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At a negotiation meeting in Toronto in March were, clockwise from left, I.W.A. representatives Graham Faught, Saul Marques, Bruce Weber, Norm
Rivard, Bob Findlay, Darrel Mask, Dave Gibson, Tom Hunt, Phil Shackleton, Bob Sutman, Ed Eveleigh, Tony Maine and Al Strickland. Management
representatives included from left; Caroline McDermit, Ken Gill, a pensions actuary, a management team member, Ron Gruber, Ron Hofman, Peter

Forst and Steve Asby.

Negotiating team tackles corrugated talks

Three J.W.A. Smurfit-MBI corru-
gated plants are in negotiations
with their common employer, and,
as this issue goes to press, contract
talks will resume on April 24.

The union membership, situated
in Pembroke, Whitby, and Etobi-
coke, is represented by negotiating
committee spokesman and national
fourth vice president Norm Rivard,
Local 500 president Bruce Weber,
Local 1000 financial secretary
Michael McCarter, and various com-
mittee members from the three
Ontario plants, headed by sub-local
chairmen Allan Turcotte (Pem-
broke), Al Strickland (Etobicoke),
and Dave Gibson (Whitby).

The Whitby and Etobicoke plants
are represented by Local 500 and
the Pembroke operation is repre-
sented by Local 1000.

Also sitting in on the union side
are Local 500 financial secretary
Saul Marques, as a consultant on
pensions, and Tom Lowe, the union’s
national safety director and service
representative at the Whitby and

Etobicoke operations.

The union and the company have
come to agreements over local, in-
plant issues and will now address
major wage and contract demands.

The in-plant issues resolved
included wages adjustments in sev-
eral job categories at the three
plants.

“There were quite a few places
where it was justified that the mem-
bers get a wage adjustment,” said
Norm Rivard. “In the corrugated
sector these inequities can be solved
at the bargaining table.”

Negotiations with Smurfit-MBI
kicked off from January 19-21. Then
they resumed on February 3-4 to
solve the in-plant issues at Pem-
broke and then moved on to deal
with local issues at Whitby and Eto-
bicoke between March 22-24.

“Now we have to deal with the
major contract demands for all three
plants,” said Rivard. “There is a lot
of negotiating to be done before we
can get a tentative agreement to
take to the membership.”

the hot melt line.

At the Smurfit-MBI Pembroke plant is Sheila Cliche, a machine tailer on

The negotiating committee is
putting pensions at the forefront,
along with wages and job security
issues. It is also calling for a three
year contract.

“There will not be a collective
agreement unless the pension issue
is addressed,” said Rivard. “The
membership is determined in its
demand that the plan must pay bet-
ter benefits to retirees and that the
company has to help put the plan
into better shape. That message is
coming loud and clear from our nego-
tiating committee.”

Common demands are on the bar-
gaining table. Local 500 president
Bruce Weber says that workers at
the I.W.A. corrugated plants want
to be a leader in the industry in
terms of wages and benefits and
reinforces the point that pensions
are the number one issue at stake.

The I.W.A. is demanding that the
company match employee contribu-
tions and pay down the plan’s
unfunded liability.

Weber, who has sat in on corru-

gated negotiations various times
since 1988, hopes for an agreement.
in the near future.

He says the three sub-local com-
mittees are working well together.

Brother McCarter hopes that a
settlement can be negotiated with-
out having to go to conciliation. In
Ontario, when an agreement can’t
be reached, the parties must apply
for conciliation through the labour
relations board, in order to hold a
strike vote.

“There’s a lot of work to do yet on
the major issues,” he says. “The
three sub-local committees are stick-
ing together and we’re working
toward common goals.”

The sub local committee mem-
bers from the Pembroke plant
include Brother Turcotte, Fred
Buske, Sean Robinson and Graham
Faught. From Etobicoke they
include Brother Strickland, Ed
Eveleigh, Tony Maine and Bobby
Sutham. Whitby is represented by
Brother Gibson, Tom Hunt, Darrel
Mask and Bob Finlay.

¢ Seen here is Local 1000 member and bailer operator Cosvad Raymond
with recycled cardboard, at the Pembroke operation.

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6/LUMBERWORKER/APRIL, 2000