National union building
is on Haggard’s agenda

President aims to organize all sectors

On March 11, the Lwmberworker sat down
to interview new National President Dave
Haggard. Brother Haggard, former president
of Port Alberni Local 1-85, was installed into
office on January 30, 1997.

Lumberworker: What have been the first
priorities during your first two months in of-
fice?

Haggard: During the first two months in
office I have been feeling my way around
and learning all the ins and outs of the na-
tional union.

Tm starting to priorize and prepare for our
national officers meeting which is going to
take place in March. I think we need to put
together a strategic plan for the national
union which will set where we are headed
and how we are going to get there.

The other thing I have been active in is the
Wage and Contract Conference which has
set our demands for the forest industry in
British Columbia and setting a format out
for that. We are making sure that the indus-
try understands that the I.W.A. is here to bar-
gain an agreement and we are not going to
roll over and let them walk all over us in
1997.

But, more importantly I think what I have
also been involved in on the national scene
is getting out and meeting our membership.
Local unions have asked me to come into
their areas and talk about where I want to
head with our national union and what I see
as priorities.

Lumberworker: What are the most impor-
tant priorities that you see to fulfill you cam-
paign pledges?

Haggard: I think one of the most impor-
tant things is organizing. Organizing is a cor-
ner stone of any union and something that I
think has been neglected in the I.W.A. It is
one of the things that we are going to make a
major, major drive on to increase our mem-
bership by significant amounts.

The other thing is cleaning up the adminis-
tration issues of getting our union on a web-
site and internet and things like that which
were agreed to with our National Executive
Board a couple of years ago. We are working
on getting those things cleaned up and mov-
ing ahead with administration matters that
should have happened already.

Lumberworker: During the election cam-
paign you travelled to various provinces
when you were seeking the presidency. Did
your travels give you any new perspectives
on the I.W.A. and its diversity as a union?

Haggard: Absolutely. I think that I have
seen it when I was travelling around and I
have seen it even more since I have become
the President. What we have done and
where we have headed in the past ten years
as a national union may be significantly dif-
ferent than what people see in our own little
comers of the world. If you look at Ontario
you will see that we have every industry that
you can imagine that is certified to the L.W.A.
- from baseball bats to making plastics, to
egg cartons, to just about anything - contain-
er boards and packaging - to chop sticks in
northern British Columbia and everything in
between from one side of the country to the
other. I think that’s exciting stuff for our
union to be involved in.

Lumberworker: Do you see the I.W.A.
pushing to organize in more non-traditional
sectors and how do you identify what are
the important sectors in sense of strategy?

Haggard: J believe that if people walk,
talk, and look like workers, they should have
the right to belong to the I.W.A. There is no
organization in this country that has the type

10/LUMBERWORKER/APRIL, 1997

of structure that we
have where the mem-
bership has so much
say in what their union
is all about and where
it’s heading. I think
that’s very significant.
So, I’m not sure you
should pin point one
sector or industry. I
think we have to go
into communities and
talk about what we’re
all about, and that in it-
self can provide people
with the information
that they need so that.
they may join our orga-
nization.

Lumberworker: B.C.
Provincial Negotiations
are fast approaching.
What was the clearest
message that you got
from the delegates at
the Wage and Contract
Conference?

Haggard: I think the
major issue is job secu-
rity and that means dif-
ferent things in differ-
ent parts of British
Columbia. Also a short-
er work year is another
major issue as well as the other things that
we traditionally ask for. I think that those
things and finishing the fixing-up of our pen-
sion plan are of the utmost importance to
members in B.C. They are the issues that
bond all I.W.A. members in British Columbia
in the forest industry together.

Lumberworker: What are the biggest ob-
stacles that the union faces in this set of ne-
gotiations? Industry is making certain claims
against government policies. What is fact
and what is fiction?

Haggard: I’m not sure that I know that
right now. I guess it will all come out in the
wash as the government negotiations with
industry progress and there is no doubt that
our own economist is telling us that there
some high costs in British Columbia which
are creating some major hurdles. Also, low
pulp prices are creating problems, but that
shouldn’t deter us one bit from getting a col-
lective agreement. Also, the industry itself is
one of our main obstacles to getting a decent
agreement. It never wants to give us any-
thing anyway.

Lumberworker: Do you think that the B.C.
membership in MacMillan Bloedel and Pacif-
ic Forest Products operations understand
the importance of holding together against
“enterprise bargaining”?

Haggard: Absolutely, our members know
what is happening. MacMillan Bloedel is
hell-bent to do what it is doing and that’s
why we are at the (Labour Relations) Board
right now to find a solution to that. If they
want to leave the sanctity of association bar-
gaining then they’ve got to understand
they're not going to carve off pieces of our
membership or parts of local unions and
kick the hell out of them. It’s not going to
happen — we won't allow it. As far as Pacific
is concerned, there is no surprises. They
treat their employees with contempt and
that’s possibly how they should be treated as
well.

Lumberworker: What role can the I.W.A
play to assist B.C. Premier Glen Clark in pro-
ducing 21,000 jobs over the next five years?

¢ Former Port Alberni Local 1-85 President Dave Haggard took over at the
National office in late January.

Haggard: I think that the shorter work
year is one way to help do that. We can put
more people to work and I think the govern-
ment has to recognize the significance of
that and possibly offer the industry and
labour some assistance in helping that hap-
pen. The other thing that we have to do is
make sure that the silvicultural work under
Forest Renewal B.C. is done by our union
members. Anything less would be unaccept-
able and J don’t think that anyone who has
any small amount of sanity would disagree
with that. The I.W.A. has played major roles
in creating stability in our communities
throughout the province and should contin-
ue to do so with paycheques from FRBC.

Lumberworker: As a member of the Board
of FRBC, what changes do you see are being
made to fix the FRBC bureaucracy?

Haggard: We need to pull some of the ma-
jor responsibilities from ministries such and
the Ministry of Forest and the Ministry of
Environment. There has to be some major
moves made to take some of bureaucracy
out of the FRBC delivery system. We don’t
want to create some other bureaucratic
monster in the place of the ministries
though. While we (the Board) are doing that
there should be incentives for licensees to
get involved in doing Forest Renewal work.
FRBC should streamline processes and get
rid of the piles and piles of paperwork that is
being heaped on the industry to get permits
approved. We can streamline those things
and make FRBC funding more accessible.
We need to make FRBC accessible to dis-
placed forest workers who are I.W.A. mem-
bers around this province. That is the right
thing to do.

Lumberworker: How did you first get in-
volved in I.W.A. activities back in the Port
Alberni days?

Haggard: I came out of the biggest logging
camp in North America (MacBlo’s Franklin
River division). We had many issues in the
‘70's that we solved with different methods.

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