Member battled to get

f there is somebody in the
union who should be recog-
nized for his “stick-to-it-ive-
ness” that person is Ed Hen-
derson, plant chairman at the

Louisiana-Pacific oriented strand-

board plant in Dawson Creek. B.C.

Seven years ago Brother Hender-
son, now a proud member of I.W.A.
CANADA Local 1-424, was being
escorted by the company’s manager
to see Dawson Creek’s mayor, where
he was asked to leave town for try-
ing to join the union. Today he
remains chairman in a plant where
labour relations are improved and
has offered his services to organize
the Louisiana Pacific oriented
strandboard plant in Swan River,
Manitoba (see story page 8).

In late May, Brother Henderson
headed out to Swan River, Mani-
toba, upon the request of I.W.A.
Local 324, to help organize the plant.

“It was a great experience to get
@ out to that part of the country and

let the workers know that what they

are going through is a lot like what
we had to go through in Dawson

Creek in the late 1980’s and early

1990's,” said Henderson, in an inter-
view with the Lumberworker.

Henderson joined Local 324 exec-
utive board member and organizer
Mike Kotz and others in the union’s
second drive to organize the L-P
Swan River Plant, which is about a
180 kilometer drive southeast of
local Peadguarters in The Pas.

Currently the local union is seek-
ing an automatic certification before
the Labour Relations Board of Man-
itoba, citing unfair labour practices
(intimidation of workers supporting
the I.W.A.) as the reason.

Local 324 member Chaw Young
(also'see story page 8) was summar-
ily fired for supporting the union
drive. The I.W.A. is trying to get his
job back and the union certification.

“I went there to tell the crew at
Swan River that the company’s
threats to shut the mill down are
the same threats that we heard in
Dawson Creek when we were orga-
nizing the mill,” said Brother Hen-
derson.

“That’s the same kind of treat-
ment we got from the company in
Dawson Creek,” said Henderson.
“The company tried to push its phi-
losophy that our jobs were at their
mercy and that they could do what-
ever they wanted to us.”

“What the crew at Swan River
. as to understand is that it doesn’t

atter what kind of employment
policies the company has in place at
any one time,” he added. “Louisiana
Pacific can do basically what it
wants at any time the manager in
the plant wants it done if there is
no collective agreement in place.”

“Without a collective agreement
in place at Dawson Creek the work-
ers had to go the company’s way or
the highway — and many did,” Hen-
derson said. E

He estimates, that during the
years leading up to the union’s suc-
cessful certification in March of
1992, over 200 people passed through
the plant.

Local 1-424 President Fred Car-
oF roll said that local union has not
een this high a turnover of employ-

ees in years.

“T think this tells you a lot about
what kind of employer L-P is and
what working conditions were like
in those days,” he said.

“A long term employee was some,
body who had one year in, said
Henderson. “The company would
intimidate workers and not give
them a comfortable workplace. They
did not want a steady workforce
there and many employees didn’t

_ stay around very long.”

%

L-P certified

Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

ROUGH TREATMENT IN EARLY DAYS

After L-P built and kicked off
operations at Dawson Creek in 1987,
it wasn’t long before both the I.W.A.
and the Pulp, Paper and Woodwork-
ers of Canada, were looking at orga-
nizing the plant.

In the early days Henderson was
a supporter of the PPWC, but
changed his support to the I:W.A.
by the Spring of 1988. The union
applied for certification three times
(in 1988, 1990, and 1992) before
achieving success.

L-P boss staffers Jack Mirth and
Jim Heineman were on hand to
intimidate the workers during a
good part of those drives. Heineman
is now running the company’s OSB
plant in Swan River.

“L-P believed in
brute force and
intimidation and
that’s how they got
people to work and
keep unions out. . .”

— Ed Henderson

“L-P believed in brute force and
intimidation and that’s how they
got people to work and keep unions
out (of Dawson Creek) for as long as

they could,” he said.

The episode where Henderson
was threatened by the mayor hap-
pened in the Fall of 1991.

