¢ Local 2693 members set up information picket near Camp 518 limits to communicate with Avenor contractors. In the foreground of photo are Financial Secretary Joe Hanlon and Local President Wilf McIntyre (first and third from right). Local 1-2693 prepares for prolonged scrap out in Avenor bush operations here appears to be no end in the battle that I.W.A. Local 2693 is facing with Avenor Inc., as the giant pulp and paper company keeps trying to force its hand on the union. Local President Wilf McIntyre says the local has held meetings for both company and contractor employees to debate and come up with solutions to fight against the company’s divide and conquer tac- tics. “We have gotten regular and con- tractor employees together to inform every worker that we are fighting a new kind of battle against Avenor,” said Brother McIntyre. “It’s a fight where we are 2 putting on a common front against the employer.” Avenor employs close to 600 I.W.A. members in its major woodlands and contractor operations. The com- pany employees work in Camps 518, 515, 330, 45, and 234. Union con- tractors are spread out over Avenor limits. The other major ones are J.F. Thomson, Firesteel and Shu- niah. “Avenor has an agenda where they want all of their employees to work on a contractor basis,” said McIntyre. “In the past we have had union contractors on Avenor limits, but now the company is pushing to get all of their workers to go with the contractors. Then they would only have seniority with the con- tractor and not Avenor.” “They (Avenor) are really trying to tear the guts out of the collective agreement with this set-up,” he added. “The fight is on. The workers don’t want to see this happen. We have good collective agreements, good benefits, wages and working conditions.” “They (our members) know that once they start to get split up by the company they are Boing to get divided because Avenor will pit con- tractor against contractor,” said Melntyre. : 2 The local union president said that Avenor will cut money from contractors and then the contrac- tors will approach the union to say “we can’t this benefit and or we can’t it travel time.” “This would be absolute chaos which would tear down the collec- tive agreement,” he said. Local union financial secretary Joe Hanlon, who services Avenor operations, said that Avenor is push- ing all employees to accept piece- rate work systems. “They are wanting our guys to go for an hourly rate that is basically 75% of the collective agreement hourly rate and then accept a bonus system,” said Hanlon. “That’s not acceptable to the I.W.A.” Brother McIntyre said that the union has bonus system in some areas where the hourly rate is guar- anteed on a production basis and not a cost sharing basis. “We don’t have a problem with that if it’s worked out under the col- lective agreement,” he said. “But we have a problem if individuals have to go to work and depend on piece work for a decent wage at the end of the day. Many times the workers won’t have any control of the envi- ronment around them to be able to ensure that he get a decent day’s pay out of piece work rates.” Brother Hanlon said that contrac- tors themselves have to stick together “to ensure that they can operate on a rate that they can sur- vive on and pay decent wages and benefits. He said that Avenor’s manage- ment decisions often make opera- tions more costly and inefficient. “Union members and the contrac- tor have come forth in a spirit of cooperation with numerous ways on how to make their operations more efficient and cut waste but all of their input has been ignored by the Avenor,” said Hanlon. Committees have been set up to improve truck hauling, cut and skid operations and increase time that tl i roadside chippers are going full tilt. “Avenor doesn’t care about reduc- ing costs,” said Hanlon, “They just want to bust the union.” BACK TO THE LABOUR BOARD Avenor cut two contractors, River Lake Timber and Mid West Timber, which were working at it Camp 518 and 234 limits, out of the picture on September 5 and put 58 workers on the unemployment line as a result. This was a repeat performance of when the parent company did the same thing to Mid-West in June, sparking Local 2698 to take legal action at the Ontario Labour Rela- tions Board. The Board ruled that Avenor was illegally locking out the union members and that they all had to be reinstated with back pay. “We couldn’t believe that they would try to do it to our members again, but that’s just what they did,” said McIntyre. An expedited hearing on the lock out was scheduled to take place on October, 14. However Brother Han- lon could not attend due to medical reasons and the case was postponed until November 3 and 4. The Board urged the union and Avenor to settle the case. The tenta- tive deal worked out, which was subsequently rejected by the crew, called for a $2,000 lump sum for each worker and reinstatement on the payroll starting November 3. Also rejected was a change to work four ten hour days a week and the loss of 1/2 hour travel time by mov- ing the marshalling point to Shabaqua. “The members rejected what we brought back to them as is their right,” said Brother McIntyre. “Now it’s back to square one as we go after the illegal lock out again.” The I.W.A. will go back to the OLRB for further hearings on the case which could stretch from Janu- ary 6-7 on until the end of March. MclIntyre said that other compa- nies are watching the Avenor situa- tion and are getting ready to jump on the bandwagon to break the col- lective agreement. At the E.B. Eddy Ramsay camp north of Sudbury the local is being confronted with the introduction of non-union contractors on company limits. It has started an arbitration case against the company. “This whole scenario in bush oper- ations is building and I think we’re headed into some major confronta- tions with the industry as we get into contract negotiations next year,” added McIntyre. ¢ Talking with steward Eero Janzen (r.) is Brother Hanlon who visited Shuniah contractors, working northeast of Thunder Bay. LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1997/9