trations, they turn up the heat.”

“mployers think that since Har-
ris is in power, they can push harder
and harder,” adds Rivard,

Brother Navarretta says that last
year was packed with cases, and
that even during summer months
when things traditionally slow down,
employers where provoking griev-
ances to the arbitration stage.

There have been more discharges
without just cause and companies
have been trying to narrow the scope

¢ WHAT DO YOU DO? - except fight back against aggressive employers says Bob Navarretta, National Director of
Arbitration Services. He says the amount of grievances in Ontario has shot up drastically since the pro-employer
Harris government was elected in 1995.

Union rep defends against Ontari

“Every time that our members
are done wrong, we should be there
to take their case as far as it should

0,” says Bob Navarretta, the I.W.A.
‘ANADA’s director of Arbitration
Services.

Last year Brother Navarretta,
who works out of the union’s national
office on Weston Road in Toronto,
helped I.W.A. locals get more wins
than the New York Yankees.

As every baseball aficionado
knows the Yankees won 114 games.
Navarretta, in connection with local

ae

unions, turned 115 grievances into
settlements for ILW.A. CANADA
after they were referred to his office
following the exhaustion of steps at
the local union level. He only had
three losses, which is far less than
the Yankees.

This designated-hitting is not by
design — it’s of necessity. Employ-
ers in Ontario are becoming more
aggressive every year that the Con-
servative government of Mike Har-
ris is in power. Whereas Navarretta
used to have between 50-60 griev-

y

employers

ances referred to him over the past
17 years, that number has skyrock-
eted since Harris took power.

“With the political system in
Ontario being what it is, employers
all over our union and other unions
are becoming less declined to settle
issues peacefully,” points out Nor-
man Rivard, the I.W.A. National
Fourth Vice President who also
works out of the Toronto office.
“When they sense that they can
weaken a union by getting it to
spend more and more on costly arbi-

Be
zs

° Attending health and safety seminars in Miramichi in July of 1998 were (enone row I. to r.) Gordie Trevors,

New Brunswick
Continued from page six

“Tozer didn’t give a damn that
there is a collective agreement in
place and that we are the bargain-

agent for the workers at the ply-
wood mill,” said Bob Navarretta,
the I.W.A. Director of Arbitration
Services.
Tozer wants to eliminate the union

shop provision in the contract, put
ees on probationary periods for
one at $10 an hour and the sec-

ond year at $11 an hour. He also

wants to gut seniority provisions.

That is despite the fact that the
mill’s production is high and ply-
wood prices and orders are strong.

“In my opinion this move by Tozer
has epecine to do with trying to
effectively break the I.W.A. in the
province. He knows that we are try-
ing to organize in New Brunswick,”
said Navarretta, who met with him
in early March. “We told him we’re
not interested and that he has a col-
lective agreement in place to hon-
our.”

“The feedback that we’re getting
from the members is very positive,”
said Navarretta. “They are tired of

National Safety Director Tom Lowe, and Jason Driscoll. In the back row (1. to r.) are Ralph Thibodeau, National
First Vice President Neil Menard, Pat Hogan, Clarence O'Toole, and Jeff Goss.

being bashed by their employer and
being asked for concessions.”

“Workers in New Brunswick, espe-
cially who are non-union, get scared
by Tozer,” he added. “This guy intim-
idates workers and has taken action
to prevent people from freely joining
a union.”

“The I.W.A. is commited to our
members in New Brunswick and we
are going to fight Tozer and any
other employer that stands in the
way of progress for workers. We
hope to show New Brunswickers
that being in the I.W.A. will make a
difference when dealing with
employers like this,” he said.

Photo courtesy Local

of collective agreements — even by
challenging who should or shouldn’t

be in the bargaining unit.

A company like MacMillan

Bloedel, who has traditionally

sought peaceful labour relations, is
now more aggressive. It tried to
introduce more student relief work-
ers to replace its regular union
employees at its Nipigon Plywood
and specialty plant.

“This kind of stuff was unheard of
before. MacMillan Bloedel is fight-
ing us every inch of the way and is
challenging the very make-up of the
bargaining unit itself and it’s not
something that we are used to,” he
says.

By utilizing the services of Navar-
retta, as the I.W.A.’s in-house arbi-
tration representative in Eastern
Canada, the union has avoided the
pitfall of spending money on large
legal fees. Huge legal bills area
headache for many locals in the
I.W.A. and other unions.

“Arbitration is not rocket science,”
says Navarretta. “If a union repre-
sentative can follow the rules of pre-
senting evidence and feels a passion
for the union member that has the
grievance, that representative can
become a good advocate.”

“We get ideologically intimidated
that lawyers are supposed to be the
only ones that can take on arbitra-
tion cases and win,” he says. “But
that is not true. There is no educa-
tion for lawyers on how to cross-
,examine witnesses. Some of people

that we have in the I.W.A. are and
could be much better than any
lawyer. Arbitration applies some
labour laws, but they don’t concern
themselves with other areas of law
like family law or criminal law. It is
not as difficult as people might
think.”

“T would really encourage local
unions to have somebody in-house
that do arbitrations, not just for the
cost savings but to show the employ-
ers that we are ready to take on any
company for whatever just reason.”

“Ideologically the only way you
can hit employers is in the pocket
book, he says. “Sometimes the
employer will take us on, usually
because of the size of the local or
the idea that they are not going to
spend that much money when we
can’t afford to spend it. Once they
(the employers) realize that they
are the ones spending the big bucks,
and our handling of arbitrations is
very efficient and cost effective,
they will settle cases.” *

Hired on by the former Region
Two of the International Woodwork-
ers of America, in August of 1973,
following working for the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store
union (where, as a rank and filer,
he was a maintenance mechanic)
Navarretta started out as on orga-
nizer, working about 1-1/2 years in
that field. Then he became a service
representative to negotiate collec-
tive agreements and handle griev-
ances. In 1977 he fought and won
his first arbitration case, after tak-
ing some CLC courses and studying
on his own. Since then he has han-
dled well over 1000 grievances
beyond the Step Four stage. Most of
those grievance wins benefitted the
LW.A. membership in Local 1000,
500, 700 and 2693. He has also taken
on some cases for Local 2995.

Today his duties include the
instruction of arbitration classes at
the CLC’s Winter School in Port
Elgin, Ontario. He has done so for

Continued on page sixteen

_LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1999/7