Ul fund must be

used for jobless

by Dave Haggard

here is something really wrong in this
country when there are over 830,000
‘ unemployed Canadians who can’t get
|  Ulbenefits at the same time that the
| federal government boasts of a federal
2 budget surplus, every cent of which
comes from UI premiums.
That’s right. Only about 36% of Canada’s 1.3

Federal Finance
Minister Paul Mar-
tin has every inten-
tion of continuing to
raid UI contribu-
tions, which are
100% paid for by
workers and employ-
ers, for use as gen-
eral revenue. He is
even going through
some legislative
maneuvers to do so.

Any surplus that
Martin can brag
about.comes directly
out of the hide of
unemployed Canadi-
ans. As such, the Lib-
eral takeaway from
hundreds of thou-
sands of people and
their families consti-
tutes one of the :
largest actions ever perpetrated on working
people. i é

The way things are going, the UI account will
run up a surplus of $7.1 billion in this year
alone. Legally and morally the federal govern-
ment owes this money to legions of unemployed.

Instead Jean Chretien said that UI revenues
would be used “for the benefits of all Canadi-
ans.” The Liberals think it is a lot more politi-
cally popular to use that money for tax cuts and
deficit reduction than to help the jobless. _

They think it will buy them more votes in the
long term versus actually helping workers who
have paid into the fund.

Part time and seasonal workers who have

aid into UI are being
Henied benefits or are

etting smaller cheques
for less periods of time,

Thousands upon thou-
sands of workers, a
who work on the B.C.
Coast are going to get
less money this year for
a shorter period of time.
The more times our
members get laid off
from season to season,
the less money they will
be entitled to.

We say the whole sys-
tem has to be changed,
so we support the NDP
and the Canadian
Labour Congress’ call
for an Independent U.I.
Commission.

The federal Liberal
government should take
its hands off of UI altogether as it doesn’t put
even a penny into the system.

Paul Martin and Jean Chretien should not be
able to interfere in how UI funds are allotted to
the unemployed. :

The commission, which would consist of work-
ers and employers, would recommend contribu-
tion rates to the government.

It’s time to get the whole UI program back on
track and to get it to do the things it was
intended to do all along.

UI must no longer be used by the Liberals as
a slush fund to show budget surpluses. The
Canadian government has no business taking
benefits away from the unemployed.

million jobless citizens qualify for a UI cheque.
over $7.9 billion into unemployment insurance
It’s a sad, sad comment that our society elected
hundreds of thousands of its people. Then, at
posts a $20 billion surplus.
UI system and parade around like it has no
by Kim Pollock
| ie bulent, trying, scary year yet in the
national office and Local 1-417’s effort
Area, where major local licensee Ainsworth
permit approval. Following preparation of an
the situation has improved. We're still waiting
session in Ottawa toward a new, hopefully more
toward keeping Canfor’s Eburne sawmill going. In
ply, in a complete shift of gears, Canfor said the
to keep the plant open or failing that, to get a
in exchange for hanging onto its TFL #37 hold-
live up to.
strategy sessions with Local 1-423’s Ben Landis;
vey Arcand for a meeting with German pulp buy-
rother Scott Lunny and I helped coach a Little
from the non-government members of the
plan, badly bogged down in red tape and a victim
tegrated as special management areas.

In Ontario, less than 30% of unemployed people
and only got $3.4 billion out of the system. Some
and supports a government which has made UI
the same time as those masses of unemployed

Even more sad and equally as mean spirited
budget deficit. Does this government know no
It’s just been one
[ELEY his time, a quick review of a most tur-

life of your “environment guy.”

U to improve the standing timber inven-
Lumber Ltd. was embroiled in an endless tussle
LW.A. report and a meeting with minister Dave
for our Christmas present from Ainsworth.
balanced federal endangered species law, our
_8pite of efforts by the union at the plant level and
plant would die March 26.
decent deal for 200 members. Ultimately, Canfor
ings on Vancouver Island, one of the provinces’

APRIL: Between trips to Kelowna for Okana-
Kamloops for a one-day session on land-use
ers looking for support in the face of Green-
League Baseball Team sponsored by Local 2171.
government committee dealing with the north-
of the general market slump, is supposed to pro-

MAY: Dave Haggard and I attended the

I.W.A. became a signa-
tory to the national For-
est Strategy, an action
plan on forest develop-
ment and stewardship
that brings together fed-
eral and provincial gov-
ernments, industry non-
governmental organizations
and us, labour’s only rep-
resentative.

Then to Thunder Bay
for an aborted presenta-
tion to Thunder Bay’s
municipal council on endangered species because
the city’s civic workers went on strike that day. A
presentation on I.W.A. environmental policy to
Local 2693’s annual delegated meeting went
ahead as planned; a terrific group, too.

