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