LW.A. women

Continued from page twelve

business and the market say, is
money — it’s those dollars jiggling
in your pocket,” she added. “And if
you're union you're very likely to be
making more of these dollars.”

Sister Riche said that in May the
CLC’s Women’s Committee met to
set its priorities for the next year
and “put women’s issues on the bar-
gaining agenda.”

Some of those issues such as pay
equity (equal pay for work of equal
value), protections against sexual
harassment and family and work
issues can be put on the front burner
in negotiations, she suggested.

“When unions are out there pub-
licly taking on equality issues, it
will be the best thing that we can do
in supporting the organizing of
women, than we have ever done,”
she added.

“We can’t be a men’s union and
we can’t be a women’s union (move-
ment) but we need women’s issues
brought forward to be a Sisters’ and

Brothers’ union,” said Riche.

WORKSHOPS/SPEAKERS
ADDRESS ISSUES

All of the delegates remained in
workshops during day two and three.

Grant and Buffy St. Birrel hosted
a workshop on the discussion of
issues of women in the workplace.
Each participant completed a ques-
tionnaire with such questions as
What work did your mother do?
Why did you choose your job? and
What does equality mean to you?

Each delegate stood up to answer
some of the questions before the
delegation and then a general dis-
cussion followed. A general conclu-
sion was made that each individual
has a unique background and can
make a difference in their work-
places, communities and union.

Sister Mary Johnson, a union rep-
resentative with the UFCW Local
832 in Winnipeg spoke on issue of
change that takes place to women’s
lives when they become active in
their unions.

“There is change that happens to
you, your family and your union,”
she said. “When you are making
change anywhere you have to be
aware of who you, yourself are and
each and every one of us are a very
different person.”

“We will hear the same informa-
tion but every single one of us will
hear it in a different way. Every one
of us will interpret it differently and
every one of us will do out there and
change the world differently.”

Sister Johnson worked for 17 years
at the Burns Meat Packing house
which is largely male dominated
starting in 1975, and became a union
activist.

She said that when women become
active, they will see the effects in
their workplaces.

“There will some sort of response
of what you are trying to do because
people in the workplace are used to
seeing you in one way before you
become educated and active,” she
said.

“Be aware of those changes, and if
you know where you're at, it will
help you to make positive change
and change that you can deal with.”

She said that it is important for
women to work with men in the
workplace and to indicate to them
why there are benefits of working
together.

Johnson’s speech was following
by the viewing of a video entitled
“Still Killing Us Softly” which exam-
ined the issue of the images of women.
which are popularly portrayed in
the media. Those images largely
influence how many women look

and behave.

There followed some discussion of
how these images perpetuate them-
selves and how society permits it to
take place by not lodging complaints
in the popular media.

Sisters Grant and Birrel co-facili-
tated an instructional session on
the structure of the Canadian labour
movement and how women can
become active in that structure,
beginning with their local unions.

e Esther James, Local 1-207.

Diane Gifford, the NDP’s MLA for
the Strathcona riding spoke to the
conference about women in politics
and how she became involved. A
video on the issue was then shown,
which had several case studies of
women who have committed them-
selves to political lives.

COMMITTEE REPORTS TO I.W.A. BOARD

After the conference, the union’s
National Executive Board heard
recommendations for improving
women’s education and opportuni-
ties in the I.W.A.

Sister Esther James, executive
board member with Alberta Local 1-
207, read out the recommendations.

“We want a strong union. We are

* Guest speaker Mary Johnson from the UFCW Local 832 in Winnipeg
gave the delegates some advice. Seated is Winnipeg and District Labour

Council President Heather Grant.

all very proud of the I.W.A. and we
have great ties to it and we feel
strongly that we are an integral
part of that union,” said James. “We

all have to go back into our locals
and to where we have to do a lot of
work to get our Sisters involved. We
need your support to do that, because
most of us have to go through local
executive boards.”

The recommendations are:

the name of the women’s confer-
ence should be “The I.W.A. CANADA
Women’s Education Conference,” to
reflect the event’s true identity and
function.

e the conference should be
extended to two full days.

¢ the conference should remain to
be held annually.

¢ the members to the National
Women’s Committee should be
elected.

° the committee itself should have
a mechanism for its operation (how,
where and when it works).

° part of the I.W.A.’s national
newspaper should focus on women’s
issues.

° the women’s committee mem-
bers should also be automatic dele-
gates to future conferences.

