Summer strike forces
concessions off table
in BC forest negotiations

While work on the IWA in Canada,
the union’s history book was taking
place this summer, a little modern
history was being made in British
Columbia. The I.W.A.’s provincial
negotiating committee asked for
and got support from the member-
ship to pull a strike on the Coast
while it pressured Interior forest
industry employers into collective
agreements.

For the union it proved to be an
innovative and effective strategy.
Since the 1970’s the union has set
pattern agreements first with Coast
employers and later negotiated
agreements in the northern and
southern Interior. This time around
the strategy changed.

Forest Industrial Relations, the
employer association on the Coast,
insisted on concessions at the bar-
gaining table and made no moves to
rectify the situation until the union
took a strike vote to back its
demands.

After receiving a 90% strike vote
mandate, provincial negotiating
committee chairman and national
union president Dave Haggard told
FIR to get off their concession posi-
tioning and put together a collective
aggreement that is fair for I.W.A.
members.

On June 27 the union struck on
the Coast when over 12,000 workers
hit the bricks in logging and manu-
facturing operations to beat back

FIR’s concessionary demands which
included removing the right of the
membership to vote before an alter-
nate shift is implemented.

The industry also wanted to get
rid of the provision in the collective
agreement that all vacations be
taken. The employers also demanded
that the current $2.40/hr. employer-
paid pension contribution be reduced
once the plan is fully-funded.

The FIR group insisted that in
order to achieve the union’s demands
in any one area, concessions would
have to be made in other areas. It
wanted a “no cost” settlement.

“They really pushed us too far,”
said Haggard. “And we think that
the industry on the Coast met
enough times by themselves that
they thought they had every contin-
gency plan covered — but they didn’t
think we would wobble (strike) on
the Coast and they were dead wrong.”

The strike was called and the
union trudged onwards in the north-
ern Interior and drove a settlement
with Canadian Forest Products,
covering some 1,700 members. On
June 30 the I.W.A. reached an agree-
ment with Canfor which set the
basic pattern of wages increase of
2% in each of three years, improved
benefits to workers on long-term
disability, increased health care

benefits including the payment of
health-related travel expenses,
improvements for pension benefits

History Book

continued from page one.

cant breakthroughs for workers in
the 1940’s and post Word War II
period when the membership grew.

Neufeld and Parnaby also exam-

ine the split that took place in the
union during the Cold War, when
the union’s communist leadership
was being purged by the emerging
“white bloc” and decided to form the
“red bloc” led Woodworkers Indus-
trial Union of Canada.

“What the authors have done is
assess the red/white split in a way
that we believe is fair to both sides,”
says Brother Haggard.

“It was a tumultuous period in
our union’s history that divided
workers and stymied the growth of

our union. The legacy of that split is
detailed in this book.”

After WWII the union expanded
into eastern Canada and the prairie
provinces. The union forged ahead
in Ontario, Quebec, and the Mar-
itimes and fought a bitter strike but

doomed strike in 1959 to represent
loggers in Newfoundland before it
was legislated out of legal existence
by premier Joey Smallwood.

The book features capsule histo-
ries on each geographical local of
the union, hi lighting key events,
beginning in the years that the locals
were chartered, through the 1990’s.
It also examines the union’s the role
of women in the I.W.A. and how the
union fought against racist employ-
ers and governments.

The book has about 250 photos
and graphics from the early years,
through the 1990’s with images
from each local union. Many impor-
tant strikes are highlighted.

The authors write about the
growth of the union, the recessions
that effected its membership and
factors that lead up to the formation
of IWA-Canada in 1987.

The issues of technological change,
the union’s decades long fight for
better forest practices and environ-
mental policies, and the struggles
against the modern environmental
movement are included.

Most importantly the union’s
decades long fight for safer work-
places is examined book along with
the struggle to reintegrate injured
workers back into meaningful jobs.

“We hope to see the book in school
libraries and public libraries,” says
Brother Tones. “It will be an excel-
lent educational tool to tell students
about a side of history that they
rarely hear about — the side of
working people and their struggles.
We think the book will stand up as
a truly Canadian history. The
authors do a great job framing what
happened to the I.W.A. as economic,
political and social events swept the
nation and the provinces.”

