ACONVENTIONO1

° Delegates from Saskatchewan Local 1-184, Manitoba Local 324 and Winnipeg Local 830 follow the

debates and discussions.

Convention informed of progress with CTF

A message of solidarity and progress from
Chilean forest industry workers was read out to
this year’s convention by national union president
Dave Haggard.

Brother Haggard and all I.W.A’ers received a
message from the leaders of the National
Confederation of Forest Workers of Chile, who
held their national convention a week before the
LW.A.

One of the breakthroughs at the CTF convention
was the passing of a resolution to form one union
for forest workers in Chile. The I.W.A.’s national
constitution will play a role in the upcoming
debate to form the union.

“Some of the work that we have been doing in
Chile is showing up at their convention and with
some pretty positive results,” said Haggard.

Haggard said that Chilean forest workers have
very little rights, and few rights under the
country’s labour laws.

The I.W.A.’s International Solidarity Fund is
supporting a joint education project and centre in
Concepcion, Chile which began operation in
March of last year, and Brother Haggard said
“it’s interesting to see how far they (the CTF)
have come and the struggles that lie ahead for
them.” He added that “we should be proud as
union, that rather than trying to walk over the
top of workers in other parts of the world in our
industry, we’ve reached down to assist these
people to be able to pull them up to stand beside
us.”

Here is the text of the message read by Haggard:

Resolutions

adopted by
unanimous votes

COUNTERVAIL DUTY - the union will lobby all
Provincial governments and the federal

government to ensure the I.W.A. is part of all
Softwood negotiations with voice and voting

FOREST OWNERSHIP IN B.C. - delegates passed a

ing that the public enjoys the benefits
derived from the Tatural resources of the

resolution calling for continued support a
iblic ownership of forest lands as a way 0

18 September, 2001
Concepcion, Chile

National I.W.A. President David Haggard,
Brothers of the national executive of I.W.A.
Canada, local union officials, Brother and Sister
delegates to the I.W.A. convention:

On behalf of the national executive and the 45
affiliate unions of the National Confederation of
Forest Workers of Chile, we send you our
warmest fraternal greetings with the very best
wishes that you have every success during the
deliberations of your 15th constitutional
convention of I.W.A. Canada in the city of
Edmonton, Alberta. ‘

We trust that the results of your deliberations
will continue to bring benefits to all Canadian
workers.

We would like to inform you that last week
between September 13-15, 2001 delegates to our
second national programmatic convention, in
Santiago de Chile, met to chart a new course for
Chilean forest workers. Among the themes
debated within our organization, it was
unanimously decided that member unions of our
confederation will work together in the months
ahead to form one union for forest workers in
our country.

In great part the decision to seek one unified
structure for Chilean forest workers is based on
the rich experience of the I.W.A. in Canada and
our desire to achieve full freedom of association
as guaranteed by a convention of the
International Labour Organization which the
Chilean government adopted in 1998.

At our convention in the capital city of
Santiago, 206 forest workers from the 5th to the

noting the percentage of these new certifications
that remain in the union after five years.

REFLECTIVE DECALS - delegates passed a
resolution that all union decals be made of
reflective material so they can be seen during
dark work hours, thereby creating safer
workplaces.

ECOTOURISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT - the union
will lobby the provincial and federal
governments to do a study on the effect that
eco-tourism has on the environment.

EDUCATING THE PUBLIC - delegates passed a
resolution calling on the federal and provincial
governments to develop and fund coordinated
public education campaigns on the value,
viability and renewability of the country’s
forest industry.

LOCAL PROCESSING - the I.W.A. will approach
the government and the forest industry to
establish wood processing plants in the
communities where the wood originates and
offer the materials from those plants for
remanning within those communities, without
closing or impacting existing manufacturing
operations.

10th regions in Chile, met to debate with vigour,
solutions to the difficult work that lies ahead for
our union movement and to formulate strategic
plans to advance the interests of forest workers
in our country.

We would like to inform you that a Spanish-
language translation of the I.W.A. national
constitution played a central and a key role
during our convention as it will it the months
ahead when a national committee of the CTF
meets with workers in various regions of Chile
to further the goal of one single union in the
forest industry and study elements of the I.W.A.
constitution in greater detail.

Our convention delegates responded warmly
to your message of solidarity from the I.W.A.
national union and reaffirmed their unanimous
commitment to our joint CTF-I.W.A. education
project and education centre in Concepcion
which has contributed enormously to the
development of forest workers in Chile since
March of 2000.

On behalf of all members of the CTF we thank
the I.W.A. Canada for your strong support to
assist Chilean workers.

Finally we once again wish that, during your
convention, your debates and discussions will
bear positive results for all workers and serve to
further unite I.W.A. members for the difficult
struggles that you must confront in the future.
Gon behalf of the national executive of the

JORGE GONZALEZ CASTILLO
National President

SERGIO GATICA ORTIZ
Secretary General

FOREST MANAGEMENT AGREEMENTS - the union
will call on the Saskatchewan government to
require that all Forest Management Agreement
holding companies have active plans and
strategies in place to assure maximum
utilization of wood fibre to support sustainable
jobs in the province.

LUMBER TRANSFERS - the union will take the
actions it can to ensure lumber transferred
through reload yards goes to unionized sites for
loading and shipping by I.W.A. members.

LOGGING AND MILL CLOSURES - the union will
lobby the federal government and the B.C.
government to develop an early retirement
strategy funded by both governments to lessen
the impact on the unemployed.

TECH CHANGE - appropriate jpoveraen ercncies
will be lobbied to make funds available for
retraining I.W.A. members who have lost their
jobs due to tech change.

ABORIGINAL CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS - delegates
passed a resolution calling for the establishment
of a working Forest Industry/Aboriginal Conflict

continued on page twenty-eight

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 2001/27