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CONVENTION
HIGHLIGHTS

> 4 oy

e IAM administrative assistant Rod Kelty said the coming year will be a crucial one for both unions.

Machinists continue to work with |.W.A.

Rod Kelty, the International Association of
Machinists’ Administrative Assistant, told dele-

gates that his union is ready to spend more time

working on common issues with I1.W.A.
CANADA.

He said that the IAM has negotiations in the
Pacific Northwest next summer when various
contracts expire on June 1. The I.W.A. will be
going into master agreement negotiations in the
spring and summer of 2000 before contracts
expire on the B.C. Coast and Interior regions.

“I think that both our unions have a lot of work
ahead of us in preparing the membership the
next five to six to eight months,” said Kelty.

The IAM has regional Woodworkers Lodges
which are the former IWA-U.S. regions, which
were, until 1987, the American side of the Inter-
national Woodworkers of America.

Kelty said that the LAM and the I.W.A. are
today separated by an imaginary border and that

Organizing debate

Continued from page seventeen

days. The employer
had time to swing the
crew against the
union.

Ranger said the
union leafleted the
crew three times
because it didn’t have
a voting date.

“We're struggling
with the board, we’re
struggling with the
employer, who does
all kinds of meeting
with these people,
and it just puts the
people against us,” he
added.

e Manny Ranger

MacBlo also hired 28 temporary workers, scat-
tered all over the region, to stack the voters’ list.

Dave Haggard, who chaired the debate on the
organizing report, said the union has tried to
organize in every sector that it could. He
acknowledged some of the frustrations that are
out there about organizing workers in the non-
traditional sectors.

“There’s not question about it, that it’s expen-
sive, but I believe in the last year that it’s been
starting to pay off, and as we get more and more
people trained up and reach out to more and more
workers, I believe that...we are going to do great
things in our union in the coming years.”

both unions need to work on common issues that
will benefit the memberships in both countries.

“I think that this coming year is more critical
to both our unions than ever before,” said Kelty.
“You know, if it’s not the governments, or both
governments making deals that adversely effect
our members, or the anti-union employers,
there’s also this faction out there called the envi-
ronmentalists.”

“We are the true environmentalists. We are
the ones that truly care about the land in which
we work, so Greenpeace and others like you —
LW.A. CANADA and the IAM is putting you on
notice that we’re no longer tolerating the attacks
on our members.

“We're ready for the fight. We are working
eoperher, We together are going to frame the
debate from the boardrooms to the political elec-
tions to the court rooms We're ready and we will
win. And we workers in North America are going
to do it together,” said Brother Kelty.

He said that the IAM will work with the I.W.A.
to put a meeting together in the early summer of
next year and will get workers together from
both unions to develop a Norh American strat-
egy on the subjects of the environment, forest
products certification, global marketing of forest
products and other issues to secure more employ-
ment for both memberships.

Kelty said the IAM’s united membership of
90,000 in the state of California hays been suc-
cessful in lobbying against various forms of anti-
worker and anti-logger legislation.

On the national level, the IAM has taken on
the Congress to preserve the activities ofthe U.S.
Forest Service.

Many employees of the government agency are
active LAM affiliates that believe in sustainable
harvesting of timber.

The membership is mobilizing in the U.S. to
support the Democratic Party candidate for next
year’s November election and get the Congress
out of the stranglehold of the Republicans. —

If that-doesn’t happen, there will be serious
implications for the North American labour
movement. p ;

“We're going to be faced with national ‘right-
to-work’ (laws). Guaranteed. And that’s sure
going to ripple across the border,” he added.

“Labour is confident that we will be able to put
the control of the house back into the Democra-
tic side, and that will be a buffer. Hopefully we'll
continue to keep the presidency and then con-
tinue to go forward. But it’s not going to be easy.
We're all going to have put our shoulders to the
grindstone and push on and try to do the best job
we can.” .

Actions needed against preservationists

Delegates unanimously demanded that the
federal government take firm and decisive action
against preservationist groups that are working,
at times illegal, to cause the demise of the forest
industry and workers in Canada.

Local ‘2171 Darrel Wong said that his local
union members were embroiled in a struggle
against environmental radicals in the Elaho val-
ley near Squamish were there were protesters
for over six weeks. A week before the convention,
Interfor logging crews took action to remove the
protesters so they could get back to work.

“Our industry is one of the most dangerous
industries in the world, and there’s far too many
people that are injured and killed every year,”
said Wong. “And when they’re in a position
where this kind of stress is added, you can’t think
about what you're doing every day.”

He said that it is important to get both the B.C.
and the federal government active to prevent
blockades.

Jeff Broughton of Local 1-85, who has been on
logging crews affected by set asides in the Wal-

bran Valley, said that the preserved areas have
not been accessed. z

“I want to protect our jobs,” he said. “I want to
protect an industry that grew our province and
our country.” Le

Broughton added that it is important for
members’ families to bring these issues up with
the media because working people are getting
dumped on.

Ken Bayers, of Local 2171, an employee at
Interfor’s Squamish logging division, said that
governments must take firm, decisive action. He
related his crew’s own experience.

“Under the current situation under civil dis-
obedience, you have to apply for an injunction,
and then when you get that you have to apply for
an enforcement order,” he said. “It ial more
than a week to get this all in place.” In the
interim, road builders couldn’t get to work.

In the Elaho, a tree climber who threatened
suicide was taken down by the police, charged,
released from court, and was back on the scene

Continued on page twenty-three

oN ———————

22/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999