e THEY’RE ON A MISSION - After attending ORG I classes conducted by I.W.A. National Education Director Lyle Pona in April of this year, members from local
went back to work to do the job for the union. Left to right are (front row) Oliver Morin, Paul Groleau and Ernie Drul. Middle row are Bill Mekish, Rob
Wiggins, Dave Schnieder and James Beaton-Stokell. Back row are Mark Jeanson, Mark Buchan, Local Pres. Jack Alexander and Les Vereb.

Winnipeg Local 33

h

olds its own

and looks forward to its future

ince the last time the Lum-
berworker went out to Win-
nipeg, Manitoba to visit
I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-
880 in the summer of 1992,
some things have changed but, more
or less, most things have stayed the
same. The local, which received its
charter in late 1997, has grown
slightly over the years from about
200 members in three operations to
about 250 members. That slight
growth has been seen in all three of
the local union’s operations. They
are the MacMillan Bathurst Inc.
corrugated plant, the Norampak
Inc. corrugated plant and the
Unisource Inc. distribution centre.
“Fortunately since first joining
the I.W.A. in late 1991 and early
1992, when we left the CPU (the
then Canadian Paperworkers Union)
we have held our own and even
icked up a few new members,” says
Racal union president Jack Alexan-
der. “At this point in our history we
have an agreement with the Mani-
toba Local 324 that allows our local
to organize in the Winnipeg area
and we are surveying what is out
there. As in other parts of the coun-
try, like Ontario, it has become
tougher to organize because of the
anti-labour laws that have been
passed by the Conservative govern-
ment of Filmon.”
Two of the biggest changes to take
lace have been at Norampak and
Bnisource. In March of 1998 the
Quebec based Cascades Inc. bought
jnto the Canadian packaging divi-
sion of Domtar to form Norampak
(North American Packaging). In
1997 Unisource expanded their new
warehouse by 60,000 square feet to
increase its capacity and add a few
jobs. The com] distrib utes paper
ucts to the printing industry
and all varieties of paper, plastic
and assorted products to the restau-
rant, hotel and other service related
industries. Meanwhile the MBI

¢ At the Norampac operation in Winnipeg, die mounter Grant Philip
checks proofing dies.

plant keeps going at a good pace
with new equipment and new mar-
kets in the United States.

At the Norampak plant, which
employs about 90 union members,
there remain two single face corru-
gators and a double glue station
which applies a top liner to the sin-
gle face web. The bonding is com-
pleted by drawing the single face
and liner over high temperature hot
plates. This process can result in an
extra strength box which is just as
strong as a sheet of wood.

The corrugated sheets are cut to
order size and are sent to the press
department where automated
presses print, die cut and fold them

to order specification. Some sheets
go out the door and some go to one
of the other presses for further fin-
ishing.

The plant has a two colour Ward
printer which can handle a sheet of
corrugated that is up to 113 inches
in length and 66 inches wide.

Acting plant chairperson Les
Vereb told the Lumberworker that
“we haven’t seen any big changes
since that (Norampak) takeover.”
“They are basically letting us con-
tinue the way we were before,” he
adds.

The corrugator crews work two
shifts of 8 hours, five days a week
while the rest of the plant works

Photo by Lyle Pona

three 8 hour shifts a day to keep up.

The collective agreement that the
local has negotiated for both Noram-
pak and MBI are virtually the same.

“We’ve kept the contracts neck
and neck to a large degree,” says
Brother Alexander. “That is
absolutely necessary to keep wages
and benefit levels up and maintain
a level playing field in the indus-
try.” Starting wages under the cur-
rent contract at both plants, which
expire in the Spring of next year,
are in the $16-$20 per hour range
and tradesman are paid in the $22-
$23 per hour bracket.

At the MacMillan Bathurst (MBI)
plant, which employs 200 people
(142 members), there have been
several pieces of new equipment put
in over the past six years. A new 4
colour printer/die-cutter which is
fully automated, processes corru-
gated sheets to customer specifica-
tions. It then bundles the finished
product which is sent to the ship-
ping department. Another addition
to the plant is an e flute single facer
that produces sheets that are sent
from MBI’s sister plant in Etobi-
coke, Ontario for finishing.

In the last two years MBI has
added more new equipment that its
competitors don’t have on the
prairies and have begun to ship cor-
rugated sheets and high end graphic
printing jobs to Stone Containers in
North Dakota, U.S.A. Since then.
the lower Canadian dollar has helped

ort shipments quite a bit.

The MBI operation has a long his-
tory and has been part of Winnipeg’s
industrial scene since 1929. It’s
original plant was located in St.
Boniface, Manitoba, and was owned
by Martin Paper. The Powell River
company purchased the operation
and in turn merged with MacMillan
Bloedel in 1960. Also part of this
history was Norwood Box Company,
the other St. Boniface corrugated

Continued on page fourteen

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998/13