ESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Convention is time
to review programs

by Dave Haggard

onvention times are always exciting
times for the I.W.A. Every year we get
to discuss and debate the issues that
are forefront in our minds. This year
there will be no shortage of issues for
SS us to talk about.

We all know that change is constant. And it is
up to our union to sense the direction of change
and make adjustments for our collective benefit.
The year 2000 is coming up and we are going to
have to increasingly adapt to emerging realities
or get eaten up by them.

Our union has to adopt with the times and
that means discussing and debating new strate-
gies to take us into the new millennium. I don’t
believe for one second that we will ever abandon
our core values in any strategy for change. The
core values of fairness, dignity and equality have
and will always be written into every policy that
our union adopts.

Three areas where there should be consider-
able debate at our convention will be organizing,
negotiated partnerships and marketing strate-

ies. 5
o We have to examine and reflect on the results
from our organizing program over the past two
years. Are we achieving our goals of union diver-
sification? Are we successfully building on our
base in the forest industry? Do we need to

change or modify our
strategies? Are we
getting the most for
our organizing dol-
lar?

The issues we are
facing are the same
now as when our
union was first
formed. People back
then said loggers
couldn’t be orga-
nized. Bosses said
the union would
force them out of
business. But his-

tory shows that
where workers face
injustice and

inequality, unions”
will succeed. In the
forest sector and
other industries
where we represent
workers, markets are becoming more global as
capital becomes increasingly mobile and corpo-
rate mergers are a daily event.

We have to discuss ways which we will adapt
to these new realities. How can we best protect
our members’ jobs? Can we work with forest
industry employers to make our mills and camps
more competitive to ride out the ups and down of
the global economy? We say we can and the
I.W.A. is at the forefront, proposing to bring
industry and labour together to research global
markets, product development and marketing
strategies to benefit Canadian woodworkers.

Underlying this effort will be our core value of
protecting our members’ jobs. We can make com-
panies more economically viable, not at the cost
of ours members jobs, but with the prospect of
growing the employers’ business and achieving

iter job security. —
fant the convention we
will be presenting and
debating a policy on
negotiated partner-
ships. The call for such
a policy came out of the
increasing number of
workplace co-manage-
ment and co-design
schemes that are being
introduced in I,W.A.
workplaces by employ-
ers. $

But our union talks
about partnerships that
give workers a real say
in workplace change.

At the convention we
will have a chance to
debate this policy which
is based on extensive
research and consulta-
tion.

We will discuss the merits of true partner-
ships based on growth and not just the com-
pany’s bottom line.

We will debate a policy which calls for improv-
ing the employers’ business, but only where that
means more employment security for our mem-
bers and a commitment to ongoing learning and
development opportunities for workers.

We have to say to employers that it pays to do
business in their unionized workplaces — we
have to prove that Canadian productivity goes
hand-in-hand with better wages, benefits and
working conditions.

L.W.A. CANADA is a union that is fighting for
justice for workers in the face of change. This is
not a new thing for us. We are simply finding
new ways to achieve the same Eon we have
always struggled for.

=

Merger signals big
change in industry

by Kim Pollock

The winds of change are blowing and
| were fighting to stay standing. That's
| the feeling you get after a summer of
| | big, new developments in the Canadian

Li forest sector.

Leading the blockbuster news is Weyer-
haeuser's recent bid to take over MacMillan
Bloedel. This is one big merger and it will
change the industry fundamentally.

The newly merged company would create a
big Canadian unit, Weyerhaeuser Canada, with
Canadian assets almost equal to Weyer-
haeuser's American holdings. Weyerhaeuser, of
course, already has solid wood and pulp facilities
in Interior British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. MB oper-
ates mainly in Coastal British Columbia, but
with extensive holdings in Saskatchewan and
Ontario.

Overall, it's already one of the world's largest
saree! companies with sales.of over $10.8 billion

This is obviously a momentous development
for I.W.A. members, some 5.800 of whom will
work for the merged outfit and all of whom will
be affected in some way by this shift in the bal-
ances of forces within the industry.

On the positive side, Weyerhaeuser brings a
history of commitment to its forests; it hasn't
just been, hewing them down.

The company has done pioneering work in
intensive silviculture and has achieved huge
increases in yield, mostly on its private lands
in Washington. It brings an ability do
research and fund investments so far
unmatched by Canadian companies. MB, by
comparison, has actively discouraged inten-
sive silviculture and has only recently begun
to change its approach to adding value to the
forests under its control.

