arlier this year the I.W.A.

CANADA National union

held its first conference

exclusively for women and

women’s issues. On March
17-18, fifty-five women from 18
local unions across the country
gathered in Vancouver at the Land-
mark Hotel to discuss and debate
issues to pave the way for more par-
ticipation of women in the organiza-
tion.

The conference was struck out of
a resolution passed at the 1995
national convention held in Prince
George, B.C. which called for an
annual two-day seminar dealing
with the issues that concern women
in the I.W.A., to be attended exclu-
sively by women of the union.

That resolution, submitted by
Local 1-424 in Prince George, B.C.,
was forwarded to the I.W.A. CANA-
DA National Executive Board. At
the union’s national convention
held in Vancouver in 1996, this
year’s conference was announced.

Dave Haggard, national presi-
dent said to the delegates attending
that “this is not only history in the
making...it’s our future in the mak-
ing.”

Brother Haggard said the union
is undergoing changes to become a
more progressive organization that
will represent the needs of all of its
membership.

“I think that this (conference) is
on the leading edge of where we
want to take this organization,” he

said. “I believe that you will help us
help the leaders of this union be
able to accept change...”

Haggard said that the I.W.A.

needs the full participation of women.
in order to represent the interests
of all trade unionists. In recent
months he has issued the challenge
that the union should strive to
increase its membership by signifi-
cant amounts.

“You, sisters, here today, are

going to help mould how we are
going to do that,” he said. “Predomi-
nantly the workforce that I think
we have to organize in is the work-
force where women are in the major-
ity... where women are the predomi-
nant figures in the industry, where
they are getting mistreated, (and)
harassed , where they’re getting
wages that are unfit to be able to
earn a living and provide the digni-
ty and respect for not only ourselves
but for our children.”

He said that the service indus-
tries have workers that are largely
unorganized.

National First Vice President

e Angela Schira

Neil Menard said that all of the
I.W.A. national officers strongly
support the increasing participation
of women now and in the future as
the union diversifies itself to repre-
sent workers in workplaces that are
not as male-dominated.

Brother Menard introduced three
speakers: B.C. Women’s Equality
Minister Sue Hammell, B.C. Feder-
ation of Labour Secretary Treasurer
Angela Schira, and Dawn Black,
past Member of Parliament for the
NDP and the Executive Director for
the Office of the Premier of B.C.

Ms. Hammell congratulated the
participants for attending the his-
toric first-time event for the nation-
al union.

“Women are starting to work and
bond together all over our province
and, I’m sure, it’s throughout this
country,” she said.

B.C. has the only stand-alone
ministry for women, which is com-
mitted to making women’s voices
heard where decisions are made
(the cabinet and the legislature).

“Working towards equality for
women means identifying and recti-
fying circumstances where that
fundamental value hasn’t yet
reached into the culture and the
behavior of individuals, groups,
schools, businesses, professions
and, need I add, unions,” she said.

She encouraged the delegates to
take a more active role in the I.W.A.

“Every time one woman is suc-
cessful at pulling her chair up to
the table, we all succeed - men and
women,” she added.

Sister Angela Schira related her
rise as an activist in the Interna-
tional Association of Machinists,
which, like the I.W.A., remains a
male-dominated organization.

In the 1980’s she successfully
pushed for a women’s committee
within the B.C. Provincial Council
of Machinists.

“In my union they (the leader-
ship) was unsure of how to respond
to new issues that were being devel-
oped and raised by women,” she
said. “As women we found that our

¢ L.W.A. women from 18 local unions gathered in Vancouver for the first-
ever National Women’s Conference.

¢ Sue Hammell

Brothers in the labour movement
welcomed the new activism.”

She said that the IAM had to
Bom and develop programs to un-

lerstand women’s issues and that
the I.W.A. “is following the same
path.”

“We are in this together - all of
us. As working men and women we
have more in common than we some-
times recognize,” she said. “Dispari-
ty between men and women isn’t a
product of the union, it’s the prod-
uct of a society that we all share a
commitment to improve.”

