HIGHLIGHTS

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ENIUN- THUNDER

° IAM’s Randall Rice told delegates that his union is making advances despite unfair labour laws.

IAM speakers from United States address |.W.A.

Two of the I.W.A.’s best guests at this year’s
convention were Brothers Rod Kelty, President
of the Woodworkers District Lodge 1 of the
International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers (IAM) and Randall Rice,
President from District Lodge 2 stationed in
Memphis, Tennessee.

Both American brothers flew up to Thunder
Bay to address the convention and exchange
information with union officers and delegates.

The District Lodges of the IAM are the for-
mer regions of the I.W.A. in the United States.
In 1994 the I.W.A.- U.S. merged into the IAM.

Brother Kelty’s speech addressed the issues
of organizing and defending woodworkers
against attacks by radical environmentalists.

He commended the union on its Organizing
and Growth Strategy and wished the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America had adopted
one like it 10-15 years ago.

“The question is, and the most important
thing is, where are we going? If history has
served us right, and it should tell us all, all
woodworkers, that status quo is no longer
acceptable in the labour movement,” he added.
“Change is hard to do, but it must be made for
all of us in the labour movement, for our chil-
dren, for our grandchildren (and) for our com-

munities,” said Brother Kelty in his speech.

He was in Harare, Africa in July with I.W.A.
CANADA President Dave Haggard, where he
lent his support to the I.W.A. at the Twentieth
Congress of the International Federation of
Building and Woodworkers.

With the pressure from the IAM, the I.W.A.
and other affiliates, the IFBWW agreed to
amend its four year action plan to take actions
to support affiliates who are confronted with
unfounded campaigns (i.e. blockades and boy-
cotts) by environmental radicals.

“Today the forces of the environmental com-
munity, the anti-worker governments, the anti-
worker, and the anti-union employers are
greater that any of us have ever faced in the
last 60 years,” said Brother Kelty. “Therefore
we must change in the way we do things.”

“We must...like never before, improve our
communications, coordinate our activities and
work together for the sake of our respective
membership in the trade union movement,” he
said. “We can no longer do it on our own and
not care about what happens in each other’s
country or around the world. And the global
market and global economy requires us in the
labour movement to think beyond North Amer-
ica in our own countries.”

Safety Resolutions

Continued from page twenty

health and safety education delivered by labour
safety representatives.

SAFER FUNDS AND TRAINING - a resolution was
passed demanding the National Safety Officers

to instruct the SAFER trustees to provide safety
training for Safety Committees in local unions.

WORKING ALONE - the union made firm its oppo-
sition to the concept of working alone in areas
of high hazard.
HELI-LOGGING REGULATIONS - the union demands
an immediate review of the WCB heli-logging
health and safety regulations in the province of
British Columbia.
CREW BOAT SAFETY - the I.W.A. reaffirmed its
commitment to lobby government to develop
and enact into law, mandatory crew boat train-
ing requirements. E
ONTARIO WCB AND SAFETY CUTS - the union recon-
firmed its cooperation with the Ontario Federa-
tion of Labour and other unions in fighting for
the return of all benefit levels and employer
responsibilities to what they were before the
Conservatives took power.
WALKING WOUNDED AND WCB - a resolution was
passed calling for employers and the WCB to
stop forcing injured workers to work and that
the worker's physician’s decisions be supported
by the Board.

DISCIPLINE FOR SAFETY INFRACTIONS - the I.W.A.

demands that the WCB or appropriate govern-
ment agencies require employers to promote
training and education in the workplace and
that disciplinary measures not be promoted for
occupational health and safety infractions by
such government agencies.

WCB INSPECTIONS - WCB worksite inspections
must be done on a regular basis including a
work site inspection at least four times a year.
The resolution was forwarded to all federations
of labour across Canada.

CORONER’S INQUESTS - all appropriate ministries
in all provinces are being called upon to provide
mandatory coroners’ inquests in a timely man-
ner following fatalities.

RECYCLING PONDS - a resolution was passed
demanding that the B.C. Ministry of Environ-
ment conduct a series of sample at Celgar Pulp
recycling ponds in Castlegar to determine what
causes workers to experience dizziness and
burning in the eyes and throat.

SPECIALIZED SAFETY TRAINING - the delegates
unanimously passed a resolution calling for
specialized safety training (fall protection, hear-
ing protection, spill protection equipment, etc.)
which would be paid for by the employer for the
affected bargaining unit employees.

WCB ACT AND APPEALS - the I.W.A. will lobby
appropriate government agencies to speed up
appeal processes, first by offering more Boards
of Review and support staff and enforcement of
WCB Acts.

In his speech to the delegates, Brother Rice
said that he agreed with I.W.A. CANADA’s “On
the Move” convention slogan.

“You’ve got to keep that in mind,” he said.
“You can’t move and stay in the same old place
and not do everything different.”

He then related some of this experiences of
organizing in the U.S. South over 20 years.

“In the U.S., and particularly in the South,
we have to organize every day. There is not a
time to stop organizing and sit back and look at.

what you've done,” he said. You’ve go to keep
going. There were 21 states that I worked in,

basically in the South, 19 of them are right-to-
work states that people have freedom at to
resign from (unions)... You’ve still go to repre-
sent them, you've still go to pay for their negoti-
ations or arbitration, etc.”

After getting sign-up cards, the union has to
go for a vote in front of the National Labour
Relations Board. Then the employers, go on the
attack, said Rice.

“There’s a major industry in the US. of attor-
neys that make a living out of doing nothing
except keeping unions out of plants and getting
them out of plants they’re already in.”

Continued on page twenty-two

Resolutions Pass

Continued from page sixteen

employers to provide jobs based on annual
allowable cut.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CORE - the union demands
that the B.C. Minister of Forests examine the
job impact of the CORE process and make
changes necessary to tenure to ensure retention
of industry jobs.

SUPPORT OF ENVIRO GROUPS - A resolution was
passed demanding that the union contact the
Canadian Labour Congress to ensure that the
national labour body’s funding of environmen-
tal groups are researched carefully to ensure
their cause(s)‘or projects do not affect I.W.A.
members and that the CLC be held accountable
for any loss union members may fact due the
the Congress’ actions.

JOBS AND TENURE - the union will press the
provincial governments wherein public lands
are harvested that the respective provincial for-
est acts be amended to include job levels related
to timber levels being harvested.

“RAT” UNION AND NON-UNION CONTRACTORS -
there was a reaffirmation of the union’s policy
that any company or person providing contract-
ing or sub-contracting services to an I.W.A.
operation be legitimately unionized.
ORIENTATION KIT - a resolution was passed call-
ing for the development and distribution of a
new member kit to each new employee to explain
the role of the union in the workplace.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1997/21