Jack Mirth drove him to mayor
Bob Trail’s office for a special meet-
ing. According to Henderson, Mirth
informed city council that L-P was
getting out of town if the I.W.A.
would organize the plant.

“That’s the way they operated.
They had the city and the town coun-
cil on their side and they fed them
with lies,” said Henderson. “Our
mayor didn’t know better himself.
He thought L-P could leave town
because of the union.”

Like Louisiana Pacific had done
many times before in North Amer-
ica, their investment in B.C. was
done in a region of high unemploy-

ment where resources were plenti-
ful and the local economy was
depressed.

Following the successful certifica-
tion in March of 1992, the company
began to harass employees, both
supporters and non-supporters of
the I.W.A.

In April they fired union member
Ward ‘Grant and suspendell 8 oth-
ers, including Henderson, for wear-
ing I.W.A. stickers on their hard
hats.

The union took the company in
front of the then Industrial Rela-
tions Council (IRC) and got their
jobs back with full back pay and
benefits. Union lawyer Shona Moore
successfully argued that, under
labour law, no employer can inter-
fere with the formation or adminis-
tration of a trade union.

She also argued that an impor-
tant role of a trade union is to orga-
nize and that the I.W.A., by encour-
aging its members to wear stickers,
was organizing the workers.

“When Jim Heineman first told
us to take the stickers off our hard
hats he said it was because they
were defacing company property,”
said Henderson. “He told us that if
we wanted to go to work, we had to
take the stickers off.”

At the IRC hearing, the company
changed its mind and said the I.W.A.
stickers were weakening the hard-
hats.

“I guess L-P thought that union
stickers have some kind of special
glue,” laughed Henderson, “because
L-P had their own company stickers
and safety stickers on the hats.”

LOOKING TOWARDS BETTER TIMES

Since those early confrontational
days a lot has changed. In April of
this year the I.W.A. negotiated its
third consecutive collective agree-
ment which expires in the year 2002.

The current base rate jobs pay
about $14.00/hr. which is way ahead
of the $10.00/hr. jobs in Swan River,
Manitoba. :

The average age in the plant is in
the mid-20’s. -

“A lot of young people who work
here before only had jobs like pack-
ing groceries and pumping gas,”
said Henderson. “It is because of
the I.W.A. that we have managed to
get much better pay and working
conditions.”

In the most recent set of negotia-
tions, the 140-145 Local 1-424 mem-
bers who work in the plant success-
fully pushed to get rid of the
company’s use of a bonus system.

“The way the bonus system worked
was that it was truly the company’s
own system,” he said. “It was there
as a carrot and we had no say in
how it operated. They (the company)
would take the bonus away for minor
infractions such as being late.

“There was no way we could grieve
it because it was not part of the col-
lective agreement,” added Hender-
son.

The plant chair said that the union
is working to get the L-P workers’
pay up to industry standards.

He has a lot of solid support with
committee members Ron Radke,
Mark Finkle, Doug Macleod and
Scott Pearson.

One big change that the workers
have experienced is new manage-
ment. The operation is now under
the direction of plant manager Randy
Johnson.

“Randy is a people person who
wants to work with the union to
improve labour relations and make
the plant more efficient,” said Hen-
derson. “The difference between
him and some of the other charac-
ters that Louisiana Pacific had here
is like night and day. Management
can make all the difference in the
world.

“He’s (Randy Johnson) here to lis-
ten to the problems that the work-
ers have and to resolve them at the
plant level.”

Local union president Fred Car-
roll said that Johnson is a definite
improvement but wonders how long
he will be there with L-P’s manage-
ment style.

“T don’t think the membership at
the plant is too comfortable with
the company yet by any stretch of
the imagination,” he added.

The plant is a very efficient oper-
ation with an 8’ x 24’ production
line that operates around the clock,
seven days a week. The crew works
four 12 hour days and then gets four
days off before switching from day
shift to night shift. For nights they
are paid a 75 cent an hour premium.

The aspen wood is fed in through
a two line system after coming out
of four different ponds where the

Continued on page fifteen

OSE TE
5 LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1998/9