¢ Standing in front of a crowd of workers and community supporters, Loggers’ Local 1-71 Third Vice President and Interfor employee Ken Bayers,
commended everyone who participated in the peaceful protest actions. The blockade, which was designed to keep out anti-logging radicals, stood in

place for over a month.

Forest industry workers and community supporters
take action to blockade anti-logging groups in B.C.

n the latter part of July I.W.A.
Local 1-71 members and other
forest industry supporters let
down their “block the block-
aders” barrier in the Upper
Squamish Valley, in southwestern
B.C. Since June 16 the union had
joined with community activists,
supporters and other forest indus-
try workers in efforts to keep radi-
cal environmentalists from blockad-
ing logging roads and engaging in
other forms of civil disobedience.

The blockade, set up at the 21-
1/2 mile point of the main road giv-
ing access to Tree Farm License
#38, was in place for over four weeks
and was removed following a rally
on July 23.

Persons signing a petition sup-
porting forest workers were allowed
past the blockade. The petition,
addressed to B.C. Premier Glen
Clark, also called for compensation
for wages and benefits lost to illegal
blockades in the future.

On that. day, dubbed as a
“Community Appreciation Day,”
over 300 community supporters vis-
ited the “blockaders’ to stand behind
the actions taken to keep radical
environmentalists out.

The radical group know as PATH
and the Western Canada Wilderness
Committee have vowed to prevent
logging in the TFL, causing loggers
and their supporters to erect the
blockade in defense of their jobs.

During the rally, as WCWC was
in court seeking the police removal
of the blockade, Local 1-71 Third
Vice President Ken Bayers thanked
all supporters from the Squamish-
Pemberton district.

Two days later, B.C. Supreme
Court Justice Jack Edwards
declined to rule on the blockade
because it was removed. A civil
injunction had not been granted.

Since September 1992 the RCMP
has adopted a policy of not inter-
vening in civil matters unless a
court injunction is granted.

Bayers said that the blockade
was being removed as a act of “good
faith.”

“The reason for that is that it’s
the right thing to do. It was the
right thing to do to put up the block-

ade in the first place because our
jobs were in jeopardy,” said Bayers.

Earlier in the year, PATH had
prevented loggers from going to
work on two separate occasions. It
supporters were intending to use a
training camp to educate radical
environmentalists in acts of civil
disobedience geared to prevent log-
ging.

“T am very proud of the fact that
we have been here for four weeks
and we’ve done it non-violently,
we've done it without confronta-
tion...” he added.

“We are a community. This was-
n’t just loggers, there was every-
body from all walks of life,” said
Brother Bayers. “It was business

¢ Local 1-71 38rd V.P. Ken Bayers.

people, it was Squamish merchants,
it was people who came from all
over to help us out (and) that real-
ized that yobs are what’s most impor-
tant to British Columbia.”

Greg Richmond, president of the
Soo Coalition for Sustainable
Forests, said that the blockade was
carried out to support families and
jobs and educated the public about
forest issues,

“We are trying to educate the
public as to what we are doing in

6/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER 1997

place like TFL #38, which is good
forestry work,” he said. “We want to
protect the working forest land base
which is constantly being eroded,”
he added. “The people over there
(WCWC and PATH) would like to
see us out of work...and that’s the
bottom line.”

Richmond said that by removing
the blockade, that they are “extend-
ing an olive branch” to protesters
and preservationists.

“We want to go to work, from here
on in,” he said. “No more illegal
blockades... Don’t blockade us. Let
us work. Let us do our jobs.”

“This is a 100% solid communi-
ty,” said Rob Otto, sub-local chair-
man at International Forest
Products Empire logging division,
who also extended thanks to the
wives of the men working when the
blockade was up.

Squamish mayor Corrine
Lonsdale said “I just can’t believe
how this community has rallied
together to get behind this issue the
way you have. We have our parks,
we have our working forest, let’s get
on with working in the working for-
est,” she added.

Key Bayers added: “I hope every-
body in Squamish and everybody in
B.C. realized that we did a great
thing here and we did it non-vio-
lently.”

“We (the I.W.A.) have actively
participated in the Lower Mainland
Protected Areas Strategy which
established the set aside of a full
20% of wilderness in the contested
area,” Bayers told the Lumber-
worker. “We have sat at the table
and negotiated in good faith that
there will be a balance between
environmental and economic con-
cerns.”

He added that the union actively
supports the provincial Forest
Practices Code which sets the high-
est standards for protection of the
environment.

“Our union is willing to play a
constructive role in the area and
our members demand that they can
go to work each day, unhindered by
radical environmentalists intent on
blocking logging roads and chaining
themselves to logging equipment,”

added Byers. “Our blockade of these
lunatics, many who are foreign
nationals, has been conducted to
bring these issues to the attention
of the general public.”

Bayers said that both the WCOWC
and PATH have little support in the
region and have plans to use a
research station as a training ground
for civil disobedience against work-
ers.

Next OFL protest is
set for North Bay

The next step in the protest cam-
paign against the Harris government
will be held in northern Ontario. On
September 26 and 27, Ontario
Federation of Labour delegates will
assemble in North Bay, Ontario.

That is the home town of
Conservative Premier Mike Harris.
It is in the jurisdiction of I.W.A.
CANADA Local 1000, which has
operations in areas surrounding
North Bay.

“We’re sending a delegation to
give Harris a piece of our mind,” said
Local 1000 President Joe da Costa. “I
think the people of North Bay who
supported Harris in the last election
will get a real good sense of the large
amount of opposition that there is to
provincial government’s destructive
policies.”

“Our local union membership has
recognized the damage that the
Harris government is doing to the
people of Ontario,” said Norm Rivard,
President of Local 1-2995. “We plan
to be there with as many members
as we can to help voice the I.W.A.’s
strong opposition. We’ve invited one
member from each sub-local to attend
the North Bay protest.”

Over 2/3’s of sub-local responded
to 1-2995’s

Brother Rivard expects the protest
movement to continue to gather
momentum.

“I can see the labour movement
keeping the pressure on right thro
the next provincial election,” he sai