© Conference calls should be sent
to local unions and then‘on to sub-
locals. Delegate status should be
based on local union policy.

e there should be a retreat for
Women’s Committee members, along
with a facilitator, to teach focus,
direction and some skills.

° in the future, I.W.A. Sisters
should be independent in setting up
and facilitating their own confer-
ence.

e a Sister from the union’s
Women’s Committee should sit on
the CLC’s Women’s Committee.

Sister Marian Peterman of Local
324, and a member of the Women’s
Committee along with Sister James,
Martha Ulch of Local 1000, Sharon
Herman of Local 1-417, Esther
DeAmicis of Local 1-3567, Mary Lou
Scott of Local 500 and Kathy Fox of
Local 1-80 said: “It’s really fortu-
nate for us to remember that we are
in the I.W.A. and that it is a very
progressive union right now and
we're not running into a lot of oppo-
sition to growth for women within
our organization.”

National President Dave Haggard
made some closing remarks.

_ “The I.W.A. achieved parity a long
time ago for men, women and peo-
ple of colour. I think that’s some-
thing that puts our union ahead of
any other organization in this coun-
try or this continent.”

e said that today I.W.A. both
men and women are working
together with local union officers to
make sure that new union members
understand the essential role that
women must play in the organiza-
tion as it moves into the next cen-

tury.

there must be full nagticination
on equal footing on an equal basis
by all people in our union,” he said.
“If we are going to be successful in
building our union into all walks of
life and to all types of industries
and services, we are going to have
to continue making some changes to
be more inclusive of people. That
means being inclusive of people in
leadership roles and part of the
union’s structure.”

Unions join
MacBlo in
EFAP pilot

The I.W.A. is getting together
with MacMillan Bloedel over how to
make the Employee and Family
Assistance Program a more effec-
tive preventative tool for employees
who have substance abuse problems
that affect them on the job.

For the past two years, Duncan
Local 1-80 agreed to participate in a
pilot project that is attempting to
deal with the hard hitting issue of
alcohol and drug abuse and the
workplace.

The new EFAP Substance Abuse
Program is coming out of the pilot
project with the objective of training
workers, their families, union lead-
ers and bosses in identifying what
makes up alcohol or drug abuse.

“When you attend the number of
(coroner’s) inquests that I have
attended over the years,” said Ross
Davies, Local 1-80’s Safety Director
since 1970s, “you hear stories of bad
situations that just got worse and
why didn’t anybody do anything
about it.”

“The more you get into the sub-
ject area, as we are, the more you
realize it is not an easy area to deal
with,” he added.

The union and MacMillan Bloedel
have chosen to work within the com-
pany’s Chemainus sawmill and three
logging divisions on Southern Van-
couver Island to identify new ways
in which the EFAP can be proac-
tive.

“We have known for years that
we have serious problems in union

operations with alcohol and drugs,”
said National I.W.A. Vice President
Neil Menard, who joined the other
speakers at the I.W.A. national
safety conference (see pages 6-7).
“We know that a worker can’t leave
their substance abuse problem at
the door at the beginning of the shift
and pick it up at the end of the shift.”

He said that the pilot project is
one that has been run jointly and
carefully.

“It’s the same thing as 21 years
ago when we developed Employee
Assistance Programs. We had to
step back and look at things several
times along the way.”

Jim Stimson, MacMillan Bloedel’s ~
EFAP coordinator, said that today
people are living with more anxiety
than at any time before.

At the same time the potency of
alcohol and drugs is 20-150% stronger
than they were two decades ago.

“We got to do something and if we
don’t do something, employers will
on their own because they can not
afford to put up with any form of
motor sensory depriving drug in the
work environment, whether they
are illicit or not.”

Across Canada the union is
involved in 20 Assessment and
Referral Services, with 285 employ-
ers in 418 worksites along with 68
unions and 375 locals. Human
Resources Development Canada got
together with the I.W.A., MacBlo,
and the WCB of British Columbia to
look at 800 automobile deaths in
B.C. It found that 80% of those
deaths were alcohol and drug
related.

“We can’t bury our heads in the
sand,” said Brother Menard. “These
are accidents that happened off the
job. You have to igi at that and
think about what has been happen-
ing in the workplace as well.”

Mr. Stimson said the objective of
the three year pilot project has been
to bring the EFAP closer to the real-
ity of alcohol and drugs in the work-

Continued on page fourteen

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1998/13