ii

¢ I.W.A. National President Dave Haggard welcomed conference attendees from 19 I.W.A. CANADA locals.

os a

Union holds second conference
for officers and staff members

Full-time officers and staff of the Industrial, Wood and Al

lied Workers of Canada gathered

together in Vancouver, B.C. on March 1 and 2 for the second-ever National Staff Conference.
The agenda of the conference had union staff from 19 locals listening to presentations as well

and discussing and sharing ideas on issues that the union is facing. After hearing the speakers

(see this page and pages 8 and 9) the participants broke into workshop groups for discussions.
The workshop topics were the union’s image, new member orientation, the national educa-

tion policy and the I.W.A.’s new organizing and growth program. (For summaries of workshops

see page 9).

“The conference presented us with a great opportunity to get all of our staff together, in one

lace, to discuss where our union is today and where we want to be tomorrow, said I.W.A.

AANADA National President Dave Haggard. “The conference went well and the discussion and
feedback that we heard gave us an excellent opportunity to assess what we have been doing,
particularly in organizing and education, since the national convention last fall.”

Union researcher
gives run-down on
lumber markets

Delegates to the national officers
and staff conference got the run-
down on what is happening on the
economic side of the forest industry
when I.W.A. CANADA National
Research Director Doug Smyth
addressed the important issues of
lumber markets, both in North
America and overseas, and the cru-
cial issue of wood costs in British
Columbia versus its competitors.

“If you look at the softwood lum-
ber markets in the U.S. and Canada,
things have never been better and
what we find is that Alberta and
Eastern Canada, sawmills are run-
ning close to capacity,” said Smyth.
“But in B.C., on the Coast and in
the Interior, sawmills have closed
over extended periods of time, or
have had shifts heavily curtailed.”

That has happened, he said,
despite the fact that in the last two
years, there has been near record
consumption in the U.S. lumber
market. In 1997 it was up 949,000
million board feet (mbf) to a record
50.4 billion board feet.

In 1995-96, Canada set an all-
time record for softwood lumber
exports to the United of 17.2 bbf. A
year later that only dropped by 360
mbf.

“What we have seen is that, in
spite of record consumption, U.S.
lumber prices are too low for B.C.
mills to survive,” he added.

From early 1997, to late last year,
U.S. lumber prices dropped by 35%,
while consumption remained high.
The reasons for this were, according
to Smyth, four temporary wood sup-
ply factors related to the collapse of
the Japanese market.

Firstly, log export volumes usu-
ally destined for Japan and other
parts of Asia were made available
to U.S. sawmills. stayed in the U.S.

market.
Secondly, U.S. West Coast
Continued on page eight

is National Fourth Vice President Harvey Arcand gave staff and officers and overview of pension plan.

1.W.A. — forest industry pension plan under review
Trustees to suggest new options for plan by year 2000

“There’s a lot of different ques-
tions being asked these days about
our (B.C. Forest Industry) pension
plan,” National Fourth Vice Presi-
dent Harvey Arcand and pension

plan trustee said at the national
staff conference. “People want to
know what direction the plan is

“ to go in the future.”

Arcand said that during

negotiations with the industry in
1997, the union negotiated provi-
sions where the trustees will review
the plan in full by the expiration
date of the collective agreement in
the year 2000.

He said that union members,
through wage and contract confer-
ences, have called for several priori-
ties. Those priorities include

improved benefits for existing mem-
bers, higher rates for death benefit
survivors, pension adjustments for
retirees in the 1991-2001 time
period, and retiree benefit improve-
ments.

Also on the list is better benefits
for banked hours accrued to individ-
ual members.

Arcand said the I.W.A.- Forest

Industry Pension Plan is currently
paying benefits to about 17,600
retirees and has approximately
23,000 contributing members.

In two years, at an annual return
of 7.5%, barring “unforeseen cir-
cumstances,” Arcand said the plan
will get rid of all unfunded liabili-
ties. The $1.8 billion plan is now
earning about a 13% annual rate of
return. (It was getting overan 18%
annualized return in the first quar-
ter of 1998).

The union intends to keep the
$2.50/hour contribution rate intact
and push the plan on to new heights.

He said that, of the current
$2.50/hour contribution, about $1.60
goes to past service. If all the money
was put to future service only, the
benefits would shoot up signifi-
cantly, said Arcand.

He said that the trustees are look-
ing at redesigning the plan and are
looking at other options. Some of
those options include moving to a
system where benefits are based on
a percentage of the best five years
of earnings or a straight percentage
of annual earnings.

Arcand said that members should
be aware that there is a dip in mem-
bership with the tough times the
forest industry in B.C. is undergo-
ing. The number of hours annual
contribution hours is less than the
48 million predicted in 1994. In the
past year there were over 9 thou-
sand members out of the system.

1.W.A. trustees are reviewing the
options and are developing a plan to
meet the union’s priorities.

The trustees are recommending
that the union hold a special confer-
ence on pensions only, before the
collective agreements expire in the
year 2000.

LUMBERWORKERJJUNE, 1998/7