¢ Local 2171 First Vice President Gary Kobayashi, on the first day of the occupation, told the media that Canfor had no intent of addressing the workers’ issues. Eburne occupation Continued from page one He said “this is the first time that a government has been firmly on side with workers to a point where they were prepared to take a defini- tive action with regards to a timber Vicense.” “I can remember sawmill closures that we’ve had over the years with Socred governments in power and, quite frankly, we couldn’t even get in to see the minister of forests to discuss the needs of the workers,” he said. “Although we couldn’t save Eburne we able to get the next best thing, which is a commitment to job creation.” In an interview with the Lumber- worker during the mill occupation, plant: chairman Jeff Pazik that the member said that prior to the work- ers’ action Canfor “had no intention of building facilities in the Lower Mainland.” “When we tried to pin them down to.where they were going to build a new manufacturing operation, it was like trying to pin jello to the wall,” said Brother Pazik. “They had no specifics.” Moves by the I.W.A. put pressure on Canfor to come up with an agree- ment. Upon learning that Canfor put locks on the mill gates on March 26, thereby locking in the Eburne crew, the union staged a rally with sup- porters outside. At the rally, Kobayashi said that Canfor was prepared to throw its employees on the “garbage heap” in oon achieve its goals. Canfor, said Kobayashi, refused to talk about the future of its employees and the dignity of older workers. I.W.A. CANADA National Presi- dent Dave Haggard commended the workers for taking action. “Nobody else out there is prepared to help us unless we are prepared to help ourselves,” said Haggard. He said that Canfor president and CEO is a “bureaucrat who wants to be a CEO of a private sector (com- pany)...” and has lowered his repu- tation. Haggard said that under the For- est Act and under agreements that Canfor made to get TFL #37 into their hands, serious commitments were made by the company. He predicted that Canfor would try to equate the workers’ struggle to keep their jobs “to the NDP govern- ment and their friends (the I.W.A.) trying to stop business in B.C.” ° At rally Sister Ricky Hoshowsky, who started at Eburne in 1944, slammed Canfor as a corporation that does not care about it employees. 2/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1998 ° Taking action against Canfor in the Supreme Court of B.C. was I.W.A. National President Dave Haggard, flanked by labour lawyer Sandra Bannister. “It’s not the government or the union or the people of B.C. that want to shut Eburne sawmill down, they want to keep it running,” shouted Haggard. “They want Can- for to keep making money, they want to have business continue in British Columbia. To do that Canfor can’t become log brokers and sell their logs to people outside of the province and the country.” Local 2171 President Darrel Wong, who traveled to visit the I.W.A. members at Canfor’s Englewood Logging Division, said that the mem- bership at Woss, Nimpkish and Beaver Cove were standing solid with the Eburne crew. “What our membership have told us is that it’s not acceptable for any company in this province to main- tain any TFL if they are-not going to maintain employment.” He said that Canfor’s Emerson had made a decision that “share- holder’s families are the only impor- tant families” and that the battle would not end until every worker from Eburne has a job. During an interview with the Lumberworker prior to a speech at the rally in which she blasted Can- for, Sister Ricky Hoshowsky said that Canfor is out to only help the shareholders. “The stockholders wouldn’t be there if workers weren’t at this level to make them look good,” she said. “There are a lot of people that grew up here as family,” she said. “We still are family as a crew.” Hoshowsky had over 44 years seniority in the plant, starting in 1954. - “I’ve got good memories of the earlier years but now it’s us versus them,” she said. “They (Canfor) always have an agenda of what they are going to do.” On hand to lend their support were Local 1-417 President Kevin Kelly, Local 1-424 business agent and safety director Gerry Smith and former Local 1-3567 officer Ed Dubas. Patrice Pratt, officer with the BCGEU, was there to lend support of the province’s largest public sec- tor union, B.C. Federation of Labour Presi- dent Ken Georgetti spoke to lend support to the mill workers. “You're the real heroes in this thing,” he said. “It looks good on you for what you are doing.” He said that the labour move- ment is concerned about companies like Canfor and Finning tractor which shut down plants and then do real estate flips with the properties the operations are built on. “Your jobs are not as important as the land flips that they are doing,” he added. “We have said consistently, in this labour movement, that we are prepared to cooperate with employ- ers that want to create wealth and jobs in this province.” He noted that the I.W.A. helped Canfor seek additional fibre supply for Eburne and gave them flexibility in shift scheduling but that Canfor closed the plant anyway. “They owe you. They have an oblig- ation to you for creating the wealth that they have and the success that they have seen,” said Georgetti. “Canfor has to be responsible. If they want to cut trees in this province, they have to create jobs. If they don’t want to create jobs, no trees!” On March 27, a day after the rally began, the union and its legal coun- sel, lawyer Sandra Bannister, filed documents in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to prevent Canfor from tearing the mill down. The union also filed legal papers request- ing that the regional forest man- ager, district manager, and ulti- mately the forest minister, review Canfor’s breach of TFL #37 to deter- mine whether or not the company is in breach of it. While on his way into the court- house, national president Dave Hag- gard told the media that “under the Forest Act, the government has agreed with us that what Canfor is doing is illegal and that the govern- ment is watching.” He said that Canfor had to put people back to work to fulfill the obligations of their tenure. “We in the I.W.A. have never been opposed to industry making a profit that, in turn, allows us to negotiate a better deal for our membership,” said Haggard. “What we are saying is that if they (Canfor) have an unprofitable operation, they must replace it with one that’s profitable in the world marketplace.”