Interforest strike

Continued from page six

months,” said Local 500 president
Bruce Weber.

“Under the labour law in Ontario,
if a worker crosses a picket line, the
employer has to take them back with-
out conditions,” explains Weber.
“But, of course, without the union’s
presence the workers are open game
after they return.”

In addition, according to the law,
the employer doesn’t have to take
striking workers back after 6 months
unless there is a settlement with the
union that negotiates those jobs back
into the plant.

“What were members in good
standing got rattled and scared and
abandoned the picket line in fear out
of losing their jobs,” said Weber.
“Even though our members accepted
to go back as a group on November 1,
the pompany. locked us out and sowed
the seeds of division. The employer
was backed up by the labour board
that didn’t hear the case until two
weeks later.”

“The Ontario Labour Relations
Board is so goddamned bias against
trade unions that they prevented our
crew from going back to work,” said
Rivard. “If there would have been a
case that the I.W.A. had allegedly
gone on strike illegally, that Board
would have sat evenings and week-
ends to hear the case against us. But
when we say there is an illegal lock-
out, the Board tells the union to basi-
cally go to hell.”

“The Ontario Labour Relations
Board is an employer's paradise and
is used as a mere tool of the
employer,” added Rivard.

After hearings on November 16,17
and November 23,24, it took four
days to get a decision on the charge
of a lockout.

The decision which came down on
November 8, ruled that the second
vote, supervised by the union, didn’t
count and that the proposal was gone
from the table after the November 18
vote was turned down.

“We were stunned by the decision
— as far as we were concerned the
employer’ proposal was still on the
table for the second vote and there
are no grounds for the Board’s deci-
sion,” said Rivard. The union’s

lawyers are examining the decision
to see if further legal action is in the
cards.

Originally, three hundred and
eighty union members voted 91% to
go on strike on May 31, only 19 days
after the last contract expired.

The workers went on strike to stop
concession demands by Interforest.
The company wanted to raise
deductibles on most benefit packages

e At union rally in Queens Park, National President Dave Haggard, lashes
out against the anti-union government of Mike Harris.

and eliminate the tool allowance
($200 each 6 months) paid to trade-
persons.

The company also wanted to take
away $40 for the outside winter
clothing allowance and peg the rate
of $80 per year while reducing safety
boot allowance to $35 from $60.

The Ontario Labour
Relations Board is
so goddamned
biased against trade
unions that they pre-
vented our crew from
going back to work.
- Norm Rivard,
National 4th V.P.

“The company wanted concession
after concession and it’s no wonder
why it had a strike on its hands,” said
Brother Weber. “But we got those
concessions off the table in Septem-
ber and then got hung up on the pen-
sion plan and wage increases.”

“The pension plan is way out of
date,” said plant chairman Richard
Graham. “We have one member at
the plant who retired and got an $800
ees pension - that’s not much of a
plan.

The company insisted on negotiat-
ing through union-busting lawyer
Art Tarasuk from Toronto.

“You wouldn’t believe how arro-

gant the employer got,” said local
union business agent Dennis Byers.
“They would send this guy Tarasak
to the bargaining table and he
wouldn’t even talk to us. He asked for
the names of our negotiating com-
mittee on a paper and didn’t want
any verbal contact.”

Plant chairman Richard Graham,
who has been at the operation for
over 17 years, said there has never
been a lot of strikes in the area and
that there has always been a fairly
peaceful atmosphere with the com-

pany.
With the appointment of Sid Krull
as the new Human Resources man-
ager and Kevin Faulkingham as the
new Vice President of Production,
labour relations took a dive.
“They said they would pay us 1-2%

and they don’t give a damn,” said -

Graham, in an interview with the
Lumberworker. “They say (the
increase in) the cost of living is under
2% and they are not paying more.”

No economic arguments were
given by the company at the bar-
gaining table.

Union vice chair Brenda Mueller
said the company had always praised
their productivity and recording sec-
retary Eric Obermayer said that “we
made a high quality product in com-
parison to sister companies in the
United States.”

The union crew worked 24 hours a
day, 5 days a week. Most of the work-
force is skilled and experienced.

Some employees have been with
the company for over 20 years. So it
came as a complete surprise when
Interforest brought in scabs from day
one (beginning with students and
children of management employees).

“Right from the get go the company

g
8
5
é
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drove a wedge into the community by
using student and family members
as scabs,” said Brother Byers. “As the
strike wore on, the employer became
more brazen.”

In September the company esca-
lated its hiring of scabs. Strikers
tried to track down the scabs and
picket their homes and the homes of
management. The company chased
union members with security goons.

Some single mothers who were on
welfare were threatened to be cut off
payments if they didn’t become
scabs.

Under normal circumstances the
company would pay new employees
between $7.15 and $9.15 an hour
during a probationary period. Dur-
ing the strike, Interforest advertised
scab jobs at $13.85 to start, which is
50 cents higher than the base rate
for non-probationary employees.

The company advertised all over
the region in the Sturgeon City
News, the Hanover Post, the Owen
Sound Sun-Times and community
papers in Mount Forest and Kincar-
dine. It advertised in Toronto and
over the Internet. One scab came
from as far away as Sudbury.

“The amount they (Interforest)
spent on the strike is outrageous,”
said Sister Mueller. “We could have
gotten a settlement three times
over.”

During hearings on limiting the
number of picketing workers, the
company said the strike was costing
them between $35,000-$40,000 a
week on security guards and appara-
tus. At one point over 25 of the secu-
rity guards were on the job.

The company established a mar-
shalling yard for scabs to park their
cars and then would herd them past
picket lines in buses with darkened
windows.

“Interforest has divided the com-
munity and it will take decades ifnot
generations to repair,” said Weber.

“We believe this company has no
feeling for the people, the workers, or

the community whatsoever,” said
Brother Graham.

There are mothers, sisters, broth-
ers and cousins being used as scabs.

“These people have no feeling
other than their almighty product,
added Graham. “They don’t care if
families get split...and it’s disgust-
ing.” Brother Byers says there is a
growing awareness of the anti-labour
slant of the Harris government.

“I believe people who have been on
the picket line know that nobody
should have voted for Harris, but we
have him for another term.”

“Mike Harris’ Ontario is becoming
a very ugly Ontario, and it’s becom-
ing a province where there are fewer
and fewer rights for working people,”
said Brother Rivard.

4 a.

e On October 28, striking Interforest workers and supporters held a demonstration at the Ontario provincial legislature in Toronto. '

ry Ny

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999/7