JUNE: Following the MacMillan Bloedel news
conference announcing the firm’s intent to “phase
out clearcutting of old-growth” in Coastal B.C.
and our baseball team’s quick elimination from

OCTOBER: The New Democratic Party’s
federal council in St. John’s; some unions want
to take the federal leader apart for suggestin;
we have to build better partnerships wit
industry; as is so often the case, I.W.A. takes a
different position from the CLC, Canadian
Autoworkers, et al.

I wrote a great big piece for the CLO’s “Just
Transition” working group — reproduced else-
where in the Lumberworker, (see pp. 33-34) it
looked like it had been shredded by the time it
went through the Congress on Riverside Drive.

Between helping plan Haggard’s 1.W.A. study
tour of U.S. “co-management” experiments —
really sorry I missed the ca plant! —anda
conference in Nelson, B.C. on Sustainable For-
est Ecosystem Management, another endan-
gered species workshop in Ottawa. It’s clear
that we’re (communities, workers, industi ) in
way better shape than we were prior to ~65,
The industry group negotiating with ‘moderate’
greens has come up with a “compromise” that
will be hard for even zealots like Liberal MP”

the Little Mountain Little League playoffs, it was
off to Saskatchewan for

Charles Caccia to ignore.
NOVEMBER: After

a two weeks of investi-
gating the province's For-
est Management Licence
Agreement renewal pro-

In 1998 land-use issues, mill

another session of the
Forestry Table on Cli-
mate Change, this
time in Montreal the

cess, looking into forest
practices with Brothers
Dennis Bonville and Paul
Hallen and meetings
with Saskatchewan
bureaucrats and politi-

shutdowns, this panel, that
committee and dealing with
the radical greens have been

beginning of “regional”
meebingstn endan-
gered species.

Then with Haggard,
a week-long trip to

cians on forest issues.
JULY: Although sup-

the way it has gone.

Bonn, Germany, for
an IFBWW conference
on Forest Certifica-

posedly on holidays in
askatchewan, Haggard sent me to a federal
round table on climate change issues in Toronto.
By the end of the month, though, we were right
back into the fray - helping Local 363 to try to

find a way around shut-down of Campbell Ri:
Mills and 140 I.W.A. jobs. 3 ae

AUGUST: Back to Ottawa for another endan-
gered species session: it’s becoming increasingly
clear that the feds and provinces want to avoid
another Bill C-65 fiasco. Will they be willing to
fight off the doctrinaire greens both outside and
in the federal Liberal Party?

The Greenpeace campaign against our forest
products is gaining steam — this time they’ve
avoided Canada altogether, sticking to harass-

ment in Europe and the U.S. of ships loaded
with our products.

SEPTEMBER: The Canadian Labour Con-
gress Environment Department has another
“good idea”: how about ‘just’ transition for work-
ers impacted by environmental change? Or is it
“just transition,” ie, gave them UI and EI or ‘Oh’.
More endangered species meetings, more
trips to Victoria to try to keep up with provin-
cial bureaucrabs. . . and the union’s annual

qualify. Last year in that province, workers paid
of those people are our members.
increasingly difficult, if not impossible to get for
Canadians are denied benefits, the UI system
is the federal Liberals’ plan to keep milking the
shame?
thing after another
JANUARY: Began with I.W.A.’s
tory situation in the Lillooet Timber Supply
with federal and provincial bureaucrats over
Zirnhelt and environment officials in Victoria,
FEBRUARY: EF ONonE the first “consultation”
national office and Local 2171 began negotiations
our quiet work in Victoria on increased wood sup-
MARCH: Thus began our very noisy campaign
cut a deal to build new manufacturing facilities
very best stands of tree — a promise it has yet to
gan-Shuswap Local Resource Management Plan
planning and Victoria with vice-president Har-
peeess campaign against the B.C. forest industry,
As well, .W.A. CANADA put together a am
ern spotted owl plan in the Fraser Valley. The
vide jobs for I.W.A. members on the lands disin-
national Forest Congress in Ottawa where the

National Convention in Vancouver.

tions. The highlight
was our series of meeting with our German
brothers and sisters, who are increasingly
annoyed with Greenpeace’s treachery and who
understand better all the time our hostility
toward extremist environmental groups. In
parting union delegates from roan the world
agreed “to publicly support each other when
unions from other countries are threatened by
outside groups.”

DECEMBER: Just in time for Christmas, a
new sneak-attack from Greenpeace: a New York
Times ad alleging that 27 big, U.S. companies
were prepared to “shift away from” (ie. boycott)
B.C. forest products.

They say a lie can go around the world while
the truth gets its boots on, but get our boots on
we did - we promptly put them to Greenpeace’s
credibility: as so often, they lied, both about
their support in U.S. boardrooms and the nature
of B.C. forest practices.

Le plus ce change...or in English, there they
go again! :

Kim Pollock is the Director of Envii t and
Public Policy for I.W.A. CANaBawronmen a

4/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998

a ee ee ee eee a a