* Avenor | 12 a 3 e Joe Hanlon (1.), Local 2693 Financial Secretary, joins I.W.A. members who were locked out by Avenor. Avenor contract loggers locked out by parent company, says OLRB he union has worked to turn the tables on employ- ers who play games with their workers by laying them off needlessly when a collective agreement in place. In early July, I.W.A. Local 2693 went to the Ontario Labour Relations Board to receive a ruling in its favour which stated that Avenor Forest Products was illegally lock- ing out union members. ‘he ruling was one of the first of its kind for the union, said I.W.A. CANADA Local 2693 President Wilf McIntyre. The Board ruled that b poaing one of its contractors (Mid- West Timber) out of work and forc- ing negotiations with that contrac- tor and the union, with a collective agreement in place, Avenor was in effect denying work to its employ- ees. In a letter of understanding between the I.W.A. and Avenor, there is contract language that says at least 400 union members must be employed on Avenor’s limits either through the parent company or with contractors. On June 20 the contractor, Mid- West Timber, which is an experi- enced logging operator that enjoys a good relationship with its work- force, told union workers that it was going under after 25 years in the business. ; It claimed it could no longer oper- ate under the Avenor structure, having its operating costs arbitrari- ly cut by $1.20 per cubic meter. Mid-West operates out of the Avenor Camp #518 site which is about a 75 minute drive west of Thunder Bay on the Atikokan Highway. Avenor was telling the contractor that it had to go to a seven day work week and do harvesting and haul- ing on a piece rate system. The union agreed that some moves have to be made to increase efficiency but for different reasons. Avenor wouldn’t listen to the union. So Local 2693 broke off talks EE with Avenor and tabled an applica- tion claiming an illegal lock-out in front of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. “I could see that we were not get- ting anywhere with the company,” said McIntyre. “Avenor was playing hardball all the way.” In a document from Avenor dated on June 24, the company said that the union had to agree to all of the issues that Avenor was presenting or the membership would not go back to work. “That put us in a legal position to say that Avenor’s actions consti- tute an illegal lock-out of our mem- bers,” added Brother McIntyre. The OLRB set hearing dates for Toronto on June 30. The company tried to call the meeting off and it was delayed until July 3, when the company argued that it was not a matter for the OLRB but rather a matter for a grievance procedure decision against During the midst of forest indus- try negotiations with the I.W.A., the B.C. Labour Relations Board rendered a ruling in favour of the union in its battle with MacMillan Bloedel. Even though MB announced in mid-April that it was getting back into Forest Industrial Relations (F.LR.), the bargaining association for coastal employers in the solid wood sector, the union went ahead in its application to bargain all of MB's operations as one unit. In other words, just because MB got back into FIR as a full member, the I.W.A. went ahead anyways. The LRB decision granted an application by the Council of I.W.A. Local (Local 1-71, 1-80-, 1-85, 217, 1-3567, and 363) to keep all of the company’s units together in one 8 bargaining structure. i th e decision set a precedent for the industry. “I think it’s an extremely impor- 8 tant decision for the I.W.A.,” com- mented I.W.A. CANADA National Local 2698 member climbs onto truck to give information to driver. President Dave Haggard. traffic was backed up for two miles. “Regardless of the future of asso- Council of |.W.A. under the collective agreement. The Board appointed a senior officer to help out and the union made its position clear: all of the locked out workers must return to work. On June 25 the workers set up an information line outside the weigh scales of the Avenor paper mill in Thunder Bay. Not long after, highway traffic on Highway 61 was tied up for two miles. “All kinds of truckers hauling with Avenor wood and purchase wood and chip trucks didn’t want to cross the information line,” said McIntyre. = The Thunder Bay city police indi- cated that there should be a meet- ing between the I.W.A. and the com- pany. At the meeting the company agreed that the union should have five minutes to explain its position to each trucker entering the weigh scales. “We were happy with that agree- ment,” said the local union presi- dent. “Avenor was unsuccessful later in going to the courts for an injunction as a result of the agree- ment it made with us.” The OLRB eventually ruled that Avenor has to pay the workers all their missing wages and benefits when they were sitting home for 3- 4 weeks. “This was good news for our mem- bers,” said McIntyre. “Our people successfully charged the company with an illegal lock out. In the past it has always been the companies that have been charging the unions with illegal strikes.” “T believe that when these situa- tions arise in the future, that we should be looking at the law and how we can charge companies for illegal lock outs,” he said. McIntyre said that Avenor has slid to the bottom of the totem pole with Local 2693. “They are absolutely the worst outfit that we have to deal with,” he said. i McIntyre informed the Lumber- worker that Avenor locked out 50 members on August 29 after calling all workers back on July 14 asa result of the Labour Board deci- sion. “The seriousness of the labour relations board decision hasn’t seemed to sink into the heads of these management characters at Avenor who seem to think that they are over and above the law,” he said. “We wonder about who is call- ing the shots for the company.” locals wins MacBlo in B.C. ciation bargaining, it tells the employers that they will not be able to simply walk all over our mem- bers by implementing an operation by operation bargaining strategy.” In April of the last year the com- pany withdrew from F.I.R. as it sought operation by operation bar- gaining. The I.W.A. then countered with an application to the LRB and embarked a long and costly legal battle which it eventually won. “This (LRB) decision supports one of the fundamental principles the the I.W.A. stands for,” said Haggard. “If it’s the same company in the same industry, we are going to negotiate the same collective agreement.” “It’s the solidarity of workers in the B.C. forest industry that has given us the world class wages and working conditions we enjoy,” added Haggard, who sat as Chairman of the union’s Provincial Negotiating Committee. “This LRB decision makes it extremely difficult for the employers to destroy what has taken 60 years to build and we’re happy for that.” LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER 1997/15