Weyerhaeuser has also sent positive signals
about its commitment to carry on MB's cele-
brated program of variable retention forestry in
Coastal B.C. and its pledge to phase out
clearcutting of old-growth forests.

Weyerhaeuser Canada president Bill Gaynor
has also said there will be no job loss for produc-

tion workers at Weyer-
haeuser Canada; that's a
promise that might be
easier to make then
keep, but it sends a posi-
tive signal to workers.
The two firms appear to
have fairly complemen-
tary assets, with MB
largely based in Coastal
B.C. and  Weyer-
haeuser's operations
spread fairly evenly east
of the Coast Mountains.
The deal has cleared
US. anti-trust requirements but still requires
approval in B.C. of licence transfers relating to
MB's Crown timber holdings. Saskatchewan offi-
cials say that province, which in the middle of an
election campaign as I write, will take a "wait
and see" position with respect to the merger,
which would create a huge, combined entity cov-
ering nearly 2.5 million hectares of productive
forest in the northern

ply because with operations in five provinces
"NAFTA actions simply don't make any sense."

Instead, in fact, Weyerhaeuser could use its
clout in the U.S. to help relieve or even get rid of
the burden many Canadian lumber producers
currently carry under the Canada-U.S, Softwood
Lumber Agreement.

It wouldn't be a moment too soon. Although
we think we have free trade, Canada-U.S. anes
in solid wood is anything but free. Lumber pro-
duced in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec is
subject to export quotas; up to set limits, any
exports above a firm's quota is subject to duty.

There are huge resulting problems. Many
firms, particularly in Coastal B.C., were concen-
trating on the Asian market instead of the U.S.
during the two base quota-setting years: they
got low quota relative to their production. A big
part of the hit Coastal producers took in the past
year or two was due to their inability to shift
sales into the U.S.

Meanwhile, arbitrary quota allocation means
that some firms sit on quota they don't use,
while perfectly viable

half of the province.

For his part,
Saskatchewan _ local
union president Dennis
Bonville remains opti-
mistic that the deal will
not stop MB's recently-
announced OSB mill in
Hudson Bay or other-
wise impact I.W.A. mem-
bers employed by the
two dominant players in
the province's forest sec-

Suddenly Weyerhaeuser
is a big player on both
sides of the border with
a lot to lose if it cant
sell its Canadian
forest products in the U.S.

operations struggle,
simply for ieee of
quota.

Finally, the power-
ful U.S. softwood lum-
ber coalition, led by
Southern pine produc-
ers such as Georgia
Pacific, acts as a “mar-
ket pit bull" whose
main role seems to be
to harass and punish
Canadian producers

tone

At public hearings held by the B.C. govern-
ment, most I.W.A. CANADA locals have taken a
largely optimistic view. "We're not going to buy a
pig in a poke,” president Dave Haggard told a
public meeting , “we want to see commitments to
jobs, community stability and worker safety.
But we support this deal because of the leg up it
can give on trade between Canada and the U.S."

That's because the new firm will have almost
equal interests on both sides of the border, says
Haggard. Consequently, unlike wholly U-S.-
bound rivals like Georgia Pacific, Weyerhaeuser
will now have little interest in stopping Cana-
dian exports.

Fears have been raised that Weyerhaeuser
will use the North American Free Trade Agree-
ment to claim "damages" resulting from Cana-
dian government policies that affect it. However,
noting that such "remedies" have long been
available without any action from his firm,
Gaynor has flatly said Weyerhaeuser has "no
intention of making claims under NAFTA," sim-

who manage to over-
come the system and still successfully compete
in the States.

This means that aside from the quota system
itself, there is a constant barrage of U.S. coun-
tervail efforts, protests and lobbying aimed at
stopping Canadian lumber from competing on a
level field in the American market.

Hence, in recent months the U.S. attacks, for
instance, on pre-drilled studs, rougher-header
facia products and other Canadian products
deemed by Canadian manufacturers Faye value-
added products — hence, outside the quota system
— are held up by the coalition as evil efforts by
Canada to sidestep the agreement. What a mess!

And that's the mess that Weyerhaeuser, sud-
denly a big player on both sides of the border
and therefore with lots to lose if it can't sell it's
Canadian product in the U.S., just might be able
to help sort out. We can only hope.

Kim Pollock is the Director of Environment and
Public Policy for I.W.A. CANADA.

4/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1999