° One of the mills going into negotiations is the Buchanan Atikokan Forest Products Sawape operation, in Atikokan. Pictured are. ]. to r., Local 2693
members Doug Lampi and Sylvain Paquette.

Northern Ontario Locals 2693 and 2995
head into bush and sawmill negotiations

Contract talks in sawmills and

woodlands operations are under way
in both I.W.A. Canada Locals 2693
(Thunder Bay) and _ 2995
(Kapuskasing) as most collective
agreements in the forest industry
expired at the end of August. Both
local unions are out to set a pattern
agreement in either jurisdiction
which can serve as a template for
future collective agreements.

Negotiators got their marching
orders from two wage conferences
held in northern Ontario.

On March 22-28, delegates from
both locals attended the sawmill
wage conference in Hearst.
Bushworkers gathered in Thunder
Bay on April 26 and 27 to hash out
demands.

Local 2693 president Joe Hanlon
said that workers in both milling and
logging are being faced with
employers’ demands for long-term

agreements in the 6-10 year range.
Employers argue that these kind of
agreements offer stability to the
company, customers and employees.

“The only ones who benefit from
long agreements are the companies
themselves,” said Brother Hanlon,
reflecting on one 5-year agreement in
his local that caused more
‘negotiations’ during the lifetime of
the agreement than the union would
have seen in a shorter agreement.

“The industry is always pushing
for changes and continues to push to
get the I.W.A. into long-term deals
where they can test the water with

arbitration cases and we get stuck,”
he said.

Local 2995 president Damien Roy
says the union “is not prepared to
negotiate long term agreements like
the companies want.”

He said it offers, under Ontario
labour law, opportunities for the
employer to post decertification
procedures and try to promote union-

usting.

IN THE MILLS

In Local 2693 the union is up
against Buchanan Forest Products at
the company’s operations in Nakina,
Atikokan, Hudson and Ignace. It is
also negotiating Domtar at the White

River mill.

The contract at Buchanan’s sawmill
in Dubreilville expires in 2002.

In Local 2995, the union is aiming
at collective agreements with Tembec
operations at Cochrane, Kirkland
Lake, Timmins, Hearst, and the 50
per cent owned Excel Forest Products
in Opasatika.

It is also seeking contracts with
the Lecours sawmill in Calstock, the
Domtar mill in Timmins and
Weyerhaueser’s Chapleau sawmill.

“They (the employers) are going to
be mentioning the 19.31 per cent
preliminary countervail duty — we
are already hearing them now,” said
Brother Roy.

Other important issues in the mills,
said Roy, are a pension bridging
supplement that the union wants to
see in the solid wood sector, as it
already exists in the plywood and
pulp and paper sector. Such provisions

would allow better early retirement
benefits.

Hanlon said that, in addition to
overall better wages and benefits, the
Long Term Disability.Plan must be
amended. The members want to put.
an end to the fact that they now have
to chase the insurance carrier when
something goes wrong. They want
the companies to take that
responsibility.

IN THE BUSH

In Local 2693, which has 45-50 per
cent of its members in woodlands
operations, contracting-out issues are
of paramount concern. Com-panies
including Domtar, Abitibi, Kimberly-
Clark, Bowater and Weyerhaeuser,
are on the offensive.

Hanlon said an agreement with
Bowater, recently signed, has

smoothed over some rough waters on
the contracting out issue prior to
main negotiations. The agreement
provides that two contractors will
follow the Bowater agreement and
that a protected employee list is in
place with an agreed-upon minimum
number of employees.

But Domtar has taken a harder
line on contracting out and there is
still a 83-year-old arbitration case
outstanding over a non-union
contractor on company limits in the
Sudbury-Espanolaarea.

The company also did it at White
River, asit tried to bringin contractors
not covered by the collective
agreement.In Local 2995 the
contracting-out issue is not apparent
as the local decided, years ago, to
partially represent owner operators.
It has about 425 members working in
the bush. @

® Pictured in 1995 is Lucien Therrien at an Abititi camp north of Cochrane. Woodlands contracts expired at the

end of August as well.

16/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 200

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