organized last November.

* Local union Financial Secretary Doug Singer outside the Kalesnikoff mill, south of Castlegar which the I.W.A.

Union organizes Kalesnikoff sawmill

by Dan Keeton

It was a tough nut to crack, but in
the end, the I.W.A. did crack it.

Kalesnikoff Lumber near Castle-
gar, B.C. is one of the oldest firms in
the industry in that area, and for
years it was the number-one non-
union employer. The union’s victory
there in November of last year was
“the coup of the century.”

So says Doug Singer, Local 1-405
financial secretary who adds that
the firm failed to learn from its mis-
takes after the first I.W.A. organiz-
ing drive in 1995 failed.

“The employer promised a whole
bunch of things,” says Tony Fer-
reira, the local’s second vice-presi-
dent who organized the Kalesnikoff

crew. But the company carried its
top-down style of management into

the safety committee and conditions
did not improve.

Kalesnikoff is an old firm now
managed by the third generation of
its founding family. For decades it
hired almost exclusively from local
families and the result was a tightly-
knit workforce that got along fairly
well with the employer.

But in recent years labour rela-
tions have deteriorated. The old
family units have broken up as the
company has hired more from the
general populace. Issues such as job
security, seniority, grievance proce-
dures and safety became paramount.
After the first I.W.A. drive, a young
worker was killed in the plant.

The company has been the target
of several organizing drives, previ-
ously by the Pulp, Paper and Wood-
workers of Canada, and more

recently by I1.W.A. CANADA. Fer-
reira says the union got a call from
a couple of plant workers back in
1995. The organizing drive fell apart
when one of the key pro-union work-
ers was fired.

“We filed an unfair labour prac-
tice and got him a year’s wages in
severance,” relates Ferreira. “We
walked away from the organizing
drive.

“In March (of 1997) we got a call
from a worker asking when we’d
start another drive. The guy called
at least once a month after that. It
became more and more evident that
this crew was ready.”

The union and workers had
learned from previous mistakes.
“The guy gave us the names of five
key people. A key to a good organiz-
ing drive is confidentiality, and for
the first two-three weeks we were
able to keep it secret,” Ferreira
relates.

The union’s approach was cau-
tious and careful, says Ferreira.
Instead of simply distributing mem-
bership cards, the committee
approached workers individually.
Despite that, there were impedi-
ments. One of key people was fired
for a safety infraction — the local
has launched an unfair labour prac-
tice charge with the Labour Rela-
tions Board — and when the local
applied for certification, the
employer suddenly produced a list
of 38 additional names of what it
claimed were eligible voters.

The LRB ordered a secret ballot
and the box was sealed pending a
decision on which workers were
legitimate voters.

Additionally, a small group of
anti-union employees distributed
literature attacking the union on
the eve of the vote. “I had fears that
people had been intimidated. For
quite a while I was going through a
lot of sleepless nights,” Ferreira
relates.

The ballots were counted Novem-
ber 19, 1997 and two days later the
local got the good news: approval by
57 per cent.

Ferreira isn’t sure if it was luck or
providence, but he figures he had
the best committee in all his years
of organizing. “The whole success of
this organizing drive was the com-

Az

¢ Local organizer and executive
board member Tony Ferriera.

mittee. We made very few mistakes,
but when we did we’d sit down and
discuss them.

e LOCAL 1-417 MEMBERS WERE THE FIRST PARTICIPANTS in occupational health and safety instruction for committee
members put on by new I.W.A. National Safety Director Tom Lowe (right). Left to right seated are Mat Han
Kanen, Darrell Fennell, Karen Prochnau, Pearl Kohlhauser, Elmer Henry, Lorne Watson and Ryan Burnell. 4
Standing left to right are local safety director John Silano, Anthony Adolf, Paul Komonoski, Ron Bitterman, and abuses.

Wilson St. Goddard.

Photo by Dan

“Names of people hard to get at
were given to me. It was amazing.
I'd go visit them at their homes and
they'd open the door. I’d do it again,
anytime.”

“When I got the phone call that
we'd won, it was like someone took a
semi trailer off my shoulders.”

Ferreira describes Kalesnikoff as
a good operation, with a skilled
workforce. “It’s probably one of the
cleanest mills anywhere,” he notes.
The plant performs a lot of value-
added work, including specialty
products such as birch.

The I.W.A. organizer traces the
alienation of Kalesnikoff’s workers
to the takeover of operations by the
grandson of the founder about 15
years ago. Safety violations and
accidents began mounting, and work-
ers were the ones blamed. A safety
committee was struck but it was
chaired by the plant’s human
resources manager who had the atti-
tude, “It’s my way or the highway,”
says Ferreira.

The result was a poisoned atmos-
phere of labour relations. Employ-
ees were so paranoid they were using
concealed tape recorders during
talks with management.

“Some of the stories would almost
bring you to tears,” Ferreira relates.
“They took their problems home,
and who paid for it? Their families.”

Negotiations began in December,
and Ferreira has hopes that man-
agement’s attitude will change. “I
hope he (the manager) realizes we’re
in there, we’re here to stay and that
he works with us.”

Ferreira works part-time for the
union. Otherwise, he’s an employee
at the Pope and Talbot mill in Castle-
gar, where he’s worked since start-
Ing as a teenager in 1964 when the
mill was owned by Westar. “It’s the
only job I’ve ever had,” he says. “In
1972 I got involved with the union”
— first as shop steward and plant

safety chair. He subsequently was
elected vice-chair of the safety com-

mittee and since 1982 has been plant
chair and a member of the local’s
executive. He became second vice-

president in 1994. -

Ferreira also chairs the local’s
organizing committee, and sees “a
lot of potential for us to organize.”

“We've got value-added operations
popping up everywhere, and they’re
all non-union, unfortunately.”

The Kalesnikoff organizing drive
was successful, but it showed the
weaknesses in B.C. labour legisla-
tion, says Ferreira. The firing of
pro-union employees during both
g drives and the intimidation of work-
& ers shows that “the system works
well to a point, then it falls apart.
The LRB should take a strong look
at why people are terminated.”

In the meantime, the local can
bask in the completion of a job well
done. “This was the most gratifying
thing that I’ve done,” enthuses Fer-
reira.

“We were able not only to bring
these people into the House of
Labour, but to help give them some
pride and dignity. They can go to
work now without having to look
over their shoulders.”

“The employees should be com-
mended for their courage and soli-
darity during the drive,” said first
vice president Stan McMaster.

Since the certification, there has
been another termination of a strong
union supporter, resulting in a two
day arbitration with another three
days scheduled for April 6-8.

Also there was a three day hear-

|, ing at the LRB on March 11, 12 and

3 14 on an unfair labour practice

3 charge for the company giving notice
to shut down the bush crew and con-

ay tracting out their jobs. The decision

2 is expected soon.

g “The union wants to deal with

= this issue at the bargaining table,”
said Brother McMaster. “We are
willing to work with this employer
but will not tolerate these type of

LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1998/15