a * Out in front of the gates at the Nanaimo plant were (1. to r.) Dave Near, Warren Chic, Piet Komen, Dave Cochrane, Eric Racette, Larry Grounds, Brian Delcourt, Charlie Veasy and N. Damboro. Total experience of men exceeds 215 years. Local 1-80 members walk out for first time at Madill t took just under three weeks for striking I.W.A. members -at the S. Madill Ltd. logging equipment plant in Nanaimo, B.C. to get their employer to sign a new collective agreement which will increase wages by 5% in the first five months of the contract: and settle a number of local issues. The total wage increase bargained is 9% spread over the three years: On May 15, employees returned to work after walking out on April 26, precisely 72 hours after serving strike notice. Seventy-six percent of the work- ers who voted on the contract approved of the three year agree- ment which will expire on Decem- ber 31, 1999. “While there were areas of the collective agreement in which we did not achieve everything we hoped for, overall this is an agreement that we can live with,” said Local 1- 80 Third Vice President and Busi- ness Agent. “Many of the non-mon- etary issues that had been a source of friction with management have been cleaned up.” : Madill logging equipment has Seven and a half months after the giant Beaver Lumber Company ~ shut down its Duncan, B.C. opera- on, there has been a turnaround. umber and hardware retailer has decided that it makes sense to en an operation it shut down in August of last year when it the plug on the I.W.A. follow- a three week eeake for better and working conditions. Today the EE pERY, under ae ownership, is playing ball wi rch 13, twelve workers, lo anew collective agree- t with I.W.A. CANADA Local 1- nt to work in the lumber yard. been known all over the coast and interior of B.C. for close to 50 years. A family-owned and operated com- pany until recent years, it was non- _ union until I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-80 organized the workforce in 1998 and reached a first collective agreement commencing February 1, 1994. A big issue then was to get the workers into the I.W.A.-Forest Industry Pension Plan. That, along with a modest wage increase, was achieved in the first contract. The plant produces yarders (the 120, 124, and 172 models) and hydraulic loaders (the 3800, and 4800 model). Madill has a smaller plant in Kalama, Washington which makes the 3200 feller/buncher loader. The last time the Nanaimo plant built a line loader was about five years ago. Today it does repair work on the well-known Madill steel spars, which have been seen up and down the coast for decades. The company is now controlled by investors who used to own the Cypress Equipment plant in Van- couver, which a since been amal- gamated into the Madill operation. J.W.A. tradespersons in the plant, Pacific Builders, a local company, is the principal owner who picked up the closed Beaver Lumber yard and store and today has 51% ownership in the Duncan operation- “We were hearing rumours that somebody was going to buy into the plant,” said Local 1-80 Third Vice President and Business Agent Rod Thomson. “We were concerned that new owners were going to try to run the place without a union certi- fication. Fortunately that did not appen.” ; H Wier sitting down with the union, a three-year deal has been reached to pay the workers an additional 8% over the term of the contract. mostly heavy duty mechanics, machinists, welders and welder/fab- ricators, now get over $22.00/hr. That is still behind the coast mas- ter agreement standards, said Brother Thomson, but is a consider- able improvement for the workers in only their second collective agree- ment. The I.W.A. has also worked to eliminate disparity between orga- nized office staff and plant floor workers. “We have made some adjustments to remedy the situation but there is still a long way to go in the next contract,” said Brother Thomson, who served as the spokesperson for the negotiating committee. Other members of the committee were Bill Burmeister, Mark Fran- cescutto, Al Liska, Ken Freidheim, and Glen Sheepwash. Five days before the workers went out on strike, a mediator reported to both parties with non- binding recommendations. Brother Thomson said the mediator “took many of the companies recommen- dations and did not change them one bit.” That caused the strike vote in which over 92% of 82 employ- On top of that, all the former union- ized employees who wanted their old jobs back were hired. Last year, when the union was negotiating with Beaver, the shots on the company’s side of the table were being called out of the fran- chise’s corporate headquarters in Markham, Ontario. “We were being dictated to by an overall corporate policy that was based on the local owners having their hands tied by the big shots back east,” said Brother Thomson. “Beaver was worried that whatever we got would have to be given to other operations across the country that were not unionized. They resist- ed us as much as they could and went as far as shutting the Duncan operation down to prove their point.” Thomson said that the union has ees voting agreed to hit the bricks. “This was the first strike for many of these people, some of whom have over 30 years seniority with the company,” said Thomson. “It was something that was really new to them and they were not timid about taking on the company.” “The crew stood very solid and forced the employer to deal with the issues in a straight-up manner,” he added. : Thomson said that the solid sup- port the strikers received from mem- bers of other union affiliates and the general pubic was “nothing short of outstanding.” Union members and the public dropped by the two picket lines that union set up, dropping off coffee and baked goods right from the first _week of the strike. “Normally we don’t see that kind of support until we’re well into a strike situation,” said Thomson. “The crew has deep roots in Nanaimo and the support was clear- ly with them. It will take us a long time to thank everyone for the sup- port we got.” semen ET Beaver Lumber crew back on job made it clear that it does not expect to see management performing the duties of bargaining unit employ- ees. “We don’t want to see them climbing on forklifts, ripping lum- ber or doing anything else that is the work of our members,” said Thomson. “That work is ours.” Brother Thomson said that it is the only I.W.A. certified Beaver Lumber yard and store on southern Vancouver Island. “We’re certainly advising any- body who is a union member and is looking for building materials to stop at the Duncan operation,” he added. “We’re quite confident that we will be able to work with the new local ownership which understands the business and understands us,” he added. LUMBERWORKERMULY 1997/19