Labour relations take nosedive at —
Kruger Inc.’s Longlac operations

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front of the waferizer infeed.

f you’re talking about compa-
nies who don’t believe a deal
is a deal then you have to
include Kruger Inc. in the con-
versation.

If you talk to Local 2693 member
Randy Budge, plant chair at the
Kruger plywood plant in Longlac,

Ontario, you'll get an idea of what
dealing with the company is like.

“Labour relations have broken
down,” he says. “We (the union and
management) seldom talk about
anything.”

“We used to be able to solve issues
on the shop floor, but not anymore.
The company is ignoring the collec-
tive agreement left and right and is
telling us to grieve everything,” he

adds. “That’s just what we are
doing.”

Kruger Inc., a Montreal-based
multinational, bought out both of
Weldwood Canada’s plywood and
waferboard plants in early 1996 and
moved into the northern Ontario
community of Longlac, proclaiming
that it was one of the better forest
products companies to work for.

“We took them at face value at
first and negotiated a three year
collective agreement (with wage
increases of 3%, 3% and 3% anda
$500 cash bonus) that would set us
on our way of working together,”
said Brother Budge, in an interview
with the Lumberworker.

Not long after the ink was dry on
the agreement, the company called
a meeting to tell the workers that
basically Kruger was going to ignore
the collective agreement. Early in
1997 the company proposed a seven
day operational schedule which the
membership turned down.

“They (Kruger) wanted to operate
the plant (which employs 235 I.W.A.
members) 7 days a week without
any benefit to the employees,” he
said. “They didn’t want to move one
bit and tried to shove a flex shift
agreement down our throats.”

Ninety-eight percent of the work-
ers turned down management’s pro-
posals. _ ;

In 1996 Local 2693 filed 77 griev-
ances against the company, which

is an astronomical number, said
local union president Wilf McIntrye.
Last year there were 133 grievances
filed.

¢ Union member Gary O’Quinn at the green end of the waferboard mill straightening out short log lengths in

“The labour relations in the plant
have gone from bad to worse,” he
said. “Kruger wants to take the

° Plywood plant chairman
Randy Budge

I.W.A. on and they are willing to
lose the big arbitrations cases cost-
ing them piles of money in order to
break the union.”

The article in the collective agree-
ment on hours of work is straight
forward. Work weeks and hours of
work may be amended, but only on

agreement of both the company and
the union.

During 1996 negotiations the com-
pany said that it would call in “pool”
relief to reduce the amount of over-
time at the operation.

“The company turned around and
created a pool of some 60 people
with new hires off the street and
eliminated all overtime for regular
employees,” said Budge. “The I.W.A.
didn’t appreciate that because we
went in there and bargained the
pool agreement in good faith in order
to help the operation. There was
supposed to be only 10-12 workers
in the pool for relief work, not 60.”

To add insult to injury the com-
pany brought in pool relief workers
for orientation meetings. The collec-
tive agreement specifies that the
union must be present.

In the past year, the I.W.A. has
charged the company three times
with negotiating directly with the
employees and not through the
union. That is a violation of the
union’s legal right to bargain.

“Because they implemented a flex
schedule without our consent, man-
agement decided to put mainte-
nance people on a 7 day schedule

too,” he added. “They went ahead
with it and the guys that were in
these meetings said they wanted
union representation. They were
told by management that they didn’t
need any representation from the
LW.A.”

prerane distrust of Kruger
erupted in late October of 1996 when
crews at both the plywood and wafer-
board mills walked off the job to
conduct “study sessions” on the flex-
shift issue.

The company sought damages of
$350,000 a day plus 6 months sus-
pensions for union leaders from the
operations. :

The workers agreed to much
smaller penalties and 8 members
got two week suspensions while oth-
ers got 3 day suspensions.

1.W.A. members took up a dona-
tion fund to help out the suspended
workers. There were no damages
paid to the company.

“I learned very fast that the work-
ers here will take action to protect
the collective agreement,” said
Budge, who became a steward dur-
ing the dispute. “It’s just not the
union’s collective agreement. “It’s
the company’s also and together we
are the ones who are supposed to
make it work.”

“They (Kruger) have been trying
to manipulate the people and have
tried to make the union look like it.
hasn’t been doing anything,” he
said. “As committee members and
union stewards we have done a lot
to let the workers know that the
grievance procedure is the only pro-
cedure we can follow for most issues.”

An arbitration case on the issue
of pool relief decided in August of
last year cost the company over
$600,000 in back wages. However,
the local union has not yet received
payment and is taking the case for-
ward to settle the monetary issue.

“That’s what happens when you
negotiate a collective agreement
and don’t follow it,” said Local 2693
Business Agent Ken Paquette. “How-
ever, they have not.

“Kruger is a company that oper-
ates like the Mike Harris govern-
ment,” said Brother Paquette. “They
just do what the hell they want and
don’t care about what the union
says.”

“Like the Harris government,
Kruger has united the workers
against the company,” he added.
“When we go into negotiations this
spring it is going to be a confronta-
tional set of negotiations.”

e At the Kruger plywood mill in Longlac are I.W.A. Local 2698 members (1. to r.) Ed Jacobs and Yvon Cloutier.

6/LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1998