The softwood lumber cartel is hitting us with flimsy charges THE U.S. LUMBER cartel has based most of its attack on three flimsy charges: market share, log €xport controls, and stumpage sub- sidy allegations. While these are taken as the gospel truth by a pliant Congress, and an Administration that is subservient to lobby pressure, each charge can be shown to be con- _ trived and hypocritical. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The issues that affect you are what’s important From the shop floor to the parliament buildings and from coast to coast our union stands together BY DAVE HAGGARD eel OPINION BY LES REED WHEN I STARTED IN this union as a job steward years ago I was like a lot of other WA members out there — I went at things with my instincts leading the way. Then if a fellow was lucky, like 1 was at the Franklin River MacMillan Bloedel camp, there were some experienced job stewards around to show me the ropes and teach me how to react in certain situations. There’s no substitute for experience. At the same time, the IWA didn’t have the level of education and pro- grams in place, like we have today, to give us options on how to solve our problems. We'd take on the boss face-to-face. We’d wobble from time to time and tell them to go to hell. Often, we'd get our way. Life was a lot simpler then. Issues were fairly black and white. And, of course, we were always right! Today our union is living in much different times. Whole industries have changed, The Canadian forest industry is being threatened by the United States in a way it has never seen before. We've got more members in more provinces than we ever have. Our workplaces are more diverse with more younger Canadians, more women, more ethnic minori- ties and more people struggling just to make ends meet. Today most governments in Canada are out to smash unions. Given the chance they will - in a heartbeat. They think that by pounding workers’ wages, benefits and working conditions into the ground, that it will be a better world! A better world for who we must ask. New Brunswick is run like some private fiefdom of rich families - the Irvings, the McCains and some other wannabees. Ontario is run by Conservatives who use taxpay- er dollars to print big signs on how to decertify unions. Alberta ranks as one of the worse jurisdictions in North America for violating workers’ rights. The government in that province, and others have right-to-work bills in their back First, Canadian sawmills are attacked for unfairly seizing an increasing share of the U.S. soft- wood market. The truth is that feder- al and state governments succumbed to demands of the preservationists to exclude huge areas of prime forest land from industry use since 1985. The log volume surrendered, in terms of annual available harvest, was 10 billion bd. ft. It should come as no surprise that Canadian lumber exports increased by ro billion board feet in the same period. This is a EACH OF THE U.S. LUMBER CARTEL’S CHARGES CAN BE SHOWN TO BE CONTRIVED AND HYPOCRITICAL Made in USA problem, one that totally ignored a severe shortage of saw timber. It had nothing whatev- er to do with our provincial forest policies. Second, log export controls. The pockets, ready to introduce at any time. In B.C. the Campbell Liberals are slashing public sector jobs, closing schools and hospitals and privatizing Crown corporations (like BC Hydro and BC Rail) that they promised not to privatize. They have made negative changes to the BC Labour Code and will pounce on all unions when the right times comes. Those are some of the big picture issues that are affecting the IWA membership. Equally important are the direct work- places issues that affect you on a day-to-day basis. How can we as a union, serve you better? Are the programs that we have put together: leadership training, job steward training, health and safety, organizing, disability manage- ment, women’s education, negotiated partnerships, new members orientation and political action, etc., serving your needs well? Also, we need to know if we are communicating with you properly and in the right way. All over the IWA, local union officers and business agents and national officers and staff are trying to get out into the workplaces more and more. We come from the workplaces across this country and need to keep up on the new issues that affect you and, of course, the same old stuff that keeps com- ing up time and time again. Working people and their families deserve the very best that Canada has to offer. You work hard to make your town and your province as good of a place to live and raise your families as you can. We remain convinced and determined that only by participating and building your union — the IWA - to be big- ger and stronger, can we collectively reach our goals. Welcome to your new paper — The Allied Worker! It offers you more opportunities to learn about each other, through let- ters and regular articles about each local and in different oper- ations. Together we are allied with you and your community to push for a better country and world for all. cartel demands that B.C. remove controls on log exports. The truth is that the export constraints are far more rigorous in the U.S. — Canadians should be aware of their legislation, titled “Forest Resources Conservation and Shortages Relief Amendments Act.” There it is in a nutshell, timber shortages, openly conceded by the Congress and by industry advocates of export controls. They have a problem and want to spread it around. Mi Third, alleged stumpage subsidies in Canada. It is true that some of | their public timber sells at higher prices. One reason is that they have © a major timber shortage, and that drives prices up above ours for com- parable timber. But most of our tim- per is not comparable. It is more remote and difficult to log, and com- — panies in Canada carry much higher access road and forest renewal costs. ‘The U.S. lumber cartel ignores this — evidence, and then uses a phony con- % yersion factor they knew to be obso- to compare m3 and board feet _ log scale. Finally, the WTO has declared that their cross border comparisons are illegal in any case. Les Reed is a UBC forestry professor emeritus and has been involved nthe Industry in oer 30 countries, IN TIMES OF TROUBLE government should be there to help workers and now is the time. Since a final ruling on the USS. tariff was made and imposed against the Canadian soft- wood lumber industry in early May, forest-dependent com- munities have felt the pinch more and more. As we get into the fall and winter months, it is more than likely that lumber prices will drop further and that layoffs will increase in the industry all over Canada, bringing devastation to workers, their families and communities. The federal government will hopefully listen to the TWA and step forward to help forest-dependent workers and com- munities from this man-made disaster. They should. Every time the auto industry, the aerospace sector or agriculture is in trouble, federal politicians listen. Now we hope they will give woodworkers a fair shake. After all, what kind of industry in Canada can survive a 27.2 per cent tariff in the supposed age of “free trade?” The federal and provincial governments don’t have to look too far to see reasons why it is so important to support work- ers and the industry in their time of need.” After all, over 350,000 direct jobs and over a million indi- rect jobs depend on wood industries in this country. Well over 300 communities in Canada depend on the industry as well. Those are the communities where most IWA members live EDITORIAL Much is at stake in helping woodworkers Forest dependent workers and communities are suffering during the softwood war and governments must step forward to help them and raise their families. Without the softwood lumber industry, the sur- vival of those very communities is in jeopardy. U.S. protectionist measures are about to cost the Canadian softwood lumber industry some $3 billion per year — levels which no industry can sustain. The toll could get real ugly in the months and years ahead if an equitable solution to the dispute is THERE ARESOME not found. 350,000 DIRECT Your union has been back and forth to Ottawa to try and influence JES EOS the powers that be of the sheer impor- 4 MILLION INDIRECT tance of the Canadian forest industry. JOBS DEPENDENT Weare getting through, bit by bit. Now it remains to be seen how ON A VIBRANT deep Ottawa’s pockets are and how FOREST INDUSTRY they can work with the provinces, the communities, the industry and the union, for the benefit of all Canadians. If it can be done in other sectors of the economy, it can be done in the forest sector as well. SEPTEMBER 2002 THE ALLIED WORKER | 5