She encouraged B.C. delegates to
stick together and fight to improve
the Workers Compensation system
for both genders, during the current
Royal Commission on the WCB.

“Who we are and where we work
may define our own individual pri-
orities. But as unionists, committed
to helping each other, we must take
up each others’ issues...I’m sure
that members of the I.W.A. will rise
to that challenge.

“We have to demand solutions for
the men working in timber harvest-
ing who are paying a terrible price
in life and limb to sustain the econ-
omy of this province and right across
Canada,” she said. “At the same
time we need to move forward and
demand new protections, such as
ergonomic regulations, so that
women working in the mills and in
the credit unions don’t face painful

° Dave Haggard

and recurring disabilities from poor
workplace design.”

Dawn Black, elected as an MP
for 5 years beginning in 1988, fought.
to introduce a private members bill
which resulted in an additional $25
million for breast cancer research.
That was promoted by the Status of
Women Sub-Committee as part of
the Parliament’s Standing Commit-
tee on Health and Welfare.

Ms. Black gave delegates a his-
torical overview of the origin of
International Women’s Day which
was established in 1910 by Ger-
man Socialist Clara Zetland at the
Second Congress of Socialist Inter-
national Women in Copenhagen.

She pointed out that all women
should realize that it was trade
union women and socialist women
who fought for the early progress
against the long work week, and
dangerous low-paying work.

Throughout history, said Ms.
Black, political activism and trade
unionism have gone hand in hand.

“Without the support of women
in the trade union movement and
the women in grass roots organiza-
tions, I would never have been able
to accomplish the few accomplish-
ments that I have,” she said.

“It is only by working together as
men and women, Sister and Broth-
er, that we can create a society
where each of us is truly valued for
who we are,” she added.

|.W.A. women activists spurred
conference today and in the 1970s

The resolution to call for a confer-
ence on women’s issues originated
from the Canadian Forest Products
Netherlands Overseas Mills operation
in Prince George, B.C. Sub-local plant
chairperson Heidi Boomhower, encour-
aged by now Local 1-424 President
Fred Carroll, took the resolution
through at the local level and onward
to the I-W.A. national convention held
in Prince George in 1995.

Sister Boomhower, a gang edger
operator at the plant, is one of only
four women in the operation which
employs 170 union members.

“We (women) are a definite minori-
ty here and it is really hard to have
our issues dealt with,” she said in an
interview with the Lumberworker. “I
think that women in the I.W.A. need
a structured environment where we
can have our voices heard and greater
attention paid to them.”

“Some of the Brothers in the union
think that all issues can be dealt with
through broad meetings for all mem-
bers,” she added. “That is simply not
the case as we witnessed by national
union’s holding of the first conference
for women.”

Sister Boomhower said that “you
are not going to improve conditions
for all workers until more women get.
involved in women’s activities.

She said that of all the union con-
ferences she has been to, the women’s
conference is the one she enjoyed the
most. “Many of the Sisters at the con-
ference felt they were in a more com-

fortable environment where they
could bring their issues forward.”

Sister Carol Toth of Local 1-417
informed the-Lumberworker that over
24 years ago, the International Wood-
workers of America had a women’s
conference held in B.C. for the West-
ern Regional Council No. 1. There
were only about 15 women in atten-
dance,

Former I.W.A. CANADA national
and regional safety director Verna
Ledger, who now works in the appeals
division of the Workers Compensation
Board of British Columbia, was there.

In fact, she was one of the mem-
bers who submitted the resolutions
from the Canfor Plywood and Hard-
wood plant in New Westminster.

It was a tough resolution to get
through at the regional convention. If
fact, Sister Ledger said it looked like
the resolution wouldn’t pass until
Local 1-424 member Jake Ber,
made an empassioned speech which
helped swing a vote in favour of the
resolution.

“Back then there were even less
women in the union,” said Ledger.
“One of the issues of the day was the
fact that women were not included in
plants where they had to lift over 35
pounds. In fact that was written right
in the Factory Act.”

The I.W.A. conference women got
together and made a submission to
the NDP provincial government of

Continued on page nine

8/LUMBERWORKERJJULY 1997