° Out on the Kimberley Clark Camp 64 limits near Geraldton, Ontario
Gosselin, grapple skidder operators and Local 2693 members.

are (

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1. to r.) Marcel

Union locals make progress in north
Ontario forest industry negotiations

Significant progress has been
made in forest industry negotia-
tions in northern Ontario as this
issue of the Lumberworker goes to
press. I.W.A. Local 2693 has reached

attern settlements with Kimber-

ey-Clark for 350 loggers in the
Longlac, Geraldton and Nakina dis-
trict to avert strike action.

On February 7 the union signed a
three year agreement with the com-
pany, which will pay out the pat-
tern 2-1/2, 2-1/2, and 3 percent over
the terms of the agreement and
bring in 3 cents per hour into an
education fund.

The contract also includes a $60
bonus per week of vacation taken as
an incentive for union members to
take their allotted time off and cre-
ate work opportunities for others.

In addition to various benefit
improvements including better life
insurance, higher sick pay and phar-
macare coverage, improved dental
and vision care, the union made big
gains with keeping non-union con-
tractors off of K-C limits.

When dealing with employees
who own their own equipment, the
union has the rights to negotiate on
their behalf and check off each one.

“The company agreed to the posi-
tion that if there are any contrac-
tors on the limits or worksite of the
company, they will either come
under the collective agreement with
K-C and the I.W.A. or they will have
to have a collective agreement with
the union,” said Local 2693 Presi-
dent Wilf McIntyre.

One contractor who was using the
hauling road was issued a letter by
K-C, stating that it had 60 days to
negotiate with the union or they
would be removed from the limits
and worksites.

In late February the local union
also reached a pattern settlement
collective agreement with Domtar’s
White River sawmill and logging
crews. The I.W.A. represents about
175 workers in the mill and 100
bushworkers.

As part of the contract, the com-
pany has agreed that the total allow-
able cut of 240,000 cubic meters of
the poplar cut on its limits that is
destined for MacMillan Bloedel’s
oriented strandboard plant in Wawa,
will be logged by union crews. The
agreement will also see about 50
Native bushworkers be covered by
the union. As well, there will no

a

Wilf McIntyre

Continued from page two

National Fifth V.P. Wilf McIntyre

resident earlier this year.
y Wilf is proud to be an I.W.A.
ional officer. 2

mn the province of Ontario we are
becoming a union that is better
‘known and I think this will help us
more over the long run,” he said. “In
the north of Ontario, where the
Jabour moyement is strong and the
ties to the NDP are solid, our union

has a very it profile.
Brother McIntyre enhanced that

profile when, in 1995, he became a
first-time-ever Ontario Federation
of Labour Executive Vice President
from the I.W.A. ;

He then began to work with
Brother Miron and others to get
more I.W.A. people on OFL commit-
tees to raise the profile of the union.

From 1991 to 1995, the years the
NDP government was in power,
McIntyre sat on the board of direc-
tors of the Northern Ontario Her-
itage Fund Corporation, along with
other representatives from labour,
business and government.

During the time that he served on
the board, the crown corporation
gave numerous loans to help save
various businesses. Many of them
were in the sawmill, plywood and
pulp and paper sector.

Brother McIntyre is now the chair-
man of the national union’s Forest
Environment Committee which he
joined in 1990.

He also was a member of Ontario
provincial government’s Forest
Industry Action Group in 1993-94.
The group made several recommen-
dations to then NDP Premier Bob
Rae’s government which saved and
created thousands of jobs in the for-
est industry.

wood cut on Domtar’s limits with-
out a collective agreement in place
with the I.W.A.

The toughest thing to get was the
3 cents per hour per worker for union
education.

“Domtar was not very happy about
paying for union education and it
was tough to get, but we got it,”
commented Brother McIntyre. “Now
we're after the same thing to be
included in a settlement with the
same company.”

The local, with the support of 300.
workers, struck Domtar’s Ramsay
Camp logging division in the Upper
and Lower Spanish Forest Licenses
in early January, primarily over the
issue of closing bunkhouse (north of
Sudbury) facilities and contracting
out to non-union firms.

“We will be there on strike, until
Domtar agrees to keep the jobbers
out and listen to our crew on keep-
ing the bunkhouse open,” said
Brother McIntyre.

“There’s no way we want guys
putting in 13-15 hours days trying
to get to work in an isolated area.
It’s just ridiculous and to do so isa
threat to the alertness of our mem-

o

&

e It took Local 2995 members at the Olav Haavaldsrud| operations in
Hornepayne, over 10 weeks of strike action to get a collective agreement.

bers and their health and safety at
work and getting back and forth to
work. We don’t want our people
falling asleep and driving off the
highways. That’s just nonsense,
pure and simple.”

AGREEMENT REACHED WITH OLAV
HAAVALDSRUD

Damien Roy, President of I.W.A.
Local 2995, reports that the union
has reached a six year collective
agreement with Olav Haavaldsrud
Timber Co., ending a strike which
lasted more than 10 weeks in Horne-
payne, Ontario.

One hundred and twenty five
union members took job action to
bring up their wages to industry
standards in the local.

In the early 1990’s the I.W.A.
relaxed wages demands when the
company, which owns a sawmill
and logging operation, was teeter-
ing on the verge of bankruptcy.

“We had to go to a six year agree-
ment to get back a big chunk of
wages,” said Brother Roy. “We were
able to do some significant catching
up. Tatote
The local negotiated wage.
increases of 21% over the term of
the collective agreement, along with
signing bonuses.that will total
$3,000-for all-non-probationary
employees. reetite aay?

’ Several benefits (pension, wage
indemnity, life insurance, vision
care, etc.) were adjusted upwards.

The union also settled an out-
standing arbitration case that it
had won over eight months earlier
when the company tried to arbitrar-
ily implement a third shift that
wasn’t provided for under the collec-
tive agreement. Haavaldsrud will
pay out $1000 to each affected
worker.

The union beat back the com-
pany’s demand for an owner/opera-
tor run slasher and for one feller
buncher to be owner/operator. i

‘In the mill, the union won new
collective classifications for electri-
cal helpers, millwrights helpers ‘and-
oilers. Sie hneeee

In the contract there is also a let-
ter of understand which outline a
flexible weekend maintenance
schedule, where union members
will be paid 40 hours for 32 hours
worked.

Overall, there are much-needed
improvements in the contract which
is retroactive to September 1, 1998. -

“The spirit of the membership
never got down and that’s what won
us this strike,” said the local union
president. “Everybody stuck
together and the employer came
back to the table.” ee

Photo courtesy Local 2995

LUMBERWORKER/MARGH, 1999/3