tried to do the same
thing by deaccrediting from FIR. Sub-
sequent pressure, from the I.W.A. dur-
ing negotiations with FIR, resulted in
pushing Pacific back into FIR prior to
the settlement of the current three

eement.
yen 1994 Pacific gave us a hard time
‘so we're not really surprised about
eir move to deaccredit from FIR
in,” comments Routley. “Pacific
always been one of the most un-
_serupulous employers for our local to
‘ with anyways.”

At Pacific’s Mesachie Lake logging
division, camp chairman Gord
Ohman recalls the emotional roller-
coaster that workers went on in 1994
wie the company first opted out of

“We were and still are aware of
what happened with the I.W.A. in the
United States in the 1980’s when for-
est companies began to segregate the
union operations and bargain individ-
ual agreements,” says Brother Ohman.
“We do not ever want to start going
down that road which means conces-
sions to the employers. We like the
working conditions that we have
fought for over the years and we want
to maintain them.”

Ohman says that Pacific has started
a public relations campaign with its
employees in order to sell its deac-
creditation from FIR. The company is
trying to communicate its agenda of
add-on bonus systems and alternate
compensation systems. It has tried to
segregate the workers at Mesachie
Lake to deliver its message.

“The crew has told me that it’s ei-
ther all of us together or none of us,”
says Ohman. “We’ve communicated to
them (Pacific) that we want back in
FIR as a full-fledged member. Every-
body understands what happens if
you try to go it on your own.”

Brother Ohman mentions that
bonus systems, such as the one that
Pacific will try to put into place, can
pose a serious threat to safety condi-
tions for the loggers.

“Safety always seems to be the first.
thing to suffer when people think of
that extra dollar they can get for in-
creased production - that’s the price
you pay,” he says.

“It all boils down to that if we don’t
stand together, then they'll (Pacific)
knock us off, one by one,” he adds.
“I'm convinced that the membership
understands that.”

Jack Nahirnick, a welder/mechanic
and union committee member at the
Mesachie Lake shop, says that Pacific
has been very aggressive at contract-
ing out work and does not abide by
the collective agreement.

“This (deaccreditation from FIR)

has made everyone feel very uneasy,”
he says. “We don’t know exactly what
to expect as we approach ‘97 negotia-
tions.”

Brother Nahimick says that Pacific
backed off in 1994, partly because the
company was seeking the union’s sup-
port in opposing radical environmen-
talists on Vancouver Island.

“Now that they’ve got that settled
down, they decided to take us on
again,” he says.

He also says that the line of com-
munications between I.W.A. members

who work for Pacific and MacMillan
Bloedel must be kept open when 1997
negotiations take place.

Pacific has logging operations in Ze-
ballos, Gold River, and Mesachie
Lake. Local 1-80 is currently em-
broiled in a contracting out battle
with the company at Sooke division
where the company shut down its
company operations for over two
sone and introduced contractors in
1993.

The company has a sawmill in Lady-
smith and a sawmill in Nanaimo.

N.E.W. process

Continued from page eight

the hiring of more engineering person-
nel to ensure that TimberWest can
process the more complex permits re-
quired under the Code.

Brother Kinney says that Timber-
West is more cooperative than other
companies in Local 1-80 in looking for
N.E.W. opportunities as it remembers
the history of battles between the
LW.A. and Fletcher Challenge.

“I think that the company, and espe-
cially South Island Manager Bob
Beard, knows that the wounds from
the cutbacks starting in 1989 are not
fully healed yet and are more con-
cious that workers and their commu-
nities demand more jobs on the land
base,” he says.

Now Fletcher Challenge is trying to
completely sell its controlling interest
in TimberWest. Kinney hopes that the
new buyer chosen will remain enthu-
siastic with the N.E.W. program.

“I certainly hope the new purchaser
will buy into N.E.W.,” comments Kin-
ney. “There are many things in it that
are in place that are beneficial to both
the company and the union.”

SELECT HARVESTING CREW

One area where two jobs have been
created are in a special cut and skid,
select harvest crew. Prior to the
union’s involvmemt in the N.E.W. pro-
gram the work was being done by
contractors.

The two man crew has been selec-
tively harvesting 60-80 year old sec-
ond growth timber. The trees are indi-
vidually cut down and skidded out
with a mini-cat.

There's no telling how long the new
jobs will last. So far there are several
sites to be harvested along Lake
Cowichan and some campsite build-
ing to be done.

Faller Al Margetish and cat opera-
tor Barney Edgar have been working
together under some new Individual
Tree Harvesting guidelines.

Al falls them and Barney often
helps in the bucking and limbing and
hauls them to roadside. The crew will
also be used to selectively cut and
skid timber to trails where a grapple
yarder will be set up to pull the wood
out to logging roads.

Both men have received some Indi-
vidual Tree Harvesting training with
assistance from Forest Renewal B.C.

aed

Landing bucker processes logs at Mesachie Lake logging division.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1996/9

FRBC TRAINING ON LONG-LINES

Another area where I.W.A. mem-
bers have received training for N.E.W.
related jobs is on the company’s two
B-90 Skagit long-line machines that
employ up to 19 workers. The crews
were sent to TimberWest’s Nanaimo
Lakes Division to check out and be
trained on the harvesting system.
FRBC paid for 75% (about $18,000) of
the training, which took place in the
Spring of this year.

Workers learned the principles (i.e.
rig-ups, road changes) and safety pro-
cedures needed for operation of the
long-line system.

The company has found out that
long-line harvesting costs, which em-
ploy more manpower, are about half
of the costs of helicopter logging
which can run about $65 per cubic
meter from stump to roadside.

Brother Kinney points out that the
union is concerned about the increas-
ing introduction of heli-logging which
eliminates jobs and is more expensive
to do. The company plans to increase
its helicopter harvesting to about
150,000 cubic meters, on public and
private land, in the coming year.

COMMUNICATING WITH OTHER
1.W.A. MEMBERS

Although the N.E.W. program has
been most successful at Honeymoon
Bay, Local 1-80 hopes that other com-
panies will follow suit.

Brother Kinney says there is a lot of
work yet to be done - both at Timber-
West operations and at other local
union certifications.

“There are still some operations
that are slow in implementing mean-
ingful programs under N.E.W. and we
have to get out there and communi-
cate what we have done at Honey-
moon Bay,” he says.

Carmen Rocco says that N.E.W. is
being seen, with some success, in
MacMillan Bloedel’s Northwest Bay,
and Shawnigan Lake division. Pacific
Forest Products is beginning to get
the program off the ground at
Mesachie Lake division.

“For a long time, MacBlo wouldn't
even say that new jobs are being seen
under N.E.W.,” says Brother Rocco.
“That is beginning to change slowly.”

“Most of our members don’t even
realize that N.E.W. is part of the col-
lective agreement,” says Rocco.
“They've never even heard of it or if
they have, they've never paid much at-
tention to it.”

In 1997 the industry will be hearing
from the union about the successes
and failures of the N.E.W. program.

2