The book is being sold at better
book stores, including Chapters BC
stores. Union members can also
direct order them through the
national offices in Vancouver and
Toronto (see advertisement pg. 40).

e On picket
Division were Local 2171 members.

and the settlement of local issues.

A day later, and back by a strike
vote, the union got the pattern agree-
ment with the Council on Northern
Interior Forest Employment Rela-
tions, affecting 2,500 I.W.A. mem-
bers.

Then the following day, July 2,
and also backed by a strike vote,
the union got a deal with Weldwood
Canada, which employs some 1,500
members in the north of the province.

The I.W.A. wrapped up with all
Interior employees on July 5 when
it negotiated the basic agreement
with the Interior Forest Labour
Relations Association, an umbrella
organization representing compa-
nies that employ over 5,000 mem-
bers.

The tentative agreements, which
were later ratified with strong sup-
port from the membership, fell into
place like dominoes.

On July 6, FIR returned to the
bargaining table and dropped its
concessionary demands.

“It was the militancy of our mem-
bers on both the Coast and the Inte-
rior that back up our negotiating
committee,” said Haggard. “The
industry on the Coast forced us into
a strike — one that was not neces-
sary if they would have gotten rid of
their demands for concessions. I
hope that the employers on the Coast
like Weyerhaeuser, TimberWest
and others realize that the I.W.A.
doesn’t negotiate concessions.”

“Credit is due to I.W.A. members
for their solid support of the strike
and their strong resolve to see it
through. They forced down their

¢ Union members at Weyerhaeuser’s
Canadian White Pine in Vancouver
shut ‘er down solid in June.

employers’ fear campaign and they
made it clear they wouldn’t put up
with contract concessions. I’m
pleased with their discipline and
solidarity,” he added.

The unions got its message out to
the members. Although 1998 was a
lousy year for the B.C. forest indus-
try and the union, the industry, as a
whole, enjoyed record profits a year
later. And the first quarter of 2000
saw companies making sizeable
profits.

Canfor made $53.4 million in prof-
its in the first quarter alone, while
Slocan made $31.8, Weldwood made
$39.3 and West Fraser raked in $42

é
:
5
5
8
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duty at Doman Forest Products Vancouver

million. On the Coast Weyer-
haeuser’s operations contributed to
company-wide profits of over $244
million in that same quarter, more
than double the profit-taking of the
first quarter in 1999.

“We knew that the coast industry
was, and is, facing some unique
challenges, as is the whole province,”
said Haggard. “We came into all
sets of negotiations in early April

‘Tt was the miltancy
of our members
on both the Coast
and the Interior
that backed up
our negotiating
committee.”

— National President
Dave Haggard

with pared-down demands. We
streamlined a short list of demands
to seek a fair collective agreement.

“But the employers on the Coast
didn’t take that into consideration
or look’at the good allies we have
been in helping both the forest indus-
try and the government look for
solutions to make the industry
stronger,” added Haggard. “We have
helped the industry fight off the
threats of boycotts and the radical
green movement and are looking at
assisting it in reducing its wood
costs through higher productivity
and dealing with the stumpage ques-
tion. The last thing we needed was
a strike — but it was necessary to
take one. It gave the I.W.A. a reality
check.”

“Record profits were not enough
for the corporations — they wanted
concessions. They wanted to take
jobs out of the forest-dependent
communities and money out of the
pockets of their loyal workforce.”

The three year settlement
approved by over 80% of the
province’s membership, will see, by
the end of the contract, the base
rate rise to $21.92/hr. The union
negotiated a commitment for the
pension plan that will achieve
improvements once the plan is fully-
funded (likely in late 2002). The
agenda is to achieve better benefits
for retirees and $2.40 contributors
in addition to achieving better pen-
sion benefits for the disabled and
building on the $60 per month per
year of employment for future ser-
vices.

ceefce ie insurance and acciden-
tal death and dismemberment insur-
ance both go up to $100,000 by the

continued on page three

ee
2/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2000